How to fix the issues the audit finds
The audit tells you what is wrong on a page. This section explains why each check matters and what a good fix looks like, category by category.
Meta tags
| Check | Why it matters | Good practice |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | The clickable headline in search results and the strongest on-page hint about the topic. | Unique per page, main topic near the start, roughly 50–60 characters so it is not cut off. |
| Meta description | Often used as the snippet under the title. It does not directly affect rankings, but it affects whether people click. | Around 150–160 characters, written for a human: what the page offers and why to click. |
| Canonical URL | Tells search engines which address is the “real” one when the same content is reachable at several URLs. | One canonical per page, pointing at the clean, preferred URL — usually the page itself. |
| Robots directives | A stray noindex keeps a page out of Google entirely. | Only use noindex on pages you deliberately want hidden, such as thank-you or internal search pages. |
| Open Graph tags | Control the title, description and image shown when the page is shared on social platforms and in chat apps. | Set og:title, og:description and an og:image that looks right as a preview card. |
| Language attribute | Helps browsers, screen readers and search engines understand which language the page is in. | Add lang="en" (or your language) to the <html> tag. |
Content structure
Use exactly one H1 that states what the page is about — usually close to the title tag. Missing H1s leave the topic ambiguous; several H1s dilute it.
Keep headings in order. H2s for main sections, H3s for sub-points inside them. Skipping levels, or using headings just to make text bigger, makes the page harder to scan for both readers and search engines.
Treat word count as a symptom, not a target. A “thin content” warning means the page may not say enough to be useful. The fix is not padding — it is answering the questions a visitor actually has: how it works, who it is for, what it costs, how it compares.
Images
Alt text describes an image for people using screen readers and for search engines, which cannot see pictures. Write what the image shows in a short, specific phrase — “bar chart of monthly traffic, up 40% since March” rather than “chart” or a list of keywords. Purely decorative images should have an empty alt="" so screen readers skip them. The audit lists every image missing alt text by name, so you can fix them one by one in your CMS.
Links
Anchor text should describe the destination. “Read our shipping policy” tells users and search engines what is on the other side; “click here” does not. Links with empty anchor text — typically an icon or image link with no label — give no information at all; add an aria-label or alt text to the image inside.
Use internal links generously. They help visitors find related pages and help search engines discover and understand how your pages relate. Use nofollow deliberately — for paid, sponsored or user-submitted links — not by default on every outbound link.
Technical
- HTTPS is expected on every page; browsers label plain HTTP pages as “Not secure”.
- Viewport meta tag — without
<meta name="viewport">, phones render the desktop layout zoomed out. Google indexes the mobile version of your pages, so this matters. - Structured data (JSON-LD) describes the page in a machine-readable way — a product, an article, an FAQ — and can make it eligible for richer search results.
- Script count is a rough performance signal. Dozens of scripts usually mean slow pages; audit plugins, trackers and widgets you no longer need.
- hreflang only matters if you publish the same page in several languages or regions. It tells Google which version to show to which audience.
What an SEO score can and cannot tell you
The 0–100 score measures on-page SEO hygiene: the things you control on the page itself. A high score means search engines can read, understand and present the page properly. That is the foundation — but it is not the whole picture.
Rankings also depend on whether the content is the best answer to the search, on the page’s real-world speed and usability, and on links from other websites. No on-page checker can measure those. Use the score to make sure nothing basic is holding a page back, then spend your remaining effort on the content itself.
Tip: run the audit on the page that currently ranks first for your target search. Comparing its headings, word count and structure against your own page is one of the quickest ways to see what your page is missing.
A 10-minute on-page checklist
- Run the audit and note the score and grade.
- Fix every red Fail first — these are missing or broken elements.
- Rewrite the title and meta description if they are missing, duplicated or the wrong length.
- Check there is one clear H1 and that H2s outline the page logically.
- Add alt text to every image the audit lists.
- Replace “click here” and empty anchors with descriptive link text.
- Confirm the canonical points at the right URL and there is no accidental
noindex. - Publish, then run the audit again to confirm the fixes took effect.