Technical SEO Audit: The Amazing 2025 Checklist for Website Visibility

Is your website buried in search results, practically invisible to potential customers? In 2025, a strong online presence hinges on more than just great content; it demands a technically sound website. This technical SEO audit checklist will guide you through the essential steps to ensure your site is not only visible but also ranks well on Google and other search engines.

Introduction: Is Your Website Invisible?

Many businesses invest heavily in content creation and marketing, only to find their website languishing in the depths of search engine results pages (SERPs). The problem? Often, it’s a lack of attention to technical SEO. A technical SEO audit is a comprehensive review of your website’s infrastructure, ensuring it meets the search engines’ technical requirements for crawling, indexing, and ranking. Without a solid technical foundation, even the most compelling content will struggle to reach its intended audience.

The Importance of Technical SEO in 2025

In 2025, search engine algorithms are more sophisticated than ever. They prioritize websites that offer a seamless user experience, load quickly, are mobile-friendly, and are structured in a way that’s easy for both users and bots to navigate. Ignoring technical SEO is akin to building a beautiful store in a location that’s impossible to find. A comprehensive technical SEO audit allows us to address and resolve these underlying problems. Our team based in Dubai regularly sees sites with great potential being held back by simple technical oversights.

“Technical SEO is the foundation upon which all other SEO efforts are built. Without a solid technical base, your content and link building efforts will be significantly less effective.” – Neil Patel

What This Checklist Will Help You Achieve

This checklist is designed to provide you with a step-by-step guide to performing a thorough technical SEO audit. By following these steps, you’ll be able to:

• Identify and fix crawl errors that prevent search engines from accessing your content.
• Improve your website’s page speed and overall performance.
• Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and provides a great user experience on all devices.
• Optimize your site architecture and navigation to make it easier for users and search engines to find what they’re looking for.
• Implement structured data to help search engines understand your content.
• Address duplicate content issues that can hurt your rankings.
• Ensure your website is secure with HTTPS.
• Configure your website for international targeting (if applicable).
• Improve your website’s accessibility for all users.

This checklist covers key aspects, from the robots.txt file to structured data, ensuring a holistic review. This checklist is your guide to unlocking your site’s full potential and driving more organic traffic. The goal is to improve website visibility.

Who Should Use This Checklist?

This checklist is for anyone who wants to improve their website’s search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic. Whether you’re a:

• Business owner
• Marketing manager
• SEO specialist
• Web developer

This checklist will provide you with the knowledge and tools you need to perform a technical SEO audit and optimize your website for search engines. Even if you’re not a technical expert, this guide breaks down each step into easy-to-understand instructions. This is also a great tool for agencies performing a website audit.

Crawlability and Indexability

Crawlability and indexability are the cornerstones of technical SEO. If search engines can’t crawl and index your website, it won’t appear in search results, regardless of how great your content is.

Step 1: Check Your Robots.txt File

⚙️ Purpose: The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which parts of your website they are allowed to access and which they should avoid. A misconfigured robots.txt file can prevent search engines from crawling important pages, leading to a significant drop in rankings.

⚙️ How To:

1. Locate your robots.txt file: It should be located in the root directory of your website (e.g., www.example.com/robots.txt).
2. Analyze the file: Look for any directives that may be blocking important pages or directories. Common directives include Disallow and Allow.
3. Use Google Search Console: Use the “robots.txt Tester” tool in Google Search Console to test whether specific URLs are being blocked.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of a correctly configured robots.txt file, highlighting the “Allow” and “Disallow” directives.]

💡 Best Practices:

• Use Disallow sparingly: Only block pages that are truly unnecessary for search engines to crawl, such as admin areas or duplicate content.
• Use Allow to override Disallow: If you’ve blocked a directory but want to allow access to a specific page within that directory, use the Allow directive.
• Use comments to explain your directives: Add comments to your robots.txt file to explain the purpose of each directive.
• Don’t use robots.txt to hide sensitive information: The robots.txt file is publicly accessible, so don’t use it to hide sensitive information.
• Ensure you are allowing the crawling of your CSS and Javascript files. Blocking these files can impact how Google renders your page.

