A website built with AI can rank in search just as well as one built by hand. Search engines care about whether a page is useful, fast and easy to understand, not about which tool wrote the code. But AI tools have predictable blind spots. They produce a good-looking page and skip the details that decide whether anyone finds it.

This checklist covers those details. Each item explains what to check, why it matters and, where it helps, a prompt you can give your AI to fix it. Work through it before you publish, and again after any large change.

First, a note on AI-written content

Google has said that it does not penalize content only because AI helped produce it. What it targets is content made mainly to manipulate rankings, such as large numbers of low-value pages, whatever tool created them. Its own guidance asks whether content is helpful, original and written for people.

In practice, that means two things for you:

  • A small site with pages you reviewed and made accurate is fine.
  • Dozens of near-identical pages generated in bulk to catch searches is the pattern to avoid.

Read Google’s documentation on spam policies and on AI-generated content for the current wording, because the guidance changes over time.

Technical foundation

1. Make sure the site is not set to noindex

This is the number one mistake. Many templates and AI tools add <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> while you build, so the unfinished site does not appear in search. If it is still there at launch, search engines will never list your pages.

Check by viewing the page source (right-click, view source) and searching for noindex. Also check your hosting dashboard, since some hosts add a noindex header to preview sites.

Search the whole project for "noindex" and "nofollow". List every match and tell me whether it is meant to be there.

2. Use HTTPS and one canonical address

Your site should load on https:// only. Decide whether you use www or not, and redirect the other version to it. Add a canonical link on every page that points to its preferred URL, so search engines do not treat duplicates as separate pages.

3. Add a sitemap and a robots.txt

A sitemap is a file, usually at /sitemap.xml, that lists your public pages. A robots.txt file at /robots.txt tells crawlers what they may visit and where the sitemap is. Astro has a sitemap integration, or you can generate the file yourself.

Add a sitemap.xml that lists every public page, and a robots.txt that allows all crawlers and points to the sitemap. Do not list pages that should stay private.

4. Make it fast on mobile

Most searches happen on phones, and speed is part of the page experience that Google measures. Run a Lighthouse report on mobile and look at the three Core Web Vitals: how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to input and whether the layout jumps.

The usual causes of slow AI-built sites are oversized images and too many fonts or scripts. Resize images to the size they are shown, use a modern format such as WebP and set width and height so the layout does not jump.

On-page basics

5. Give every page a unique title

The title is the strongest on-page signal and it is what people see in results. Keep it around 50 to 60 characters, put the main topic first and make each page’s title different.

Weak: Home, Untitled or My Website. Better: Portfolio of a brand designer in Lisbon.

6. Write a meta description for every page

The description does not directly change rankings, but it is often the text shown under your result, so it affects whether people click. Aim for one or two sentences, around 150 characters, that say what the page offers.

For every page, set a unique <title> (50-60 characters) and meta description (about 150 characters). Base them on the page's real content. List the old and new values when you are done.

7. Use one H1 and a clear heading order

Each page needs one <h1> that states the topic, followed by <h2> sections and <h3> subsections in order. Do not choose a heading level by how large it looks. Use CSS for the size. AI tools sometimes produce several <h1> elements or skip levels, so check.

8. Write descriptive image alt text

Alt text helps accessibility and gives search engines context for an image. Describe what the image shows in a short phrase. Decorative images, like a background shape, should have an empty alt="" so screen readers skip them.

Avoid stuffing keywords. “Product photo” is weak, and “Matte black ceramic mug on a wooden desk” is useful.

9. Use clean, readable URLs

/services/web-design/ is better than /page?id=482. Keep URLs short, in lowercase, with hyphens between words, and do not change them after launch without adding redirects.

Internal links help visitors and help search engines discover and understand your pages. Link to related pages with descriptive text, such as “see our pricing” rather than “click here”. Every page should be reachable from the navigation or another page.

Content quality

11. Replace every placeholder

Templates and AI drafts are full of placeholders: lorem ipsum, “Your Company”, fake testimonials and sample email addresses. Search the project and replace or remove each one before launch. Placeholder text on a live site signals low quality to people and to search engines.

Search the project for "lorem", "ipsum", "example.com", "your company", "placeholder" and "TODO". List each match with its file so I can replace it.

12. Check every claim the AI wrote

AI tools sometimes invent facts: numbers, awards, customer names and features. Read each claim and keep only what is true. This protects your reputation and avoids misleading people. Do not publish statistics or testimonials you cannot back up.

13. Say something only you can say

Pages that repeat what every similar site says have little reason to rank. Add what is specific to you: your process, real examples, photos, prices, answers to the questions your customers actually ask. First-hand detail is the difference between a useful page and a generic one, and it is also what AI assistants quote when they recommend a site. We cover that in How to get your website recommended by AI chatbots.

Structure and tracking

14. Add structured data where it fits

Structured data is a small block of code that describes your page in a format search engines understand. Common types are Organization for your business, WebSite, Article for blog posts, Product for things you sell and FAQPage for a list of questions and answers. It does not guarantee a special result, but it removes ambiguity.

Here is a minimal Organization example:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Your Business Name",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "logo": "https://example.com/logo.png"
}
</script>

Only mark up content that is actually visible on the page, and test it with Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator.

15. Connect Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

These free tools show whether your pages are indexed, which searches bring visitors and what errors exist. Verify your site in both, submit your sitemap and use the URL inspection tool to request indexing of your key pages. Bing matters more than people expect, because some AI assistants and search tools rely on its index.

Check back after a few days. If a page is not indexed, the tools usually tell you why.

The 15-point list in one place

  1. No stray noindex anywhere
  2. HTTPS and a single canonical address
  3. Sitemap and robots.txt
  4. Good Core Web Vitals on mobile
  5. Unique page titles
  6. Unique meta descriptions
  7. One H1 and an ordered heading structure
  8. Meaningful image alt text
  9. Clean URLs
  10. Internal links between pages
  11. No placeholders left
  12. Every claim verified
  13. Original, specific content
  14. Structured data that matches the page
  15. Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools connected

Start from a template that gets the basics right

Starting with a template whose structure is clean makes most of this list easier. Every Weblisy template is an Astro project built to be edited with AI, and our guide to choosing an Astro template shows what to check in the code. For a way to ask your AI to do an audit, see How to write AI prompts that build better websites.