The On-Page SEO Checklist Worth Running Before You Publish
Most on-page SEO advice is a list of two hundred items nobody finishes. These are the checks that actually change whether a page can rank, ordered by how often they are the thing that is wrong.
Features
One H1, and it says what the page is
A page with two H1s is not penalised, but it is usually a sign the layout is fighting the content. One heading, matching the search intent, beats three that hedge.
A title that survives truncation
Search results cut titles around 60 characters. Put the thing people searched for first, and the brand name last, so the half that survives is the useful half.
Internal links that point somewhere real
A link to a page that 404s in one language is worse than no link. Check every internal target in the language the page is written in.
How it works
- 1
Read the title and description as a search result
Paste both into a plain text editor and count characters. If the title runs past 60 or the description past 160, cut from the end.
- 2
Outline the headings
List every heading in order. One H1, then H2s, then H3s under them. A jump from H2 to H4 means a heading was chosen for its size, not its level.
- 3
Follow every internal link
Open each one. A link that only exists in English on a Chinese page is a 404 for the reader who needed it most.
- 4
Validate the structured data
One ld+json block per page, parseable, and describing things that are actually on the page. Marking up reviews that do not exist is the fastest way to a manual action.
Frequently asked questions
Check your word count while you are at it
Title and description limits are character counts. The counter runs in your browser.