Web3 SEO Audit Checklist: 23 Checks Every Token Site Needs
The 23-point audit checklist that drives Crawlux methodology. Grouped into five categories: technical SEO, schema validation, AEO readiness, authority signals and Web3-specific checks. Use it as a self-audit reference or as the spec for an internal SEO program.
Technical SEO checks (1 to 6)
The first six checks cover technical fundamentals. If any of these fail, every other audit module measures noise. Fix these first regardless of priority elsewhere.
Check 1: Crawlability for Googlebot. Verify the homepage and at least one page per template returns HTTP 200 to Googlebot. Test with the Search Console URL Inspection tool. Fail mode: Cloudflare bot rules block Googlebot accidentally.
Check 2: Crawlability for AI bots. Test access for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended. Use curl with each user-agent. Fail mode: Cloudflare's default bot management blocks AI crawlers as a side effect.
Check 3: Server-side rendering. View the raw HTML in DevTools Network tab. The hero copy and primary CTAs should be present in the raw HTML, not loaded via JS. Fail mode: SPA frameworks ship empty HTML and hydrate later.
Check 4: Core Web Vitals. LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. Test on mobile, not desktop. Fail mode: charting libraries and animation libraries inflate LCP on token pages.
Check 5: Canonical correctness. Every page has a self-referencing canonical or a canonical pointing to the correct preferred URL. Fail mode: copying a site to a new domain leaves canonicals pointing to the old domain.
Check 6: Sitemap freshness. XML sitemap exists, is referenced in robots.txt, contains all indexable URLs and updates within 24 hours of publish. Fail mode: stale sitemaps cause Google to under-index new content.
Schema validation checks (7 to 10)
Schema is the highest-leverage AEO fix. Checks 7 through 10 catch the schema errors that actually move citation rate.
Check 7: FinancialProduct on token pages. Token landing pages use FinancialProduct schema, not Product. Verify with the Google Rich Results Test. Fail mode: framework defaults emit Product schema everywhere.
Check 8: CryptoExchange on exchange pages. Exchange pages and trading-pair pages use CryptoExchange schema with the listed pairs as Offers. Fail mode: exchanges use Organization schema only and miss the trading-pair extraction.
Check 9: Organization schema with founders. Organization schema includes founder names, foundation date and parent organization where applicable. Critical for E-E-A-T. Fail mode: minimal Organization schema with only name and URL.
Check 10: BreadcrumbList on every page. Every non-home page has BreadcrumbList schema reflecting the actual breadcrumb hierarchy. Fail mode: breadcrumbs in HTML but no corresponding schema.
AEO readiness checks (11 to 14)
AEO readiness is the four-factor model from the citation framework. Each check maps to one factor.
Check 11: Factual density above threshold. Aim for at least 3 named entities, numbers or dates per 100 words across landing pages. Below threshold the content reads as marketing rather than reference. Fail mode: hero sections that are all claims and no facts.
Check 12: AI bot allowlist explicit. robots.txt explicitly allows the seven AI bots. Cloudflare bot rules permit them. Verify with curl using each user-agent. Fail mode: implicit allow that gets overridden by edge bot management.
Check 13: Authority citations present. Landing pages cite at least three external authority sources (audit firms, academic papers, regulatory bodies, established crypto publications). Fail mode: marketing pages with zero outbound citations.
Check 14: Citation rate baseline. Run a 30-prompt baseline test across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude. Document the per-LLM and per-intent citation rate. This becomes the metric you optimize against in the next 90 days.
Authority signal checks (15 to 19)
Authority signals matter more for crypto than for almost any other vertical. Checks 15 through 19 catch the YMYL trust deficits that suppress both Google rankings and AI citations.
Check 15: Author bylines on YMYL pages. Every page involving user funds has a named author with credentials visible. Fail mode: anonymous content on token pages and exchange landing pages.
Check 16: Audit firm citations. Token landing pages and protocol pages cite at least one named audit firm with audit date and link to report. Fail mode: "audited and secure" without naming the auditor.
Check 17: Regulatory disclosures where required. Pages targeting regulated jurisdictions include the appropriate disclosures. Fail mode: US-targeted product pages with no SEC-relevant disclaimers; EU-targeted pages with no MiCA-relevant language.
Check 18: Backlink profile health. Toxic links below 5% of total profile. Crypto-tuned toxicity scoring catches what generic tools miss. Fail mode: PBN links from recycled scam-token domains accumulate without disavow.
Check 19: Crypto-native authority citations inbound. Site is cited by CoinGecko, DefiLlama, audit firms or major crypto publications. These citations transfer authority faster than generic high-DA backlinks. Fail mode: site has good generic backlinks but no crypto-native authority links.
Web3-specific checks (20 to 23)
The final four checks catch issues that are specific to crypto sites and that generic SEO audits do not test for.
Check 20: Token disambiguation. Token name does not collide with another token of the same name on a different chain. Where collision exists, the page disambiguates explicitly. Fail mode: "USDC" without specifying chain, leading to wrong-chain extraction.
Check 21: Chain-specific schema. Schema includes the chain explicitly (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Solana). Fail mode: schema implies a token without naming the chain, leading to ambiguous AI citations.
Check 22: dApp and marketing site interlinking. The dApp domain (or subdomain) links to the marketing site and vice versa with descriptive anchor text. Fail mode: dApp and marketing site treated as independent properties with minimal cross-linking.
Check 23: Smart-contract address disclosed. Token landing pages include the contract address with explorer link. Fail mode: contract address only appears in the dApp UI, not on the marketing page where AI engines look.
Using the checklist
Run all 23 checks once and score pass/fail for each. The fail count is your starting position. Re-audit at day 30, 60 and 90 to track progress. Realistic: most sites start with 8 to 12 fails out of 23 and end the 90-day cycle with 2 to 5 fails remaining.
Frequently asked
01How do I run all 23 checks?
02Which checks are most important to fix first?
03What's a realistic pass rate for the checklist?
04How often should I re-run the checklist?
05What if my site passes all 23 checks?
Continue exploring
More tactical pieces from the Crawlux blog. Picked because they relate to the topic above.
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