Do you create websites and webpages with an SEO checklist?

Do you find yourself reworking pages on your website that weren’t created with SEO in mind?
Businesses face this common challenge: balancing value for real users and ticking the right boxes for search-engine algorithms.

The best way to avoid this is to start each webpage with solid SEO built in. To support this, use a consistent SEO components checklist when creating any new page.

Because not everyone creating pages is a developer, the process should be streamlined:

• Have the requester (content author, marketer) fill a template (for example a GitHub issue) containing the checklist
• The developer uses that to build the page and ensure all SEO elements are included

🌐 SEO checklist for websites

Use this list to maintain a technically healthy and high-performing website:

⚡ Performance

1. Page Load Speed – Minimize heavy scripts, compress images, enable caching, and use lazy loading
2. Performance Metrics – Monitor Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) using PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse
3. Server & Hosting Performance – Verify server response time, CDN configuration, and reliable uptime from your hosting provider

🔒 Security & Reliability

4. HTTPS / Secure – Ensure the site loads via HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate
5. Security & Uptime Monitoring – Use automated tools or services to monitor downtime, SSL renewals, and vulnerabilities

🧭 Crawlability & Indexing

6. Sitemap / Robots.txt / Crawlability – Confirm all important pages are crawlable and included in the sitemap
7. Canonical Tags / Duplicate Content Handling – Use canonical tags or noindex where needed to avoid duplicate content
8. Broken Links & Redirects – Regularly scan for 404s (e.g. CodeAuditor) and ensure redirects are correctly implemented

🧩 Structure & Tracking

9. Schema / Structured Data – Use structured markup (e.g., Articles, Products, FAQs) to help search engines understand your content
10. Analytics & Search Console – Ensure tracking tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Google Search Console) are properly configured

📱 User Experience

11. Responsive / Mobile-First Design – Renders correctly on all devices and screen sizes

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SEO checklist for new webpages

Use this list to validate each new page before publishing:

🏷️ Core On-Page SEO

1. Descriptive Page Title – Includes the target keyword, is compelling, and under ~60 characters
2. Meta Description – Unique for the page, includes a keyword, and gives a strong value proposition
3. Single H1 Tag – Clearly describes the page, aligns with the page title, includes the keyword
4. Friendly URLs / Slugs – Short, descriptive, and uses hyphens; contains the keyword and avoids unnecessary parameters

✍️ Content & Structure

5. Heading Structure (H2, H3, ...) – Content broken up with subheadings; readable, logical hierarchy
6. Content Quality & Relevance – Matches user intent, uses primary and secondary keywords naturally (no stuffing), provides real value

🧩 Technical & Media Optimization

7. Image Optimization – Descriptive filenames, alt text for accessibility, and optimized file size
8. Semantic Markup & Accessibility – Use proper HTML tags, ARIA roles, and descriptive alt text
9. Social Sharing Tags (Open Graph) – Add metadata for sharing (title, description, image)

🧪 Review & Validation

10. Quality Review / QA – Preview on devices and browsers, check links, validate HTML, and test page speed

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Following these checklists ensures your pages and your overall website are search-engine friendly from day one, avoiding costly rework later.

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Using GitHub Issues for a new webpage

Not everybody who wants to create a webpage is actually doing the creation (sometimes they will give the task to a developer). Therefore, to make sure that content does not get lost in the creation process, it is important to have a streamlined procedure.

Creating a GitHub Issue is the best way for non-developers to send the request for a new webpage to their developers. So, the best place to keep your checklist is in a GitHub Issue template that exists specifically for requesting a new page on your website. See this rule about GitHub issue templates.

To see an example in action, see the template for adding a new page to SSW.Website. The user replaces all the placeholders with their information, and when a developer creates the page they will know to include the important SEO components.