Guide
Fix your site's technical SEO in one afternoon
The 8 technical checks that account for most SEO problems on small sites.
Enable HTTPS everywhere
URLs should start with https://, not http://. Most website builders (Shopify, Wix, Squarespace) enable this by default. If yours doesn't, contact support today.
Run Google's Rich Results Test
Go to search.google.com/test/rich-results, paste your URL. Fix any errors it flags (missing schema, blocked resources, broken structured data).
Check mobile-friendliness
In Google Search Console, Mobile Usability report. Fix pages that fail. Google indexes mobile first, a bad mobile experience tanks desktop rankings too.
Compress every image
Use squoosh.app or a plugin. Aim for under 200KB per image. Slow-loading pages get demoted, and images are usually the culprit.
Fix broken links
Use ahrefs.com/broken-link-checker (free) or brokenlinkcheck.com. Broken internal links waste crawl budget and confuse Google. Redirect or update every one.
Add a robots.txt and sitemap.xml
Both should exist at yourdomain.com/robots.txt and yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Most website builders add them automatically. Verify they're accessible.
Set canonical tags
If a page has multiple URL versions (e.g., with and without trailing slash), use rel='canonical' to tell Google which is primary. Prevents duplicate content penalties.
Check page speed on mobile
pagespeed.web.dev, aim for 70+ on mobile. Slow sites (under 40) lose 40% of traffic and rank noticeably worse. Speed is a direct ranking factor.
That’s the whole thing.
Keep going
What to read next
- 01
SEO Basics
Your first 7 days of SEO
The absolute basics to make Google understand and rank your website.
- 02
SEO Basics
Write your first SEO-friendly blog post
Structure and write a blog post that answers a real search query, and can rank.
- 03
SEO Basics
Local SEO, rank in your city
The specific tactics that make Google show your business to nearby customers.