Contents
- How to use this checklist
- Basics every page needs
- Titles and descriptions
- Internal links
- Content updates
- Structured data
- Images
- What to leave off the checklist
- Running the checklist on an existing site
- Where to go next
- Frequently asked questions
How to use this checklist
On-page SEO covers everything you change on the page itself: titles, headings, internal links, structured data, images and the content. It is the part of SEO most fully under your control, and also the part most crowded with rules that sound sensible and do little.
This on-page SEO checklist is built from the fifteen plays in the On-Page category of the repoSEO catalog. Each item says what to check, why it matters and how much it is likely to move. Items are grouped by area, and each group starts with the checks that make the biggest difference.
Two warnings before starting. First, on-page work helps pages that are already relevant and reasonably authoritative. It will not make a weak page outrank much stronger ones on its own. Second, on-page changes are easy to make and hard to measure. Change one thing at a time on important pages, and note the date, so you can tell what helped.
Basics every page needs
These checks are hygiene. They rarely move a page past competitors, because almost every competing page already does them, but missing them puts you behind.
The main topic is clear in the title, the H1, the opening and the URL. Clear topical signals help Google understand what the page is about. This does not mean repeating the exact keyword everywhere. It means a reader and a search engine should both know within seconds what the page covers. Rated Marginal in Put the keyword in the H1, the opening and the URL: necessary, but not a lever.
The page answers the query early. Searchers decide quickly whether a page is useful. Put the core answer or the main point near the top, then expand.
The page matches the format of what ranks. If the results for your query are lists, a long essay will struggle. If they are tools, an article will struggle. Check the results page before writing.
Titles and descriptions
Titles on pages with plenty of impressions and few clicks are tested. Search Console shows pages with high impressions and a low click-through rate for their position. These are the best candidates for title work. Rewrite the title to describe the page more clearly and specifically, then compare clicks before and after over several weeks.
Run title changes as tests, not as rules. Controlled SEO split tests on titles produce results in both directions: the same change that lifts clicks on one site lowers them on another. That is why formulas such as “always add numbers” or “always add brackets” do not hold up. Rated Moves the needle as a test and Filler as a fixed formula in Rewrite titles for click-through rate.
Years in titles only on time-sensitive pages that are really updated. A year helps when people search for current information, such as prices, rankings or rules. It adds nothing when they do not, and an out-of-date year hurts. Rated Filler as it is usually sold, as a blanket rule, in Put the year at the end of the title.
Brand placement tested, not assumed. Moving the brand name to the start of titles is often recommended for recognizable brands. In a SplitSignal test published by Semrush, a software marketplace did exactly that and saw an estimated 6.7 percent drop in clicks. Rated Marginal in Put the brand first in the title: worth it only for strong brands, and only after testing.
Meta descriptions written for key pages. Google often replaces meta descriptions with text from the page that better matches the query, so many carefully written descriptions are never shown. Write good ones for your most important pages and do not spend time elsewhere. Rated Marginal in Write meta descriptions with a call to action.
Internal links
Internal links are the most underused lever in on-page SEO. They pass ranking signals between pages, help Google find and prioritize pages, and help readers move through the site.
Important pages receive links from your strongest pages. Find the pages on your site with the most external links and traffic, and add contextual links from them to the pages you most want to rank. SearchPilot has published several controlled tests where adding internal links lifted organic traffic to the pages receiving them. Rated Moves the needle in Link to important pages from your strongest pages, as one of the fastest levers fully under your control.
No page is an orphan. An orphan page has no internal links pointing to it. Google discovers most pages through links and treats sitemap entries as hints, so orphans are crawled less and receive no internal authority. They are especially common after redesigns and migrations. Crawl the site, compare the list of pages found by links with the list in your sitemap, and link the missing ones from relevant pages. Rated Moves the needle in Audit and fix orphan pages.
Sibling pages link to each other. On sites with many comparable pages, such as locations, products or categories, linking each page to its nearest siblings spreads authority and helps discovery. In a SearchPilot test on a site with around 8,000 regional pages, adding links from each page to its six nearest regions produced a 7 percent uplift in organic traffic on the pages receiving the links. Rated Moves the needle on sites with many similar pages in Link sibling pages to each other.
Content updates
Pages losing ground get a real update. Pages that slip with age are usually competing against newer, more complete results. A substantial update, covering what has changed, adding missing subtopics, removing what is out of date and improving examples, regularly restores positions. Cosmetic edits do not. Rated Moves the needle when the update is real, in Refresh old content.
Dates change only when content changes. Changing the published or updated date without changing the content gives search engines no reason to treat the page as fresher, since they compare versions over time. It also misleads readers, which costs trust when they notice. Rated Filler in Change the date without changing the content.
