SEO Checklist for Websites

A complete SEO checklist for newer and older websites

Ranking variables are altered and updated on a regular basis in SEO, which is a broad field. To keep ahead of the competition, use this complete SEO checklist. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a wide field where it's easy to become bogged down in the specifics. Sure, the details are important, but you also need a top-down approach with a thorough strategy to stay on track. 

Whether you're a little business or a Fortune 500 corporation, an SEO strategy that considers the entire set of criteria as well as ongoing changes can help you improve and flourish. 

So, in this column, you'll find a comprehensive checklist to assist you in developing an SEO plan tailored to your specific requirements. You'll go through crucial points to consider for: 

• Technical SEO.

• On-page optimizations.

• External factors.

You should also consider the elements that make up an excellent website. For the greatest results, have your content, UX, IT, and other marketing resources ready to accompany you on your SEO journey.

Cheat Sheet for Technical SEO 

You must first ensure that your site can be indexed and crawled before focusing on the exact content that you want to rank in the search engines.

All of this is classified as technical SEO.

Free Reporting Platforms

To begin, make sure your site is linked to Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager.

These tools all provide excellent diagnostic and analytics data to aid you on your journey.

XML Sitemap

This is your website's table of contents. The sitemap file is a contemporary method of "submitting" your pages to search engines.

Most website platforms have this built-in or have plugins/add-ons that build a dynamic sitemap that keeps up with your site's pages.

Robots.txt

This file instructs search engines which pages or sections of the site should not be indexed. Search engines will, by default, look at all of the content they can discover.

Even if you don't want the search engines to index any of your pages, make sure this file

exists:

• Is correct.
• Validates in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Doesn't mistakenly stop critical information from being indexed in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools (or your whole site).

Domains

If you own more than one domain name, be sure you understand what each of your other domain names is doing. It's acceptable if they're parked and not in use.

Check that they 301 redirect to your website if they redirect to it (versus mirroring the site or doing a 302 redirect).

Speed

Statistics continue to demonstrate that people are spending less and less time before bouncing.

Over time, search engines have sought to include page speed in their ranking algorithms.

Look for methods to reduce the use of JavaScript and other heavy-loading code in your sites by caching or loading components elsewhere.

There are several excellent developer tools available to assist you in identifying the portions of your website that need to be optimized in order to achieve competitive page load speeds.

Mobile-Friendly

It is self-evident that we must be mobile-friendly. Even if you developed your site with a mobile foundation in mind, such as responsive design, it's critical to ensure that it validates.

Make sure it passes Google's mobile-friendly test.

Also, conduct as much user experience (UX) and quality assurance (QA) testing as possible to ensure that it works for your users on all devices.

Cheat Sheet for On-Page SEO

When it comes to SEO, most people think about on-page variables like keywords, content, and title tags. The days of optimizing isolated elements of pages or websites as a strategy, on the other hand, are long gone.

Don't be tempted to just alter meta tags or body material and move on since search engines value context far more than keywords. 

We create context by considering all of the on-page items on a page, as well as how pages connect to one another within sections and the site's navigation.

Keywords & Topics

You need to identify what you want to develop context for before you can truly focus on it.

If you haven't done keyword research or more in-depth study on your target audiences, you'll need to take a break and discover what themes and phrases they'll use to reach your website.

It's important to remember that the days of jamming phrases into page content or tags are over.

We need to employ SEO tools to find the correct keywords, phrases, and themes that are relevant to our work. We may then dive down into specific terms to use inside the site architecture.

Simply said, you need to understand the phrases that matter, map them to your content, and then go on to the remainder of the on-page characteristics list.

Content

To demonstrate relevance, content is required.

It's difficult to compete with sites that are substantial and full of information if your website has few words and elements. More isn't necessarily better, because great quality always wins out over quantity.

However, if you can do both, you'll be in a much better position.

Where you win is with rich content generated for people that resonates with them and is visible to search engines. Don't be tempted to adopt antiquated approaches that will degrade the customer experience and put you in jeopardy with search engines.

URL

This is the most important part of a page, and it's often missed. Search engines are perfectly capable of indexing unsightly, faceted URLs.

The URL, on the other hand, is a chance to offer a tidy directory structure with keywords and information about the page's content. 

Don't underestimate the opportunity of customizing URLs.

Title

Again, the title tag by itself isn't going to help you much. You must, however, have an appropriate and distinct tag for each page.

Write and apply static tags or make sure you have dynamic formulae in place to populate the title, keeping in mind best practices for length and the most relevant keywords to the page content.

Meta Description

For each page, we need a unique and thematically relevant meta description, much as the title tag.

Whether static or dynamic, ensure sure it is user-friendly, contains keywords that are relevant to the content, and uses the title tag to assist construct context.

Headings

The relevance of heading tags, sometimes known as "H" tags, for SEO is debatable. Again, I'm not interested in a single element, but rather how they all function together to create context.

If you can, utilize heading tags in an ordered manner and make sure they contain important keywords. Only use one H1 tag, and make it the first one.

Website platforms or developers frequently employ these for CSS purposes, thus a page may have no H1 tag but a slew of H6 tags. Pay attention to how these are weaved into your code and content.

Image Alt Attributes

Missing alt text is one of the greatest red flags I get in findings from accessibility and on-page auditing reporting tools. Search engines use alt text to figure out what a picture is about.

This is another another way to incorporate keywords into a page. You should also consider people in your audience who may use a screen reader and make sure your site is completely accessible to them.

Conclusion

I hope you find this checklist useful in optimizing your website. You can help Google identify and index your content by improving the technical and on-page SEO of your website. 

Keep an eye on your organic search traffic in Google Analytics as you continue to improve your website to see the benefits of your efforts.