Verifying a website's SEO in 2026 requires a methodical approach. With evolving Google algorithms, the arrival of Search Generative Experience, and the growing importance of Core Web Vitals, a clear checklist is essential to forget nothing.

Here is our 30-point checklist organized into 8 categories, with for each point: how to verify it, which tool to use, and how often to review it.

1. Technical SEO (5 points)

Indexing: verify all your important pages are indexed by Google. Tool: Google Search Console > Indexed pages. Frequency: monthly.
Robots.txt: make sure it doesn't accidentally block important pages. Tool: domain.com/robots.txt + Search Console. Frequency: at every modification.
XML sitemap: verify its presence, its URL in robots.txt, and submission to Search Console. Frequency: quarterly.
301/302 redirects: make sure temporary redirects (302) are actually temporary. Tool: Screaming Frog. Frequency: quarterly.
Clean URLs and canonicals: readable URLs, no unnecessary parameters, correct canonical tag on each page. Tool: TeckBlaze, Screaming Frog.

2. On-page SEO (5 points)

Unique titles: each page has a unique title tag of 50-60 characters including the main keyword.
Meta descriptions: 140-160 characters, including a call to action and the keyword.
H1-H6 hierarchy: only one H1 per page, logical structure of subheadings.
Image alt text: all content images have a descriptive alt attribute.
Hreflang FR/EN (Quebec): correct implementation of hreflang tags for fr-CA and en-CA.

3. Content (4 points)

Length and depth: 1500+ words for pillar pages, 800+ for secondary articles.
Content freshness: update strategic pages at least 2 times per year.
Originality: no internal or external duplicate content (Copyscape, Siteliner).
E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust — author pages, references, sources.

4. Performance (4 points)

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): less than 2.5 seconds.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): less than 200 ms (replaced FID in 2024).
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): less than 0.1.
Overall Lighthouse score: aim for 90+ on mobile and desktop.

5. Mobile (3 points)

Mobile-friendly: responsive design on all screen sizes.
Mobile-First indexing: mobile version = source of truth for Google.
Mobile speed: Core Web Vitals must be green on mobile too.

6. Security (3 points)

HTTPS: valid SSL certificate, HTTP → HTTPS redirect active.
CMS updates: WordPress, plugins, themes up to date.
Law 25 compliance (Quebec): privacy policy, cookie consent management.

7. Structured Data (3 points)

Organization schema: name, logo, contact info on every page (or via header).
LocalBusiness schema: essential for local SEO in Quebec.
Specific schema: Article, Product, FAQ, BreadcrumbList depending on content.

8. Internal Linking (3 points)

Click depth: no important page more than 3 clicks from the homepage.
Descriptive anchors: avoid 'click here', prefer descriptive anchors.
Links between related pages: 3-5 relevant internal links per article or product page.

Recommended Verification Tools

To automate most of this checklist, TeckBlaze performs 55+ checks in 60 seconds. Combine it with Google Search Console (continuous monitoring) and Lighthouse (detailed performance).

Recommended Frequency

Weekly: Google Search Console (positions, errors, impressions).
Monthly: TeckBlaze audit, Core Web Vitals, indexing.
Quarterly: full Screaming Frog crawl, content audit, backlinks.
Yearly: in-depth professional SEO audit with competitive analysis.

Conclusion

This 30-point checklist covers 90% of common SEO problems. Regular verification is more important than perfection: an average site audited every month will always beat a perfect site audited once a year. Request a complete audit if you want to go beyond the checklist.

SEO Verification: Complete Checklist 2026