OBELIX Insight

Technical SEO audit checklist: 12 checks for a growing website

A useful audit protects crawling, indexation, performance and information architecture before content scale creates expensive problems.

By Mohamed Omando, Founder, OBELIX Agency16 October 2026 · 6 min read

Content and links only pay off if Google can crawl, understand and load your pages properly. This checklist covers the 12 technical checks we run first on every new SEO project, in the order we usually fix them.

Crawling and indexation

robots.txt: make sure no important folder is blocked and that the file points to your sitemap.
XML sitemap: list only live, indexable, canonical URLs with real lastmod dates, and submit it in Google Search Console.
Index coverage: in Search Console, compare indexed pages with the pages you expect. "Crawled – currently not indexed" and "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" usually point to thin or duplicated pages.
Canonical tags: every page should point to itself unless it is truly a duplicate. Watch for http/https or www/non-www mismatches.

Speed and user experience

Core Web Vitals: aim for LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms and CLS under 0.1 on mobile. Hero images and web fonts are the usual culprits.
Mobile usability: no horizontal scroll, readable text without zooming, and buttons that are easy to tap.
HTTPS everywhere: all pages, images and scripts load over HTTPS, and http redirects to https in one step.

Structure and signals

One clear H1 per page containing the page's main topic, followed by a logical H2/H3 order.
Titles and meta descriptions: unique on every page, around 50–60 characters for titles, with the main keyword near the start.
Internal links: key service and product pages should be reachable within 3 clicks and linked from relevant articles with descriptive anchor text.
Structured data: add Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, Article and BreadcrumbList where they apply, and validate them in the Rich Results Test.
hreflang for bilingual sites: if you have Arabic and English versions, each page must list both versions and itself, plus an x-default. Missing return links make Google ignore the whole set.

What to fix first

Start with anything that blocks indexing (robots, noindex, canonicals), then speed and mobile issues, then on-page structure. Fixing titles on pages Google cannot index changes nothing.

How often to run it

Run a full audit before and after any redesign or migration, and a lighter check every quarter. The Pages and Core Web Vitals reports in Search Console are the fastest early-warning signals.