The key points at a glance
- Technology first: Without clean fundamentals, even the best copy achieves little. The good news: most errors are quick to fix.
- Check it yourself: Our free SEO check tests over 20 points and explains each one in plain language.
- Content decides: Whether your page answers your customers’ questions remains the most important factor. No tool can measure that.
Title, description and headings
The page title is the blue line in the Google search result. It should be 30 to 60 characters long, have the most important keyword at the front, and read differently on every page. Good: “Joinery in Bern: made-to-measure kitchens | Muster AG”. Bad: “Home”.
The meta description sits below the title. It barely affects ranking, but it strongly affects whether someone clicks. 70 to 160 characters, a clear benefit, an invitation to act.
The H1 heading is the main heading on the page. Exactly one per page, followed by H2 and H3 in logical order, like a table of contents. This helps Google and people using a screen reader.
Can Google find your page at all?
| Check point | What it’s about | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Status code | The page responds without an error | 200 |
| noindex | A leftover from development blocks the page from Google | none |
| robots.txt | The file gives search engines rules and names the sitemap | present |
| XML sitemap | The list of all pages, so Google doesn’t miss any | present |
| Canonical | The preferred address, for instance with or without www | set |
| hreflang | Links language versions, only relevant with several languages | as needed |
The most common costly mistake after a relaunch: the new website stays blocked with “noindex” or “Disallow: /” because the setting was carried over from the test phase. More on this in the relaunch checklist.
Content, images and structured data
- Enough text: A page with 80 words gives Google little to go on. Plan for 300 words or more on important pages, written for people, not machines.
- Alt text: Every meaningful image needs a short description. It helps blind people and Google Image Search. Purely decorative images get an empty alt="".
- Structured data: With Schema.org markup (JSON-LD) you tell Google and AI search engines clearly what your company is called, where it’s located and when it’s open. This is also the basis for SEO for AI search.
- Social media preview: With og:title and og:image, shared links appear with an image and title instead of a bare address.
- Language and favicon: lang="en" (or your page’s language, e.g. lang="de-CH") in the HTML, and a favicon that Google displays next to your search result.
Speed and technology
More than half of visits come from smartphones, often on the go. That’s why these matter:
- HTTPS with a valid certificate, with no files still loading over http:// (mixed content).
- A fast server response, under 600 milliseconds. Caching and good hosting make the difference here.
- Compression with gzip or Brotli, so less data travels across the network.
- Few scripts: Every plugin, every tracker and every chat widget costs loading time.
- A viewport tag, so the page doesn’t appear on mobile as a shrunk-down desktop version.
What no tool can judge
An SEO check measures technology. Whether you get found ultimately comes down to three things that can’t be checked automatically: whether your page answers the question better than the competition, whether other websites link to you, and whether your Google Business Profile is kept up to date. A tool also only sees what’s in the HTML. Content that only loads later via JavaScript stays hidden from it, and sometimes from Google too.
A green SEO check is the entry ticket, not the win. You win with content that really helps your customers.
Check your website now
The free SEO check tests your page in seconds and explains every point. Would rather not fix the issues yourself? Book a free initial consultation.
