Standard SW-1:2026.2
The SEO Warrant of Fitness standard
This is the entire inspection standard, published in full. Every check has an objective pass criterion, a fixed weight, a severity classification and a defined remedy. Nothing is inspected that is not on this page, and nothing on this page is hidden behind a paywall or an account.
- Version
- SW-1:2026.2
- Effective
- 2026-07-01
- Checks
- 45
- Categories
- 9
- Total weight
- 100
Severity classification
Severity is fixed per check and determines how a fault affects the determination — separately from how it affects the score. This is the mechanism that stops a site with a high score but a broken robots.txt from being certified as fit.
Critical fail
Immediate fail. Certificate cannot be issued at any score.
3 checks
Major fail
Fails the item. Two or more major fails is an automatic overall fail.
10 checks
Minor fail
Fails the item and deducts weight, but does not block a pass on its own.
24 checks
Advisory
Recorded on the checksheet. Does not affect the determination.
8 checks
Categories and weights
Category weights sum to 100 and reflect how much each area determines whether a site can compete at all. Crawlability and indexation carry the most weight because a fault in either makes every other category irrelevant.
Crawlability & Access
16Can a crawler reach your pages at all, reliably and without waste?
Indexation & Canonicals
16Are the right pages indexed, once each, under the right URL?
Performance & Core Web Vitals
14Does the page load, respond and stay stable for real users?
On-Page & Content Fitness
14Does each page clearly state what it is, once, without competing with itself?
Architecture & Internal Links
11Can value and crawlers move through the site to the pages that matter?
Mobile & Accessibility
9Is the page usable on the device and by the person actually visiting?
Structured Data & Signals
8Are you signalling what you are, in a form machines can parse?
Authority & Off-Page
7What is your site emitting into, and receiving from, the wider web?
AI & Answer Engine Readiness
5Can answer engines reach, parse and correctly attribute your content?
Full check register
All 45 checks in inspection order. Select any check to read its method, pass criterion, remedy steps and verification procedure.
Crawlability & Access
weight 16 · 7 checksDoes robots.txt block any URL path that contains pages you need indexed?
Do any pages return 5xx errors or time out when crawled?
Do any internal links or redirects pass through more than one hop?
Do any internal links return 404 or 410?
Does your sitemap list only canonical, indexable, HTTP 200 URLs?
Are parameter, faceted or session URLs consuming your crawl allocation?
Do http, https, www and apex variants all resolve to one canonical host?
Indexation & Canonicals
weight 16 · 7 checksIs any page you want indexed carrying a noindex directive?
Does every indexable page declare a correct, absolute, self-referencing canonical?
What percentage of your commercially important pages are in the index?
Are thin, duplicate or auto-generated pages indexed?
Do multiple pages compete for the same query with unstable rankings?
Are paginated series and filtered views crawlable but not duplicative?
If you serve multiple locales, do hreflang annotations reciprocate correctly?
Performance & Core Web Vitals
weight 14 · 5 checksDoes your main content render for real users in under 2.5 seconds?
Does the page respond to taps and clicks within 200 ms?
Does content jump around while the page loads?
Is the page shipping more bytes than its content requires?
Are images served at the right dimensions in a modern format?
On-Page & Content Fitness
weight 14 · 7 checksDoes every indexable page have a unique, well-formed title?
Does every important page have a distinct meta description?
Does each page have exactly one H1 and a logical heading order?
Do your commercial pages have enough unique substance to compete?
Are your URLs readable, lowercase and free of unnecessary parameters?
Does the format of the page match what the search results reward?
Is any indexed content stale enough to mislead?
Architecture & Internal Links
weight 11 · 5 checksAre any indexable pages unreachable by internal links?
How many clicks does it take to reach your most valuable pages?
Do your money pages receive enough relevant internal links?
Is your main navigation built from real anchor elements?
Do deep pages show their position in the site hierarchy?
Mobile & Accessibility
weight 9 · 4 checksDoes the mobile version contain the same content, links and markup?
Is the page sized to the device with adequately spaced tap targets?
Can the page be used with a screen reader and a keyboard?
Does a popup cover the content when someone arrives from search?
Structured Data & Signals
weight 8 · 4 checksDoes your existing schema markup parse without errors?
Are you marking up the entities that matter for your business?
Does your content render correctly when shared?
Do your name, address and phone match your Business Profile exactly?
Authority & Off-Page
weight 7 · 3 checksDoes your link profile contain patterns associated with penalties?
Are external sites linking to pages that no longer resolve?
Can a machine reliably determine who you are and connect your profiles?
AI & Answer Engine Readiness
weight 5 · 3 checksHave you decided, deliberately, which AI crawlers may access your site?
Is your content in the HTML, or only after scripts run?
Can a machine lift a correct, self-contained answer from your page?
Disagree with a weight or a criterion?
Good — that is the point of publishing it. The standard is versioned and revised twice yearly, and every change is logged with the reasoning. If you can make a case that a weight is wrong or a criterion is unfair,tell us and it will be considered on the record for the next revision.