An on-page SEO checklist is the list of things to get right on each individual page so Google can index it, understand what it is about and show it attractively in results: indexability, the title, the meta description, one clear H1, content that answers the search, internal links, image alt text, a correct canonical, structured data and a mobile-friendly layout. This guide gives those 12 checks in order of impact, what counts as a pass for each, and how to audit a page in about a minute. It is the single-page part of technical SEO: crawling, indexing, speed and fixes; for the whole-site view (sitemaps, crawl paths, duplicates across pages) use the SEO audit checklist.
Quick answer
- Indexable first: HTTP 200, not blocked by robots.txt, no
noindexin the meta robots tag or theX-Robots-Tagheader. - Title: one
<title>of 30-60 characters, main topic first, brand last. Description: 70-160 characters, written for the click. - One H1 that names the topic, H2s for sections, no skipped levels.
- Canonical pointing at the page itself (or deliberately at its original).
- Content that answers the search in the first paragraph; 3 or more internal links in and out; alt text on meaningful images.
- Structured data that parses, a viewport tag and a share image.
- Audit one page per template (home, category, product or article): a fix to the template fixes every page built on it.
What on-page SEO covers
On-page SEO is everything you control inside a page's HTML and content: the tags Google reads, the words visitors read, and the links between your pages. Off-page SEO is what happens elsewhere, mostly links from other sites. Technical SEO overlaps with on-page at the page level (indexability, canonical, mobile) and adds site-wide work such as robots.txt, sitemaps and redirects.
Most on-page problems come from templates, not from individual pages. A theme that wraps the logo in an <h1> gives every page two H1s; a product template without a description field leaves 400 products without one. That is why an on-page audit of one page per template finds most of what a whole-site crawl finds, in a fraction of the time.
The on-page SEO checklist
| # | Check | Pass |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indexable | Status 200, allowed by robots.txt, no noindex |
| 2 | Canonical | Self-referencing, or pointing at the page you want ranked |
| 3 | Title | Present, 30-60 characters, unique, main topic first |
| 4 | Meta description | Present, 70-160 characters, says what the page offers |
| 5 | H1 and headings | Exactly one H1; H2, H3 without skipped levels |
| 6 | Content matches the search | The first paragraph answers the query the page targets |
| 7 | Internal links | At least 3 links to related pages, descriptive anchor text, none broken |
| 8 | Images | Alt text on meaningful images, alt="" on decorative ones |
| 9 | URL | Short, readable, lowercase words with hyphens |
| 10 | Mobile | Viewport meta tag present; text readable without zooming |
| 11 | Structured data | JSON-LD that parses, with the type that fits the page |
| 12 | Share preview | og:title, og:description and a 1200×630 px og:image |
1. Confirm the page can be indexed
The indexability check can make everything else irrelevant. It fails when the page returns a non-200 status, when robots.txt blocks Googlebot, or when a noindex is present in the meta robots tag or the X-Robots-Tag header. All three happen by accident: staging rules copied to production, WordPress's "Discourage search engines" left on, a CDN rule adding a header. The report's WordPress Doctor names the setting; see WordPress rookie mistakes.
Intentional noindex pages (thank-you pages, internal search results, filters) fail this check too, and that is fine; the audit does not know your intent.
2. Fix the canonical and the title together
The title is what the result shows; the canonical decides which URL shows it. A missing title is the most expensive single finding, and a canonical pointing at another page moves the ranking to that page. Both are template-level. How to write a title tag and canonical tags explained cover the details.
3. Headings and description
One H1 that says what the page is about, H2s for the sections, no jumps from H2 to H4 (one H1 and a sane heading order). The description is not a ranking factor, but it is often the text under your result, so write it for the click. "Title duplicates H1" is a small warning: check that the title carries something the H1 does not, such as the brand or the location.
4. Content that answers the search
No checker can judge whether your content is the best answer, but three things are visible. The words people search for appear in the title, the H1 and the first paragraph. The first paragraph answers the question instead of warming up to it. And the page has enough text to answer it: the audit warns under 300 words of body text. Listings are often shorter, and that is normal there.
5. Links
Fewer than three internal links makes the page a dead end for crawlers and visitors; more than 300 dilutes each one. Link from the body text with anchor text that says where the link goes (internal links: how many, where, and what anchor text). The broken and redirecting link findings list what to fix on the page, and the broken link checker shows the full table.
