On-Page SEO Checklist: What to Check on Every Page

What on-page SEO is

On-page SEO covers the parts of a page that you control. This checklist takes one page at a time, from its purpose to its last update.

On-page SEO is the work of making one page clear to readers and to search engines. Check that the page has one purpose and one main phrase, a distinct title and heading, helpful content, descriptive links, images with useful alt text, a readable address, a good display on a phone and accurate details. Repeat for each important page.

An on-page SEO checklist is a list of the things to verify on one page, in an order that makes sense. On-page SEO means the parts of a page that you control: its wording, structure, links, images and details. It sits beside two other jobs. Technical SEO is about whether search engines can crawl and index the site. Off-page SEO is about what other sites say about you and link to.

Start with the pages that matter most to the business, which are usually the ones that describe your main services or products. Site-wide checks belong in the basic SEO audit. This list is for one page at a time, and it works as well for a new page before publishing as for an old page that is not performing.

On-page SEO checklist for one page

Open the page next to the table and answer each row honestly. Fix the rows near the top first, because a page with no clear purpose cannot be rescued by a better alt text.

The last row applies only where markup exists. The guide to schema markup for small business websites explains what to add and how to test it.

Start with the page's purpose and one main phrase

Write the reader's question in one sentence before you touch anything else. A page that cannot be summed up in a sentence usually needs splitting into two pages or trimming down to one subject.

Then choose the main phrase. The guide to keyword research for beginners explains how to find the words customers use and how to give each page its own. Here the job is to check the match.

1. Search for the phrase yourself and look at what comes up: guides, product listings, service pages, maps or videos.
2. Compare that with the type of page you have. If the results are all guides and your page is a sales page, either change the page or pick a phrase that suits it.
3. Note a few close variants and related questions. A well-written page covers these without extra effort.
4. Check that no other page of your site is aiming at the same phrase. Two pages competing for one search usually weaken each other.

Titles, headings and the opening lines

Google builds the title link in a search result from several sources, including the title element of the page and its visible headings, and it may rewrite what it finds. A clear, distinctive title element and a main heading that agree with each other give it good material to work with. Google's Search Essentials suggests putting the words people would search for in prominent places such as the title, the main heading, image alt text and link text.

The full method for titles and descriptions, including length and rewriting, is in the guide to meta titles and descriptions. Three habits are worth building in at page level.

• One main heading per page, and subheadings that follow in order. If someone read only the headings, they should understand the structure of the page.
• No heading used for decoration. Use styling for size and headings for meaning.
• The plain answer, or a clear statement of what the page offers, within the first two sentences. Readers decide quickly whether a page is the one they wanted.

How many times should you use a keyword?

There is no number. Google does not publish a target for how often a phrase should appear, and a page written to hit a count tends to read badly. Google's spam policies describe keyword stuffing as filling a page with keywords, or repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural, and say that pages breaking the policies may rank lower or not appear at all.

A workable rule is to use the main phrase in the title, in the main heading and in the opening paragraph, then write naturally. Use plain variations the way a person would say them. Google's SEO Starter Guide says that varying the words you use and writing naturally gives you more chances to appear, because you are using more keywords.

Read the page aloud. If a sentence sounds as though it was written for a search engine, rewrite it. Avoid blocks of text that only list towns or regions, which is one of the examples Google gives of stuffing. The same applies to alt text and link text: describe, do not repeat.

Content that answers the question

Content is the part of the page a reader came for, and no tag compensates for a weak one. Read your page as someone who has just typed the main phrase and ask these questions.

• Is the answer to their question on the page, and easy to find?
• Is every fact correct and current, including names, hours, processes and limits?
• Does the page say what it does not cover, or when something depends on the business, budget or platform?
• Does it contain something a reader could not get by copying another site, such as your own process, examples or experience?
• Would a reader know the next step when they finish?

Length follows the job. Google has said it has no preferred word count, so a short page that finishes the job beats a long one that wanders. Rewrite text that came from a supplier or an older page rather than leaving it as it is.

