FREE CHECKLIST
Technical SEO Audit Checklist
Boost your SaaS site with this Technical SEO Checklist! Packed with key tips to improve performance, rankings, and user experience—let your site work smarter!
The SaaS world is fast-paced, and if your site isn’t running at full speed, you’re losing out.
SEO isn’t just about playing the Google ranking game anymore—it’s about giving users a smooth, lightning-fast ride that keeps them coming back for more.
From Rankings to User Experience
SEO isn’t just about rankings anymore. It’s about providing fast, responsive, and user-friendly experiences that drive conversions. Google now focuses on Core Web Vitals, mobile optimization, and navigation, meaning slow load times or poor mobile experiences can harm both rankings and user engagement.
To stay ahead, SaaS companies must ensure their site is optimized not only for search engines but also for a seamless user experience that keeps customers satisfied and improves retention.
Technical SEO Audit Checklist
Technical SEO lays the groundwork for SaaS visibility by ensuring your site is crawlable, indexable, and user-friendly. These factors make your content easy for both search engines and users. Here’s the checklist that you can follow to cover all the essentials
01
Website Crawlability & Indexability
Ensuring your site is crawlable and indexable by search engines is the first step in SEO. This section focuses on making sure search engines can easily access your content without any obstacles and that the important pages are properly indexed for visibility.
- Robots.txt File
- Ensure the robots.txt file exists
- Verify that it is not blocking important pages or resources
- Test the robots.txt file using Google’s robots.txt Tester
- XML Sitemap
- Ensure the XML sitemap is updated and includes all important pages
- Verify the sitemap is listed in the robots.txt file
- Check that the sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
- Ensure the sitemap doesn’t contain broken or no-index URLs
- Crawl Budget Optimization
- Identify and fix crawl errors in Google Search Console
- Eliminate any duplicate or unnecessary pages that waste crawl budget
- Implement a "noindex" tag for pages that don’t provide value to search engines
02
Website Structure & Navigation
A well-structured website with clear, easy-to-follow navigation helps both search engines and users find and interact with key content. This section emphasizes the importance of a clean URL structure, effective internal linking, and user-friendly navigation.
- URL Structure
- Use clean, SEO-friendly URLs with keywords (e.g., example.com/saas-features)
- Avoid long, complex URLs or dynamic parameters (e.g., example.com/?id=12345)
- Ensure that URLs are consistent and have a logical hierarchy
- Internal Linking
- Ensure important pages (product pages, features, pricing) have sufficient internal links
- Implement breadcrumb navigation for better SEO
- Fix any broken internal links and ensure there’s no orphaned content
- Navigation
- Ensure that the site’s navigation is clear and user-friendly
- Ensure easy access to key SaaS pages (e.g., Features, Pricing, Blog, Support)
03
Mobile Optimization & User Experience
In today’s mobile-first world, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and provides an optimal user experience across all devices is essential. This section focuses on mobile responsiveness, fast load times, and improving core web vitals (such as LCP, FID, and CLS) to ensure users have a smooth, engaging experience, regardless of their device.
- Mobile-Friendly Design
- Check that the website is responsive and displays well on all devices
- Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to identify issues
- Ensure touch elements (buttons, links) are appropriately sized and spaced
- Page Speed Optimization
- Test page speed using Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, or GTmetrix
- Optimize images by compressing them and serving in next-gen formats (e.g., WebP)
- Minimize JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files
- Use lazy loading for images and videos
- Enable browser caching and compression (e.g., Gzip, Brotli)
- Implement a content delivery network (CDN)
- Core Web Vitals
- Analyze the website's Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console and Lighthouse
- Optimize LCP, FID, and CLS for better user experience
04
On-Page SEO Optimization
On-page SEO focuses on optimizing individual pages on your website to rank higher in search engine results. This section covers the key on-page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, image optimization, and structured data to ensure your pages are both user- and SEO-friendly.
