SEO checklist you can tick off and export.

Thirty-three checks in five groups, from whether a crawler can reach the page to whether an AI assistant can. Your ticks are saved in this browser, and the whole list copies out as Markdown for a ticket or a client doc.

By Mike Cecconello · Updated September 25, 2026

Run this for every client with AltoRank

SEO checklist

Saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

0 of 33 done

Crawl and index

0/7

robots.txt is at the root and blocks nothing you want found
A staging Disallow: / that shipped to production is the classic one. Use the robots.txt generator
An XML sitemap lists only canonical URLs that return 200, and robots.txt declares it
Pages you want ranked return 200, with no redirect chains or soft 404s
No stray noindex on a page you want indexed
Check both the meta tag and the X-Robots-Tag header. Use the SEO health check guide
Each canonical points at the page itself, or deliberately at the original
One host: http, https, www and non-www all end at the same version
The site is verified in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, with the sitemap submitted

On-page

0/8

Every page has its own title tag, and it fits the result width
Use the headline analyzer
Every page has a meta description that says what the page is
Use the SERP preview
Exactly one h1, and it states the subject of the page
Headings run in order, without skipping levels for styling
Short, readable URLs that will not need changing later
Use the slug generator
Meaningful images have alt text; decorative ones have an empty alt
Images are served near the size they display at, not straight from the camera
Use the image resizer
Every page is linked from at least one related page, with a descriptive anchor
Use the internal link checker

Content

0/6

Each page targets one search intent, and no two pages compete for it
Use the keyword clustering tool
The page answers the query near the top, before background and preamble
It covers what the pages already ranking cover, and adds something they do not
Use the content brief template
Sentences are short enough to read on a phone
Use the reading level checker
The keyword reads naturally; nothing is repeated to hit a count
Use the keyword density analyzer
A named author, and an updated date that changes only when the content does

Technical

0/6

HTTPS everywhere, with no mixed-content warnings
Pages work at phone width: viewport tag, no sideways scrolling, tappable links
Core Web Vitals report "good" in Search Console (LCP, INP, CLS)
Structured data validates and matches what the page visibly says
Use the schema generator
If the site has more than one language, hreflang pairs point at each other
Missing pages return a real 404 status, not a 200 with an error message

AI crawlers and agent readiness

0/6

Answer-time crawlers are allowed: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, PerplexityBot
Use the robots.txt generator
The policy for training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, CCBot) is a decision, not a default
The main content is in the HTML the server sends, not only rendered by JavaScript
Organization schema names the company and lists its profiles in sameAs
Use the schema generator
Key facts are stated in plain sentences that still make sense quoted on their own
The site passes an AI-readiness check
Use the free AI-readiness check

What you can do with it

Run the same launch checklist on every new client site
Hand a developer a Markdown list of what is still open
Audit a site you inherited, one group at a time
Add AI crawler access to a checklist that predates it

How it works, step by step

1

Start with crawl and index

Nothing else on the list matters for a page that cannot be crawled or is told not to be indexed. Clear that group first, even if it feels like the least interesting one.
2

Work through a group at a time

Each group has a counter. Finishing one group is a useful unit of work to report; ticking boxes at random across all five is how items get skipped.
3

Use the linked tool where there is one

Items with a link have a free tool or guide on this site that checks or generates the thing. The rest need Search Console, a crawler, or looking at the page.
4

Copy it out when you hand over

Copy as Markdown gives a task list with ticks preserved. It pastes into a GitHub issue, a Linear ticket or a Notion page as a checklist.
5

Reset per site

Ticks are saved per browser, not per site. Copy the finished list somewhere, then reset before starting the next one.

How to use a checklist without it becoming theatre

A checklist is useful for the things you already know and might forget, which is most of technical SEO. It is not a strategy, and a site with every box ticked can still have nothing worth ranking. Treat a complete list as the floor.

Three habits make it work:

Tick only what you verified. “We set up a sitemap” is not the same as “the sitemap lists only canonical URLs that return 200”. Each item is phrased as a state you can check, not a task you did.
Clear crawl and index first. An on-page fix on a page that is not indexed does nothing.
Write down what you skipped and why. A skipped hreflang item on a one-language site is correct. Record it so the next person does not redo the question.

The two lists on this site

This page and the SEO health check guide overlap on purpose. The health check is ordered for diagnosis, with the problems that block ranking first, and explains each step. This checklist is ordered for setup and hand-over, and is built to be ticked, saved and exported.

The AI crawler group

It is the newest group and the most often missing. The short version: allow the crawlers that fetch a page to answer a question (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, PerplexityBot), make an explicit decision about the ones that fetch for training, and make sure your main content is in the HTML rather than assembled by JavaScript after load. The robots.txt generator writes the rules, and the free AI-readiness check tests a live domain against them.

Frequently asked questions

Where are my ticks saved?

In your browser's local storage, on this device only. Nothing is sent to us. If your browser blocks storage, for example in some private windows, the list still works for the visit and the page tells you it cannot save.

How is this different from the SEO health check?

The health check guide is a diagnosis order for a page that is underperforming: what to check first so the real blocker surfaces fast. This checklist is the full list to work through for a site or a launch. Use the checklist to set a site up, and the health check when something goes wrong.

Why is there a group for AI crawlers?

Because answer engines fetch pages with their own crawlers, and a robots.txt written before they existed may block them without anyone deciding to. The group covers crawl access, whether the content is in the HTML, and whether key facts can be quoted on their own.

Is it complete?

No checklist is. It covers the checks that apply to almost every site. Ecommerce faceted navigation, large-site crawl budget and international setups beyond hreflang each deserve their own list.

More free tools

SEO Health Check: The Agency Audit Checklist A repeatable SEO health check: crawl, indexation, structure and AI-readiness, in problem-finding order. Free robots.txt Generator With AI Crawler Rules Build a robots.txt with AI crawler rules. Which bots train models, which answer questions, and why it matters. Free Headline Analyzer: Score Titles Before You Publish Score a headline on SERP width, length, numbers, form, power words, shouting and keyword position. A transparent heuristic, not a CTR forecast.

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