Detailed SEO Extension 2025: Install & Workflows

If you want fast, accurate on-page checks without firing up a crawler, the Detailed SEO Extension gives you instant answers directly in your browser. In this guide, you’ll learn what it does, how to install it, how each tab maps to real SEO tasks, how to handle edge cases, and when to use alternatives.

What Is the Detailed SEO Extension? (1‑Minute Answer)

Summary:

• What it is: a free, on-demand technical SEO inspector for any page you open.
• Why it’s useful: confirms indexability and on-page essentials in seconds—no crawl setup required.
• Who it’s for: SEOs, content teams, and site owners doing quick audits and pre-publish checks.

The Detailed SEO Extension is a free technical SEO Chrome extension that analyzes any page you visit and surfaces key on-page elements in organized tabs. In seconds, you can review titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, headings, links, images, schema, robots signals, sitemaps/robots.txt, and indexability.

• Value props: free, instant on-page analysis, no crawl setup, tab-by-tab clarity, copy/export-friendly.
• Ideal for: SEOs, content teams, and site owners doing quick audits, competitive snapshots, and pre-publish checks.

Is it free, safe, and who makes it? Permissions, privacy, and ownership

It’s free and published by Detailed (the SEO blog/brand founded by Glen Allsopp). Like most analysis tools, it needs permission to read page content you open so it can parse tags and links. In Chrome, this shows as “Read and change your data on the websites you visit.” This enables local DOM inspection—not account access.

For privacy, processing is generally done client-side. Still, always verify. Check the Chrome Web Store “Privacy practices” and inspect the extension’s options. Use DevTools > Network to confirm no outbound calls when toggling tabs.

For GDPR/client safety, avoid auditing sensitive internal URLs. Get client sign-off for tooling in your SOPs.

Supported browsers and versions: Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Firefox status, and dark mode

The Detailed SEO Chrome extension is built for Chromium-based browsers:

• Chrome: full support via Chrome Web Store.
• Edge: enable “Allow extensions from other stores,” then install from the Chrome Web Store.
• Brave/Opera: Brave installs from the Chrome Web Store; Opera may require its helper to install Chrome extensions.
• Firefox: no native version; use Chromium for this extension or rely on alternatives/crawlers in Firefox.
• Dark mode: if your OS is in dark mode, many recent versions respect it; otherwise check the extension’s settings and your browser theme.

Install and Set Up the Detailed SEO Extension (Step-by-Step)

Summary:

• Install in under two minutes from the Chrome Web Store.
• Pin the icon and add a shortcut for one-keystroke audits.
• For teams, deploy via Workspace/Intune with clear privacy notes.

You can install and start auditing in under two minutes. Then fine-tune shortcuts so your 90‑second pre‑publish check is muscle memory.

1) Open the Chrome Web Store and search “Detailed SEO Extension.”

2) Click Add to Chrome and confirm permissions.

3) Pin the extension to your toolbar (Extensions icon > Pin).

4) Visit any page and click the extension to load its tabs.

5) Optional: open chrome://extensions/shortcuts to set a keyboard shortcut.

Quick install checklist (enterprise tips and mass deployment)

• Individual: install from the Chrome Web Store, pin the icon, set a shortcut.
• Enterprise (Google Workspace): use the Admin console > Devices > Chrome > Apps & extensions > Users & browsers to force-install or allow.
• Policy tips: limit to specific organizational units, document privacy practices, and add the extension to your approved tooling list.
• Edge at scale: use Microsoft Intune/Group Policy to push the Chrome Web Store URL and extension ID to your teams.

Recommended settings and time-saving shortcuts

• Keyboard shortcut: assign a global shortcut to open the extension’s panel on active tab (chrome://extensions/shortcuts).
• Minimalist mode: close nonessential tabs while auditing to reduce cognitive load and keep memory footprint lean.
• Copy helpers: use built-in “Copy” buttons (if present in your version) or select-and-copy lists of headings/links; paste into tickets or docs.
• Open resources fast: right-click to open robots.txt, sitemap, and validation links in new tabs for parallel checks.

