Technical SEO is making sure search engines can crawl, render and index your site with nothing in the way.It rarely wins rankings by itself — but a single technical fault (a stray noindex, a broken canonical, a crawl trap) can silently cap everything else you do. This is a prioritised checklist: fix top-down, because an unindexable page can't rank no matter how good its content is. Each item ends with how to catch it in Seoluma.
Work in priority order: first make sure pages can be indexed (indexation), then that Google isn't wasting effort (crawlability), then speed, structured data and hreflang. Run the on-site audit in the Seoluma panel to find every one of these automatically, then re-crawl to confirm each fix.
Fix in this order
Priority is everything in technical SEO — the highest-impact faults are the ones that remove pages from Google entirely. Here's the order to work in and where each shows up:
| Priority | Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Critical | Indexation (noindex, canonicals, robots) | A blocked page is invisible — this outranks every other fix |
| 2 — High | Crawlability (broken links, redirect chains, orphans) | Wasted crawl budget = pages Google never reaches |
| 3 — High | Core Web Vitals & mobile | Ranking signal + direct hit to conversions |
| 4 — Medium | Structured data (schema) | Rich results + AI-answer eligibility |
| 5 — Medium | hreflang & internationalisation | Right language version to the right user |
1. Indexation — start here
The highest-impact faults are the ones that remove pages from Google: an accidental noindex, a robots.txt disallow on something important, or a canonical pointing at the wrong URL. Confirm your key pages are actually indexable and that canonicals are self-referencing where they should be.
With Seoluma:the on-site audit in the panel flags every noindexed and canonicalised-away page in one list — this is the first section to read after any crawl, and the one that most often explains “why isn't this page ranking?”
2. Crawlability
Google has a finite crawl budget for your site. Broken internal links (404s), long redirect chains, and orphaned pages (no internal links pointing to them) all waste it. Keep the structure shallow, fix broken links, and make sure every important page is linked from somewhere.
With Seoluma: the audit lists broken links, redirect chains and orphan pages directly — orphans are the silent killer, because a page with no internal links barely gets crawled and passes no authority. Fix those first.
3. Core Web Vitals and mobile
Google indexes mobile-first and uses page-experience signals. Aim for good LCP, CLS and INP, compress images, and confirm the mobile layout is genuinely usable, not just shrunk. Speed is also a conversion lever, so this work pays twice.
4. Structured data
Schema doesn't directly lift rankings, but it earns rich results (stars, FAQs, prices) that lift click-through, and it's what AI answer engines read to understand and cite your pages. Add the types that fit — Article, Product, FAQPage, LocalBusiness — and validate them.
5. hreflang and internationalisation
If you serve multiple languages, hreflang tells Google which version to show which user. Every version references every other, each includes a self-reference, and you declare an x-default. Broken hreflang is common and quietly sends the wrong language to the wrong market — see the multilingual approach for a worked example.
Verify every fix
Technical SEO is only done when it's confirmed. After each change, re-run the audit and check the item cleared — a fix you didn't verify is a fix you don't have. Then check whether your authority is moving in the free domain authority checker.
Frequently asked questions
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO is making sure search engines can crawl, render and index your site without obstacles — covering crawlability, indexation, site speed (Core Web Vitals), mobile-friendliness, structured data and internationalisation. It doesn't win rankings on its own, but technical faults quietly cap everything else you do.
What's the most common technical SEO mistake?
Accidentally blocking pages from indexing — a stray noindex tag, a robots.txt disallow, or a canonical pointing at the wrong URL. These silently remove pages from Google, and they're the first thing an audit should check.
How often should I run a technical audit?
Monthly for an active site, and always after a redesign, migration or platform change — those are when indexation and redirect issues appear. Seoluma's on-site audit re-crawls on demand so you can verify a fix immediately.
Do Core Web Vitals really affect rankings?
Yes, but modestly — they're a real ranking signal and, more importantly, a direct driver of conversions and bounce rate. Fix the fundamentals (crawlability, indexation) first, then optimise speed.
Every tactic here is easier when you can see your starting point. Check any domain's authority and backlinks with our free checker — no account, built on an index of 118 million domains.