2017 On-Page SEO Checklist

We’ve compiled an exhaustive list of on-page SEO factors updated for 2017. 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.

No-Index Tag Presence

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

Title Tags

• proper HTML
• no more than 512 pixels or about 70 characters
• 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?
• 512 pixels (x2) or about 140 characters
• contains keyword you wish to rank for

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

Social Sharing Buttons

• can increase engagement
• might bring in some links

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

• website should load in under 2 seconds
• sub-pages should load in under 2 seconds

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 http://www.example.com/my-website not http://www.example.com/p=876

Responsive

• does page pass the mobile friendly test?
• does website and page look good on phone, tablet, etc?
• use Chrome dev tools to emulate devices like iPhone

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
• dont block CSS or JavaScript

.htaccess

• pretty permalinks
• smart redirects if necessary

Modifiers in Title and Description

• use words like “top” “best” and “2017”
• 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

Main Navigation

• 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 Analytics installed and working

Google Search Console installed and verified