Nine SEO checks to run before you publish a page

SEO checklists often focus on visible issues, but the real problems are hidden ones. Missing canonical tags, duplicated heading tags, and truncated meta descriptions may seem insignificant, but they can severely impact a page's performance. This checklist aims to uncover those invisible failures. The sequence is strategic: structural checks come first, as they typically necessitate text alterations and subsequent re-evaluation of content checks.

1. Confirm the page contains precisely one h1 tag. Its absence or duplication can obscure the page's primary subject. Instead of counting issues, read the heading hierarchy. If the h2 list resembles a table of contents, the structure is sound.

2. Verify heading levels descend logically. An h2 immediately followed by an h4 suggests a missing level. While sometimes the outline is accurate, with the h4 chosen for its smaller font size, it's more common to choose levels for meaning and style them in CSS. HTML doesn't mandate larger h2 tags compared to h3.

3. Check if the title tag is specific to the page. Duplicate titles across multiple tabs signify competing queries for the same page, none of which win clearly. A title should describe the page's content, not its category.

4. Ensure the meta description survives truncation. The 155-character limit is an average, not a strict rule. The actual constraint is the rendered pixel width, which is narrower on mobile devices. Position the crucial sentence within the first 120 characters, treating the rest as elaboration. Preview it instead of counting characters.

5. Confirm the canonical tag points to the page itself. The canonical should match the URL the page is served at, including trailing slashes. Failure to do so can mislead search engines, telling them the real page is a redirecting URL. Index pages are particularly prone to this error.

6. Verify the page's presence in the sitemap with the correct URL format. Pay attention to trailing slashes. If the sitemap is auto-generated, ensure it uses the same value as the canonical. Mismatched string constructions will eventually diverge, unnoticed by any alerts.

7. Assess the internal links' relevance and utility. Each new page should link to at least two existing pages, and at least one existing page should link back. Pages lacking internal links are difficult to find. Use descriptive anchor text to provide context.

8. Confirm images have defined dimensions and alt text. Explicit width and height prevent layout shifts as images load, the most common cause of poor layout performance. If an image is purely decorative, alt= is appropriate, preferable to a description that isn't needed.

9. Ensure structured data accurately represents the page. If marking up an Article, the headline should match the visible title, and dates should be accurate. For an FAQPage, the questions must be visible on the page. Inaccurate markup describing nonexistent content constitutes a violation, not an optimization.

Keyword density, word count, and meta keywords are not part of this list. There is no specific target for keyword density, and writing to achieve a number often results in poorer text quality. Similarly, word count reflects the depth of content coverage rather than a predetermined goal. Lastly, meta keywords have been ignored for over a decade, making their inclusion obsolete.