SEO Checklist (39 points)

Everything we applied to this site, in the order that matters. Tick what is done, your progress is saved in this browser, and print it as a PDF for your team or client.

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SEO checklist:

headsntail.com/tools/seo-checklist · printed 21 Oct 2026

Technical foundation 0/9

Google only ranks one copy; http/www duplicates split signals.

How

SSL (AutoSSL/Let's Encrypt) -> .htaccess: force https + www->non-www 301 in one hop. Test: http://, https://www, trailing slash all land on one URL.

Readable URLs get clicks and keep links alive.

How

/blog/{slug}, /tools/{slug}; no .php/.html, no IDs, no parameters for content. 301 every old URL to its new one (THE_REQUEST rule so rewrites never loop).

Soft 404s and dead links waste crawl budget and trust.

How

Missing page -> real 404; removed forever -> 410 (Google drops it faster); moved -> 301. Test an unknown URL returns 404, not 200.

This is how crawlers discover and prioritise pages.

How

robots.txt: Allow all, Sitemap: line. sitemap.xml generated from the database/files, <lastmod> per URL, includes tools/hubs/posts/categories; submit in GSC + Bing.

The title is the ranking signal and the ad in the results; canonical stops duplicates.

How

Title: keyword first, brand last; description written for clicks; <link rel=canonical> self-referencing. Check with the SEO Audit tool for duplicates/lengths.

Google indexes the mobile version.

How

viewport meta, no horizontal scroll at 390px, tap targets >= 44px, test every tool/form on a phone.

Ranking factor and AdSense viewability.

How

gzip/brotli, cache headers (1 year static), WebP images with width/height + lazy loading, self-hosted fonts with font-display swap, no render-blocking JS, TTFB < 600 ms. Check GSC -> Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed.

Trust signal; leaked .env = site compromise.

How

.htaccess: deny .env .git .sql .bak logs composer files; headers: HSTS, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy.

Serves the right language version in each country.

How

<link rel=alternate hreflang="ar" href=...> + "x-default"; both pages link each other.

Structured data (rich results) 0/5

Rich results, E-E-A-T, AI search understanding.

How

JSON-LD on every post: headline, datePublished, dateModified, author (Person with url), image, publisher.

Shows structure in results; supports parent/child pages.

How

Home > Section > Hub > Page, matching the visible breadcrumb.

Targets People-also-ask / zero-click boxes with your brand in them.

How

3-6 real questions people search, each answered in 2-3 sentences; visible on the page too.

Lets Google show tools as apps; AI engines list them.

How

name, url, applicationCategory, isAccessibleForFree, offers price 0.

Marks pillar pages and what they contain (hasPart).

How

List child articles and tools in hasPart.

Content & E-E-A-T 0/7

Experience/Expertise/Authority/Trust: Google and AdSense want a person behind the content.

How

/author/{name} with bio, years, areas, photo, sameAs links; byline + author box on posts; Person schema.

Separates you from mass AI content (Google "scaled content abuse" rules).

How

Each article: 2-5 sentences of what you actually did/saw, the real error, the real fix; verified facts with sources.

One model misses its own errors; a second model catches facts, code, filler, SEO.

How

Brief (research + facts) -> draft (ChatGPT) -> review (Claude) -> apply -> human read -> publish. Score 85+ before publishing.

Thin pages are the #1 AdSense rejection ("low value content").

How

600+ words minimum even on tool pages (guide + FAQ); common problems section; summary checklist.

Topical authority; off-topic AI posts look auto-generated.

How

Unpublish + 410 anything outside the site's topics; one or two articles a day max.

Rankings fall as content ages and competitors update.

How

Re-run the review, update facts/versions, add new sections, update dateModified; keep the URL.

AdSense requirement and trust.

How

Real pages with real text (no placeholders); privacy mentions cookies/analytics/ads; GDPR consent message set in AdSense.

Site structure & internal links 0/6

Topical authority + keyword clustering: one strong page per topic, children link up, hub links down.

How

/guides/{topic}: intro, start-here order, all child posts, related tools, FAQ; children show "Part of the guide" + breadcrumb to the hub.

Links in the text carry more weight than nav/footer links.

How

Link related guides/tools where they help; automatic "See also" box after the 2nd paragraph as a floor.

Pages nobody links to rarely rank.

How

Crawl the site (SEO Audit tool); fix: hub pages, related widgets that rotate, footer directory, home sections.

The home page has the most authority to pass on.

How

Sections: latest guides, free tools, topic hubs.

Site-wide links to the pages that earn traffic.

How

Keep to 15-25 links; real anchors, not keyword stuffing.

Faceted navigation creates thousands of near-duplicate URLs.

How

Canonical to the clean URL; noindex or robots-block ?sort= ?filter= pages; never put them in the sitemap.