Thin and duplicate pages are merged or removed, carefully. On sites with many weak or overlapping pages, consolidating them concentrates links and signals on one URL and lowers exposure to Google’s scaled content enforcement. Done blindly, it destroys pages that were quietly earning traffic. Check each page’s traffic, links and queries before acting, and redirect each removed URL to its closest equivalent. Rated Moves the needle on bloated sites in Remove or merge thin pages.
Length follows the query, not a target. Google has said word count is not a ranking factor. Long pages rank when the query needs depth. Padding a page to reach a number makes it worse for readers. Rated Filler in Write longer content to rank.
Structured data
Schema is used where it still produces rich results. Google continues to support rich results for products, reviews, events, videos and breadcrumbs, among others. These change how results look and can affect clicks. In ecommerce, reviews and events, structured data is worth implementing carefully. For ordinary blog content the effect is small. Rated Moves the needle where rich results apply and Marginal for blogs, in Use schema that still produces rich results.
FAQ schema is not counted on for visibility. Google restricted FAQ rich results in 2023 and stopped showing them in Search for all types of site on May 7, 2026. HowTo rich results were removed in 2023. The markup no longer produces a rich result, so adding it for visibility in Google is filler. Rated Filler in Add FAQ schema to win more space in results.
Images
Images have descriptive alt text and file names. Alt text helps Google understand images and is an accessibility requirement, so every meaningful image should have it. Describe what the image shows rather than stuffing keywords. File names should do the same. Image search brings meaningful traffic only in visual niches such as recipes, design, products and travel, so this is hygiene elsewhere. Rated Marginal in Optimize alt text and file names for image search.
Images are compressed and sized correctly. Large images slow pages down. Serve them at the size they are displayed, in a modern format, and lazy-load those below the fold.
What to leave off the checklist
Several items appear on almost every on-page SEO checklist and do not belong there.
Keyword density targets. There is no ideal percentage. Write naturally and cover the topic properly.
Minimum word counts. As above, length follows the query.
Fake freshness. New dates on unchanged pages.
FAQ schema for visibility. It no longer produces a rich result in Google.
Blanket title formulas. Numbers, brackets, years and brand placement all depend on the query and the site.
Removing these frees time for the items that matter: internal links, real content updates and title tests on pages with impressions to spare.
Running the checklist on an existing site
On a site with hundreds of pages, working through every item on every page is neither possible nor useful. Choose the pages first, then the checks.
Start with pages that are close to performing. In Search Console, find pages with many impressions and an average position between roughly 5 and 20. Google already considers them relevant; on-page work has the best chance of moving them. Pages with no impressions at all usually have a deeper problem, such as weak demand, poor fit with the query or an indexing issue, that on-page changes will not solve.
Then look at pages that used to perform. Compare the last three months with the same period a year earlier and sort pages by lost clicks. Pages that have slipped are the natural candidates for a real content update.
Then fix the structure once, for all pages. Internal linking, orphan pages and sibling links are usually fixed at the level of templates, menus and hubs rather than page by page. One change to a template can improve hundreds of pages at once.
For each page you work on, write down the date and what changed, and leave it alone for at least four to six weeks before judging the result. Pages often move around for a while after a change before settling. Compare against similar pages you did not touch, so that a Google update or a seasonal shift is not mistaken for the effect of your work.
A realistic rhythm for a small team is a handful of pages a week: one or two title tests, one or two real content updates, and an internal linking pass on whichever section needs it. Done steadily, that adds up faster than an occasional large audit.
Where to go next
The repoSEO blog covers several of these checks in depth, including internal linking, content refresh without faking dates, and title tags that earn clicks.
Before optimizing a page, make sure it can be crawled and indexed: the technical SEO checklist in the Crawling category covers that. To choose which pages to work on first, see the keyword research process in the Demand category.
Frequently asked questions
Do meta descriptions affect rankings? No. Google says they are not a ranking factor, but a clear description can improve the click-through rate, and Google often uses it as the snippet when it matches the query.
How long should a page be? As long as the topic needs. Look at the pages that rank: if they all cover a subject in depth, a short page will struggle; if the query wants a quick answer, a long page can hurt.
Should every page have structured data? Only where it describes something real on the page. Structured data helps search engines understand content and can enable rich results, but markup that does not match visible content can lead to a manual action.
How many internal links should a page have? Enough to connect it to the pages a reader would want next. Linking to every page from every page dilutes the signal; a few relevant, descriptive links work better.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Influencing your title links in search results
- Google Search Central, Structured data markup that Google Search supports