Step 2: Submit and Monitor Your XML Sitemap

⚙️ Purpose: An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of the important pages on your website, along with information about when they were last updated and how often they change. This helps search engines discover and crawl your content more efficiently.

⚙️ How To:

1. Create an XML sitemap: You can use a sitemap generator tool or plugin to create an XML sitemap.
2. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console: In Google Search Console, go to “Sitemaps” and submit your XML sitemap URL.
3. Monitor your sitemap: Regularly check the “Sitemaps” report in Google Search Console to see if there are any errors or issues with your sitemap.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of the Google Search Console “Sitemaps” report, showing the status of submitted sitemaps.]

💡 Best Practices:

• Keep your sitemap up-to-date: Whenever you add or update content on your website, make sure to update your XML sitemap as well.
• Include all important pages: Make sure your sitemap includes all of the important pages on your website, including your homepage, product pages, blog posts, and landing pages.
• Exclude non-canonical pages: Don’t include non-canonical pages in your sitemap.
• Limit the size of your sitemap: Sitemaps should be no larger than 50MB (uncompressed) and contain no more than 50,000 URLs. If you have more than 50,000 URLs, create multiple sitemaps.

Step 3: Identify and Fix Crawl Errors in Google Search Console

⚙️ Purpose: Google Search Console provides valuable insights into how Google crawls and indexes your website. The “Coverage” report shows you any crawl errors or issues that Google has encountered while trying to access your content. Addressing these errors is crucial for ensuring that Google can properly crawl and index your website.

⚙️ How To:

1. Access the “Coverage” report: In Google Search Console, go to “Coverage.”
2. Review the errors: Pay close attention to the “Error” and “Warning” sections. These sections will list any crawl errors or issues that Google has found.
3. Investigate each error: Click on each error to get more information about the affected URLs and the nature of the error.
4. Fix the errors: Based on the error message, take the necessary steps to fix the underlying issue. Common errors include 404 errors (page not found), 500 errors (server errors), and redirect errors.
5. Validate the fixes: Once you’ve fixed the errors, click on the “Validate Fix” button in Google Search Console to ask Google to recrawl the affected pages.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of the Google Search Console “Coverage” report, highlighting crawl errors and warnings.]

💡 Common Crawl Errors and How to Fix Them:

• 404 Errors (Page Not Found): This means that the requested page doesn’t exist. To fix this, either restore the page, redirect the URL to a relevant page, or create a custom 404 page.
• 500 Errors (Server Error): This indicates a problem with your server. Contact your hosting provider to resolve the issue.
• Redirect Errors: This means that there’s a problem with your redirects. Ensure that your redirects are set up correctly and that there are no redirect chains or loops.
• Blocked by robots.txt: This means that Google is being prevented from crawling the page by your robots.txt file. Update your robots.txt file to allow access to the page.
• Submitted URL Not Found (404): This indicates that you’ve submitted a URL in your sitemap that doesn’t exist. Remove the URL from your sitemap.

Step 4: Check for Orphan Pages

⚙️ Purpose: Orphan pages are pages on your website that are not linked to from any other page on your site. This makes it difficult for users and search engines to find them. Identifying and addressing orphan pages can improve your website’s crawlability and overall SEO.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use a website crawler: Use a website crawler like Screaming Frog or Sitebulb to crawl your entire website.
2. Compare the crawl results to your XML sitemap: Compare the list of pages found by the crawler to the list of pages in your XML sitemap. Any pages that are in your sitemap but not found by the crawler are likely orphan pages.
3. Check Google Analytics: Review your Google Analytics data to identify pages that are receiving traffic but are not linked to from any other page on your site.
4. Manually review your website: Manually browse your website to identify any pages that are difficult to find or that don’t seem to fit into your site’s structure.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of Screaming Frog, highlighting the “Orphan Pages” filter.]

💡 How to Fix Orphan Pages:

• Link to orphan pages from other relevant pages: Add internal links to orphan pages from other pages on your website that are relevant to the orphan page’s content.
• Add orphan pages to your navigation menu: If the orphan page is important, add it to your website’s navigation menu.
• Include orphan pages in your XML sitemap: Make sure that orphan pages are included in your XML sitemap.
• Consider deleting or redirecting orphan pages: If the orphan page is no longer relevant or useful, consider deleting it or redirecting it to a relevant page.

