Several on-page SEO ranking factors determine whether a website will achieve keyword ranking goals. To out-compete other websites, one must ensure they have a comprehensive on-page SEO optimization audit checklist.
Below is the list of the items to have when conducting an on-page SEO optimization audit checklist:
- Title Tag – most important of the checklist, need to optimize and audit the title and link that will be displayed in the SEO search results and should not be too long and duplicate
- Meta Description – optimize and audit the description to help searchers be explained and entice them to click on the search result and should not be too long and duplicate
- Header Tags – these are the actual title of the page to help search crawlers and users summarize the pages and break down the content into subtopics.
- Image Alt (alternative) Tag – search crawlers cannot read images, so there needs to be optimized textual content to help them understand what they are looking at.
- Structured Data (Schema Markup) – another commonly ignored from the checklist, these are advanced rich snippet features to help organize metadata that can be easier for crawlers to understand
- Internal Linking – audit to ensure relevant SEO content is interlinking to help pass link equity and help crawlers understand which pages are relevant to which context.
- Navigation Structure – are the most important pages being placed in the top-level navigation and are using anchor text that is search friendly
- URL Structure – optimize to ensure they are search and keyword-friendly by not using characters that crawlers cannot understand
- Content – does the topic and subtopics align and will help answer the searcher’s need or intent
- Readability – ensure the content is easy to read without grammar and spelling errors and has a natural flow to help them complete your intended actions
- Text-to-Code Ratio – last but not least of the checklist, audit to ensure the amount of code does not significantly dominate the amount of textual content.
Summary
To summarize, the on-page SEO audit checklist includes the title tag, meta description, header tag, image alt tag, structured data, internal links, navigation, URL, content, readability, and text-to-code ratio.