Case: A publish checklist that lifted indexed pages from 62% to 94%

Case: A publish checklist that lifted indexed pages from 62% to 94%

A content site published 200 SEO articles but only 62% got indexed. Audit showed missing canonicals and orphan pages. They added a pre-publish gate.

Run this whenever an article moves to 'ready to publish'.

Stage 1 — On-page (Owner: editor)
☐ Title under 60 chars, one H1 only
☐ Meta description written, 140-160 chars
☐ Canonical tag points to self

Stage 2 — Linking (Owner: editor)
☐ 3+ internal links in, 2 out to relevant pages
☐ Added to a hub/category page (no orphans)

Stage 3 — Submit (Owner: SEO)
☐ URL added to sitemap
☐ Requested indexing in Search Console

Trigger: article status set to ready.
Done-when: all boxes ticked, URL appears in sitemap.

Result: indexation rate 62% to 94% over two months. ~50 extra pages earning traffic.

Save this. Run it every time.