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.

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