SEO article checklist

Decide what the page is for before you write a word.

1. 1.Write down the one main keyword and the single question the page must answer.
2. 2.Search the keyword yourself and note what kind of pages rank: guides, lists, product pages or tools.
3. 3.Decide the search intent: does the reader want to learn, compare, buy, or find one specific site?
4. 4.Search your own site for the topic; if a page already covers it, update that page instead of writing a second one.
5. 5.Describe the reader in one sentence: who they are and what they already know.
6. 6.List the five to eight questions the reader is most likely to ask, using search suggestions, "People also ask" and real customer questions.
7. 7.Pick two to four related pages on your site to link to, and one or two pages that should link back to the new article.
8. 8.Collect a source for every fact or number you plan to use before you start writing.
9. 9.Write the outline: one H1, H2 sections in reading order, and H3s only where a section needs them.

Write for the reader first, then make the page easy to understand.

1. 10.Answer the main question within the first two or three paragraphs.
2. 11.Use the main keyword in the H1 and the first paragraph, phrased the way a person would say it.
3. 12.Make every H2 say what the section answers, so a reader who only skims can still follow the page.
4. 13.Keep most paragraphs to two to four sentences.
5. 14.Add at least one specific example, step or screenshot the reader can act on.
6. 15.Add something only you can add: a test you ran, a mistake you made, or a result you measured.
7. 16.Link every statistic and factual claim to its original source.
8. 17.Use numbered lists for steps and tables for comparisons.
9. 18.Write internal links with descriptive anchor text instead of "click here".
10. 19.Delete sentences that repeat the one before them or do not help the reader.

Check the page the way a reader and a search engine will see it.

1. 20.Write a title that states the topic clearly, puts the main words first, and is short enough not to be cut off in search results.
2. 21.Write a meta description that sums up this page in one or two plain sentences, unique to this page.
3. 22.Use a short, readable URL slug with the main keyword and no date in it.
4. 23.Check there is exactly one H1 and that headings go in order (H2, then H3).
5. 24.Give every image descriptive alt text, a sensible file name and a compressed file size.
6. 25.Click every link to confirm it works and opens the page you meant.
7. 26.Fact-check numbers, names, dates, prices and product details against your sources.
8. 27.Search the draft for placeholder text, square brackets, notes to yourself and leftover AI prompts.
9. 28.Read the intro and the conclusion out loud and rewrite anything that sounds robotic.
10. 29.Preview the page on a phone and check that tables, images and buttons fit the screen.
11. 30.Add any disclaimer the topic needs, such as medical, legal, financial or affiliate disclosures.
12. 31.Show who wrote the page and when it was published.

A published page is a page you maintain.

1. 32.Confirm the page can be indexed: no noindex tag, not blocked in robots.txt, and listed in your sitemap.
2. 33.Inspect the new URL in Google Search Console and request indexing.
3. 34.Add links to the new page from the related pages you picked before writing.
4. 35.After a few weeks, read the search queries the page gets impressions for in Search Console and adjust sections to answer them better.
5. 36.If the page overlaps another page on your site, merge the two into one and 301-redirect the old URL.
6. 37.Set a date to review the page, and show a "last updated" date when you change it.
7. 38.Keep a short log of what you changed and when, so you can match changes to ranking movements later.