On-page SEO checklist: 15 things to check on every page

Last updated 13 October 2026 · By the XKey team

Can Google find and read the page?

1. It loads with status 200 – not an error or a chain of redirects.
2. It isn't blocked – no noindex tag, and robots.txt allows it. Test rules with the robots.txt tester.
3. It's in your XML sitemap and on the secure https:// address.

Does the page say clearly what it's about?

4. A unique title with the main search phrase near the start, short enough not to be cut off. Measure it with the title tag checker.
5. A meta description that sells the click: what's here, for whom, and a reason to choose you.
6. One H1 heading that matches the title's promise.
7. A short, readable address such as /boiler-repair, not /page?id=123.
8. The opening paragraph answers the search straight away – what you do, where, and for whom.

Is the content the best answer?

9. Subheadings that match the questions people ask, so readers and AI assistants can jump to answers.
10. Enough depth to be useful – prices, process, timescales, examples. Check length and keyword use with the word counter; there's no magic word count.
11. Signs of real experience – photos of your work, named people, reviews, qualifications.

Is the page well connected?

12. Internal links in and out with descriptive wording, not "click here". The anchor text checker grades every link on a page.
13. Images with alt text describing what they show, and file sizes kept small.

Is it built well?

14. Structured data for your business, products, articles or FAQs, so Google can show rich results. Make it with the schema generator.
15. Fast and mobile-friendly – Google uses the mobile version of your page and measures real loading speed. See our guide to Core Web Vitals.

How does the checklist change by type of page?

• Home page: say what you do and where in the title and H1 ("Electrician in Lytham St Annes"), not just your business name. Link to every main service, and show reviews and contact details near the top.
• Service pages: one page per service, with prices or "from" prices, the area you cover, how the job works, photos of real work and a clear way to get a quote. These are the pages that bring enquiries, so they deserve the most effort.
• Product pages: your own description (not the manufacturer's), price, stock, delivery and returns, several photos, and Product structured data so Google can show price and reviews. See product page SEO.
• Blog posts and guides: answer one question fully, put the answer near the top, and link to the service it relates to. See how to write SEO content.
• Contact and About pages: rarely rank on their own, but Google and AI assistants use them to judge who's behind the site. Include your full address, phone, company number if you have one and the people involved.

An example: a service page that ticks every box

Here's the outline of a well-built page for a gas engineer:

• Address: /boiler-servicing
• Title: Boiler Servicing in Preston from £75 | Gas Safe Engineers
• Description: Annual boiler servicing in Preston and Chorley from £75. Gas Safe registered, all makes, same-week appointments. Book online or call.
• H1: Boiler servicing in Preston
• Opening paragraph: what's included, the price, the area and how to book – in three sentences.
• H2s: What happens during a boiler service? · How much does a boiler service cost? · How often should a boiler be serviced? · Which boilers do you service? · Areas we cover
• Proof: Gas Safe number, photos of the team, three recent Google reviews.
• Links: to boiler repair, new boilers and the booking page, using those words.
• Structured data: LocalBusiness with the service area and opening hours.

Nothing on that list is technical, and every part answers something a customer wants to know. That's what on-page SEO is.

What's the quickest way to check all of this?

Run the free SEO check on the page. It tests most of this list – plus AI search readiness and security – and sorts the fixes by impact. To check every page on the site at once, run the website audit.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?

On-page SEO is what's on your own pages: content, titles, headings, links and code. Off-page SEO is what happens elsewhere, mainly links and mentions from other websites and your reviews.

How often should I review on-page SEO?

Whenever you create or change a page, and a quick check of your key pages every few months. Weekly monitoring catches anything that breaks in between.

Does keyword density matter?

Not as a number. Use your main phrase where it reads naturally – title, H1, opening paragraph – and cover the topic fully. Repeating it more doesn't help.