The SaaS Technical SEO Checklist (Fix What Actually Blocks Growth)

Technical SEO for SaaS is weirdly frustrating.

Because you can do the “hard” stuff. Ship features. Publish content. Build backlinks. Even nail product led growth. And still… organic just kind of plateaus. It feels like you are pushing a shopping cart with one wheel locked.

Most of the time, it’s not because you need 10,000 more blog posts.

It’s because something basic is blocking the crawl, splitting your signals, or turning your “money pages” into ghost towns Google can’t confidently rank.

This checklist is the stuff that actually blocks growth for SaaS companies. Not theory. Not “best practices” copied from 2016. The things that cause pages to never get indexed, or to rank briefly then drop, or to get outranked by someone with half your domain authority.

Also, quick note. If you want the content side to be more hands off while you fix the technical side, platforms like SEO software can handle the content planning, writing, internal linking, and publishing. So you are not stuck choosing between “fix tech debt” and “publish consistently”. More on that later.

Before you start: how to use this checklist

Don’t try to do all of this in one sitting. You will hate your life.

Instead, run it like a funnel:

1. Can Google crawl and index the right pages?
2. Are you consolidating signals, or splitting them?
3. Are your important pages internally supported?
4. Are you creating technical mess faster than you clean it up?

If you get those four right, you have already done more than most SaaS sites.

1) Indexation and crawlability (the stuff that makes growth impossible)

Check 1: Are you accidentally blocking the site with robots.txt?

This still happens. Especially on staging migrations, headless setups, and “temporary” blocks that become permanent.

What to do:

• Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt
• Look for Disallow: / (or broad disallows like /blog/ or /docs/)
• Make sure your XML sitemap is referenced in robots.txt

If you have multiple subdomains (app, docs, marketing), check each one.

Common SaaS mistake: the docs subdomain is blocked “temporarily” because someone didn’t want it indexed during a rewrite. Six months later, still blocked. Meanwhile your competitors own every “how to” keyword.

Check 2: Are important pages set to noindex?

Things to audit:

• Landing pages
• Comparison pages
• Pricing
• Feature pages
• Integration pages
• High intent blog posts that convert

How to spot it quickly:

• Crawl with a tool, filter by meta robots = noindex
• Or in your browser, view source and search noindex

And yes, frameworks sometimes inject this based on environment variables. I have seen production shipped with noindex, nofollow after a staging deploy. Pain.

Check 3: Is canonicalization correct, or are you self sabotaging?

Canonical tags are supposed to consolidate duplicates. But SaaS sites often use them like a blunt instrument and end up canonicalizing important pages to the wrong URL.

Audit these patterns:

• Canonical points to the homepage from many pages (bad)
• Canonical points to a parameter URL (bad)
• Canonical is missing (not always fatal, but risky on templated sites)
• Canonical flips between http and https or www and non www

If you have a page you want indexed, the simplest rule is: canonical should point to itself unless there is a very intentional reason.

Check 4: XML sitemap is clean and actually useful

Your sitemap should not be a junk drawer.

Check:

• Only indexable URLs are included (no 404s, no redirects, no noindex)
• Updated timestamps are real (or don’t include them)
• Split sitemaps if you have tens of thousands of URLs
• If you have subdomains, they usually need separate sitemaps

If your sitemap is full of “thin” pages you don’t even care about, you are basically begging Google to waste crawl budget.

Check 5: Fix soft 404s and “not found, but 200”

SaaS sites love to do this for programmatic pages:

• Integration pages that don’t exist but return a templated page
• Search pages
• Tag pages
• Empty category pages

If the page is effectively empty, return a proper 404 or 410. If it has value, make it real value. Half pages are where rankings go to die.

2) Site architecture (because internal link equity is not magic)

If your important pages are 4 clicks deep and only linked from the footer, you are not “building topical authority”. You are hiding your revenue pages.

Check 6: Your money pages should not be buried

For most SaaS sites, your core organic growth loop is:

• Blog content ranks
• Blog content links to feature pages, use cases, integrations, pricing
• Those pages rank and convert

So audit click depth:

• Homepage -> Feature page should be 1 click away
• Blog -> Relevant feature/use case should be 1 click away inside the article
• Integration pages should be reachable from a hub (not only search)

If your IA is messy, at least create hub pages:

• /solutions/ for industries
• /use-cases/ for workflows
• /integrations/ for tool ecosystems

If you are building content for SaaS specifically, you will probably like this page: SaaS content automation solution (it’s literally positioned around the “publish consistently without an agency” problem).

Check 7: Fix orphan pages (they do not rank, period)

Orphan pages are pages with no internal links pointing to them. They exist, but Google has to stumble into them via sitemap, or not at all.

This hits:

• Old launch pages
• Product update pages
• Comparison pages
• “Alternative to X” pages
• Help center articles

Fix: link them from hubs and relevant pages. Simple.

