Technical SEO Checklist

Ensure pages have a good level of unique content.

Create an HTML sitemap for users.

Create an XML sitemap.

If relevant, include an xml sitemap index, which lists the location for a blog sitemap perhaps generated by WordPress, the main sitemap & a video sitemap (this would be a lower maintenance method, as the blog sitemap would be automatically updated).

Link XML sitemap (or XML sitemap index) from the robots.txt file.

Verify with Google Webmaster tools (for both www. and non www. versions of the site, and any subdomains).

Verify with Bing Webmaster tools.

Link blogger profile pages up with the bloggers’ Google plus page.

Ensure all your bloggers have a Google Plus profile.

Keep JavaScript in a separate file & minify.

Keep CSS in a separate file & minify.

Use image sprites for template images that are used across the site.

Ensure images are all compressed – Smushit lets you compress a batch of images in folder a structure.

Ensure images have alt text.

Use a content delivery network (CDN) for images/media – this can be a subdomain or Amazon cdn for example.

Specify your height and width for images.

Enable gzip compression.

Create an error page with user friendly message, navigation, search box.

Use RSS auto-discovery.

Ensure each page has unique title tag, meta description.

Check for broken links, update any within your control and create 301 redirects from the old to the new.

Force trailing slashes across urls (except after a file name in the URL – e.g. /example-case-study.pdf).

Add in the canonical tag to the header of each page e.g. <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.example.com/”/>.

Choose and use an address format consistently across owned properties & external listings.

Use Microformats for structured data – e.g. recipes, address details, reviews and review aggregates.

Add Web Analytics tracking (customise if required – e.g. to include re-marketing & subdomain tracking).

Link through to the relevant pages elsewhere on the site where mentioned.

Implement Open graph so that when someone links to site content on Facebook or G+ you have more control over title, description & images.

Add a favicon and include in your header.

Add an Apple icon.

Don’t link excessively, especially not to poor quality content.