Website Speed and Performance

Website speed is a critical ranking factor. Users expect websites to load quickly, and search engines prioritize websites that provide a fast and seamless user experience. Slow loading times can lead to higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and decreased rankings.

Step 5: Test Your Website’s Page Speed

⚙️ Purpose: Testing your website’s page speed is the first step in identifying performance bottlenecks and areas for improvement. There are several tools available to help you measure your website’s loading time and identify specific issues that are slowing it down.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use Google PageSpeed Insights: Google PageSpeed Insights analyzes the content of a web page and provides suggestions for how to make it faster. It also provides a mobile and desktop score, giving you a clear indication of how well your website performs on different devices.
2. Use GTmetrix: GTmetrix is another popular page speed testing tool that provides detailed performance reports and recommendations.
3. Use WebPageTest: WebPageTest is a more advanced tool that allows you to run multiple tests from different locations and browsers.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of Google PageSpeed Insights, showing the performance score and recommendations.]

💡 Key Metrics to Pay Attention To:

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): This measures the time it takes for the first text or image to appear on the screen.
• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures the time it takes for the largest content element to appear on the screen.
• Time to Interactive (TTI): This measures the time it takes for the page to become fully interactive.
• Total Blocking Time (TBT): This measures the amount of time that the page is blocked from responding to user input.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures the amount of unexpected layout shifts that occur on the page.

Step 6: Optimize Images for Speed

⚙️ Purpose: Images are often the largest files on a website, and unoptimized images can significantly slow down page speed. Optimizing images involves compressing them to reduce their file size without sacrificing quality.

⚙️ How To:

1. Choose the right file format: Use JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with sharp lines and text.
2. Compress your images: Use an image compression tool like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or ShortPixel to reduce the file size of your images.
3. Resize your images: Resize your images to the appropriate dimensions for your website. Don’t upload images that are larger than necessary.
4. Use lazy loading: Implement lazy loading to load images only when they are visible in the viewport. This can significantly improve initial page load time.

[IMAGE: Example of an image before and after optimization, showing the reduction in file size.]

💡 Best Practices for Image Optimization:

• Use descriptive file names: Use descriptive file names that include relevant keywords.
• Add alt text to your images: Add alt text to your images to provide context for search engines and users with visual impairments.
• Use a CDN for images: Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve your images from servers located closer to your users.

Step 7: Leverage Browser Caching

⚙️ Purpose: Browser caching allows web browsers to store static assets like images, CSS files, and JavaScript files locally. When a user revisits your website, the browser can retrieve these assets from its cache instead of downloading them again from the server, resulting in faster loading times.

⚙️ How To:

1. Configure your server: Configure your web server to send the appropriate caching headers. This can be done by adding code to your .htaccess file (for Apache servers) or your server configuration file (for Nginx servers).
2. Set expiration dates: Set appropriate expiration dates for your static assets. Longer expiration dates mean that the browser will cache the assets for a longer period of time.
3. Use a caching plugin: If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you can use a caching plugin like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache to automatically configure browser caching.

[IMAGE: Example of .htaccess code for configuring browser caching.]

💡 Benefits of Browser Caching:

• Faster loading times: Browser caching can significantly reduce page load times for returning visitors.
• Reduced server load: By caching static assets, you can reduce the load on your web server.
• Improved user experience: Faster loading times lead to a better user experience, which can improve engagement and conversion rates.

Step 8: Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

⚙️ Purpose: Minifying CSS, JavaScript, and HTML involves removing unnecessary characters (such as whitespace, comments, and line breaks) from your code. This reduces the file size of your code and can improve page speed.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use a minification tool: Use a minification tool like UglifyJS, CSSNano, or HTML Minifier to minify your code.
2. Use a plugin: If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you can use a plugin like Autoptimize or WP Rocket to automatically minify your code.
3. Combine files: Combine multiple CSS and JavaScript files into fewer files to reduce the number of HTTP requests.