Indexing & off-page 0/6

Only way to see indexing, queries, Core Web Vitals.

How

Domain property; request indexing for new URLs (quota ~10/day); check Pages report weekly; removals for dead URLs.

Bing/Yandex index within hours.

How

POST the URL to api.indexnow.org with the key file on the site; only new/changed URLs.

Extra readers and links without duplicate-content penalty.

How

Cross-post with canonical_url pointing to the original.

Baseline trust links, free.

How

GitHub, Stack Overflow, dev.to, LinkedIn, Quora, Medium, Hashnode, Gravatar, Product Hunt, AlternativeTo: bio + site link.

White-hat links + referral traffic; the only kind that lasts.

How

New accounts: comments only for 7-10 days, then rare links. No paid/PBN/bulk links ever (penalty + AdSense ban).

Natural backlinks from sites that use your tool/data.

How

"Embed this calculator" code; publish a yearly rates table others link to.

AI search (GEO/AEO) & zero-click 0/3

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI read and cite pages they can parse; vector embeddings match meaning, so each section must answer one question plainly.

How

/llms.txt listing pages and what they answer; H2 = the question, first sentence = the answer; FAQ blocks; tables for numbers.

Blocking them removes you from AI answers.

How

robots.txt not blocking them; log crawler hits (dashboard Analytics -> crawlers).

An answer box cannot run a calculator; users must click.

How

Pair each informational article with a tool and link both ways.

Measurement 0/3

Two sources; see sources, countries (CPC), tools used, bots.

How

JS beacon counting (bots excluded), country from offline IP DB, owner cookie to exclude yourself.

Positions 11-20 are the cheapest wins: a refresh moves them to page 1.

How

Export Performance -> Queries + Pages; find page-2 keywords; add a section/FAQ for them; request indexing.

Catches regressions (broken links, missing meta, slow pages).

How

Run https://headsntail.com/tools/seo-audit on your site every month and fix anything above "low".

How to use this checklist

Work top to bottom. The first group (technical foundation) decides whether Google can index you at all; nothing below it matters until it is done. Structured data and E-E-A-T content are what AdSense reviewers and Google's quality systems look at next. Internal links and hubs build topical authority, then indexing and off-page bring the pages in front of people, and the AI search group makes sure ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI can read and cite you. Measurement closes the loop: without Search Console you are guessing.

Tick an item only when it is live on the site and verified (run the free SEO audit on your domain to confirm the technical ones). Progress is stored in your browser, nothing is sent to us. "Print / Save as PDF" prints the whole list with the boxes, so a client or a team member can tick it on paper.

Why these 39 and not 200

Most SEO checklists are padded with items that no longer matter (meta keywords, keyword density, exact-match domains) or that only apply to large e-commerce sites. This list is what moved a new site from zero to indexed, earning pages in 2026: one canonical URL per page, a real sitemap with lastmod, correct status codes, schema for articles, breadcrumbs, FAQs and tools, a real author, articles with first-hand experience, hub pages with parent/child links, no orphans, Search Console + IndexNow, white-hat links only, llms.txt for AI engines, and a monthly audit. Each item says why it matters and exactly how to do it on a normal PHP/cPanel or WordPress site.

What is new for 2026

  • AI search (GEO/AEO): ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews cite pages they can parse: H2 written as the question, first sentence the answer, FAQ blocks, tables for numbers, and an llms.txt index. Blocking GPTBot/ClaudeBot removes you from those answers.
  • Scaled content abuse: Google's spam policies target mass AI-written pages. Every article needs first-person experience, verified facts and a named author, and off-topic AI posts should be removed (410).
  • INP replaced FID as the Core Web Vital for interactivity: keep tap/click handlers under 200 ms, defer third-party scripts.
  • Zero-click results: informational queries increasingly end on Google's page. Tools and calculators still get the click, so pair each guide with a tool.

FAQ

Is this SEO checklist free to print?
Yes. Click "Print / Save as PDF", choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialog, and you get the full list with checkboxes and the site name you typed. No sign-up, no watermark.
Does my progress sync between devices?
No. Ticks are saved in the browser you use (localStorage) and never sent to a server. Use the PDF to share progress, or tick again on the other device.
In what order should I do the items?
Top to bottom: technical foundation, structured data, content and E-E-A-T, site structure, indexing and off-page, AI search, measurement. A broken foundation makes everything below it pointless.
How do I check whether an item is really done?
Run the free SEO audit on your domain; it tests most technical items (HTTPS, sitemap, canonicals, status codes, schema, headers, orphans) and shows what is missing. For indexing, use Google Search Console.
Does this work for WordPress and Shopify sites?
Yes. The "how" steps mention .htaccess for PHP sites, but every item has an equivalent: an SEO plugin for titles/schema/sitemaps on WordPress, theme settings on Shopify. The checks themselves are platform-independent.

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