On-Page SEO Checklist: 12 Fixes for Your Business Website

Most advice about ranking on Google jumps straight to backlinks and content marketing. But when we audit Nigerian business websites, the biggest problems are usually on the site itself: pages Google can't find, titles it cuts off, images that slow every page down. These are fixes you control completely, and they're the foundation everything else builds on. Work through this checklist page by page.

1. Give Every Page a Unique, Specific Title. The title tag is the blue headline people click in Google. Put the main search phrase near the start — for example 'Web Design Company in Lagos' rather than 'Home' — and keep it under about 60 characters so Google doesn't cut it off. Every page needs its own title; duplicates confuse Google about which page to show.

2. Write a Meta Description That Earns the Click. The description under your title doesn't directly affect rankings, but it decides whether people click. Keep it under about 155 characters, say what the page offers, and include something concrete — your location, a starting price, or a clear next step. If you rank on page one but few people click, this is usually the first thing to fix.

3. Use Exactly One H1 Per Page. The H1 is the main heading on the page. It should describe the page's topic and normally include its main phrase. Then use H2s for the main sections and H3s inside them, without skipping levels. This helps both Google and visitors using screen readers understand how the page is organised.

4. Keep URLs Short and Readable. A URL like /web-design-company-ikeja tells Google and people exactly what the page is about. Avoid long strings of numbers, dates or random characters, use hyphens between words, and don't change a URL once a page is ranking — if you must, add a permanent (301) redirect from the old address.

5. Link Your Own Pages Together. Google discovers and values pages largely through links. A page that nothing links to — not your menu, not your footer, not another page — may never be indexed at all. Link your important service and location pages from the homepage and footer, and link related blog posts to each other using descriptive text, not 'click here'.

6. Compress Images and Add Alt Text. Large photos are the most common reason Nigerian business sites load slowly on mobile data. Resize images to the size they're displayed at and use modern formats like WebP. Give each meaningful image a short alt text describing it; it helps accessibility and image search.

7. Make the Site Fast on a Phone. Google measures how quickly your main content appears, how soon the page responds to taps and how much the layout jumps around while loading. Heavy sliders, autoplay videos, too many tracking scripts and large hero images are the usual culprits. Test on a real mid-range Android phone, not just your office laptop.

8. Add Structured Data. Schema markup is code that tells Google facts about your business in a format it reads directly — your name, address, phone, opening hours, reviews and FAQs. It can make your listing more informative in search results. Use LocalBusiness or Organization schema sitewide and FAQ schema on pages with genuine questions and answers.

9. Set the Canonical URL. If the same page can load at more than one address (with and without www, with and without a trailing slash), tell Google which version is the real one with a canonical tag, and redirect the others to it. This prevents your ranking signals being split across duplicates.

10. Verify Your Site in Google Search Console. Search Console is free and shows exactly what Google sees: which searches you appear for, your average position and click-through rate, and which pages are or aren't indexed. Submit your sitemap there so Google knows every page you want indexed.

11. Fix What Search Console Reports. Check the Pages report regularly. 'Not found (404)' pages with a real replacement should redirect to it. 'Discovered – currently not indexed' often means Google hasn't prioritised the page — usually because few pages link to it. 'Crawled – currently not indexed' often means Google read the page and didn't think it was useful enough; that's a signal to improve the content.

12. Make Each Page Genuinely Useful. Finally, the content itself. A page that answers the visitor's real questions — what you offer, how much it costs, how long it takes, why they should trust you — will outperform a thin page stuffed with keywords. Write for the customer first; the right keywords tend to follow naturally.

On-page SEO isn't a one-time job, but once these basics are in place, every other effort — content, Google Business Profile, reviews and links — works much harder. If you'd like a second pair of eyes, Slatech Solutions offers a free website review and will tell you which of these fixes matter most for your site.