This Policy Set checks many of the same things that would be highlighted in a page check using Google Lighthouse. Google Lighthouse is a tool that audits websites for quality, including SEO.
Checks in this Policy Set
Outdated HTML elements used
This flags pages for the use of font, b, i, and applet elements within page source code
Open Graph Tag Checks
Open Graph content is used when sharing links on Facebook, Slack, Linkedin, and Twitter. Including Open Graph content can impact click-through rates for social shares.
Open Graph tag missing - og:description
This flags pages that do not contain an Open Graph description.
Open Graph tag missing - og:url
This flags pages that do not contain an Open Graph url.
Open Graph tag missing - og:image
This flags pages that do not contain an Open Graph image. The og:image is an image intended to represent this webpage on a card. The ideal aspect ratio should be 1.91:1 and the resolution should be 1,200 px x 627 px.
Open Graph tag missing - og:title
This flags pages that do not contain an Open Graph title.
Does not have a <meta name="viewport"> tag with width or initial-scale
The viewport meta tag helps optimize webpages’ display for mobile devices. Many search engines rank pages based on how mobile-friendly they are.
Links that cannot be crawled for SEO
Google can follow links only if they are an <a> tag with an href attribute. Links that use other formats won’t be followed by Google’s crawlers. Google cannot follow <a> links without an href attribute or other tags that perform as links because of script events.
Link that cannot be crawled for SEO - nonstandard element has href
Flags pages that have a non-link element (not an <a>) that contains an href attribute.
Link that cannot be crawled for SEO - unable to distinguish link URL
Flags pages that have link <a> elements that don’t contain an href attribute OR Links that contain an href attribute but not a valid URL (including href=‘#’).
Page is blocked from indexing
Some HTTP headers and meta tags tell crawlers that a page shouldn’t be indexed. This policy flags pages that contain a <meta> tag that doesn’t allow indexing of the page. Search engines can only show pages in their search results if those pages don’t explicitly block indexing by search engine crawlers.
Link points to content that requires a plug-in
Search engines often can’t index content that relies on browser plugins, such as Java or Flash. That means plugin-based content doesn’t show up in search results. Many mobile devices also can not display content that requires a plug-in.
It is recommended to convert plugin-based content to HTML. This policy flags pages with links containing an extension that indicates that the URL points to content that would require a user to have a plug-in for access.