Links on the page

Links tell readers and search engines how pages relate. For a page you are checking, look in both directions: where it links out to, and where it is linked from.

Google follows links that are anchor elements with an address. A button that only runs a script, or a menu that exists only in code, may not pass visitors or crawlers along. Anchor text should say what the destination is. Google advises writing it as naturally as possible and not forcing keywords in. "See our guide to keyword research" is better than "click here", and also better than a string of search terms.

Make sure the page is reachable from at least one other page, and add links from the page to related pages where a reader would want them. The guide to internal linking sets out simple rules for choosing links, wording anchors and finding pages that have none pointing to them. Link out to a source or an official page where it helps the reader.

Images and on-page SEO

Images help readers, and they give search engines extra information when they are set up properly. Google's image guidance calls alt text the most important attribute for giving an image more metadata. It also helps people who use screen readers.

• Describe what the image shows, in the context of the page. Leave out words such as "image of".
• Do not fill alt text with keywords. Google says that harms the experience and may make a site look like spam.
• For a purely decorative image, use an empty alt attribute so screen readers skip it.
• Give files short descriptive names. Google says the file name gives light clues about the subject.
• Use standard image elements, and place pictures near the text they illustrate. Google does not index images that are set only through CSS.
• Compress images before upload, because heavy pictures slow the page.

How often to update a page

Update a page when its facts change, and review important pages on a schedule so that nothing goes stale unnoticed. Once or twice a year suits most service pages. A product, price or policy change deserves an immediate edit.

If the page shows a date, keep it truthful. Google says it uses several signals to estimate when a page was published or significantly updated, and that it does not always show a date. Its advice is to keep any visible date accurate and not to make a page look fresh without significant new information. A corrected comma is not an update.

Keep a simple sheet with one row per page: the main phrase, the date you last reviewed it, what you changed and why. Check the page in the Performance report in Search Console a few weeks later to see which searches show it and how many people click. If you are about to change a page that already attracts visits, note the searches it appears for first, so the new version still answers them.

If you would like a team to run these checks across a whole site, the search engine optimisation service page describes Liftup's SEO work.

Mistakes that waste on-page effort

• Editing titles and headings across the site before checking that the pages can be crawled and indexed.
• Aiming several pages at the same phrase.
• Chasing a score from a tool instead of reading the page as a customer would.
• Hiding text or links from visitors in the hope that search engines will read them.
• Changing page addresses during an edit with no redirect from the old ones.
• Changing a page that already attracts visits without recording what it ranked for.
• Treating the checklist as a one-time job. Pages age, offers change and competitors update theirs.

Questions and answers

What is on-page SEO?

On-page SEO is the work of improving the parts of a page that you control: its purpose, wording, headings, links, images and details. It sits alongside technical SEO, which makes the site crawlable, and off-page SEO, which concerns what other sites say about you. Each page needs all three to perform.

What should I check on every page?

Check that the page has one purpose and one main phrase, a distinct title and heading, an opening that answers the question, accurate content, descriptive internal links, useful alt text, a readable address and a clear next step. Test it on a phone as well. The table in this guide lists each item with its common fault.

How many times should I use a keyword?

Google gives no number, and repeating a phrase to hit a count can read as keyword stuffing, which its spam policies cover. Use the main phrase in the title, the main heading and the opening paragraph, then write naturally with plain variations. Read the page aloud to catch forced repetition.

Do images matter for on-page SEO?

Yes, in a small way. Google uses alt text, file names and surrounding text to understand an image, and alt text also serves screen reader users. Describe the image honestly, avoid stuffing keywords and keep file sizes sensible so the page still loads promptly.

How often should I update a page?

Update a page whenever its facts change, and review important pages once or twice a year. If the page shows a date, change it only when the page has really been updated. Google advises against making a page look fresh without significant new information.

Is on-page SEO enough to rank a page?

Not alone. A page also needs to be crawlable and indexed, and it competes with other pages for the same search. On-page work makes a page clear and useful, which is the part you control, but nobody can promise a position.