Great content can’t rank if search engines can’t crawl it, index it or understand how your site fits together. That’s what technical SEO covers, and on WordPress sites the same problems show up again and again.
This is the checklist I work through when auditing a WordPress site. You don’t need expensive tools for most of it. Google Search Console, a crawler like Screaming Frog, and a little patience will get you most of the way.
1. Check What Google Has Actually Indexed
Start with the Pages report in Google Search Console (under Indexing). It shows which pages are indexed and, more importantly, why others aren’t.
- Look for important pages listed as “Crawled – currently not indexed” or “Discovered – currently not indexed.” These often point to thin content, weak internal linking or quality issues.
- Check “Excluded by noindex tag” to make sure nothing important is being hidden by accident.
- Compare the number of indexed pages with the number of pages you actually want in Google. A big gap in either direction is worth investigating.
2. Make Sure WordPress Isn’t Blocking Search Engines
It sounds obvious, but it happens more often than you’d think, especially after a site launch.
- In Settings → Reading, confirm that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unchecked.
- Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt and check that it isn’t blocking important folders or the whole site.
- If you use an SEO plugin, check its default settings for post types and taxonomies that may be set to noindex.
3. Review Your XML Sitemap
Your sitemap tells search engines which URLs matter.
- Make sure it only contains pages you want indexed: no redirected URLs, no 404s, no noindexed pages.
- Submit it in Google Search Console and check for errors.
- Remove sitemaps for content types you don’t need indexed, such as attachment pages or empty tag archives.
4. Crawl the Site for Broken Links and Redirects
Run a full crawl with a tool like Screaming Frog and look for:
- 404 errors from internal links. Fix the link or redirect the old URL to the most relevant live page.
- Redirect chains, where one redirect leads to another. Point links and redirects straight to the final URL.
- Redirect loops, which make pages inaccessible.
- Internal links to HTTP URLs on an HTTPS site.
5. Check Canonical Tags
Canonical tags tell search engines which version of a page is the main one. Common WordPress issues include:
- Pages canonicalized to the wrong URL after a migration or plugin change
- Paginated or filtered URLs that create near-duplicate pages
- Missing canonicals on pages that can be reached through multiple URLs
Each indexable page should usually have a self-referencing canonical.
6. Find Duplicate and Thin Content
WordPress creates a lot of URLs automatically. Some of them add little value:
- Attachment pages, which create a separate page for every uploaded image
- Tag archives with only one or two posts
- Author archives on single-author sites
- Duplicate titles and meta descriptions across many pages
Noindex or remove the archives you don’t need, and give every important page a unique title and description.
7. Measure Page Speed and Core Web Vitals
Google’s Core Web Vitals measure loading, responsiveness and visual stability. Check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and test key pages in PageSpeed Insights.
| Metric | What it measures | Good score |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | How fast the main content loads | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | How quickly the page responds to input | 200 milliseconds or less |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | How much the layout jumps around | 0.1 or less |
On WordPress, the usual culprits are oversized images, too many plugins loading scripts on every page, heavy page builders, and slow or overloaded hosting.
8. Test Mobile Usability
Google indexes the mobile version of your site. Check key pages on a real phone, not just a resized browser, and look for tiny text, buttons too close together, and content hidden or cut off on small screens.
9. Review Site Architecture and Internal Linking
Your most important pages should be easy to reach, ideally within three clicks of the homepage.
- Find orphan pages that have no internal links pointing to them.
- Make sure service and product pages get links from related blog posts and the main navigation.
- Use descriptive anchor text instead of “click here.”
10. Validate Structured Data
Schema markup helps search engines and AI systems understand what your pages are about. Test your key pages with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and fix any errors or warnings. At minimum, most business sites benefit from Organization or LocalBusiness schema, plus the appropriate type for articles, products or services.
11. Check HTTPS and Mixed Content
Every page should load over HTTPS, and HTTP versions should redirect to HTTPS. Look for mixed content, where an HTTPS page loads images or scripts over HTTP, which can trigger browser warnings.
12. Look for Security Warnings
Check the Security Issues and Manual Actions reports in Search Console. A hacked site can quietly lose rankings long before anyone notices anything visibly wrong. If you see warnings, the site needs a proper malware cleanup before anything else.
Turning the Checklist Into Results
An audit is only valuable if the issues get fixed. Prioritize by impact: indexing problems and blocked pages first, then broken links and redirects, then speed and structure improvements.
If you’d rather have someone audit your site and implement the fixes directly, that’s exactly what my technical SEO service covers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run a technical SEO audit?
A full audit once or twice a year works for most sites, with a quick monthly check of Search Console. Always audit before and after a redesign, migration or major plugin change.
Do I need paid tools for a technical SEO audit?
Not for the basics. Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights are free, and Screaming Frog’s free version crawls up to 500 URLs, which covers most small business sites.
Which technical SEO issues matter most?
Anything that stops important pages from being crawled or indexed comes first. After that, broken internal links, redirect problems and duplicate content usually have the biggest impact.
