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On-Page SEO Checklist: What to Check on Every Page
Most on-page checklists are ranked by how easy something is to check, not by how much it matters. That is why sites pass them and still do not rank.
Запусти свіжий аудит DomainLens і використовуй звіт як список пріоритетів.
Check intent before anything else
On-page SEO is often taught as a list of tags. But a page with a perfect title, flawless headings and complete metadata will not rank if it answers a different question than the searcher asked. Intent is the gate everything else sits behind.
The test takes two minutes: search your target query and look at what ranks. If the results are comparisons and you wrote a product page, no amount of tag optimisation closes that gap. Fix the format first.
The checklist, in priority order
| # | Check | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Page matches the query's intent and format | Nothing below compensates for this |
| 2 | Page is indexable — 200, no noindex, self-canonical | Otherwise none of it is visible |
| 3 | Content answers the question completely | The actual ranking substance |
| 4 | One H1 stating the subject | Confirms the topic to reader and crawler |
| 5 | Title tag: specific, front-loaded, unique | Drives clicks from the result |
| 6 | Meta description written for the click | No ranking effect; real CTR effect |
| 7 | Headings form a real outline, H2 then H3 | Structure, and it feeds featured snippets |
| 8 | Internal links in and out, descriptive anchors | Distributes authority and aids discovery |
| 9 | Images have alt text and dimensions | Accessibility, image search, layout stability |
| 10 | Core Web Vitals clear the threshold | A floor to pass, not a score to maximise |
Titles and descriptions, without the myths
Keyword density is not a thing to optimise. Use the term the page is about because that is what the page is about, and stop counting.
- There is no character limit — there is a pixel width, and Google truncates around 580px on desktop. Roughly 60 characters is a guide, not a rule.
- Google rewrites titles it considers unhelpful, which is a signal about your title rather than a bug to work around.
- Meta descriptions are not a ranking factor and are frequently replaced with a page snippet. Write them anyway, for the queries where Google does use them.
- Every title on the site should be unique. Duplicates across a template are one bug, not fifty problems.
- Front-load the distinguishing term; the brand belongs at the end, if at all.
Headings and content structure
One H1 per page, stating what the page is. Beyond that, headings exist to make the page scannable — the SEO benefit follows from readers finding what they came for, not from a tag hierarchy Google grades.
Do not skip levels for styling. An H4 chosen because it looked right visually breaks the outline for screen readers, which is the one audience for whom the hierarchy is load-bearing.
<h1>Lazy Loading Images: When It Helps</h1>
<h2>How native lazy loading works</h2>
<h2>Why lazy-loading the hero image is a mistake</h2>
<h3>Detecting the LCP element</h3>
<h3>Fixing a global rule</h3>
<h2>Frequently asked questions</h2>
<!-- Levels descend one at a time. Style with CSS,
never by picking a smaller heading tag. -->Document metadata: the small checks that prevent visible mistakes
After intent, copy, headings and links are sound, review the declarations in the document head. They rarely create rankings on their own, but they prevent the broken snippets, missing icons and mobile-browser glitches that make an otherwise credible result look neglected.
Start with UTF-8. Put <meta charset="utf-8"> immediately after the opening head tag and ensure the HTTP Content-Type header agrees. A charset discovered late, or a header claiming a different encoding, can turn apostrophes and non-Latin characters into mojibake in a title or description. This is a delivery check, not a keyword tactic.
Then check the icon and install metadata as one group. A crawlable square favicon gives search results and browser tabs a recognisable mark; the web app manifest supplies the install name, icons and launch behaviour; theme_color only controls browser chrome. None of these is a ranking factor, so keep the implementation small and correct rather than collecting decorative tags.
| Declaration | What to verify | Why a reader notices |
|---|---|---|
| charset | UTF-8 in both the HTTP header and the first part of <head> | Titles and descriptions render as written instead of with broken characters |
| favicon | A stable, crawlable square icon with a 48-pixel multiple source | The site has a recognisable mark in tabs and eligible Google result surfaces |
| web app manifest | A reachable manifest with deliberate name, icons and start_url | An installed tool opens with the expected identity and route |
| theme-color | A light/dark value that agrees with the installed-app colour | Mobile browser chrome does not clash with the page or become unreadable |
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png">
<link rel="manifest" href="/site.webmanifest">
<meta name="theme-color" content="#0f172a">
</head>Validate the delivered response, not a template file
Run the HTTP headers checker against a live URL to confirm the Content-Type header, then use the robots.txt checker when an icon or manifest cannot be fetched by a crawler. For the image itself, follow the image alt text guide : meaningful images need a descriptive explanation, while decorative ones need an empty alt attribute.
What to stop doing
The plugin score is the most costly of these, because it redirects effort toward satisfying a checker rather than a reader. For the individual elements see title tag best practices , heading structure and image alt text .
- Meta keywords. No search engine has used them for over a decade.
- Counting keyword density or aiming for a percentage.
- Adding an FAQ block to every page whether or not anyone asks those questions.
- Exact-match anchor text on every internal link, which reads as manipulation.
- Chasing a green light in a plugin that grades pages against a formula Google does not use.
How DomainLens contributes
DomainLens checks items 2 and 4 through 10 mechanically — indexability, title, description, headings, alt text, internal links and Core Web Vitals — in one pass over a URL. Items 1 and 3, intent and completeness, are the ones no tool can grade and the ones that decide the outcome. See technical SEO vs on-page SEO for where the boundary sits.
- How long should a title tag be?
- Google truncates by pixel width, around 580px on desktop — roughly 60 characters. Put the distinguishing words first so truncation costs you nothing important.
- Do meta descriptions affect rankings?
- No. They influence whether someone clicks, and Google often replaces them with a snippet from the page anyway. Write them for the queries where they survive.
- Can a page have more than one H1?
- HTML5 permits it and Google tolerates it, but one H1 stating the subject is clearer for readers and assistive technology. There is no benefit to more.
- What is the ideal keyword density?
- There is none. Density is not a metric Google computes. Use the term naturally because the page is about it.