2021 On-Page SEO Checklist.

We’ve compiled an exhaustive list of on-page SEO factors updated for 2026. Please keep in mind this is only a checklist, and not a full guide to on-page SEO. If you are looking for an on-page SEO guide check ours out, or buy our book on Amazon.

Keep in mind that on-page SEO is really 2-sided: the on-page that is performed on a site-wide level such as the robots.txt file and the responsiveness of your site, and the page-level on-page such as title tags and an h1 tag, for example. We’ve combined both factors here, so be sure to recognize that as you are working.

This on-page SEO checklist is useful when working with a new website audit, or auditing a page or site that you haven’t worked on recently. It is the same checklist we work from on every Boca Raton SEO audit we deliver, just expanded into our manual 24-point process.

Want the printable version? You can make a copy or download a Google Sheets version of our on-page SEO checklist if you’d like!

No-Index Tag Presence

  • Make sure your page isn’t no-indexed
  • Could ruin your day

Title Tags

  • Proper HTML
  • Around 600px / 50-60 characters before truncation
  • Does it make sense
  • Grammar / spelling check
  • Is it helpful to users?
  • Contains the keyword you wish to rank for

Meta Description

  • Proper HTML and no errors
  • Does it make sense?
  • Grammar / spelling check
  • Is it helpful to users?
  • Around 150-160 characters (Google truncates around 920px mobile / 990px desktop)
  • Contains keyword you wish to rank for

Social Sharing Buttons

  • Can increase engagement
  • Might bring in some links

H Tags

  • H1 tag on every page containing target keyword
  • Proper HTML
  • Does it make sense?
  • Grammar / spelling check
  • Provides useful heading

LSI / Synonyms

  • Use synonyms for keyword
  • Use natural language, not robot speak

Rel=Canonical

  • Can combat duplicate content
  • Use only when necessary

Outbound Links

  • Link to helpful websites within your niche
  • Link to authoritative sites within your niche

Internal Links

  • Link to helpful pages within your website
  • Link to most popular pages on your website

Website Speed

  • LCP under 2.5 seconds (Core Web Vitals “good” threshold)
  • INP under 200ms and CLS under 0.1 on every template

XML Sitemap

  • Helps Google Crawl
  • Necessary part of any website

Schema Markup

  • Use JSON-LD
  • Use our friendly JSON-LD generator
  • Use appropriate type of markup e.g. review, car dealership, book
  • Depends on type of page

Images

  • Make sure images are helpful
  • Do you own the images
  • Proper size in pixels
  • Proper size in file size
  • Alt tags should properly describe the images

URL / permalink

  • Does URL make sense
  • Proper spelling and grammar
  • Don’t use words like “a” or “and”
  • Pretty URL’s such as https://www.example.com/my-website not https://www.example.com/p=876

Responsive

  • Does it pass Search Console’s URL Inspection live test on a smartphone render?
  • Does website and page look good on phone, tablet, etc?
  • Use Chrome or Firefox dev tools to emulate devices (iPhone, Android, tablet)

Render Blocking Resources

  • Make sure JS and CSS not loading before DOM
  • Make sure allowed in robots.txt
  • Use Chrome / Firefox dev tools

SSL / HTTPS

  • Is it installed?
  • Is it installed correctly?

AMP

  • Is it installed?
  • Is it installed correctly?
  • Is it optimized?

Anchor Text

  • Beware of over optimization
  • Should be helpful cue
  • Contains keywords if possible

Site Structure

  • Plan site structure
  • Pages in hierarchy? e.g. /phones/cases/iphones vs iphone-cases/iphones

Panda Risk Assessment

  • Low quality content
  • Grammar / spelling
  • Outbound links

Advertisements

  • Placement of ads above fold?
  • Size of ads
  • Ad load time

Robots.txt

  • Block admin pages
  • Allow robots to crawl important pages
  • Don’t block CSS or JavaScript

.htaccess

  • Pretty permalinks
  • Smart redirects if necessary

Modifiers in Title and Description

  • Use words like “top”, “best”, and the current year
  • Score long tail keywords

Keyword Density

  • Use target keyword in first part of article
  • Not too dense

Word Count

  • Studies show longer content can sometimes rank better
  • Be aware of overall word count

Bounce Rate and Dwell Time

  • Keep visitors on site as long as possible
  • Use tricks like “similar posts”

Encourage Engagement

  • Blog comments may help with ranking
  • Signals like “like” “heart” and “upvote” might help

Content Freshness

  • If you update content, consider updating the date
  • Don’t post content just to post it
  • Google likes fresh websites

Privacy Policy

  • A good idea to have one anyway
  • Adds legitimacy to site

Privacy Policy

  • Should link to most popular pages
  • Internal linking opportunity
  • Only link to most important pages

Side and Bottom Navigation

  • Internal linking opportunity
  • Link to most popular pages

Server Optimization

  • Check for 404s and other errors
  • Make sure old websites not indexed / present
  • Check for malware
  • Security check / scanning

Evergreen Content

  • Be sure to update for accuracy
  • Link to internally from website

Hidden CSS or text?

  • Look for display:none
  • White text on white background for e.g.

Blackhat On-Page SEO

  • Resist temptation for easy win
  • Avoid using duplicate content
  • Stuffing keywords in tags
  • Sneaky redirects

Google Search Console installed and verified

Google Analytics installed and working

Last updated April 2026