On-page SEO audit

Use this when someone asks why a page is not ranking, or before a page goes live.

Read the page as a machine would

Strip the design away and ask what the page is about using only the title, the URL, the H1, the first paragraph and the subheads. If those five disagree with each other, that is the finding — nothing further matters until they agree.

The checks that pay

Work down this list. Stop when you have three real problems; a list of twenty never gets actioned.

• Title — the phrase near the front, under about 60 characters, and different from the H1. A title that reads like a filename is a fix.
• H1 — one of them, and it says what the page does for the reader.
• First paragraph — answers the query, does not warm up to it.
• Subheads — scannable alone. If the H2s read as a table of contents that makes sense without the body, the page is structured.
• Internal links — does anything on the site point here, using words that describe the page? An orphan page is a ranking problem disguised as a content problem.
• Meta description — not a ranking factor; it is the ad. Write it as the reason to click, under about 155 characters.
• Images — alt text that describes the image, file sizes that do not stall the page.
• One page per intent — if two pages target the same phrase, they compete. Say which one should win and what happens to the other.

How to report it

Three findings, each with the current state quoted, the fix written out ready to paste, and one line on why it matters. Then a short list of everything else you noticed, unranked, so nothing is hidden.

What not to do

Never guess at traffic, ranking positions or search volume — if the data is not in front of you, say what you would need. Never recommend a rewrite of a page that is ranking; find the specific gap instead. Never report a checklist of passes; the user asked what is wrong.