This checklist covers every on-page SEO factor you should review before publishing or updating a webpage. Work through each item to ensure your page is fully optimised for search engines. You can verify most of these automatically by running a free audit with RankNibbler.
This 68-point checklist covers every on-page SEO factor that affects how search engines index and rank your pages. Here is the most effective way to work through it:
Priority Order
Title tags and meta descriptions first (items 1-10) — these carry the most weight and are the quickest to fix
Heading structure (items 11-14) — the H1 check alone is worth 12 points
Content quality (items 15-18, 38-45) — ensure your content matches search intent and is comprehensive
Images (items 19-21, 46-49) — alt text, lazy loading, dimensions, and compression
Final checks (items 65-68) — preview, audit, and submit
Which Pages to Check First
Start with your homepage, then your top landing pages, then product/service pages, then blog posts. For a comprehensive site-wide check, use the Site Audit tool which crawls your sitemap and audits up to 200 pages automatically.
How Often to Review
Every new page: Run through the checklist before publishing
Monthly: Re-audit your top 10 most important pages
Quarterly: Full site audit across all pages
After any major change: Redesigns, migrations, CMS updates, URL structure changes
Automated Checking
You do not need to check all 68 items manually. RankNibbler automatically checks most of these items when you enter a URL. The audit results tell you exactly which items pass, which fail, and what to fix. Use the Bulk Checker to check up to 20 pages at once, or the Site Audit for your entire website.
Checklist Score Impact
Here is how the checklist items map to the RankNibbler scoring system (100 points total):
Category
Items
Max Points
Title Tag (presence + length)
1-5
15
Meta Description (presence + length)
6-10
12
H1 Tag
11
12
H2 Subheadings
12
6
Image Alt Text
19-21
10
Open Graph Tags
34-35
10
Canonical URL
26
8
Structured Data
33
8
HTML Lang Attribute
30
5
Viewport Meta Tag
29
5
Robots Directives
31
5
Word Count
15
3
Text-to-HTML Ratio
16
2
Favicon
32
2
HTTPS
27
2
Frequently Asked Questions
How many items do I need to pass for good SEO?
You do not need a perfect score on all 68 items. Focus on the highest-impact elements first — title tags, meta descriptions, H1 tags, and image alt text. A score of 80+ on the RankNibbler audit indicates strong on-page SEO fundamentals.
Does this checklist apply to every page type?
Yes, with minor variations. Product pages need Product schema. Blog posts need Article schema. Local business pages need LocalBusiness schema. The core elements (title, description, H1, alt text, canonical, HTTPS) apply universally. For page-specific checklists, see SEO Checklist for Blog Posts and SEO Checklist for New Websites.
Can I automate this checklist?
Mostly, yes. RankNibbler checks the majority of these items automatically. The Site Audit runs checks across your entire sitemap. Items requiring editorial judgement (content quality, search intent matching, keyword naturalness) still require human review.
How does this checklist compare to what Screaming Frog checks?
This checklist covers similar ground to Screaming Frog's crawl checks but also includes content quality factors (readability, keyword density, word count) that Screaming Frog does not evaluate. See our RankNibbler vs Screaming Frog comparison for details.
What is the most commonly missed item?
Based on thousands of RankNibbler audits, the most commonly missed items are: missing structured data (most sites have none), missing image alt text (typically 30-50% of images lack it), and missing or duplicate meta descriptions.
Should I run this checklist before or after publishing?
Both. Run it before publishing to catch issues before they go live. Then run a RankNibbler audit on the published URL to verify everything renders correctly in the live environment — some issues only appear on the live site (e.g., scripts that block rendering, CDN-related issues).
Start Your Audit Now
Work through this checklist on your most important page, or let RankNibbler do the heavy lifting. Enter any URL and get a score out of 100 with specific recommendations for every item that needs attention. Use the Site Audit to check every page on your website at once. All free, no signup required.
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