Onpage optimization is quite necessary aspect of SEO. Before you start implementing changes on your website, you will have to pass through a painstaking process of onpage audit. Though it is quite complex to perform an onpage SEO audit on your own, an arranged list of necessary checks can help you a lot in defining the impactive trajectory for your SEO plan. It all starts with your website itself.

Working at Smartinfosys for ground breaking SEO audits, I have learnt very brilliant ways to assess a website. So without wasting a minute, here’s your onPage SEO checklist. You can refer this for performing a comprehensive audit. I have also listed all helpful resources here which will help you go through the process without any hassle, if you are a novice in SEO.

Onpage Optimization: The Ultimate SEO Checklist With Instant Solutions

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Crawling / Indexing

• 1. Does Meta robots allow crawling and indexing?
  • Yes: It’s alright as far as you have no pages to block access
  • No: Read this to learn using meta follow and no follow

• 2. Is robots.txt configured for allowing / blocking access to specific pages?
  • Yes: That’s good
  • No: Read this to learn configuring robots.txt

• 3. Do you have sitemap.xml on your site?
  • Yes: Need no further action
  • No: Create a sitemap & upload it on your site

• 4. Are your webpages checked for broken links?
  • Yes: Correct them ASAP
  • No: Visit this link to check instantly for broken link

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Responsiveness

• 1. Is your page loading speed optimized?
  • Yes: Your clients won’t bounce back at least!
  • No: Read this tips for reducing page load time

• 2. Does your website load properly in multiple different browsers?
  • Yes: This will make your client feel comfortable
  • No: Make it cross browsing compatible

• 3. Does your website render elegantly on every screen size?
  • Yes: You must be getting more business than others
  • No: Make the site design responsive

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Navigation

• 1. Is content navigation is easy for users?
  • Yes: Readers will love to sail through your site
  • No: Read best practices for better website navigation

• 2. Is breadcrumb available for easy navigation?
  • Yes: Your users won’t lose their path
  • No: Read this for breadcrumb examples & best practices

• 3. Do you offer a separate page containing user accessible HTML sitemap?
  • Yes: You love your users
  • No: Learn to create effective HTML sitemaps

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Design

• 1. Does your layout allow easy scanning of webpage?
  • Yes: Your readers surely love it!
  • No: Learn best practices for layout and styling

• 2. Does your site use Javascript, Java, Flash & Ajax?
  • Yes: Remove them whenever possible.
  • No: Your site must be working fine

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Redirects

• 1. Is older / out-of-date content redirected with 301 or rel=”canonical” tag?
  • Yes: Your developers are good
  • No: 301 or canonical? which one to use and when

• 2. Do you have a custom 404 error page that redirects user to other page on your site?
  • Yes: Your customers love your care!
  • No: Create an interesting web-page pointing to homepage or other inner page of your site & set it as your error page

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Content

• 1. Is your content unique to every page?
  • Yes: Great
  • No: Canonicalize the pages with similar content or remove duplication

• 2. Is your content original, valuable & share-able?
  • Yes: You stand a great chance for higher rankings
  • No: Improve your content quality. Read: for reference

• 3. Do your pages have interesting call-to-actions that make it more appealing?
  • Yes: Your website has good sales appeal
  • No: Learn call-to-action best practices

• 4. Is your text fairly readable?
  • Yes: At least there is one reason to visit your site!
  • No: Make it more readable.

• 5. Are your heading tags hierarchically structured?
  • Yes: It’s so nice of your content team
  • No Know proper use of heading tags

• 6. Are keywords wisely used in prominent places like headings, beginning of body, titles and anchor texts?
  • Yes: Good. You have brighter ranking chances
  • No: Know where to place your keywords & its synonyms

• 7. Are alt texts used properly for keyword targeting?
  • Yes: Your website will be more loved: says search engine
  • No: Learn proper use of alt text
• 8. Are the anchor texts descriptive & containing keywords where relevant?
  • Yes: Well, it is Penguin safe
  • No: Read complete intro to anchor text for SEO
• 9. Does your page contain schema markup, rich snippet markup & authorship markup for better search engine ranking?
  • Yes: Search engines will love your site
  • No: Know how to implement schema markup for SEO
• 10. Does your site use different types of content like images, videos, texts, PDFs etc for better engage-ability?
  • Yes: You are clever content creator
  • No: Diversify content. It will help your website gain better user engagement and in turn better search rankings.
• 11. Do irrelevant external links include “nofollow” ?
  • Yes: You did it seriously
  • No: Make irrelevant external links “nofollow”
• 12. Are you using LSI keywords & secondary keywords throughout the content?
  • Yes: You’ll soon see the results!
  • No: Learn to find LSI & secondary keywords for your site

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Share-ability
• 1. Is your content valuable enough to be share-able?
  • Yes: You are a step ahead than most others
  • No: Write in-depth, researched content with supporting formats that is useful as well as share-able for your users
• 2. Have you provided easy sharing option for all your content?
  • Yes: You are smart
  • No: Know here some easy ways to provide sharing options on your website

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URLs
• 1. Are your URLs static?
  • Yes: It’s great
  • No: Read this detailed post on static v/s dynamic urls
• 2. Does it takes more than 4 clicks to reach any URL on your website?
  • Yes: Reduce the page depth
  • No: No issue
• 3. Are your URLs lengthier than 100 characters?
  • Yes: Try to reduce URL length to 100
  • No: It’s okay
• 4. Do the URLs describe the page and contain keywords?
  • Yes: Alright
  • No: Make URLs more descriptive and relevant using keywords

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META
• 1. Is your meta description length between 75 to 160 characters?
  • Yes: No action required
  • No: You need to keep it between 75 to 160 characters
• 2. Is your meta title length less than 70 characters?
  • Yes: Perfect!
  • No: You need to trim it to 70.

That’s it. All you need to perform a good on page SEO audit is done. However, if you want to make it best- not just god- hire a professional SEO who knows it all to the roots and has being doing it since years. So good luck with your on page optimization.