[IMAGE: Example of CSS code before and after minification, showing the reduction in file size.]

💡 Benefits of Minification:

• Reduced file size: Minification can significantly reduce the file size of your code.
• Faster loading times: Smaller file sizes lead to faster loading times.
• Improved website performance: Minification can improve your website’s overall performance.

Step 9: Consider Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

⚙️ Purpose: A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers located around the world that stores copies of your website’s static assets (such as images, CSS files, and JavaScript files). When a user visits your website, the CDN serves the assets from the server that is closest to them, resulting in faster loading times.

⚙️ How To:

1. Choose a CDN provider: Choose a CDN provider like Cloudflare, Akamai, or Amazon CloudFront.
2. Sign up for an account: Sign up for an account with your chosen CDN provider.
3. Configure your CDN: Configure your CDN to serve your website’s static assets. This typically involves changing your DNS settings to point to the CDN’s servers.
4. Test your CDN: Test your CDN to make sure that it is working correctly.

[IMAGE: Diagram illustrating how a CDN works, showing how assets are served from the server closest to the user.]

💡 Benefits of Using a CDN:

• Faster loading times: CDNs can significantly reduce page load times for users around the world.
• Improved website performance: CDNs can improve your website’s overall performance.
• Reduced server load: By serving static assets from its own servers, a CDN can reduce the load on your web server.
• Increased security: Some CDNs offer security features like DDoS protection and web application firewalls.

Mobile-Friendliness and Responsiveness

With the majority of web traffic now coming from mobile devices, mobile-friendliness is no longer optional. Search engines prioritize websites that provide a great user experience on mobile devices, and a mobile-unfriendly website can suffer significant ranking penalties.

Step 10: Test Your Website’s Mobile-Friendliness

⚙️ Purpose: Testing your website’s mobile-friendliness is the first step in identifying any issues that may be affecting the mobile user experience. Google provides a free Mobile-Friendly Test tool that you can use to check whether your website is mobile-friendly.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test: Enter your website’s URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and click “Test URL.”
2. Analyze the results: The tool will analyze your website and provide a report on its mobile-friendliness. Pay attention to any errors or warnings that are displayed.
3. Test on different devices: Manually test your website on different mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure that it looks and functions correctly.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool, showing a passing result.]

💡 Common Mobile-Friendliness Issues:

• Mobile viewport not set: The mobile viewport is a meta tag that tells the browser how to scale the page to fit the screen. If the mobile viewport is not set, the page may be too wide or too narrow on mobile devices.
• Text too small to read: The text on your website should be large enough to be easily readable on mobile devices.
• Clickable elements too close together: Clickable elements (such as buttons and links) should be spaced far enough apart so that users can easily tap them without accidentally tapping the wrong element.
• Content wider than screen: The content on your website should not be wider than the screen on mobile devices.

Step 11: Implement a Responsive Design

⚙️ Purpose: Responsive design is a web design approach that allows your website to adapt to different screen sizes and devices. A responsive website will automatically adjust its layout, content, and navigation to provide an optimal user experience on any device.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use CSS media queries: CSS media queries allow you to apply different styles based on the screen size and device characteristics.
2. Use a responsive framework: Use a responsive framework like Bootstrap or Foundation to simplify the process of creating a responsive website.
3. Test your website on different devices: Test your website on different mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure that it looks and functions correctly.

[IMAGE: Example of a website with responsive design, showing how it adapts to different screen sizes.]

💡 Benefits of Responsive Design:

• Improved user experience: Responsive design provides a better user experience on all devices.
• Improved SEO: Search engines prefer responsive websites.
• Reduced maintenance costs: With responsive design, you only need to maintain one website instead of separate desktop and mobile websites.

Step 12: Ensure Proper Viewport Configuration

⚙️ Purpose: The viewport meta tag controls how a webpage scales on different devices. Setting it correctly ensures your site renders properly on various screen sizes.

⚙️ How To:

1. Add the viewport meta tag: Add the following meta tag to the section of your HTML:

2. Understand the attributes:
width=device-width: Sets the width of the viewport to the width of the device’s screen.
initial-scale=1.0: Sets the initial zoom level when the page is first loaded.

