The on-page SEO audit checklist that catches real problems

What to check on every page

These are the checks that change how a page appears in search results.

• Title under 60 characters, unique, containing the target keyword.
• Meta description under 160 characters that earns the click.
• Exactly one H1 that matches the page's actual subject.
• Self-referencing canonical — never pointing all pages at the homepage.
• Open Graph and Twitter tags so shared links render properly.
• Structured data matching the page type: Article, Product, Organization.
• Descriptive alt text on meaningful images.
• A crawlable internal link from at least one other page.

Template bugs beat page bugs

A single wrong canonical in a layout file can flatten an entire section of a site. Audit one page from each template rather than a random sample, and you will find the systemic issues that actually cost traffic.

After the fixes

Re-audit, confirm the change is live in the rendered HTML rather than only in your source, and give crawlers time. Title and description changes typically surface within days, structural changes take longer.

Frequently asked

How often should I run an SEO audit?

Monthly for an active site, and always right after a redesign or template change — that is when metadata regressions are introduced.

Do meta keywords still matter?

Google ignores them. Spend the effort on the title, the description and the on-page content instead.