The Complete Next.js SEO Checklist for Business Websites

Next.js App Router is one of the most SEO-friendly frameworks available — but only if you use it correctly. This checklist covers everything we implement on every Softotic client website, from basic metadata to advanced structured data.

✅ 1. Metadata API (App Router)

Use Next.js's typed Metadata API — never inject tags manually in .

``typescript


export const metadata: Metadata = {

  title: {

    default: "Softotic | Enterprise Software",

    template: "%s | Softotic",

  },

  description: "Your concise page description here.",

  alternates: { canonical: "https://example.com/page" },

  openGraph: {

    title: "Page Title | Softotic",

    description: "...",

    images: [{ url: "/og-image.jpg", width: 1200, height: 630 }],

  },

};




Checklist:
[ ] Title template set at root layout
[ ] Unique description per page (150–160 chars)
[ ] Canonical URL on every page
[ ] OpenGraph title, description, image
[ ] Twitter card metadata

[ ] robots meta respects noindex flags




✅ 2. Structured Data (JSON-LD)


Google uses JSON-LD to understand your site and generate rich results.



Must-implement schemas:
Organization — sitewide in root layout
WebSite with SearchAction — sitewide
Service — on every service page
Article — on every blog post
BreadcrumbList — on all detail pages
Review/AggregateRating — on testimonials page

typescript
// Inject in  via dangerouslySetInnerHTML