Use this checklist on your homepage, a priority service or product page, and the page where people contact or buy from you. Add other pages when they represent a different template or customer journey.
Mark each item as checked, needs work, or not applicable. Keep an evidence URL or a short note beside it. An unknown should remain unknown until someone checks it. This is a working record for your team, not a ranking score.
1. Can visitors and crawlers reach the important pages?
Open each priority URL without signing in. Check that it displays the intended content, including on a phone. Ask whoever manages the site to inspect status codes, indexing directives, crawler rules, and firewall challenges.
A successful browser visit does not prove that every crawler receives the same response. Check the relevant request and logs before changing a security rule. Google's minimum technical requirements provide a useful starting reference.
- Record. The exact URL, response status, any redirect, and whether the page is intentionally public.
- Fix first. Broken pages, unintended access restrictions, or a canonical URL pointing at unrelated content.
2. Is the important information available as text?
Compare what you can see on the page with its initial HTML and its rendered output. Check the business name, service description, product details, and contact information. A graphic with a price list may look good while making the details hard to extract or access.
Do not assume all JavaScript sites are unreadable. Identify the specific information missing from the response you tested and how the relevant crawler handles it. Give your developer a reproducible example.
- Record. One missing or inaccessible fact, the affected page, and the request or view where it is absent.
- Fix first. Essential offer details that only exist in images or inaccessible interactions.
3. Do the business facts agree?
Check your trading name, contact details, opening hours, service areas, credentials, and current offer. Compare the homepage with service pages and public profiles you control.
List exceptions explicitly. If weekend appointments require advance booking, say so. If a service is available only in certain locations, list those actual locations. Avoid adding places merely because someone might search for them.
- Record. The fact, its approved source, the pages that use it, and the person who can confirm changes.
- Fix first. Conflicting names, outdated phone numbers, or unsupported availability claims.
4. Can a buyer judge whether you are suitable?
Ask someone outside the business to read the priority page. Can they explain who the offer suits, what is included, what is excluded, and what they need to do next? Give them an actual customer question to answer from the page.
If price depends on the job, explain what determines it and how an estimate works. You do not need to invent a fixed price to make the buying process clear.
- Record. The question, the page that answers it, and the missing information.
- Fix first. Broad promises where a customer needs scope, eligibility, timing, or an explanation of cost.
5. Can someone inspect the evidence?
Support important claims with a demonstration, documented project, customer study, or appropriate independent source. Explain the conditions under which a result was measured.
Keep the measurement name beside the number. A rise in crawler requests should remain a crawler metric. A customer result should identify the period and what changed. Publish private details only with permission.
- Record. The claim, supporting material, time period, and any limitation that changes its interpretation.
- Fix first. Statistics with no source, invented reviews, or conclusions that the evidence does not support.
6. Can people discover the useful pages?
Follow the site's own navigation to the pages you want people to read. Link a detailed guide from the relevant service page, and link a case study from the offer it demonstrates.
Use descriptive link text so a visitor knows what to expect. Google recommends crawlable links with a real destination. A published URL that nobody can find through the site still needs attention.
- Record. The page containing the link, its destination, and why it belongs there.
- Fix first. Useful pages with no relevant internal links or links leading to errors.
7. Does the next step work?
Test the form, booking link, phone number, or checkout appropriate to the offer. Use an agreed test procedure so you do not create an accidental order or appointment.
Check where an enquiry arrives and who responds. A website can explain the business perfectly while losing the customer at this final step.
- Record. The tested path, the receiving team, and any failure.
- Fix first. A broken or confusing contact path before commissioning more traffic-focused content.
8. Can you tell whether the work helped?
Keep a dated baseline for your chosen questions and pages. Record mentions, citations, visits, and qualified enquiries separately. Preserve the full answer and source when checking an assistant.
Assign the next review date and an owner for unresolved items. Use the checklist findings to choose a small first batch of work. Repeat the affected checks after publication instead of treating the act of publishing as completion.
Common questions
Does passing the checklist mean I will appear in AI answers?
No. It helps you find access, information, and measurement problems. An engine still chooses which sources to use for each question.
What does Appear's free scan check?
It checks technical readiness, including crawler access and the first HTML response. It does not establish how often your business is recommended, whether every claim is accurate, or whether the contact journey works.
How often should I repeat it?
Repeat the relevant checks after major website changes and when business facts change. Set a regular review that your team can sustain, with a named owner for each unresolved item.