Checklist for On-Page SEO Audits

Most likely, you want your blog post or resource page to be seen and read by as many people as possible if you’ve put in the time and effort to research and write it.
SEO (search engine optimization) is useful in this situation. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making sure your material is written and organized in such a manner that Google can more easily correlate it with your intended keywords. We refer to Google because of its market share domination.
As a result, what happened? Your content will be one of the first links visitors find when searching for individuals who do what you do. SEO may have a major impact on your site’s exposure to your target audience, which can be incredibly lucrative depending on your marketing goals.
On-page SEO and off-page link development are now the two most important parts of SEO. To put it another way, it’s the process of getting other websites to link back to your site. Websites that are optimized for search engines are known as “on-page” SEOs.
This might be a frightening task if you’re new to SEO. However, don’t worry! Follow a simple on-page SEO audit checklist to make sure your blog post or webpage is in good shape.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization Audit Checklist

1. Is the title of your page properly formatted
2. Is the headline of your page clear and intriguing?
3. Your page’s title is only one word long
4. Is your URL’s slug replete with your goal keywords?
5. Is the URL formatted with normal characters
6. Is your URL fewer than 76 characters long?
7. Do you have as few subdirectories as feasible in your URL
8. Is your keyword included in the meta description of your webpage?
9. Ensure that your meta description is clear and concise.
10. Does your meta description fit within the character limit of 156 characters or less
11. Does your H1 tag include your keyword?
12. In the H1 tag, have you used your term no more than twice?
13. Is there only one H1 tag on your page?
14. Have you used the H2 tag to create 3–5 subheadings?
15. At least four times in the body of your paper, have you used your keywords?
16. Is your article at least 500 words long?
17. The page should feature at least one image.
18. Your photos’ alt tags should include your keyword(s).
19. Ensure that the names of your images are consistent with your keyword.
20. Do you have at least 100 internal links on your site?
21. Has the maximum number of external links been met?
22. Is there a rel canonical tag in place to indicate where your material came from?

Title of the Page

This short summary of a webpage can be found at the top of the browser window and on search engine result pages as “page title” or “title tag.”

Is the title of your page properly formatted?

The title should begin with the phrases “Exact Keywords | Your Brand Name,” or something similar.

Is the title of your page easy to understand and appealing?

What good is it to be number one if no one clicks on the result? Use a title generator for ideas if you’re having trouble coming up with catchy headings for your pages.

Is your page’s title the sole title you have?

Because of faulty coding, a page may appear in search results with several page titles. View the page’s source code to find out how many page title elements there are in total.

This is how to see whether you have more than one title for each page:

1. Using a mouse or two-finger click on a Mac, and right-click the page.
2. Select ‘view source’ to see the complete code.
3. Make your way to the top of the page A single title tag should be all that is found.

URL

Complete addresses (or “web addresses”) consist of the domain name of a website, any folders (if relevant), and any slugs. A web page is a distinct location on the internet that a browser may access through the URL. Every web page is given its own unique set of instructions.

Is your URL’s slug replete with your goal keywords?

For example, https://www.example.com/keyword (where the keyword is the slug), or even better, https://keywordvariation.com/keyword. Putting your target keywords in the URL’s slug can help you rank higher in search results.
Your page title may be used as the URL’s slug in a content management system like WordPress, but this may easily be changed. Simply put anything you want into the slug area by clicking on it.

Do you use normal URL characters?

Letters, numerals, and dashes (-) are the standard characters.

Is your URL fewer than 76 characters long?

Using a URL that is more than 76 characters long may prevent your keyword from being indexed by search engines.

Has the number of subfolders in your URL been minimized?

Instead of abc.com/blog/year/month/keyword, try abc.com/keyword., for instance, If you can’t figure it out on your own, you’ll likely need the help of a developer.

Meta Description

The meta description is the text that follows your page’s title on the search engine results page (SERP).

Does your meta description include your keyword?

Google is more likely to utilize and emphasize the meta description if the search query matches a portion of the meta description. Your meta description’s keyword will entice more people to click on the link to your site.

