Organic visibility across Google and AI search engines (ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) rests on technical infrastructure. If your domain suffers from redirect chains, stale static sitemaps, broken hreflang reciprocity, or unverified Schema markup, even the best editorial content will fail to rank. Here is the 10-point technical checklist we execute in our engineering audits.
The 10-Point Technical SEO & AEO Infrastructure Checklist
1. Zero Internal Redirect Chains (Strict HTTP 200 OK)
Every internal link in navigation menus, footers, and silo cards must resolve directly with HTTP 200 OK. Internal 301/302 hops waste Googlebot crawl budget and dilute link equity.
2. Dynamic XML Sitemap with Authentic ISO-8601 lastmod
Sitemaps must be generated dynamically from published indexable records using real post_modified_gmt timestamps, automatically excluding drafts, 404s, and non-canonical query URLs.
3. 100% Mathematical Hreflang Reciprocity (ES / EN / x-default)
On bilingual architectures, if Page A (Spanish) links to Page B (English) via hreflang="en", Page B must reciprocate with an exact hreflang="es" link back to Page A.
4. Interconnected Schema.org JSON-LD Knowledge Graph
Deploy unified @graph structures linking ProfessionalService, Service, FAQPage, TechArticle, and SpeakableSpecification mapped to Wikidata entities—without fabricated review ratings that trigger manual penalties.
5. Machine-Readable /llms.txt & IndexNow Protocol
Expose structured Markdown specifications at /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt while explicitly allowing GPTBot, PerplexityBot, and ClaudeBot in robots.txt.
Want a line-by-line code audit of your domain? Explore our Technical SEO Audit & Architecture pillar or request your diagnostic below.