Technical SEO checklist for production

Before Every Release: The 10-Point Check

Not every release needs a full SEO audit.

But every release that touches URLs, content, or site structure needs this checklist.

The Checklist

• ✓ Canonical tags — Are they present and pointing to the correct URL? Check: view-source or browser dev tools on the new page type.

• ✓ Index directives — Is the page correctly set to index/noindex? Staging should be noindex. Production should be index (unless intentionally gated).

• ✓ Structured data — Does the page type require schema? Products → Product schema. Articles → Article schema. FAQs → FAQPage schema. Test with Google's Rich Results Test before merging.

• ✓ Redirect integrity — If URLs changed, are redirects 301 (not 302)? Chains longer than 2 hops lose link equity. Audit with Screaming Frog.

• ✓ Internal links — Does the new page receive at least one internal link? Orphan pages do not get indexed reliably. Link from a relevant existing page.

• ✓ Page speed — Does the new template pass Core Web Vitals? Targets: LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 200ms. Test with PageSpeed Insights.

• ✓ Mobile rendering — Does the page render correctly on mobile? Google indexes mobile-first. Check with Chrome DevTools device emulation.

• ✓ Hreflang (international sites) — Are language/region tags correct? Missing or incorrect hreflang is one of the top causes of international traffic loss.

• ✓ Meta title + description — Are they unique, within character limits, and written for click-through? Title: 50-60 chars. Description: 120-158 chars.

• ✓ 404 check — Do the new pages return 200, not soft 404? A page that visually exists but returns 404 in headers will not be indexed.

When to Do a Full Audit

Checklist is for routine releases. Do a full audit when:

• Major site migration or redesign
• URL structure change affecting 1,000+ pages
• Significant traffic drop (>20% week-over-week)
• New market/language launch

Tooling

• Screaming Frog — crawl and redirect audit
• Google Search Console — index coverage and Core Web Vitals
• Ahrefs Site Audit — ongoing health monitoring
• PageSpeed Insights — per-page performance
• Schema.org Validator — structured data check