Technical SEO Audit Vancouver — 2026 Checklist for BC Businesses
Step-by-step technical SEO audit checklist built for Vancouver and BC businesses — Core Web Vitals, crawlability, schema, and more.
A technical SEO audit is the diagnostic that tells you why your Vancouver website isn't ranking as well as it should. This checklist covers the most impactful technical signals for BC businesses in 2026 — from crawlability to Core Web Vitals to structured data. Work through it in order: foundational issues (crawling, indexing) must be fixed before content optimisation delivers its full value.
If you'd rather have this done professionally, our SEO audit Vancouver service covers all of these areas with a written action plan and prioritised fixes.
1. Crawlability and Indexing
Google must be able to find, crawl, and index your pages before any other optimisation matters. Check:
- robots.txt: Confirm it does not accidentally block important pages or your CSS/JS files. Fetch it at yoursite.com/robots.txt.
- XML sitemap: Exists, is submitted to Google Search Console, and contains only canonical, indexable URLs. No 301 targets, 404s, or noindex pages in the sitemap.
- Canonical tags: Every page has a self-referencing canonical. Paginated pages (blog archives) handle canonicalisation correctly.
- Crawl errors: Check Search Console > Coverage for 4xx and 5xx errors. Each error wastes crawl budget and signals poor site health.
- Internal linking orphans: Every page should be reachable from at least three other pages via in-content links — not just the navigation or footer.
2. Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a confirmed Google ranking factor. For Vancouver businesses competing in local and organic results, failing CWV is a tangible ranking handicap. Check your scores in Google Search Console > Core Web Vitals or PageSpeed Insights.
The three metrics to hit (per Google's 2026 thresholds):
| Metric | Good | Needs Improvement | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | ≤ 2.5s | 2.5–4.0s | 4.0s+ |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | ≤ 200ms | 200–500ms | 500ms+ |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | ≤ 0.1 | 0.1–0.25 | 0.25+ |
Common fixes for Vancouver small business sites: compress and serve images in WebP format, defer non-critical JavaScript, add explicit width/height to all images (prevents CLS), and use a caching layer. Our guide on website speed and SEO in Vancouver covers these fixes in detail.
3. Schema and Structured Data
For BC businesses, four schema types deliver the most value:
- LocalBusiness (or a specific subtype) on the homepage and contact page — name, address, phone, hours, areaServed
- FAQPage on service pages and blog posts that answer specific questions — directly feeds AI Overview extraction
- BreadcrumbList on every page except the homepage — reinforces your site hierarchy
- Article / BlogPosting on all blog content — enables rich results with publication dates
Validate all schema at schema.org/SchemaValidator or Google's Rich Results Test. A single syntax error can suppress an entire schema block.
4. Mobile and Page Experience
Google is mobile-first: it primarily crawls and ranks the mobile version of your site. Check:
- Mobile usability in Search Console (no tap-target issues, no content wider than the viewport)
- Text legible without zooming (minimum 16px body font)
- No intrusive interstitials blocking content on mobile
- HTTPS on every page — not just the homepage
5. On-Page Technical Signals
These are not glamorous but they matter for Vancouver competitive markets:
- Title tags: Unique, under 60 characters, keyword at the start, brand at the end
- Meta descriptions: Unique, 130–155 characters, clear value proposition and call to action
- H1 tags: Exactly one per page, contains the primary keyword, matches user search intent
- Image alt text: Every image has a descriptive alt attribute — especially important for local service businesses with photo-heavy sites
- Duplicate content: No two pages should target the same keyword. Use Google Search Console to identify cannibalisation (multiple pages appearing for the same query)
After completing this checklist, prioritise fixes by impact × effort. Crawlability and CWV failures are always highest priority — they suppress everything else. Once the foundation is clean, layer content and local SEO optimisation for compounding results. Khan IT's Core Web Vitals guide for business owners goes deeper on the performance fixes specific to BC SME websites.
