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This is a top-level SEO checklist that provides the framework for measuring your online business’ current state of optimization, diagnosing trouble areas and taking action to correct the issues that are identified.
Before you start, you should set yourself up with software that will provide insight into the state of your business’s SEO.
These SEO software tools will provide great insight into the current state of your business, identify opportunities and create reports that measure your progress on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually).
First things first, have your web pages been indexed by Google? If not, you can’t rank! You can check if your web pages are indexed a few ways.
Some reasons for not having your web page indexed by Google include a faulty Robot.txt file that is blocking indexing, orphaned pages that have no links to the page and no follow internal links. You may have also inadvertently set the page to not be seen by robots in the backend of your website. WordPress and ecommerce websites have this setting and you should confirm that everything is set to be crawled.
If your website pages are not getting indexed by Google you can use Google Search Console to submit them by using the Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool, although there is no obligation on Google’s part to index anything.
Also, add non-indexed pages to your sitemap.xml file and submit it to Google. A sitemap.xml file provides search engines with the structure of your website by listing the URL’s of your pages, which makes it much easier for their robots to crawl your website and not miss anything.
Proper keyword research is the most important aspect of SEO, and the following lists the basics.
Everything begins with keyword research, and you can’t rank properly without it. It is a must for any SEO checklist.
Read more about keyword research and analysis.
There are many things to consider when optimizing website content. The content itself must provide some value to the reader or shopper so that they engage in a purchase or complete some other goal. Content is king, and it must be professionally optimized to realize its benefits to the fullest.
You can read our article Winning Website Content for ideas on creating rich informational content that satisfies Google, your visitors and presents a professional image.
Break up the content with relevant images.
Headlines provide information at a glance and encourage visitors to engage with your content.
Keep word count at about 500 to 1,000 words per page, so that you provide a complete answer to the visitors search queries.
Include keywords in the content about twice every 100 words. They should appear naturally in the content without being forced into the copy.
Images need to have alt tags that refer to the image’s subject.
Use an h1 headline tag for the targeted keyword once at the beginning of the page and h2 and h3 headlines for the rest.
Your keyword should appear in title tag at or very near the front and the title tag should be about 60 characters in length. Description meta tags should be about 150 characters in length.
Internal linking is simply linking from one of your website pages to another page. Common internal links are found within your website’s menu navigation and links within the footer of the website. Contextual links are another form of internal links that link a specific thought, keyword or phrase from one page to another page.
For example, you may have the sentence ‘our blue rubber ducks are uniquely different than our yellow rubber ducks’. If you have a page for blue rubber ducks, you could link the words ‘blue rubber duck’ to that page. Contextual links are great for SEO.
URL structure is an important factor to your websites ability to rank well. URL structure is one of the factors, in addition to content and meta tags, that Google uses to figure out what your website is about.
URL’s need to be SEO friendly and user friendly, so keep your URL’s short and relevant to your keywords for the page. Do not repeat your keywords in the URL because it could get flagged as spamming.
This is an example of a good URL structure:
https://bathtoys.com/rubber-ducks/blue-rubber-ducks.
This URL is simple and straight to the point. You have the home page / category / sub-category.
The keywords are only used once, Google can easily crawl your website and everything is three clicks or less away from the home page.
Website’s in today’s world are dynamic entities that engage with users, administrators, search engines, shipping and tax software, credit card processing and more. Each of these factors contribute to errors and issues that can cause difficulty in ranking.
You need to identify these issues on a regular basis and resolve them so that your website’s health doesn’t falter and impact its ability to rank.
There is software that will help to identify these issues such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Botify, Deepcrawl, Screaming Frog and WooRank.
Some of the issues that routinely arise and need to be addressed are:
The need to identify and resolve these issues on a regular basis is a great example of why SEO is an ongoing process.
Page speed has become more important. In June 2021 Google rolled out an algorithm update that was called the “Page Experience Update” which focused on websites providing the user with best experience, and the update focuses on page speed and mobile-friendliness among other things.
You can check your page speed score and view suggested actions on how to improve your page speed by using Google’s Page Speed Insights tool and the GTmetrix page speed tool.
Structured data helps search engines to figure out the context of your content and how to interpret it.
Meta tags and alt tags are an example of providing some structure to content, because they let the search engines figure out the content easier, but truly structured data is more detailed and broader in scope.
Most ecommerce software will automatically provide the structured data code for price, availability and stock.
The article What is structured data for SEO is a great resource for learning about the basics of structured data.
Citations are references from other websites that list your business name, address, phone number, website address and other basic information. Inbound links are links that are in other websites that link directly to your website, preferably with good domain authority.
Citations and link building help to build your website’s domain authority. Domain authority is a measure of how popular or important your website is. It’s basically like trying to get the best reputation for your website.
You can use SEO software like Semrush, MOZ and others to view the backlinks you have and whether any of them are toxic.
You can disavow toxic links via Google Search Console. Good SEO software can also help you understand your competitor’s linking strategy so that you can secure the good backlinks they have.
This Essential SEO Checklist provides a framework for optimizing any website, regardless of size or industry. Good rankings are on the way!
Our core specialty is SEO, and our results have helped to develop many successful long-term relationships with our clients, many of whom have been with us for over a decade, and we hope to add you to our long list of satisfied customers.
Contact us now for a free consultation.
Get a basic understanding of how your business is currently doing from an SEO perspective, the variables you need to be aware of and how to correct issues as they arise.
The differences between ecommerce SEO and standard SEO is that some elements require more attention and must not be overlooked in ecommerce sites.
There is no greater benefit than the instant flow of traffic that Google Ads can generate for your website. This is why it’s often used to supplement websites not yet receiving organic traffic.
You only have a matter of seconds to hold a visitor from the time they land on your website. In that small window you need to interest them, retain them and convert them.
Aside from all the general rules of SEO, a fundamental pillar of strong national SEO involves making your site as targeted as possible towards its specific niche.
An internet marketing plan helps achieve the best ROI for your marketing budget by establishing a clear understanding of your marketing objectives and structure.
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