1. Check the response before the ranking
Open representative important URLs and confirm they return the intended content successfully. Check the homepage, a service, an article and any key conversion page. Review broken pages, server errors and redirect chains. Confirm an intentionally missing URL returns an actual not-found response rather than an unrelated homepage with a success status.
2. Review crawl and indexing controls
Read the robots.txt rules and page-level robots directives. Confirm valuable public content is not blocked or marked noindex by accident. Remember that blocking crawling and excluding a page from indexing are different controls. Check the rendered page when important content depends on scripts. Private information belongs behind proper access controls, not merely a robots instruction.
3. Compare canonical signals
Inspect each important page’s canonical URL and confirm it points to the intended preferred version. Compare it with internal links, redirects and the sitemap. Mixed signals often appear after domain changes, protocol changes or template updates. Avoid canonicalizing unrelated pages to the homepage. A canonical is a consolidation signal, not a substitute for making a useful page.
4. Follow the internal links
Try to reach priority pages using the site’s ordinary navigation. Orphan pages may exist in a sitemap but remain hard for visitors to find. Use link text that describes the destination. Connect service pages to detailed guides where those guides answer a natural next question, and link back to the relevant service where it helps a reader act.
5. Review performance on real templates
Inspect image dimensions and delivery, font loading, layout stability and scripts that slow interaction. Use both available real-user data and repeatable lab checks, understanding that they measure different things. Prioritize issues affecting commonly visited templates and meaningful interactions. A single performance score is not the same as a complete accessibility or usability review.
6. Validate structured data and deployment
Keep markup aligned with visible facts. Validate its syntax and supported eligibility requirements, then inspect the deployed result after release. Recheck sitemaps, redirects and key pages when templates change. Keep a small acceptance list with expected outcomes so an implementation can be verified without relying on memory. See our technical SEO process for a scoped review.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide · AI features and your website · Creating helpful, reliable content
Published October 7, 2026 · By Flor Technologies. Educational guidance; apply it to your actual website and business context.