You have invested in a beautiful website with strong content. But when you search for your own company name in Google, you barely appear. Or worse: your competitor ranks above you. Often the problem is not your content, but the technical foundation of your website.
Technical SEO is the foundation on which all your other SEO efforts rest. Without a good foundation, there is little point in investing in content or link building. In this checklist we cover the ten most common technical problems — and explain how to fix them.
1. Slow load times (Core Web Vitals)
Google measures your website's user experience via three metrics, the so-called Core Web Vitals:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — How quickly the largest element on the page loads. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — How quickly your website responds to clicks or taps. Aim for under 200 milliseconds.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — How much the page shifts during loading. Aim for under 0.1.
How to fix: Compress images to WebP, remove unused CSS/JS, configure browser caching and choose fast hosting. Test at pagespeed.web.dev.
2. No XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is like a map for Google. Without a sitemap, Google has to figure out which pages exist on its own.
How to fix: Generate a sitemap via your CMS or an SEO plugin and submit it via Google Search Console.
3. Incorrect robots.txt
The robots.txt file tells search engines which pages they may and may not visit. An incorrectly configured robots.txt can make your entire website invisible.
4. Missing or duplicate heading structure
Each page should have exactly one H1. Use H2 for sections and H3 for sub-sections.
5. No HTTPS (SSL certificate)
Google marks websites without SSL as "Not secure". In 2026 there is no excuse not to use HTTPS.
6. Poor internal linking
Internal links help Google understand the relationship between your pages and discover all content.
7. Missing or duplicate meta tags
Write unique meta titles (50-60 characters) and meta descriptions (120-155 characters) for each important page.
8. Not mobile-friendly
Google uses mobile-first indexing. If your website does not work well on mobile, it directly impacts your rankings.
9. Missing structured data
Structured data helps Google better understand your website content and can lead to rich snippets.
10. No canonical tags
Canonical tags tell Google which version of a page is the "real" one.
Where to start?
Start with the points that have the most impact: Core Web Vitals, sitemap, HTTPS and meta tags.
Want to know how your website scores on these points? Request a free technical SEO check and we will show you exactly where the opportunities are.
