SEO QA Framework
SEO QA (quality assurance) ensures that changes to your site — content, code, templates, or configuration — do not introduce SEO issues.
After this lesson you can implement pre-publish checks, technical QA, content QA, schema QA, redirect QA, and release QA processes.
This lesson covers the seven QA areas (leaves 11.1.1–11.1.7): pre-publish checks, technical QA, content QA, schema QA, redirect QA, internal link QA, and release QA.
Pre-Publish Checks
Checklist completed before any content or code goes live.
Pre-publish checklist:
| Check | Tool | Pass Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Meta tags (title, description) | Crawler or manual | Present, unique, within length limits |
| H1 presence | Crawler or manual | One H1, matches page purpose |
| Robots directives | Crawler | Correct index/follow status |
| Canonical tag | Crawler | Self-canonical with absolute URL |
| Noindex check | Crawler | No accidental noindex on valuable pages |
| Broken links | Crawler | No 4xx/5xx internal links |
| Schema validation | Rich Results Test | No errors |
| Image alt text | Crawler | Present on all meaningful images |
| Page speed | Lighthouse (staging) | LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1 |
| Mobile rendering | Lighthouse (mobile audit) | No errors |
Technical QA
Technical QA verifies that infrastructure and template changes do not break SEO configurations.
Technical QA checks:
| Check | Method |
|---|---|
| Robots.txt | Validate with GSC tester |
| XML sitemap | Validate against schema |
| Hreflang tags | Check bidirectional correctness |
| Canonical implementation | Crawl + verify pattern |
| Redirect mapping | Manual spot-check of 20 redirects |
| Core Web Vitals | Compare pre/post deployment |
| Index coverage | GSC comparison |
| Server response | Check for 5xx errors |
Content QA
Content QA verifies that published content meets editorial and SEO standards.
Content QA checks:
| Check | Standard |
|---|---|
| Target query match | Content addresses the target query |
| Keyword integration | Primary and secondary keywords integrated naturally |
| Readability | Grade 8-10 for general audience |
| Factual accuracy | Claims verified against sources |
| Citations | Sources linked and valid |
| Internal links | Include relevant internal links to related content. The number depends on content length and context. Ensure each link adds navigation and topical value. |
| CTA | Clear call to action matching page intent |
| Uniqueness | Content should be substantially differentiated from other pages on the same topic. While no fixed uniqueness threshold exists publicly, aim for clear differentiation in angle, depth, or data. |
Schema QA
Schema QA verifies that structured data is correctly implemented.
Schema QA checks:
| Check | Tool |
|---|---|
| Schema type matches content | Manual review |
| All required properties present | Rich Results Test |
| No erroneous properties | Schema.org validation |
| Schema matches visible content | Manual review |
| No duplicate schema blocks | Manual or crawl review |
| JSON-LD syntax valid | JSON validator |
Redirect QA
Redirect QA verifies that redirects are correctly implemented.
Redirect QA checks:
| Check | Method |
|---|---|
| Source URL returns 301 | Crawler or curl |
| Destination URL returns 200 | Crawler or curl |
| No redirect chains (1 hop max) | Crawler redirect chain report |
| No redirect loops | Crawler check |
| Destination is relevant | Manual review (content match) |
| Sitemap updated (no redirected URLs) | Sitemap review |
Internal Link QA
Internal link QA verifies that linking changes do not break navigation or equity flow.
Internal link QA checks:
| Check | Method |
|---|---|
| No broken internal links | Crawler |
| No orphaned important pages | Cross-reference crawl with page inventory |
| Anchor text is descriptive | Sample check |
| Link count per page is reasonable | Crawler (evaluate for potential link dilution — too many links per page can dilute the equity each link passes; too few can starve important pages) |
| Breadcrumb links resolve correctly | Sample check |
Release QA
Release QA is the final validation before a deployment goes live.
Release QA workflow:
- Review all changes in staging.
- Run pre-publish checklist on a sample of affected pages.
- Verify no unintended site-wide changes (noindex, robots, canonical).
- Deploy to production.
- Monitor post-release: GSC crawl errors, index coverage, traffic.
- If critical issue found: roll back or hotfix.