On-page SEO used to be simple: put your keyword in the title tag, sprinkle it through the page, and you'd rank. In 2026, Google's algorithm is far more sophisticated. It evaluates the quality and depth of your content, how fast your page loads, how stable it is on mobile, whether your site structure makes logical sense, and dozens of other signals simultaneously.
The good news: most websites still get the basics wrong, which means getting them right gives you a significant competitive advantage. Here's the complete checklist we use at AYRI for every site we build and every SEO audit we run.
Section 1 — Technical Foundation
Before any content optimisation, your technical foundation needs to be solid. A site that's slow, unstable, or poorly structured will struggle to rank regardless of how good the content is.
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PageSpeed 90+ on mobile — Google uses mobile-first indexing. Your mobile PageSpeed score is what matters most for ranking.
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Core Web Vitals all green — LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms. Check at pagespeed.web.dev.
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HTTPS / SSL active — Google confirmed SSL as a ranking signal since 2014. A non-HTTPS site also shows a "Not Secure" warning that destroys trust.
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XML sitemap submitted — Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console so Googlebot knows every page to index.
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robots.txt configured correctly — Make sure you're not accidentally blocking Google from crawling important pages.
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No broken links (404 errors) — Crawl your site monthly with a tool like Screaming Frog or Ahrefs to catch broken links before Google does.
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Canonical tags set correctly — Prevent duplicate content issues by telling Google which version of a URL is the "official" one.
Section 2 — Page-Level Optimisation
Every page on your website needs individual optimisation. These are the on-page elements Google reads to understand what your page is about and who it should show it to.
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Title tag under 60 characters — Include your primary keyword near the beginning. Each page should have a unique title tag. Don't repeat the same title across pages.
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Meta description 120–160 characters — Write it for humans, not bots. A compelling meta description improves click-through rate from search results — which indirectly affects ranking.
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H1 tag — one per page, includes keyword — Your H1 is your main heading. There should be exactly one per page, and it should clearly state what the page is about.
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H2/H3 headings for structure — Break up your content with descriptive subheadings. These help Google understand your content hierarchy and help users navigate long pages.
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Keyword in first 100 words — Include your primary keyword naturally within the first paragraph of the page content. Don't force it — write for readers first.
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Clean URL structure — URLs should be short, descriptive, and include the keyword. Use hyphens not underscores. Example: /services/web-design not /services?id=12.
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Internal links to related pages — Link to relevant other pages on your site. This distributes link authority and helps Google understand your site structure.
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Image alt text on all images — Every image needs descriptive alt text — both for SEO and accessibility. Include keywords where they naturally fit. Never keyword stuff.
Section 3 — Content Quality
Google's Helpful Content system (updated significantly in 2024 and 2025) is designed to reward content written for people, not search engines. Thin, generic, AI-generated content that doesn't actually help the reader is being actively penalised.
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Content answers the search intent — Understand why someone searches your target keyword. Are they looking to buy, learn, or compare? Your content must match that intent precisely.
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Minimum 800 words for service pages — Thin pages (under 300 words) rarely rank for competitive keywords. Comprehensive content that genuinely covers a topic tends to outperform short, shallow pages.
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Original expertise and perspective — Google's E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) framework means content written by real experts with genuine experience ranks better than generic summaries.
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Content updated regularly — Stale content loses rankings over time. Review and update your key pages at least every 6 months, especially in fast-moving industries.
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FAQ section where relevant — FAQ sections can appear in Google's "People Also Ask" box, giving you additional SERP real estate beyond your main ranking.
Section 4 — Schema Markup
Schema markup is structured data that tells Google exactly what type of content is on your page. It's not a direct ranking factor, but it enables rich results — star ratings, FAQs, breadcrumbs, product prices — directly in search results, which dramatically improves click-through rates.
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LocalBusiness schema — If you serve local customers, LocalBusiness schema tells Google your name, address, phone, opening hours, and service area.
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FAQ schema on FAQ pages — Enables your FAQ answers to appear directly in search results, increasing visibility without needing to rank #1.
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Article / BlogPosting schema — Helps Google understand your blog posts and can enable rich results including author, date, and headline in search.
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Product schema for e-commerce — Enables price, availability, and star ratings to appear directly in search results for product pages.
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BreadcrumbList schema — Shows your site's navigation path in search results, improving click-through and helping Google understand your site structure.
The 2026 reality: SEO in 2026 rewards websites that are genuinely fast, genuinely helpful, and genuinely authoritative. The shortcuts that worked in 2018 — keyword stuffing, thin content, spammy backlinks — now actively hurt your rankings. The fundamentals in this checklist are what every legitimate business needs to compete.
Where to Start If You're Overwhelmed
Start with the Technical Foundation section — fix your PageSpeed score and make sure Google Search Console has no crawl errors. These are the highest-impact, lowest-effort fixes for most sites.
Then work through the Page-Level section for your most important pages — homepage, service pages, and your top blog posts.
If you want us to run a full SEO audit on your site and give you a prioritised fix list, get in touch — it's free for new enquiries.