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Catalog / Technical SEO Cheatsheet

Technical SEO Cheatsheet

A concise guide to technical SEO, covering website crawlability, indexability, site architecture, and performance optimization. This cheat sheet provides actionable steps and best practices to improve your website's technical foundation for better search engine visibility.

Crawlability & Indexability

Robots.txt

User-agent:

Specifies the web crawler the rule applies to. Use * to apply to all.

Disallow:

Blocks specific URLs or directories from being crawled.

Allow:

In some cases, re-allows crawling of specific subdirectories within a disallowed directory (not universally supported).

Example: Block the /admin/ directory.

 
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/

Example: Allow /admin/images/ but block /admin/

 
User-agent: *
Disallow: /admin/
Allow: /admin/images/

Sitemap:

Specifies the location of the XML sitemap for search engines.

Meta Robots Tags

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

Prevents a page from being indexed.

<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">

Prevents crawlers from following links on the page.

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

Combines both noindex and nofollow.

<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

Explicitly allows indexing and following (default behavior, often not needed).

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">

Prevents search engines from saving a cached copy of the page.

Canonical Tags

Use canonical tags to specify the preferred version of a page when duplicate content exists.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/preferred-page/">

Canonical tags help consolidate ranking signals and prevent duplicate content issues.

Site Architecture & Internal Linking

URL Structure

Maintain a clear and logical URL structure.
Use hyphens (-) instead of underscores (_) to separate words.
Keep URLs short and descriptive.

Example:
https://www.example.com/category/product-name (Good)
https://www.example.com/category/product_name (Bad)

Internal Linking

Anchor Text

Use relevant and descriptive anchor text for internal links.

Contextual Relevance

Link to related content to improve user experience and crawlability.

Link Depth

Ensure important pages are linked from multiple locations to increase their prominence.

Navigation

Implement a clear and intuitive navigation structure to guide users and crawlers.

Sitemap

Create an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines via Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Site Navigation

Ensure your site navigation is crawlable and indexable. Use HTML links (<a> tags) for navigation elements.

Avoid using JavaScript or Flash-based navigation, as they can be difficult for search engines to crawl.

Site Speed & Mobile Optimization

Core Web Vitals

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Measures the time it takes for the largest content element to become visible. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.

First Input Delay (FID)

Measures the time it takes for the browser to respond to a user’s first interaction. Aim for under 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Measures the visual stability of a page. Aim for a score of less than 0.1.

Tools

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest to analyze and improve Core Web Vitals.

Image Optimization

Optimize images by compressing them without sacrificing quality.
Use appropriate image formats (e.g., WebP, JPEG, PNG).
Specify image dimensions to prevent layout shifts.
Use lazy loading to load images only when they are visible in the viewport.

Mobile-Friendly Design

Use a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
Ensure that content is easily readable and interactive on mobile devices.
Avoid using Flash or other technologies that are not supported on mobile devices.

Minification

CSS

Minify CSS files to reduce their size by removing unnecessary characters like spaces and comments.

JavaScript

Minify JavaScript files to reduce their size.

HTML

Minify HTML files to reduce their size.

Tools

Use online tools or build processes for minification.

Structured Data & Security

Schema Markup

Implement structured data markup using Schema.org vocabulary to help search engines understand the content of your pages. This can lead to rich snippets in search results.

Use the Google Rich Results Test to validate your schema markup.

HTTPS

Ensure your website is served over HTTPS to provide a secure connection for users.
Install an SSL certificate and configure your server to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

XML Sitemap

Purpose

List all important URLs on your website.

Submission

Submit the sitemap to search engines (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools).

Updates

Keep the sitemap updated with new and removed content.

Format

XML format following the sitemap protocol.
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