The technical SEO checklist we run before touching content
Content cannot rescue a site that crawls badly. These are the checks we run before writing a single word.
Most SEO engagements start with a content plan. We start with a crawl, because publishing into a broken site is the most expensive way to learn that the site is broken. Here is the order we work in, and why each step comes where it does.
1. Indexation — is the right stuff even in the index?
- Compare pages submitted in the sitemap against pages actually indexed. A large gap is the finding, not a detail.
- Look for indexed pages you never wanted indexed: filter combinations, internal search results, staging subdomains, paginated duplicates.
- Check that noindex, canonical and robots.txt are not contradicting each other — a very common cause of pages that simply never rank.
2. Duplication — how many URLs serve the same page?
Trailing slashes, uppercase paths, tracking parameters, http and https, www and non-www, and product URLs reachable through several category paths. Every duplicate splits the signals that should be consolidated on one URL. Fix with consistent internal linking first and canonicals second; canonicals are a hint, internal links are a vote.
3. Speed — measured on the pages that matter
Not the homepage. Test the templates that carry your traffic: category, product, article. Largest Contentful Paint is usually decided by the largest above-the-fold element and by render-blocking resources ahead of it — often a font or a hero image that could have been preloaded, or a script that could have waited.
4. Structured data that matches the page
- Product schema with price and availability on product pages, kept in sync with what the page actually shows.
- FAQ and breadcrumb markup where they genuinely apply.
- Organisation and LocalBusiness on the pages that represent the business, not on every page.
5. Internal linking — the cheapest ranking lever you own
Deep pages with no internal links are invisible regardless of how good the content is. Every important page should be reachable in three clicks from the homepage, with descriptive anchor text. This single fix moves more rankings, faster, than most content programmes.
Once these five are clean, content work compounds. Before that, it mostly evaporates.
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Frequently asked questions.
Indexation and duplication fixes often show inside two to four weeks. Speed and internal linking changes compound over a quarter.
No — fix indexation and duplication first. Those two decide whether new content can rank at all; the rest can run in parallel.
Talk to the team that does this every day.
Tell us what you're trying to grow. You'll get a plan, not a pitch.
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