How to Use Each Tab: Fast, Accurate Page Checks

Summary:

• Start with indexability signals, then titles/meta and headings.
• Confirm links and image hygiene, then validate schema as needed.
• Use DevTools to corroborate headers and rendering on JS-heavy pages.

Focus on what moves rankings and protects indexability first. Then capture quick content wins.

In 30–90 seconds, you can confirm indexability, title/meta quality, heading structure, and link hygiene.

Overview tab: titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, URLs

The Overview gives you the essentials: title tag, meta description, canonical, URL, and core robots signals. Start here to catch blocking issues and obvious optimization gaps before diving deeper.

• Title/meta: scan for truncation risk and uniqueness; check that the primary keyword appears naturally.
• Canonical: confirm presence and that it matches the preferred URL; beware accidental self-canonicals on non-canonical duplicates.
• URL: verify readability and consistency with your site’s preferred trailing slash and casing rules.
• Takeaway: If anything here looks off, fix it first—it affects indexing, CTR, and duplication.

Headings tab: H1–H6 structure, duplication, and intent alignment

Headings reveal content hierarchy and intent clarity. Ensure there’s a single focused H1, logical H2/H3 nesting, and no keyword stuffing.

• Look for multiple H1s (common in templated headers) and merge or demote extras.
• Align H2s with search intent and subsections users expect; use H3s for supporting points.
• Keep headings human-readable and scannable; they double as accessibility landmarks.
• Takeaway: Clean heading structure improves readability and can help relevance signals.

Links tab: internal/external balance, anchors, and nofollow flags

Links surface information architecture and authority flow. Confirm important internal links exist, anchors are descriptive, and nofollow is used intentionally.

• Internal: ensure key pages receive contextual links with meaningful anchor text.
• External: verify outbound links are relevant; add rel="nofollow/sponsored" where applicable.
• Orphan detection trigger: thin internal link lists on key pages hint at broader IA issues—schedule a crawler run.
• Takeaway: Make links work for users first; clarity in anchors and placement influences crawl and context.

Images tab: alt text, filenames, lazy-load and decorative images

Images affect accessibility, UX, and sometimes rankings. Use the tab to spot missing alt text, oversized files, or lazy-load quirks.

• Add concise, informative alt text for meaningful images; omit or use empty alt for purely decorative assets.
• Prefer descriptive, hyphenated filenames and modern formats (WebP/AVIF) where supported.
• Check lazy-load triggers—ensure above-the-fold hero images don’t flicker or shift.
• Takeaway: Quick image hygiene wins reduce bloat and improve accessibility.

Schema tab: types detected, validation limits, and when to use external validators

The extension lists detected schema types (often JSON-LD) so you can confirm presence at a glance. Note that complex graphs, dynamically injected markup, or microdata/RDFa edge cases may need separate validation.

• Confirm that the type matches page intent (e.g., Article, Product, FAQ).
• Validate with Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator to catch structural errors.
• If multiple competing types appear (e.g., Article vs BlogPosting), standardize with your CMS or tag manager.
• Takeaway: Use the tab for quick presence checks; defer to validators for correctness.

Advanced signals: robots meta, x‑robots‑tag, hreflang, indexability

Beyond basics, confirm how crawlers should treat the page. The extension helps surface meta robots. Then corroborate headers and international tags with DevTools.

• Robots meta: check index/follow and noarchive/noimageindex as needed.
• X‑Robots‑Tag: open DevTools > Network > Document > Headers to confirm HTTP header directives match meta.
• Hreflang: ensure each variant lists valid language‑region codes and reciprocates; mismatches can strand users on the wrong locale.
• Takeaway: When in doubt, prioritize header directives; resolve conflicts to avoid crawl/index surprises.

Pro Workflows and SOPs You Can Reuse

Summary:

• Standardize a 90‑second pre‑publish check across your team.
• Build quick triage for indexability and JS-rendering edge cases.
• Use snapshots to benchmark competitors and streamline tickets.

