The technical SEO checklist for South African websites.
Technical SEO is the foundation everything else depends on. Get it wrong and no amount of content or links will save your rankings. This checklist covers every area worth checking — in plain language, in priority order.
Most SEO advice focuses on content and keywords. Both matter. But if the technical foundations of your site are broken, none of it will rank. Google cannot index what it cannot crawl. It will not rank what it cannot access. And it increasingly rewards sites that are fast, mobile-friendly, and structurally clean.
This checklist is structured the way a professional audit is structured — from the most foundational issues to the more granular. Work through it in order. Fix the high-impact issues first.
1. Crawlability and indexation
This is where everything starts. If Google cannot crawl and index your pages, nothing else matters.
Robots.txt is not blocking important pages
Visit yourdomain.co.za/robots.txt. Check for any Disallow rules that might be blocking your key pages, products, or categories. A common WordPress mistake is accidentally disallowing everything.
No pages are accidentally set to noindex
In WordPress with Rank Math or Yoast, check that your key pages have robots set to Index. Settings → Reading → confirm "Discourage search engines" is unchecked. Check individual pages in your SEO plugin.
XML sitemap exists and is submitted
Your sitemap should be at yourdomain.co.za/sitemap.xml. Submit it in Google Search Console under Sitemaps. Check it only includes pages you want indexed — not admin pages, thank-you pages, or duplicate content.
Google Search Console has no coverage errors
GSC → Indexing → Pages. Check for any pages marked "Excluded" or "Error" that should be indexed. Pay particular attention to "Discovered but not indexed" — this often signals a crawl budget or internal linking problem.
Canonical tags are set correctly
Every page should have a self-referencing canonical tag. If you have multiple URL versions of the same page (http vs https, www vs non-www, trailing slash vs no trailing slash), canonicals tell Google which version to index.
No redirect chains or loops
A redirect chain is when URL A redirects to URL B which redirects to URL C. Each hop loses link equity and slows load time. Use Screaming Frog or a redirect checker tool to identify and fix chains. All redirects should go directly from old URL to final destination.
2. Site speed and Core Web Vitals
Page speed became a Google ranking factor in 2018. Core Web Vitals became a ranking factor in 2021. Slow sites lose rankings and lose visitors — research consistently shows that pages taking more than three seconds to load lose more than half their visitors.
PageSpeed Insights score above 70 on mobile
Run your key pages at pagespeed.web.dev. Mobile score is what matters most. Below 50 is a serious problem. The report tells you exactly what to fix — prioritise Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) issues first.
Images are compressed and correctly sized
The most common cause of slow sites. Images should be under 200KB where possible, served in WebP format, and sized to display dimensions (not uploaded at 4000px and displayed at 800px). Use Imagify, ShortPixel, or Smush on WordPress.
Caching is enabled
WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache. Caching stores static versions of your pages so the server does not rebuild them from scratch on every visit. This alone can cut load times by 40-60%.
CSS and JavaScript are minified
Minification removes unnecessary whitespace and comments from code files, reducing their size. WP Rocket and most caching plugins handle this automatically. Check that it is switched on.
Hosting is adequate for your traffic
Cheap shared hosting is the hidden killer of South African site performance. If you are on a R50/month hosting plan and wondering why your site is slow, that is your answer. Consider moving to a managed WordPress host or a VPS.
3. Mobile performance
Google uses mobile-first indexing. It crawls and evaluates your site as a mobile user. If your mobile experience is poor, your rankings suffer — regardless of how good the desktop version looks.
Site passes Google's Mobile-Friendly Test
Search "Google Mobile-Friendly Test" and run your key pages. Fix any issues flagged before doing anything else on this list.
No content is wider than the screen on mobile
Horizontal scrolling on mobile is a ranking signal and a conversion killer. Check your site on a real phone, not just a desktop browser's mobile preview.
Tap targets are large enough
Buttons and links should be at least 48x48 pixels on mobile. Tiny tap targets frustrate users and signal poor mobile optimisation to Google.