3) URL hygiene (SaaS makes this worse than ecommerce, somehow)

Check 8: Pick one URL format and stick to it

The classic ones:

• Trailing slash vs no trailing slash
• Lowercase vs uppercase
• www vs non www
• http vs https

Every inconsistency creates duplicates and splits signals.

Pick one, enforce it with server side redirects, and make sure internal links use the final format.

Check 9: Control parameters, faceted navigation, and UTM chaos

Even if you are not ecommerce, SaaS sites generate parameter URLs all the time:

• ?utm_source=
• ?ref=
• ?signup=
• ?modal=open
• ?language=

You do not want these indexed.

What to do:

• Canonicalize parameter variants to the clean URL
• Make sure internal links always use clean URLs
• In Google Search Console, watch the “Duplicate, Google chose different canonical” report

And don’t noindex everything blindly. Canonical is usually the right first move.

Check 10: Pagination and infinite scroll done wrong

Docs and blogs often have:

• Category pages with pagination
• Resource libraries
• Changelog archives

Make sure:

• Paginated pages are crawlable (if they matter)
• Infinite scroll still has crawlable paginated URLs behind it
• You are not canonicalizing page 2, 3, 4 to page 1 unless you really mean it (usually you don’t)

4) JavaScript SEO (the silent killer in modern SaaS stacks)

This is where a lot of SaaS sites quietly lose. Everything looks fine to humans, but Google gets a half rendered version.

Check 11: Can Google see your primary content without executing complex JS?

SaaS marketing sites built on Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt, Webflow, custom React, etc. can be fine. But you have to verify.

Test:

• View source: do you see the actual text content, or just a JS bundle?
• Use Google’s URL Inspection -> “View crawled page”
• Run a lightweight fetch test (or use a crawler with JS rendering) and compare HTML vs rendered DOM

If your title, headings, body content, internal links are injected late via JS, you are creating risk for no reason.

The safer baseline: server side render important pages. Especially feature pages, solutions, integrations, comparisons.

Check 12: Internal links must be real links

I still see SaaS sites with buttons that look like links but are not <a href>. They are divs with onClick handlers.

Google has improved, but why gamble.

Rule: navigation and contextual links should be plain HTML anchor links.

5) Core Web Vitals and performance (not for score, for crawling and conversions)

Yes, performance affects rankings sometimes. But more importantly, it affects:

• Crawl efficiency
• Engagement
• Conversion rate

Check 13: Fix the big three performance leaks on SaaS sites

Common culprits:

• Massive hero videos loaded immediately
• Image sliders and animation libraries
• Tag managers with 30 scripts
• Chat widgets, heatmaps, affiliate trackers, personalization scripts
• Overbuilt page builders

What to do:

• Lazy load below the fold media
• Serve modern image formats
• Defer non critical JS
• Remove scripts you do not actively use
• Audit on mobile, not just desktop

Also, don’t chase a perfect score. Chase “not broken”.

6) Duplicate content (SaaS generates duplicates like it’s a feature)

Check 14: Boilerplate pages that differ by two words

You know the type:

• City pages
• Industry pages
• Integration pages generated from a template
• “Alternative to X” pages that are 90 percent the same

If you do this, you need to add real differentiation:

• Unique intro
• Unique screenshots or steps
• Use case specifics
• Real comparisons
• FAQs that are actually relevant

Otherwise you will index a bunch of pages that never rank and drag down overall quality signals.

And if you are doing AI content at scale, you really want a workflow that includes internal linking and rewrites, not “one prompt, publish, pray”.

This is one reason I like how SEO software approaches it. It’s not just generation. It’s scanning your site, building a topic plan, writing, then auto linking and publishing. The operational stuff that people skip.

If you want to see how it stacks up against the more “editor only” tools, these comparisons are useful: SEO software vs Surfer SEO and SEO software vs Jasper.

7) Structured data (simple wins, easy to overcomplicate)

You don’t need to turn your site into a schema museum. But a few types are worth it:

Check 15: Organization + Website schema

Basic credibility, helps with brand signals.

Check 16: SoftwareApplication schema on product pages

If you have product pages that describe the tool, pricing model, OS (web), category, etc. this can help clarity.

Check 17: FAQ schema where it actually matches the page

Don’t spam. Make sure the FAQ content is visible on page and helpful.

8) International SEO (if you are multilingual, do not wing it)

SaaS loves global signups. Then someone translates 200 pages and wonders why nothing ranks.

Check 18: hreflang is correct and consistent

Basics:

• Every language version references itself and the alternates
• Use correct language and region codes
• Don’t mix canonicalization that points all languages to English (I see this constantly)
• Make sure the translated pages are indexable and not blocked

If you are creating multilingual content, make sure the linking and publishing workflow supports it cleanly. SEO software supports 150+ languages, which is great, but the technical setup on your site still matters. You need the right URL structure and hreflang strategy, otherwise you are just publishing content into a void.

