You do not need a tool subscription or an agency retainer to fix the most common on-page problems. You need a browser, your five most important pages, and one honest afternoon. These are the ten checks we run first on every site that comes through the studio, in order, no software required. None of them touch code beyond what your page editor already exposes, and every one of them shows up constantly on sites that otherwise look professionally built.
The ten checks
1. Title tags
Every page needs a unique title under about 60 characters that leads with what the page is about, not your brand name. "Home" is not a title. Neither is your company name five times. The title is the strongest single line of on-page copy you own. Write it like ad copy competing for the click.
2. Meta descriptions
One unique, plain-English sentence or two per page, roughly 140 to 160 characters, written to earn the click. Google rewrites weak ones, but a good one is your free ad on the results page.
3. One h1, sensible headings
Exactly one h1 per page, matching what the page delivers, with h2s and h3s in actual outline order. View source and look: page builders scramble heading hierarchy constantly, and headings are the outline machines read first.
4. The first hundred words
Does the opening paragraph state what the page is about and answer the visitor's question? Both classic rankings and AI assistants favor pages that get to the point. Cut the warm-up. If a stranger read only that first paragraph, would they know what you sell and where?
5. Internal links
Every important page should link to related pages with descriptive anchor text: "commercial roofing pricing," not "click here." Five minutes per page, and it is the most underused lever in SEO; search engines follow those links to learn what you think matters.
6. Image alt text and size
Every meaningful image gets a short, literal description. While you are in there, check file sizes: one 4MB hero image can wreck an otherwise fast page.
7. URL slugs
Short, lowercase, hyphenated, and readable: /services/business-internet beats /page?id=2847. Do not rename existing URLs casually; changing them without redirects loses the history the old address earned.
8. Freshness of key pages
Read your top pages as if you were a customer. Stale prices, dead offers, "coming in 2023": outdated details quietly tell users and machines the site is unattended. Pick your five biggest pages and read every word.
9. Mobile readability
Load each page on your phone. Text legible without zooming, buttons tappable, nothing overflowing. Most of your visitors see this version first; most owners never look at it. Google indexes the mobile version of your site, not the desktop one you designed on.
10. The one-query test
For each key page, write down the single search query it deserves to win. If you cannot name it, the page has no target ... and pages without targets rank for nothing.
What to do with what you find
Fix things in the order above; the early items carry the most weight per minute of effort. Most sites fail four or five of these checks, and clearing them is often visible in impressions within weeks. The afternoon estimate is honest, too: we have run this exact list on sites large and small, and the slowest part is deciding what each page is actually for.
If everything above passes and rankings still lag, the problem is usually deeper than the page. Start with the ten technical issues that quietly kill rankings, then look at how the site is structured. On-page polish cannot save a site machines cannot crawl.