Discovery and access
Confirm that important pages are reachable through normal links, return appropriate status codes, and are not accidentally blocked. Review robots rules and XML sitemaps as hints, not guarantees. Orphan pages and endless parameter combinations are more actionable than a raw crawl-count headline.
Indexing intent
Decide which page types should appear in search. Check canonical targets, redirects, noindex directives, and duplicate clusters against that intent. A canonical tag does not repair weak architecture by itself. Internal links, consistent URLs, and unique value should point in the same direction.
Rendering and content
Verify that essential headings, copy, links, and structured data are present in rendered output. Test without assuming every crawler executes the page exactly like a modern browser. Avoid hiding the primary answer behind interaction, authentication, or client-side failure.
- Key templates return 200
- Canonical targets are indexable
- Primary content renders
- Sitemap contains preferred URLs
Close with ownership
Give each issue an owner, affected template, evidence link, risk, and verification method. Separate blockers from enhancements. A prioritized backlog of ten verified issues is more useful than a 500-row export that nobody can act on.
Primary references
Sources are provided for policy and technical context. External pages can change after our review date.
Prepared by the SiteSignal Hub research desk. This article is educational and does not guarantee search rankings, advertising approval, or business results. Read our editorial standard.