Technical SEO is the part of SEO that most tradespeople never think about — and the part that can single-handedly prevent their website from ranking, no matter how good the content is. Think of it as the foundations of a house: invisible when done right, catastrophic when done wrong.

The Technical SEO Checklist for Trades Websites

Site Speed

  • Pages load in under 2.5 seconds on mobile (test at PageSpeed Insights)
  • All images are compressed (WebP format, under 150KB for most images)
  • Caching is enabled (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache)
  • Hosting is on a fast server (avoid bargain shared hosting)
  • No render-blocking scripts delaying page load

Mobile Optimisation

  • Website passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
  • Text is readable without zooming (minimum 16px font size)
  • Buttons are large enough to tap (minimum 44px)
  • No horizontal scrolling required
  • Phone number is a clickable tel: link

Indexability

  • All important pages are indexed (check in Google Search Console)
  • No accidental “noindex” tags on pages you want to rank
  • XML sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console
  • Robots.txt is not blocking important pages
  • No broken links (404 errors) on important pages

HTTPS and Security

  • Website uses HTTPS (padlock in browser bar)
  • No mixed content warnings
  • SSL certificate is valid and not expired

Core Web Vitals

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): under 2.5 seconds
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): under 0.1 (page does not jump around as it loads)
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP): under 200ms
  • Check all three in Google Search Console under “Core Web Vitals”

Schema Markup

  • LocalBusiness schema on homepage (name, address, phone, hours)
  • Service schema on each service page
  • Review schema showing star ratings in search results
  • Breadcrumb schema for improved SERP appearance

Duplicate Content

  • No duplicate page titles
  • No duplicate meta descriptions
  • Canonical tags in place where needed
  • www and non-www versions both redirect to one version

How to Check Your Technical SEO Health

Use Google Search Console (free) for indexing and Core Web Vitals. Use Screaming Frog (free up to 500 pages) for technical issues. Use Google PageSpeed Insights for speed. Use Schema.org Validator for schema markup.

Technical SEO issues are fixable — but they require someone who knows what they are doing. At Grwthhub, we audit and fix technical SEO as part of our standard service. Learn more or book a free audit.