Why most SEO checklists are useless
Most “SEO checklists” you find online are either automated tool outputs (the same 87 issues every scanner finds) or they were written in 2019 and never updated. Neither helps you in 2026, when Google uses AI in its ranking systems and ChatGPT decides who to cite.
This checklist is different. It is the same one we use when we manually audit a new client’s site. 223 points. No automation. A real person looks at every item.
Technical SEO (68 points)
- Site loads in under 2.5 seconds on mobile
- Core Web Vitals pass (LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1)
- HTTPS enabled with valid certificate, no mixed content
- XML sitemap exists and is submitted to Google Search Console
- Robots.txt is not blocking anything it should not
- No crawl errors in Search Console coverage report
- URL structure is clean, readable, and uses hyphens
- No duplicate content issues from www/non-www or HTTP/HTTPS
- Canonical tags are present and correct on every page
- Pagination is handled correctly (or infinite scroll is crawlable)
- 404 pages return proper 404 status, not soft 404s
- No broken internal links
- No redirect chains longer than one hop
- Mobile-responsive design verified across devices
- Structured data (schema markup) implemented and validates
- JavaScript-rendered content is crawlable and indexed
- Site architecture is shallow (no page deeper than 3 clicks from home)
- Image formats are modern (WebP/AVIF) with proper compression
- Lazy loading implemented for below-the-fold images
- Font loading uses font-display: swap
- Server response time under 200ms
- CDN in use for static assets
- DNS lookups minimized
- Unused CSS/JS removed or deferred
…and 200 more points covering on-page, off-page, local SEO, and AI visibility.
On-Page SEO (72 points)
Every important page on your site should have:
- A unique, compelling title tag under 60 characters
- A meta description under 155 characters that makes someone want to click
- One clear H1 that includes the primary keyword
- A logical H2/H3 hierarchy, not a wall of text
- Internal links to related pages (at least 2-3 per page)
- Optimized images with descriptive alt text
- Content that actually answers the searcher’s question
- No keyword stuffing (reads naturally to a human)
Local SEO (45 points)
If you serve customers in a specific geographic area:
- Google Business Profile claimed and fully optimized
- NAP (name, address, phone) consistent across the entire web
- Location-specific pages for each city you serve
- Local citations on relevant directories
- Review generation strategy in place (and responding to all reviews)
- Local schema markup on your site
- Photos uploaded regularly to GBP
AI Visibility (38 points)
This is the new category most checklists miss:
- Brand mentioned in authoritative industry sources
- Entity signals clear (Google’s Knowledge Graph knows who you are)
- Content structured for AI extraction (clear definitions, direct answers)
- FAQ schema on relevant pages
- Cited by ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity for relevant queries
- Consistent brand information across all platforms
- Wikipedia/Wikidata entries where appropriate
- Author bylines with real credentials
Get the full checklist
This is a summary. The full 223-point checklist with detailed instructions for each item is what we use when we audit a new client’s site. Want us to run it on your site? Drop your URL in the form below and we will tell you what we find.