6. Images
Meaningful images need alt text that says what is in the picture, in a short sentence. Decorative images need alt="" so screen readers skip them; the audit tells the two apart. Image search is a real traffic source for shops and recipes. Image alt text for SEO and accessibility has examples.
7. Mobile, structured data and the share preview
Google indexes the mobile version of every page, so a missing viewport tag is a fail. Structured data does not raise rankings by itself but makes the page eligible for rich results: Organization on the home page, Product with price and availability on products, Article on posts (schema markup). And a page shared without an og:image shows a blank card in chats and social feeds.
How to audit a page with getReport
The SEO audit fetches the page and reads its title, description, headings, canonical, robots directives, hreflang, lang attribute and viewport tag, then checks the site files it depends on (robots.txt and the XML sitemap), the redirects to reach it, and every link on the page. Each finding has a plain-language fix. Structured data and share previews are in the full report's Schema and Social modules, one click away.
The findings that hurt most when they fail:
Reading the score
Each check has a weight: a failed title costs 10 points, a missing favicon 1, and a warning costs half its weight. The score is 100 minus those points, so a low score has one or two big causes, not many small ones.
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 90-100 | Fundamentals in place; the rest is polish |
| 70-89 | One heavy miss (canonical, alt text on many images) or several smaller ones |
| 50-69 | Two or more fundamentals missing; fix the template |
| under 50 | Usually indexability: the page cannot be in Google as it stands |
The score compares a page with itself over time better than it compares different pages: a listing page and an article have different natural scores.
What to check per template
- Home page: everything above, the brand in the title, Organization structured data, a favicon and a touch icon.
- Category or listing: paginated pages canonical to themselves; not
noindexunless it is a filter. Thin-content warnings are expected. - Product: Product structured data with price and availability, the product name as the H1, alt text on the photos, the canonical on the flat URL (
/products/x, not/category/x). - Article: Article structured data, a description that summarises, the date in the content, links to related articles.
- Ad landing page: often
noindexon purpose, so the indexability fail is expected; everything else still applies.
How to verify
- Re-run the audit on the same page: indexability passed and the fundamentals green.
- Run it on one page per template; the same finding on all of them is a template fix.
- A few weeks later, check Google Search Console → Pages: "Excluded by 'noindex' tag" and "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" should shrink for the pages you fixed.
Common mistakes
- Fixing the page, not the template. Editing one title by hand while 400 product pages share the same bug.
- Stuffing the title. One topic, 60 characters, brand at the end. Google rewrites long or repetitive titles.
- Treating warnings on
noindexpages as bugs. Internal search and filters should stay out of the index. - Chasing thin-content warnings on listings. A category page with 20 products and 40 words is normal.
- Ignoring technical findings because the content is good. A perfect article behind a
noindexheader ranks for nothing.
Questions people ask
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO is the work you do on the page itself so search engines understand it and people click it: the title, meta description, headings, content, internal links, image alt text, canonical tag and structured data. It is fully in your control, unlike off-page signals such as links from other sites, and most of it is set once in a template and inherited by every page built on it.
What should an on-page SEO checklist include?
At minimum: the page is indexable, the canonical is correct, the title and meta description are present and the right length, there is one H1, the content answers the search early, the page has internal links with descriptive anchors, images have alt text, a viewport tag is present, and structured data parses. Check them in that order, because a page Google cannot index makes the rest irrelevant.
Can I audit one page instead of the whole site?
Yes, and for most sites it finds the same problems faster. Titles, canonicals, noindex tags, structured data and speed come from templates, so one page per template shows what every page built on it gets. Audit the home page, one category or listing page and one product or article page. Whole-site problems such as orphan pages or duplicate titles need a crawl; the SEO audit checklist covers that half.
Which page should I audit first?
Start with the page that earns the most: your top landing page in Search Console's Performance report, or the product or service page that brings enquiries. A problem there costs the most visits. Then audit one page of every other template, because a fix on a template repairs every page built on it at once.
How do I improve my website's SEO?
Make sure your important pages can be indexed, then make each one the best answer to one search. In practice: a unique title and description per page with the words people search for, one clear H1, fast mobile pages, internal links from related pages, descriptive alt text and structured data where it applies. Then write or improve the content people are looking for. Technical fixes remove barriers; content earns the rankings.
How do I check my website's SEO ranking?
Use Google Search Console: Performance → Search results shows the queries your pages appear for, their average position, impressions and clicks, for free and from Google's own data. Searching yourself in a browser is unreliable, because results are personalised by location and history. An SEO audit tool such as getReport checks whether pages are set up to rank; it does not track positions.