How well-written and insightful is your meta description?

The meta description should accurately reflect the page’s content.
The maximum character count for your meta description is 156 characters.
It’s important to give yourself enough room to express yourself, but you should also keep it brief and to the point.

H1 Tag

Images may make your post more interesting to read, and they can also assist your readers in better retaining the information they’ve just read. Your SEO will benefit from their assistance as well.

Is your keyword included in your H1 tag?

You should add your keywords at the beginning of the tag content, just as in the title tag.

Have you used your term no more than twice in the H1 tag?

Use the keyword no more than twice in the h1 tag, if at all possible.

Is there only one H1 tag on your page?

Having more than one H1 tag might confuse search engines and harm your content’s performance, much to have more than one title tag.

H2 and H3 Tags

H2 and H3 tags are used to generate headers and subheadings inside a page’s content. They can help readers and search engines grasp the content of your article or page. They can also specify which portions of your material are crucial and demonstrate how they are linked.

Using the H2 and H3 tags, have you added at least three to five relevant subheadings?

Use H2 and H3 headings to introduce new sections of your piece as you write it. H2 tags are like chapters in a book, but H3 tags allow you to create sub-sections inside those chapters.

Body

The primary text of your blog post or website is known as the body content, and it’s an important part of SEO. If your content isn’t interesting or informative, even if you do all of the other on-page SEO tasks on this list, it won’t rank as well as you’d like.

Have you used your keywords at least four times in the body of your document?

Your keyword should be used as organically as possible throughout your text. Contextual search is becoming more important, so don’t use your exact keyword in all four places. However, it should occur at least once in each of the other three places.
Remember: more isn’t always better. Search engine optimization may be harmed by “keyword stuffing,” or the practice of over-saturating a page with keywords in an attempt to improve its ranking. It might also detract from the quality of your writing.
Make sure you’re writing for people first if you’re unsure. Then, if necessary, adjust the material for search engine optimization.

Is it more than 500 words long?

Anything less isn’t worth much to search engines, thus you won’t be able to rank well. It’s difficult to produce in-depth articles for your target audience when you’re limited to 500 words. Don’t attempt to cram too many words into your articles in order to meet a certain word count. Remember to focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to content.

Images

To make your web articles more attractive, you should always include photographs. It’s also crucial to optimize your photographs for search engines because visual search is becoming more and more significant.

Is there at least one image on your page?

Ideally, the image you choose for your website will relate to the content you’ve written about it. It’s always preferable to utilize your own photos rather than stock photos. The final piece of advice I can give you is to attempt to retain a specific image at the top of the page if it makes sense in the context of the content.

Are your photographs’ alt tags including your keywords?

Add alt text to a picture so that if the image doesn’t appear to the visitor for any reason, there will be informative text in its stead. You should put your keyword in your alt tag to describe the image.

Do the names of your images match your keyword?

Change the name of your image to “keyword.jpg” if the name you now have it saved as is “screenshot-2019-10-25.jpg.”

Linking

Use of internal and external links to other relevant pages on your website and the internet, in general, helps consumers find more relevant material. When you link to other resources, you not only help your readers learn more about a subject, but you also establish your own authority in the process. It can also aid in your search engine optimization efforts.

Have you used no more than 100 external links?

You don’t want to link excessively since it seems manipulative, similar to how you don’t want to use keywords in your body content.
Make sure to include the phrase that the page is targeting in your hyperlink when you link to material on your own website so that users know where they are heading.

Rel canonical

It’s as if the rel canonical tag has its own little bibliography all its own. It’s an easy method to link back to the page where your material originally appeared on the web.

Have you used the rel canonical tag to specify where your content came from?

As long as your material is unique, you can notify search engines that you are the author by simply adding rel canonical to the page you are posting. This is great news for WordPress users! This is all handled for you.

Summary of the On-Page SEO Audit Checklist

The end result is as follows: An on-page audit SEO checklist is a great way to ensure that your site’s pages have the best chance of achieving high search engine rankings.