[IMAGE: Example of the viewport meta tag in the HTML head.]

💡 Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Forgetting the viewport meta tag: This is the most common mistake and will result in your website not scaling properly on mobile devices.
• Setting a fixed width: Avoid setting a fixed width for the viewport, as this will prevent your website from adapting to different screen sizes.
• Using user-scalable=no: Avoid using user-scalable=no, as this will prevent users from zooming in on your website.

Site Architecture and Navigation

A well-structured website with clear navigation is essential for both users and search engines. A logical site architecture makes it easier for users to find what they’re looking for and helps search engines understand the relationship between different pages on your website.

Step 13: Optimize Your Website’s URL Structure

⚙️ Purpose: A well-optimized URL structure can improve your website’s SEO and user experience. URLs should be clear, concise, and descriptive, and they should accurately reflect the content of the page.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use descriptive keywords: Include relevant keywords in your URLs.
2. Keep URLs short: Shorter URLs are easier to read and remember.
3. Use hyphens to separate words: Use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URLs.
4. Use lowercase letters: Use lowercase letters in your URLs.
5. Avoid special characters: Avoid using special characters in your URLs.
6. Use a logical hierarchy: Organize your URLs into a logical hierarchy that reflects your website’s structure.

[IMAGE: Example of a well-optimized URL structure.]

💡 Best Practices for URL Structure:

• Use a consistent URL structure: Use a consistent URL structure throughout your website.
• Avoid using query parameters: Avoid using query parameters in your URLs unless necessary.
• Use canonical URLs: Use canonical URLs to specify the preferred version of a page.

Step 14: Implement Internal Linking Best Practices

⚙️ Purpose: Internal links are links that connect different pages on your website. Internal linking is an important SEO tactic that can improve your website’s crawlability, user experience, and rankings.

⚙️ How To:

1. Link to relevant pages: Link to other pages on your website that are relevant to the content of the current page.
2. Use descriptive anchor text: Use descriptive anchor text that accurately reflects the content of the linked page.
3. Link from high-authority pages: Link from pages that have a high PageRank or authority.
4. Don’t overdo it: Don’t overdo internal linking. Too many internal links can be just as bad as not enough.

[IMAGE: Example of internal linking within a blog post.]

💡 Benefits of Internal Linking:

• Improved crawlability: Internal links help search engines discover and crawl your content.
• Improved user experience: Internal links help users find related content on your website.
• Improved rankings: Internal links can help improve your website’s rankings for relevant keywords.

Step 15: Create a Clear and User-Friendly Navigation Menu

⚙️ Purpose: A clear and user-friendly navigation menu is essential for helping users find what they’re looking for on your website. A well-designed navigation menu should be easy to understand, easy to use, and accessible on all devices.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use clear and concise labels: Use clear and concise labels for your navigation menu items.
2. Organize your menu items logically: Organize your menu items into a logical hierarchy that reflects your website’s structure.
3. Use a consistent design: Use a consistent design for your navigation menu throughout your website.
4. Make your navigation menu responsive: Make sure your navigation menu is responsive and works well on all devices.
5. Use a search bar: Include a search bar in your navigation menu to allow users to quickly find what they’re looking for.

[IMAGE: Example of a clear and user-friendly navigation menu.]

💡 Best Practices for Navigation Menu Design:

• Keep it simple: Keep your navigation menu simple and easy to use.
• Make it visible: Make sure your navigation menu is visible on all pages of your website.
• Use a sticky navigation menu: Consider using a sticky navigation menu that stays fixed at the top of the screen as users scroll down the page.
• Test your navigation menu: Test your navigation menu with real users to make sure that it is easy to understand and use.

Structured Data and Schema Markup

Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. Google uses structured data to understand the content on the page, as well as to gather information about the web and the world in general. Adding structured data to your website can help improve your search engine rankings and attract more organic traffic.

Step 16: Implement Schema Markup

⚙️ Purpose: Schema markup is a type of structured data that you can add to your website to provide search engines with more information about your content. Schema markup can help search engines understand the context of your content and display rich snippets in search results.