- Title Tags
- Ensure each page has a unique, descriptive title tag
- Keep the title tag between 50 and 60 characters
- Include primary keywords for SaaS-related terms
- Meta Descriptions
- Ensure every page has a unique meta description
- Keep meta descriptions between 120 and 160 characters
- Include primary and secondary keywords
- Header Tags
- Ensure there is only one H1 tag per page
- Use H2 and H3 tags to structure content and include secondary keywords
- Image Optimization
- Ensure all images have optimized alt attributes
- Compress images to reduce their file size
- Use descriptive filenames for images
- Structured Data (Schema Markup)
- Implement structured data for products, FAQs, reviews, and other relevant content
- Test structured data using Google's Structured Data Testing Tool
05
Technical SEO for SaaS Specific Needs
SaaS websites have unique technical requirements, such as managing sign-ups, handling dynamic content, and ensuring localization for multiple markets. This section addresses technical SEO tactics specific to SaaS, such as optimizing sign-up processes, ensuring API visibility, and using hreflang tags for international audiences.
- Subscription/Sign-Up Optimization
- Ensure the sign-up process is fast and easy
- Track subscription events properly in Google Analytics
- Implement tracking for key conversion metrics (e.g., sign-ups, demos)
- Localization for Multiple Markets
- Implement hreflang tags correctly for international audiences
- Avoid duplicate content issues for multiple countries or languages
- Use location-based keywords where appropriate in content and metadata
- API and Dynamic Content
- Ensure dynamic content is visible and crawlable for search engines
- Optimize API endpoints to minimize latency
06
SEO-Friendly Content Strategy
Creating high-quality, SEO-optimized content is key to driving organic traffic. This section emphasizes the importance of producing in-depth, engaging content around relevant SaaS keywords and addressing common content issues like duplication and thin pages. It also stresses the need for regularly updating old content to keep it fresh and relevant.
- Content Depth and Quality
- Create high-quality, detailed content around relevant SaaS keywords
- Regularly update old content to keep it fresh and relevant
- Blogs and Resource Page
- Create in-depth blog posts, case studies, and customer success stories
- Optimize blog posts for SEO with internal links, external sources, and social sharing options
- Content Duplication & Thin Pages
- Eliminate duplicate content using tools like Copyscape or Siteliner
- Consolidate similar pages with canonical tags
- Improve or remove thin content pages
07
Link Building & Authority
Backlinks are an important factor in SEO rankings. This section focuses on building a strong backlink profile by earning high-quality links from authoritative sites, creating valuable content that attracts links, and monitoring competitors' backlink strategies. Establishing external validation helps improve your site’s trustworthiness and authority.
- Backlink Profile
- Regularly monitor backlinks with tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush
- Disavow toxic or spammy backlinks that harm the site’s authority
- Linkable Assets
- Create valuable, link-worthy content such as guides, case studies, and infographics
- Pursue guest posting and backlink opportunities
- Competitor Backlink Analysis
- Identify competitor backlink sources and explore similar link opportunities
08
Technical Site Maintenance
Maintaining the health of your website through ongoing technical optimizations is crucial for SEO success. This section focuses on ensuring your site is free from 404 errors, secure with an SSL certificate, and consistently monitored for server speed and uptime. Proper site maintenance ensures a seamless user experience and prevents SEO issues from arising.
- 404 Errors & Redirects
- Regularly monitor 404 errors and implement 301 redirects to relevant pages
- Fix broken links using Google Search Console and Screaming Frog
- SSL Certificate
- Ensure the website is secure with an SSL certificate (HTTPS)
- Monitor for mixed content issues (non-secure resources)
- Server Speed & Uptime
- Regularly monitor server uptime and speed with tools like Pingdom or Uptime Robot
- Choose a reliable hosting provider with fast load times
- Canonicalization
- Ensure correct use of canonical tags to prevent duplicate content
- Make sure each page has the correct canonical URL