Bake the extension into lightweight SOPs so anyone on your team can ship SEO-safe pages consistently. The goal: consistent 90‑second checks, deeper dives only when needed.

The 90‑second pre‑publish on‑page checklist

1) Overview: confirm title (<60–65 chars guideline), meta (compelling, unique), canonical correct, noindex absent.

2) Headings: one H1, logical H2/H3s, intent-aligned keywords without stuffing.

3) Links: ensure at least 2–3 helpful internal links with descriptive anchors; vet external link attributes.

4) Images: meaningful alt text on primary visuals; no bloated file sizes.

5) Schema: expected type present (Article/Product/etc.); run Rich Results Test if critical.

6) Open robots.txt and sitemap quickly to ensure they exist and are reachable.

Indexability triage: diagnose noindex, robots, and header conflicts

1) Check Overview robots meta; look for noindex/nofollow.

2) Open DevTools > Network > Document > Headers; verify X‑Robots‑Tag isn’t conflicting.

3) Test the live URL in Google Search Console’s URL Inspection for “Page is indexable.”

4) Review robots.txt for allow/disallow patterns affecting the path.

5) Resolve conflicts by aligning header and meta; redeploy and re‑inspect.

Competitor snapshot: headings, word count, links, schema in minutes

Open competitor pages and capture structure, links, and enhancement opportunities in minutes. This creates a fast baseline for content coverage and SERP features.

1) Open competitor pages; capture headings to reverse-engineer structure and coverage.

2) Scan Links to understand internal clusters and external citations.

3) Note schema types and presence of FAQs/HowTo that might enhance SERP appearance.

4) Compare your page’s structure and link support; identify 1–2 structural upgrades to test.

Copy/Export tips: headings, links, and schema to notes or tickets

• Use built-in Copy buttons where available to grab headings or link lists into a task template.
• If your version lacks buttons, select‑all within a tab, copy, and paste to a doc—clean in seconds.
• Normalize anchors/URLs and attach them to Jira/Asana tickets with acceptance criteria (e.g., “Add two internal links to cluster pages with descriptive anchors.”).

Troubleshooting Real‑World Edge Cases

Summary:

• Verify headers vs HTML when tags appear “missing.”
• Distinguish intentional CMS choices from true issues.
• Confirm rendering paths on SPAs to avoid false negatives.

Use these patterns to avoid false positives, especially on JS-heavy sites and enterprise stacks.

Canonical “missing” in HTML but present in HTTP headers

Some platforms set canonicals via the Link header instead of HTML. If the extension flags “missing,” check DevTools > Network > Headers for Link: ; rel="canonical".

If present in headers, align with your canonical strategy: either add the HTML tag for redundancy or rely on headers consistently sitewide. Validate with URL Inspection and ensure duplicates reference the same target.

Homepages with intentionally blank meta descriptions

Many homepages let Google pull dynamic snippets instead of a fixed meta description. If your CMS shows an empty description, confirm this is intentional and that on-page content provides a strong snippet source.

If CTR is weak, test a concise value proposition meta description and monitor in Search Console. Revisit after enough impressions to judge impact.

SPA/JavaScript-rendered pages and timing of tag injection

Single‑page apps often inject tags post‑render. If the extension shows missing elements, hard‑refresh and wait for hydration, then recheck.

Cross‑verify with View Source (server HTML) and Elements (final DOM) to understand what Google might see with or without JS. For critical tags, consider server‑side rendering or hybrid rendering.

Robots conflicts: meta vs x‑robots‑tag vs robots.txt

Conflicts confuse crawlers and can delay indexation. Prioritize consistency: if x‑robots‑tag says noindex but meta says index, fix headers first.

In robots.txt, block crawls only when necessary; avoid blocking pages you need indexed. Reconcile directives, redeploy, and re‑test in URL Inspection.

Detailed vs Alternatives: When to Use Which Tool

Summary:

• Use Detailed for instant page-level clarity.
• Use specialized extensions for niche tasks and overlays.
• Use crawlers for scale, discovery, and exports.