⚙️ How To:

1. Identify the appropriate schema type: Choose the schema type that best describes the content of your page. Common schema types include Article, Product, Event, and Recipe.
2. Add schema markup to your HTML: Add the schema markup to your HTML code using JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa. JSON-LD is the preferred method.
3. Validate your schema markup: Use Google’s Rich Results Test tool to validate your schema markup.

[IMAGE: Example of schema markup code using JSON-LD.]

💡 Benefits of Schema Markup:

• Improved search engine rankings: Schema markup can help improve your website’s rankings for relevant keywords.
• Rich snippets in search results: Schema markup can enable rich snippets in search results, which can attract more clicks.
• Improved user experience: Schema markup can provide users with more information about your content before they even visit your website.

Step 17: Validate Your Schema Markup

⚙️ Purpose: Validating your schema markup ensures that it is implemented correctly and that search engines can properly understand it. Google provides a Rich Results Test tool that you can use to validate your schema markup.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use Google’s Rich Results Test: Enter your website’s URL into Google’s Rich Results Test tool and click “Test URL.”
2. Analyze the results: The tool will analyze your website and provide a report on your schema markup. Pay attention to any errors or warnings that are displayed.
3. Fix any errors: If the tool identifies any errors in your schema markup, fix them and revalidate your code.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of Google’s Rich Results Test tool, showing a passing result.]

💡 Common Schema Markup Errors:

• Missing required properties: Make sure that you include all of the required properties for the schema type that you are using.
• Invalid values: Make sure that you use valid values for the properties in your schema markup.
• Incorrect syntax: Make sure that your schema markup is properly formatted.

Duplicate Content and Canonicalization

Duplicate content can confuse search engines and hurt your rankings. When search engines find multiple pages with the same or very similar content, they may not know which page to rank, or they may penalize your website for trying to manipulate search results. Canonicalization is the process of specifying the preferred version of a page to search engines.

Step 18: Identify and Address Duplicate Content Issues

⚙️ Purpose: Identifying and addressing duplicate content issues is crucial for preventing search engine penalties and improving your website’s rankings.

⚙️ How To:

1. Use a duplicate content checker: Use a duplicate content checker like Copyscape or Siteliner to identify duplicate content on your website.
2. Manually review your website: Manually review your website to identify any pages that have similar content.
3. Check for URL variations: Check for URL variations that may be serving the same content, such as URLs with and without “www” or URLs with and without a trailing slash.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of a duplicate content checker, showing the percentage of duplicate content on a website.]

💡 Common Causes of Duplicate Content:

• URL variations: Serving the same content on multiple URLs, such as URLs with and without “www” or URLs with and without a trailing slash.
• Printer-friendly pages: Creating printer-friendly versions of your pages without using canonical tags.
• Staging sites: Leaving your staging site indexed by search engines.
• Content syndication: Publishing your content on other websites without using canonical tags or rel=”canonical” links.

Step 19: Implement Canonical Tags Correctly

⚙️ Purpose: Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a page is the preferred version. This helps prevent duplicate content issues and ensures that search engines give credit to the correct page.

⚙️ How To:

1. Add canonical tags to your HTML: Add a canonical tag to the section of each page on your website. The canonical tag should point to the preferred version of the page.
2. Use absolute URLs: Use absolute URLs in your canonical tags.
3. Make sure canonical tags are accurate: Make sure that your canonical tags are accurate and point to the correct version of the page.
4. Use the correct syntax: The correct syntax for a canonical tag is:

[IMAGE: Example of a canonical tag in the HTML head.]

💡 Best Practices for Canonical Tags:

• Use canonical tags on all pages: Use canonical tags on all pages of your website, even if you don’t think there are any duplicate content issues.
• Use canonical tags on paginated pages: Use canonical tags on paginated pages to point to the first page in the series.
• Use canonical tags on mobile pages: Use canonical tags on mobile pages to point to the desktop version of the page.

Security (HTTPS)

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure version of HTTP, the protocol used to transmit data between web browsers and web servers. HTTPS encrypts the data being transmitted, preventing it from being intercepted by third parties. In 2025, HTTPS is a must-have for all websites. Search engines prioritize websites that use HTTPS, and a website without HTTPS may be flagged as “not secure” by web browsers.

