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SEO and AI search checklist: the 12 mistakes that cost the most
Growbot · · 8 min read
Most websites don't lose visitors for lack of content but because of a few technical mistakes: blocked bots, no sitemap, duplicate titles, no structured data. This checklist sums up the twelve points from Growbot's SEO check that matter most, with what “done” means.
Can Google read your pages at all?
- robots.txt exists, doesn't block “/” and names the sitemap. Done: /robots.txt returns 200 and contains a Sitemap line.
- A sitemap with every page and language version. Done: /sitemap.xml returns valid XML without redirects or noindex pages.
- No accidental noindex. Done: no public page has “noindex” in its meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header.
- Unknown addresses return 404. Done: a made-up address answers with status 404, not 200 or a redirect to the home page.
Does the search engine understand what it's about?
- Every page has its own title of 30 to 60 characters. Duplicate titles make Google guess which page is meant.
- Every page has its own description of 70 to 160 characters. It's your ad copy in the search result.
- Exactly one H1 per page that names the page's topic.
- Canonical and hreflang: every page points to itself, language versions point to each other, plus x-default.
Can AI quote your page?
- AI search bots are allowed (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and the user bots).
- Answer first: the first paragraph answers the page's main question in two or three sentences.
- Structured data: Organization on the home page, Product or SoftwareApplication with a price, FAQPage for questions and answers.
- Open Graph with title, description and a 1200 × 630 image, so shared links don't look empty.
What's the fastest way to fix this?
Start with what adds the most points: lift blocks, sitemap, titles and descriptions. Structured data and answer-first copy follow.
For every issue Growbot writes a fix prompt with steps, acceptance criteria and pitfalls. Paste it into Claude Code or Cursor and the agent applies the fix in your code.