Free Resource · 2026 Edition

The Technical SEO Audit Checklist for Boston Small Businesses.

Built from 20 years of SEO audits — freelance, agency, and enterprise. Updated for 2026: Core Web Vitals thresholds, AI crawler permissions, GEO signals, and everything your site needs to rank and get cited.

60+ actionable checklist items across 7 categories
Updated for May 2026 Core Web Vitals thresholds
AI visibility signals — what gets you cited in AI Overviews
Boston-specific local SEO requirements
Schema markup for both traditional and AI search
Priority tiers — what to fix first vs later
Free download

Get the checklist

Enter your email and I'll send you the full checklist — no pitch, no drip sequence. Just the checklist.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Your email goes to Rich, not a marketing platform.

20
Years running SEO audits
60+
Checklist items
7
Audit categories
2026
Updated for current standards

What's inside

Seven categories covering everything your site needs to rank in traditional search and get cited in AI-generated answers.

01

Technical Foundation

Crawlability, indexation, robots.txt, sitemap, HTTPS, redirects, and the basics that everything else depends on.

12 items
02

Core Web Vitals

2026 thresholds — LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. Holistic scoring means all three must pass.

8 items
03

On-Page SEO

Title tags, meta descriptions, header structure, canonical tags, internal linking, and content quality signals.

11 items
04

Local SEO Signals

Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, local citations, neighborhood geo-signals, and review strategy.

10 items
05

Schema & Structured Data

LocalBusiness, Person, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Article — the markup that drives rich results and AI citation.

9 items
06

AI Visibility Signals

E-E-A-T, author identity, AI crawler permissions, robots.txt for GPTBot/ClaudeBot/Perplexity, and citation optimization.

8 items
07

Authority & Links

Backlink quality, local directory presence, duplicate content, and the authority signals that determine how Google trusts your site.

7 items
R

Rich Nashawaty

SEO Consultant · Boston, MA · 20 Years Experience

I built this checklist from the audit process I've used across hundreds of sites — freelance clients, agency accounts, and enterprise organizations including Ziff Davis, Monster, Kayak, and Care.com. It's the same framework I use when I audit a new client's site. Updated every time the standards change, which in 2026 means frequently.