Website SEO Checklist: What to Check

This website SEO checklist covers the on-page elements you should check on each important page of your site — titles, descriptions, headings, links, images and mobile basics — so nothing obvious slips through before a page goes live or during a regular review.

Unlike a full auditor's process (covered in our SEO audit checklist), this list is aimed at site owners checking their own pages one by one.

Page titles

• Every page has a unique title, not a duplicate of another page
• The title describes what the page is actually about
• The title is reasonably concise so it is not cut off in search results
• You can check and generate titles with our meta title tool

Meta descriptions

• Every important page has a written meta description rather than leaving it blank
• Descriptions are unique across pages
• Descriptions give a genuine reason to click, without misleading claims
• Our meta description tool can help check length and clarity

Headings

• Each page has one clear H1 that matches its main topic
• Subheadings (H2, H3) break content into logical sections
• Headings are not used purely for styling large text where a paragraph would do

URLs

• URLs are readable and reflect the page content
• URLs avoid unnecessary parameters or duplication
• Old URLs that have changed are redirected rather than left broken

Internal links

• Important pages are linked to from elsewhere on the site, not just accessible via search
• Anchor text is descriptive rather than generic phrases like "click here"
• No important pages are orphaned with zero internal links pointing to them

Images

• Images have descriptive alt text, both for accessibility and for search engines that cannot see the image
• File sizes are reasonable so they do not slow down the page
• Decorative images do not need lengthy alt text, but functional or informative ones do

Mobile experience

• Pages include a proper mobile viewport configuration
• Text is legible and buttons are tappable without zooming in
• Layout does not break or overlap on smaller screens

Structured data and social sharing

• Structured data is present where it is relevant, such as for articles, products or local business details
• Open Graph tags are set so pages display properly when shared on social platforms

Technical basics

• The page loads over HTTPS
• Redirects (if any) point directly to the final destination rather than chaining
• Your robots.txt file and XML sitemap do not conflict with what you intend to have indexed

Speed

• Pages load reasonably quickly on both desktop and mobile
• You can check individual pages with a page speed tool, which uses data from Google PageSpeed Insights where available

Running this checklist automatically

Working through this list manually on every page is time-consuming, especially on larger sites. SiteScore's free website audit crawls a sample of up to 6 pages from your homepage and sitemap and checks titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonicals, robots meta and X-Robots-Tag, robots.txt, your XML sitemap, internal links, broken links in the sample, HTTPS and redirects, structured data presence, Open Graph tags, image alt text, mobile viewport and basic accessibility signals automatically, giving you a fast starting point before you review pages individually. ## How often to run through this checklist

New pages should be checked against this list before they go live, since it is far easier to fix an issue at that point than after the page has been indexed and possibly linked to elsewhere. For existing pages, revisiting the checklist every few months, or whenever you notice a change in performance, helps catch drift as content gets updated over time.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Copying the same meta description across multiple pages
• Using vague titles like "Home" or "Services" that do not describe the page
• Forgetting alt text on images added after the initial page build
• Leaving broken internal links after restructuring navigation
• Assuming mobile display is fine because desktop looks correct

Keeping the checklist realistic

Not every item will apply equally to every page on your site. A blog post and a checkout page have different priorities, for example structured data and Open Graph tags matter more for shareable content, while speed and clarity of information matter more on transactional pages. Use this checklist as a guide, adapting emphasis based on what each page is actually for. ## Building this into your workflow

Rather than treating this checklist as a one-off exercise, build it into how new pages get published. A short pre-launch review against these items catches most obvious issues before a page ever goes live, saving the larger cleanup job that comes from letting problems accumulate across dozens of pages over time.

A quick pre-publish pass against this list, covering titles, descriptions, headings, links, images and mobile basics, typically takes only a few minutes per page but prevents avoidable issues from reaching visitors and search engines alike.

Next step

Check your key pages against this list automatically with SiteScore's free website audit.