Use the Detailed extension for instant, page‑level clarity. Switch tools when you need sitewide scale or specialized checks.

Detailed vs SEOquake vs Meta SEO Inspector vs HeadingsMap

• Detailed SEO Extension: best all‑round on-page snapshot with clean tabs and indexability focus; great for pre‑publish and quick audits.
• SEOquake: broad metrics overlay (including SERP overlays); handy for competitive SERP scans, noisier UI.
• Meta SEO Inspector: granular meta/schema inspection; useful when debugging complex microdata/JSON-LD details.
• HeadingsMap: laser‑focused heading hierarchy visualization; ideal for content structure planning and audits.

Pick Detailed for speed and breadth on a single URL, HeadingsMap for content planning, Meta SEO Inspector for schema edge cases, and SEOquake for SERP/context overlays.

When you need a crawler instead (e.g., Screaming Frog)

Reach for a crawler when you must analyze hundreds to thousands of URLs, discover orphans, map internal links at scale, or export comprehensive data. Use the Detailed extension alongside crawlers to spot‑check templates and confirm fixes quickly in the browser.

FAQs: Cost, Performance, Compatibility, Accuracy

Summary:

• Cost: free; on-demand parsing only when clicked.
• Compatibility: works in Chromium browsers; no Firefox version.
• Accuracy: reliable presence checks; validate rich results with Google tools.

Get direct answers to the most common questions so you can deploy with confidence.

Is it free and does it slow down Chrome?

• Cost: free.
• Performance: it runs on demand when you click, parsing the current DOM. Impact is brief and localized; keep other heavy tabs closed, and disable unneeded extensions to minimize any spikes. You can also audit in a separate Chrome profile to isolate memory use.

Edge/Brave/Opera/Firefox support?

• Edge/Brave/Opera: supported via the Chrome Web Store (Edge may need “Allow from other stores”; Opera may need its helper).
• Firefox: no official version; use Chromium-based browsers or rely on crawler/alternative Firefox add‑ons.

How accurate is schema detection and what are the limits?

It’s reliable for quick presence/type checks, especially JSON‑LD in the DOM. For definitive validation, always run Google’s Rich Results Test and the Schema.org validator. Beware of dynamically injected or malformed graphs that require render‑aware testing.

Results You Can Expect (Benchmarks and Outcomes)

Summary:

• Reduce pre-publish checks to under two minutes per page.
• Catch indexability, canonical, and heading issues before they ship.
• Turn findings into fast fixes via GSC, your CMS, and Lighthouse.

Expect faster QA cycles, fewer “oops” moments in production, and cleaner handoffs to dev/content teams. The biggest wins come from catching indexability blockers, broken canonicals, and heading/metadata issues before publish.

Time saved and typical issues caught early

In practice, teams cut pre‑publish checks from minutes to under two minutes per page by consolidating essentials into one panel. Common catches: unintended noindex, duplicate H1s, poor anchors, missing alt text, and absent/incorrect canonical tags—issues that can derail visibility or CTR if shipped.

Connect findings to fixes in GSC, CMS, and Lighthouse

• GSC: use URL Inspection to confirm indexability and recrawl after fixes; monitor coverage/snippet changes.
• CMS (WordPress/Shopify/Webflow): address titles/meta via SEO plugins or native fields; standardize canonical/tag templates.
• Lighthouse: after on‑page fixes, run Lighthouse for performance/accessibility checks that complement SEO hygiene.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The Detailed SEO Extension is a fast, free on-page SEO analysis tool that helps you confirm indexability, content structure, links, images, and schema in seconds. Install it from the Chrome Web Store, pin it, and run the 90‑second pre‑publish checklist to prevent costly mistakes.

Next steps:

• Install the Detailed extension and set a keyboard shortcut.
• Save the 90‑second checklist in your CMS publishing guide.
• For larger audits, pair it with a crawler; for schema deep‑dives, validate with Rich Results Test.

If you manage a team, deploy it via your admin console and add the SOP to onboarding so everyone ships SEO‑safe pages by default.