On-Page SEO Checklist: What to Check Before You Publish

An on-page SEO checklist is the list of things to check on a single page so search engines can understand it and searchers can tell it answers their query. It covers intent, the title and description, headings and copy, links, images, a few technical checks and what to do after publishing. This checklist is part of our technical SEO guide.

How to use this checklist: run it on every new page before it goes live, and on old pages when you update them. Work top to bottom, since intent decides everything after it. Print it, or copy it into your publishing workflow, and give unchecked items an owner.

Match the page to the search

Start here, because a well-optimized page aimed at the wrong need won't perform. Our explainer on search intent shows how to read it from the results page.

• Choose one primary keyword group for the page, and confirm no other page targets it.
• Search the keyword and note which page types rank today.
• Confirm your page type matches what ranks: guide, service page, product page or tool.
• Answer the main question or state the offer in the first paragraph.
• Write down the one action a reader should take next.

Title, meta description and URL

These three are what searchers see before they click. Our guide to title tags and meta descriptions covers each one in detail.

• Write a unique title that leads with the page topic.
• Keep the title short enough that its key words survive truncation.
• Add the brand once, at the end, after a delimiter.
• Write a unique meta description that summarizes the whole page.
• Use readable words in the URL, separated by hyphens.
• Keep the URL short, and don't change it after publishing without a redirect.

Headings and content

Google's starter guide asks for content that's easy to read, well organized, unique and up to date. There's no ideal word count and no magic number of headings.

• Use one H1 that says the same thing as the title tag.
• Break the copy into sections with descriptive H2 and H3 headings.
• Keep headings in order, which helps screen-reader users.
• Use the main phrase naturally, without repeating it for its own sake.
• Add first-hand detail: your process, examples, photos or data you own.
• Show who wrote or reviewed the page where readers would expect a byline.
• Remove outdated facts, dates and offers before publishing.

Internal and external links

Links help search engines find the page and understand what it's about. Our internal linking strategy guide covers the site-wide plan.

• Link to the page from at least one relevant page already on your site.
• Link from the page to related pages a reader would want next.
• Write anchor text that makes sense read on its own.
• Use standard links with an href, not script-only buttons.
• Link to the canonical URL, not a redirected or duplicate address.
• Mark paid links as sponsored and untrusted ones as nofollow.

For why linked groups of pages matter, see topical authority.

Images and media

Images can bring visitors from image search and make a page easier to follow, as long as search engines can understand them.

• Place each image near the text it relates to.
• Write alt text that describes what the image shows and why it's there.
• Give image files short, descriptive filenames.
• Reduce image file sizes, and set width and height to avoid layout shift.
• Add captions or transcripts to video and audio.

Indexing and technical checks

These page-level checks catch the problems that stop a good page from appearing at all.

• Confirm the page has no noindex tag unless you want it hidden.
• Check robots.txt doesn't block the page or its CSS and JavaScript.
• Set a self-referencing canonical tag, or point it to the preferred URL.
• Check the page displays and works well on a phone.
• Confirm the page returns a 200 status, not a redirect or error.
• Add structured data only where it matches content visible on the page.
• Include the page in your XML sitemap if your site uses one.

After you publish

On-page work isn't finished at launch. Rankings take time to settle, and our post on how long SEO takes explains why.

• Inspect the URL in Search Console and request indexing.
• Search for the page a few days later and check its title link and snippet.
• Check the Performance report after a few weeks for the queries it appears for.
• Add links to the new page from older pages on the same topic.
• Set a date to review the page and update it.

If you'd rather have every page checked and fixed for you, our in-house SEO team handles site structure, metadata, structured data and the content itself.