Step 20: Ensure Your Website Uses HTTPS

⚙️ Purpose: Ensuring your website uses HTTPS is crucial for protecting user data and improving your search engine rankings.

⚙️ How To:

1. Obtain an SSL certificate: Obtain an SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA).
2. Install the SSL certificate: Install the SSL certificate on your web server.
3. Configure your website to use HTTPS: Configure your website to use HTTPS by redirecting all HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
4. Update internal links: Update all internal links on your website to use HTTPS.
5. Update external links: Update all external links to your website to use HTTPS.
6. Update your sitemap: Update your XML sitemap to use HTTPS.
7. Monitor your website for HTTPS errors: Monitor your website for HTTPS errors and fix them promptly.

[IMAGE: Example of a website with HTTPS enabled, showing the padlock icon in the address bar.]

💡 Benefits of Using HTTPS:

• Improved security: HTTPS encrypts the data being transmitted between web browsers and web servers, protecting it from being intercepted by third parties.
• Improved search engine rankings: Search engines prioritize websites that use HTTPS.
• Improved user trust: HTTPS can improve user trust in your website.

Step 21: Regularly Update Your SSL Certificate

⚙️ Purpose: SSL certificates expire and need to be renewed to maintain HTTPS security. Regularly updating your SSL certificate ensures that your website remains secure and that users continue to trust your website.

⚙️ How To:

1. Check your SSL certificate expiration date: Check the expiration date of your SSL certificate.
2. Renew your SSL certificate before it expires: Renew your SSL certificate before it expires.
3. Install the renewed SSL certificate: Install the renewed SSL certificate on your web server.
4. Verify that the renewed SSL certificate is working correctly: Verify that the renewed SSL certificate is working correctly.

[IMAGE: Screenshot of an SSL certificate showing the expiration date.]

💡 Best Practices for SSL Certificates:

• Choose a reputable certificate authority: Choose a reputable certificate authority to obtain your SSL certificate.
• Use a strong encryption algorithm: Use a strong encryption algorithm for your SSL certificate.
• Keep your SSL certificate up-to-date: Keep your SSL certificate up-to-date.
• Monitor your SSL certificate for vulnerabilities: Monitor your SSL certificate for vulnerabilities.

International SEO (If Applicable)

If your website targets multiple countries or languages, you need to implement international SEO best practices to ensure that search engines show the correct version of your website to users in each region.

Step 22: Implement Hreflang Tags

⚙️ Purpose: Hreflang tags tell search engines which language and regional version of a page to show to users based on their language and location. This helps prevent duplicate content issues and ensures that users are directed to the correct version of your website.

⚙️ How To:

1. Determine the language and regional versions of your pages: Determine the language and regional versions of each page on your website.
2. Add hreflang tags to your HTML: Add hreflang tags to the section of each page on your website. The hreflang tags should specify the language and regional version of the page.
3. Use absolute URLs: Use absolute URLs in your hreflang tags.
4. Make sure hreflang tags are accurate: Make sure that your hreflang tags are accurate and point to the correct version of the page.
5. Use the correct syntax: The correct syntax for an hreflang tag is:

[IMAGE: Example of hreflang tags in the HTML head.]

💡 Best Practices for Hreflang Tags:

• Use hreflang tags on all pages: Use hreflang tags on all pages of your website, even if you only have one language or regional version.
• Use hreflang tags on paginated pages: Use hreflang tags on paginated pages to point to the correct language and regional version of each page.
• Use hreflang tags on mobile pages: Use hreflang tags on mobile pages to point to the correct language and regional version of the page.
• Use x-default hreflang tag: Use the x-default hreflang tag to specify the default language and regional version of your website.

Step 23: Configure Your Website for International Targeting in Google Search Console

⚙️ Purpose: Configuring your website for international targeting in Google Search Console tells Google which countries you are targeting with your website. This helps Google show your website to users in the correct countries.

⚙️ How To:

1. Go to Google Search Console: Go to Google Search Console and select your website.