4. URL structure and site architecture
URLs are clean, short, and keyword-relevant
yourdomain.co.za/seo-strategy/ is better than yourdomain.co.za/?p=123 or yourdomain.co.za/services/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimisation-strategy-cape-town/. Keep slugs to 3-5 words. Set WordPress permalinks to "Post name" in Settings → Permalinks.
No orphan pages
Every page should be reachable via internal links from at least one other page on your site. Pages with no internal links pointing to them are invisible to Google in practice, regardless of whether they are indexed.
Important pages are no more than three clicks from the homepage
The closer to the homepage, the more authority a page receives. Your most important commercial pages should be one click from the homepage. If a key page is buried four levels deep, it will struggle to rank competitively.
No keyword cannibalization
Multiple pages targeting the same keyword compete against each other and dilute your authority. Check that each page on your site targets a distinct keyword intent. If two pages are targeting the same term, consolidate them.
5. Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data that helps Google understand what your pages contain. It is not a ranking factor directly — but it enables rich results (star ratings, FAQ accordions, product prices in the SERP) that significantly improve click-through rates.
Organisation schema on homepage
Tells Google your business name, URL, logo, contact details, and social profiles. Use Rank Math's schema builder or add JSON-LD manually.
Service schema on service pages
Describes each service you offer with name, description, price range, and provider. Helps Google understand your commercial offering.
FAQ schema on pages with FAQ sections
FAQ schema can generate accordion-style rich results directly in Google — your answers expand in the SERP without the user clicking. This doubles your visual footprint on the results page.
Article schema on blog/article pages
Includes author, publish date, and headline. Important for E-E-A-T signals — Google wants to know who wrote the content and when.
BreadcrumbList schema on all pages
Generates breadcrumb trails in Google results, showing users exactly where the page sits in your site structure. Improves click-through rate and helps Google understand your hierarchy.
6. SSL and security
SSL certificate is active and not expiring soon
Your site should load at https:// without browser warnings. Check your SSL expiry date — most certificates are annual and an expired SSL can cause your site to become inaccessible overnight.
All internal links use HTTPS
Mixed content warnings occur when a page loads over HTTPS but contains resources (images, scripts) served over HTTP. Check with a tool like Why No Padlock.
7. Analytics and tracking
GA4 is installed and firing correctly
Use Google Tag Assistant or the GA4 DebugView to confirm events are firing. Check that pageviews are recording and that traffic sources are being attributed correctly.
Key conversion events are set up
Form submissions, phone number clicks, WhatsApp clicks, and email clicks should all be tracked as events in GA4. Without this, you cannot measure what your organic traffic is actually doing.
Internal traffic is excluded
Your own visits to your site inflate your analytics data. Set up an internal traffic filter in GA4 using your IP address or a GTM cookie.
Google Search Console is connected to GA4
Linking GSC to GA4 gives you organic search data inside GA4 — which queries are driving clicks, what the landing pages are, and how organic visitors behave compared to other channels.
How to prioritise what you find
Not everything on this list has equal impact. Here is the rough priority order:
Fix crawlability issues first
If Google cannot access your pages, nothing else matters. Check robots.txt, noindex settings, and GSC coverage errors before anything else.
Fix mobile and speed issues
These affect every page simultaneously. One fix improves the entire site. Highest leverage after crawlability.
Fix architecture and URL issues
Redirect chains, orphan pages, and URL structure problems compound over time. Fix them before adding more content.
Add schema and tracking
These are amplifiers, not foundations. Add them once the site is technically clean.
When to get a professional technical SEO audit
This checklist tells you what to look for. A professional audit tells you what it means for your specific site — which issues are causing actual ranking problems, which are low priority, and what to fix first given your specific situation and competition.
If you found multiple issues in sections one or two above, or if your rankings have been declining without an obvious cause, a nogravy Site Audit will give you a complete diagnosis with a prioritised action plan. Fixed price. Plain language. No upsell.