On-page SEO checklist: 15 things every page needs

On-page SEO is everything you control on the page itself. It is also most of what a small business needs - you cannot control the whole internet, but you can control your fifteen things. Run this checklist on every important page.

The title and the promise

1. Title tag with the buyer’s words, near the front - “Wedding photographer in Shillong - prices and galleries”. 2. Meta description that sells the click: what the page answers, for whom, in under 160 characters. 3. One H1 that matches the title’s promise - H1s are not decoration, they are the page’s thesis.

Content that answers

4. The money question answered on the page - price range, timeline, what is included. Pages that hide cost lose the searches that mention cost. 5. Buyer objections handled - a short honest section on who this is NOT for, or when to choose the alternative. Trust converts. 6. Real proof near the ask: reviews, photos of work, numbers. 7. The location named naturally where relevant - in copy, not stuffed. 8. At least 300 words of genuine substance; thin pages are a tax on the rest of the site.

Structure machines can read

9. Descriptive URL: /wedding-photography-shillong/ beats /page?id=41 forever. 10. Headings in order - one H1, H2s for sections; scanners (human and robot) read headings first. 11. Images with alt text and compression - every one. 12. Internal links: this page should link to siblings, and siblings should link back. Orphan pages do not rank; hub pages earn.

The technical frame

13. Loads in under three seconds on a mid-range phone over mobile data. 14. Works perfectly on a small screen - because that is where your buyers are. 15. Indexed: check Search Console shows the page as indexed, submitted via the sitemap. Unindexed pages are diaries, not marketing.

Print this list. Run it on your five most important pages this week - the gaps you find are your roadmap. Or hand us the site: the site teardown runs this checklist and more, and the calculator prices the fixes.