robots.txt exists and doesn't block anything important
A single stray Disallow can remove your whole site from search. Check yoursite.com/robots.txt.
An XML sitemap exists and is submitted to Search Console
This is how Google discovers pages efficiently, especially on a newer domain.
Every important page returns HTTP 200 and is indexable
Search for site:yourdomain.com — if the count is far below your page count, something is blocking indexation.
No accidental noindex tags on live pages
Staging noindex tags shipped to production are one of the most common and most costly SEO mistakes.
One canonical hostname — www or bare, not both
Serving both creates duplicate content and splits your link equity in half.

Every page has a unique title under about 60 characters
Duplicate titles tell Google your pages are interchangeable.
Every page has a unique meta description under 160 characters
Doesn't rank you directly, but drives click-through, which does matter.
Exactly one H1 per page, describing that page
Multiple or missing H1s muddy the page's topic signal.
Heading hierarchy is semantic, not visual
H2s and H3s should mark real sections, not just be text that needed to be bigger.
URLs are readable and keyword-relevant
/services/web-development beats /page?id=47.

Organization or LocalBusiness schema on every page
Establishes entity identity and feeds knowledge panels.
BreadcrumbList schema implemented
Produces the breadcrumb trail in search results instead of a raw URL.
FAQPage schema where you have genuine FAQs
Can earn expanded listings, which take more space in results.
Schema validates without errors
Test with Google's Rich Results Test — invalid markup is simply ignored.

Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5s on mobile
The headline metric. Usually driven by images, fonts or slow server response.
Interaction to Next Paint under 200ms
Measures responsiveness. Usually a heavy-JavaScript problem.
Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1
Set explicit width and height on images; reserve space for ads and embeds.
Images are lazy-loaded and served in modern formats
WebP or AVIF, sized to their display dimensions.

The site is genuinely usable on a 360px phone
Google indexes mobile-first. If it breaks on mobile, that's the version being ranked.
HTTPS with a valid certificate, forced by redirect
A baseline trust signal; mixed content warnings undo it.

SEO Readiness Check

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