Verify robots.txt is correctly configured
Avoid accidentally blocking Googlebot from crawling important pages.
Submit XML sitemap to Google Search Console
Ensures Google knows about all your important pages.
Check for accidental noindex tags
Staging environments often have noindex that bleeds into production.
Audit redirect chains (keep to 1 hop)
Each hop adds latency and dilutes link equity.
Fix broken internal links (404s)
Broken links waste crawl budget and harm UX.
Achieve LCP under 2.5 seconds
Largest Contentful Paint is a direct ranking factor.
Achieve CLS score below 0.1
Layout shifts frustrate users and are penalized in rankings.
Achieve INP under 200ms
Interaction to Next Paint replaced FID as a Core Web Vital.
Enable gzip/brotli compression
Reduces HTML, CSS, and JS transfer size by up to 70%.
Implement caching headers
Leverage-browser caching for static assets reduces repeat load times.
Use responsive design (not separate mobile site)
Google uses mobile-first indexing — mobile version is what gets ranked.
Ensure HTTPS with valid SSL certificate
HTTP sites are flagged as insecure and lose rankings.
Fix mixed content warnings
HTTP resources on HTTPS pages cause browser warnings.
Implement relevant JSON-LD schema
Article, FAQ, Product, LocalBusiness — pick types relevant to your content.
Validate schema with Google Rich Results Test
Confirm no errors before deploying to production.
Add breadcrumb schema to all interior pages
Improves how your site appears in search results.