This is one of the most common questions you’ll get asked as an SEO. To help you, here’s a checklist with basic SEO diagnostics questions to ask, as well as areas to analyze and type of tools to use. You can also copy the checklist from Google Sheets here.
Questions
Elements To Analyze and Optimize
Is the page Crawlable?
[Technical]
Crawlability (HTTP status, robots.txt, Google Search Console URL Parameters tool).
Use Google Search Console, SEO Crawlers.
Is the page Indexable?
[Technical]
Indexability (Meta robots, X-Robots-Tag, canonicalization, Google Search Console Page Removal, etc.)
Use Google Search Console, SEO Crawlers.
Is the Page Content More Relevant than the Top Ranked Pages for Target Queries?
[Content]
Content relevance (descriptive text, images, videos, structured data usage).
Use SEO Crawlers, Content Optimization Tools.
Is the Page Content more Helpful/Comprehensive/Authoritative than Top Ranked Pages to Fulfill User Search Needs?
[Content]
Content quality (comprehensiveness, uniqueness, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness).
Use Content Optimization Tools.
Is the Page giving a Good User Experience (good core web vitals, mobile friendly, https, no intrusive interstitials) that is better than the Top Ranked Pages for Target Queries?
[Technical]
HTTPS, Mobile Friendliness, Core Web Vitals, No Intrusive Interstitials
Use Google Search Console, SEO Crawlers, Page Speed Tools.
Is the Page linked internally from the site navigation and related site pages with crawlable, followed links and included in XML sitemap?
[Technical]
Internal linking, XML sitemap
Use Google Search Console, SEO Crawlers.
Is the Page attracting More and Better Quality Links from Authoritative & Relevant Sites than Top Ranked Pages for Target Queries?
[Promotion]
Backlinks and Linking Sites Quantity, Quality, Relevance
Use Google Search Console, Backlinks Tools.
Are the relevant, high quality backlinks pointing to the page being disavowed?
[Promotion]
Google Search Console Disavow Configuration
Use Google Search Console.
Is the page affected by a Google Manual Action?
[Content/Technical/Promotion]
Google Search Console Manual Actions Report
Use Google Search Console.
Is the Page search result appearance more descriptive, attractive and compelling for Target Queries vs top ranked pages, leveraging available search features to maximize CTR?
[Content/Technical]
Search snippet and features, structured data usage
Use Google Search Results.
A Google Sheets Resource To Copy
To facilitate the usage and sharing of these questions, I’ve created a Google Sheets featuring them that you can copy here and use as a checklist when going through them in your SEO validation.