SEO Checklist

The following list outlines key Lighthouse SEO Recommendations that focus on improving your site's search engine visibility and user experience. These suggestions cover important areas such as metadata, mobile optimization, URL structure, and more, helping ensure that your site adheres to modern SEO best practices for better rankings and discoverability.

Content and Metadata

Use a Meta Description

Ensure every page has a meta description to help search engines understand the page's content and improve click-through rates in search results.

Use Descriptive Title Elements

Ensure every page has a descriptive and unique <title> element that clearly communicates the page’s purpose.

Use Descriptive Link Text

Ensure that links have descriptive text, providing context for both search engines and users about the destination or action.

Use a Valid rel=canonical

Include a canonical link to prevent duplicate content issues and to indicate the preferred version of a page to search engines.

Ensure Pages Have Unique Titles and Meta Descriptions

Avoid duplicate titles and meta descriptions across different pages to improve clarity and SEO performance.

Set a Document Language

Specify the language of the page using the lang attribute on the <html> element to help search engines and screen readers understand the language context.

Crawling and Indexing

Ensure the Page is Crawlable
Check that all important content is not hidden from search engines (e.g., blocked by robots.txt or missing key metadata).

Avoid Unsuccessful HTTP Status Codes

Ensure pages return a 200 HTTP status code to search engines and users for successful loading.

Ensure robots.txt is Valid

Make sure that the robots.txt file is valid and configured to allow search engine crawlers to access and index important content.

Avoid Pages with noindex Tags

Ensure that important pages are not using noindex tags, which would prevent them from appearing in search engine results.

Ensure Correct Use of hreflang

Use the hreflang attribute to indicate language and regional targeting, ensuring search engines serve the correct language version of the page.

Include Structured Data

Use structured data (such as Schema.org - Schema.org) to help search engines understand the content better and display rich snippets in search results.

Mobile Optimization

Ensure Page is Mobile-Friendly

Make sure the page is optimized for mobile devices, providing a seamless experience for mobile users, as search engines prioritize mobile-first indexing.

Use a Viewport Meta Tag

Ensure the page has a proper <meta name="viewport"> tag to make the page responsive to different screen sizes.

Optimize Tap Targets

Ensure that touch targets (like buttons and links) are appropriately sized and spaced for mobile users.

Use Legible Font Sizes

Ensure that text is large enough to be easily readable on mobile devices.

Performance and Accessibility

Improve Page Speed for SEO

Ensure that the page loads quickly, as search engines prioritize fast-loading websites in their rankings.

Minimize Render-Blocking Resources

Ensure that non-critical CSS and JavaScript files are loaded asynchronously or deferred to allow faster page rendering.

Ensure Text is Visible While Web Fonts Load

Use font-display: swap to avoid invisible text while web fonts are loading, which improves both SEO and user experience.

Security and HTTPS

Use HTTPS

Ensure that the page is served over HTTPS to protect data integrity and security, which search engines prioritize in rankings.

Avoid Mixed Content

Ensure that the page does not load resources over HTTP when served over HTTPS, to avoid security issues and warnings from browsers.

URL Structure

Ensure Clean URLs

Make sure that URLs are clean, descriptive, and free of unnecessary parameters or tracking strings that could confuse search engines or users.

Avoid Redirect Chains and Loops

Ensure there are no unnecessary redirects, which can slow down page loading and hurt SEO.