9) SaaS specific pages that usually have technical problems

This is the part that’s more “SaaS reality” than generic SEO advice.

Check 19: Pricing page indexable, fast, and stable

Pricing pages often break Core Web Vitals because of:

• Heavy calculators
• Pricing toggles rendered via JS
• Experiment scripts
• Chat widgets

Make sure:

• Pricing page is indexable
• Canonical is self referencing
• It loads fast on mobile
• It has crawlable content even if toggles exist

Check 20: Comparison pages and “alternatives” pages

These pages convert like crazy when they rank. But they also get messed up by:

• Duplicate templates
• Thin copy
• No internal links pointing to them
• Cannibalization between “X vs Y” and “Y alternative” pages

Give them:

• Unique positioning
• Real tables, real differences
• Links to relevant feature pages
• Clear CTA

If you are actively improving these pages, an on page auditing workflow helps. You can use something like an on-page SEO checker to catch basics fast and keep shipping improvements.

Check 21: Docs and help center

Docs are usually the biggest organic asset for SaaS… and also the messiest.

Problems:

• Noindex left on from a staging environment
• Thin pages with one sentence
• Auto generated sidebar creates thousands of low value pages
• Duplicate content across versions (v1, v2)
• Broken internal links after refactors

Fix it by:

• Creating “Docs hub” pages for key topics
• Pruning outdated docs or redirecting them
• Ensuring every doc page has a unique title and intro
• Adding internal links from docs to product pages (tastefully, not spammy)

10) Content meets technical: the internal linking system (this is where growth compounds)

You can have perfect crawlability and still not grow if your internal linking is random.

Check 22: Do you have intentional internal linking from content to product pages?

Every high performing blog post should point to:

• A relevant feature page
• A relevant solution/use case page
• Sometimes pricing, integration, or comparison page

And those pages should link back to supporting content when it makes sense.

If you need a quick way to spot missed opportunities, run a page level audit. Even a basic workflow like this helps: how to improve page SEO.

Also, if you are publishing content at scale, you want internal linking automated or at least strongly suggested. This is one of the underrated parts of content automation platforms. Writing is the easy part. Maintaining a coherent link graph is where most teams fall behind.

11) Technical cleanup: redirects, 404s, and migration scars

Check 23: Redirect chains and loops

SaaS sites change URLs constantly:

• Rebranding
• Feature renames
• Consolidating docs
• Switching CMS
• New IA

Audit:

• 3xx chains (A -> B -> C)
• Loops
• Internal links pointing to redirected URLs

Fix: update internal links to final URLs and collapse chains to single hops.

Check 24: 404s that used to have backlinks

This is a classic silent loss. Someone deletes an old blog post that had links, now it’s a 404, and you lose equity.

Find them via:

• GSC Links report
• Backlink tools
• Server logs (if you have them)

Redirect to the closest relevant page. Not the homepage.

12) The technical SEO checklist (quick copy version)

If you just want the list without the commentary, here:

Crawl and indexation

• robots.txt not blocking key sections
• No accidental sitewide noindex
• Key pages are indexable (pricing, features, comparisons, integrations)
• Canonicals are correct and consistent
• Sitemap contains only 200, indexable URLs
• Soft 404s fixed (return real 404/410 or add real content)

Architecture and internal linking

• Money pages within 1 click from nav
• Hubs exist for solutions, use cases, integrations
• No orphan pages
• Contextual links from blog -> product pages

URL and duplication control

• One version of URLs enforced (https, www, slash)
• Parameter URLs canonicalized to clean versions
• Pagination crawlable and not incorrectly canonicalized
• Template pages have unique value, not near duplicates

JS and rendering

• Important pages SSR or at least render cleanly for Google
• Internal links are real <a href> links
• Titles, H1s, body content visible in HTML or reliably rendered

Performance

• Mobile performance acceptable (no giant media above fold)
• Third party scripts audited and reduced
• Images optimized and lazy loaded

SaaS specifics

• Pricing page fast and indexable
• Comparison pages not cannibalizing each other
• Docs indexation clean, versions managed, broken links fixed

One more thing: content production is not your bottleneck, consistency is

This is where I see teams get stuck.

They spend two months cleaning technical issues. Organic improves a bit. Then content production stops because everyone is burned out, or the writer left, or the agency contract ended.

If you want a more consistent engine while you handle the technical cleanup, take a look at SEO software. It’s built for hands off content marketing: scans your site, generates a keyword plan, writes articles, handles internal links, and publishes on a schedule. There’s also an AI SEO editor if you want more control on specific pages without going fully manual.

Technical SEO removes blockers. A steady content engine compounds what you fixed.

Both matter. But fixing blockers first is how you stop wasting everything else you do.

For more insights into common pitfalls in SEO that could be hindering your rankings and quick fixes for them, refer to this comprehensive SEO mistakes checklist.