SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It helps in increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website with organic search engine results. It takes a lot to make your website SEO-friendly to secure top rank for your website.
Do you know which factors affect the most? Want to improve your website rank? We are here with all the information you need. Here is the ultimate SEO checklist that can help you get amazing results. Let’s have a quick look!
Basic SEO Checklist
SEO checklist usually includes basic set up tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console that are linked to your account and your site. Other than these there are several countless website optimization tools to help you with SEO.
Create your Google Analytics Account
Google Analytics is a very important tool in regards to website analytics and SEO.
Google Analytics will help you to observe:
- How many visitors come to your site from social networks, Google, and other sites
- On which sites browsers spend more time and what is the conversion rate
- How much time do users take to convert after searching your site
Google Analytics connects you with different platforms like:
- Google Search Console
- Google Data Studio
- Google Ads
Create Google Search Console Account
Google Search Console is a free tool like Google analytics. It is a very demanding tool and gives your business an idea of how your site is performing in search results. Google Search Console also shows how people can find you through organic search results.
Google Search Console will help you in the following ways:
- You can submit the website’s sitemap and individual pages for indexing.
- You can check your website for any errors and issues regarding mobile compatibility.
- Top-rated sites and pages can be viewed.
- You can check the click counts for individual pages.
- Helps in investigating which keyword is frequently used and how it enhances the traffic on your site.
Use Bing Webmaster Tools
No doubt Google is dominating the search engines but Bing is also playing its role. It is worth using it. Bing helps your business to see how your pages and websites are shown in search results.
Some new features of Bing Webmaster Tools are:
- Uploading and submitting your sitemap
- Viewing of biweekly SEO reports
- Using an SEO analyzer to check your site
Keyword Search
Keyword research is the method of finding the right search queries to integrate them into your content for making your site accessible to the right audience and improving your traffic.
Develop the List of Keywords
You know your business more than anyone. So you need to create a list of potential keywords after a session of brainstorming. Your list should include terms that are relevant to your business. Things that relate to a specific company, industry, and even headquarters is the best start with. The smart way is to think of keywords that your customers look for more frequently.
Use Keyword Research Tools
After developing the list, you need to check the validity of keywords. You can check it in a keyword research tool. The most popular of these is Google Keyword Planner that shows pay-per-click. This data is available for AdWords campaigns. You can also use several other alternatives and keyword tools if your advertisement is not for Google. This data is very helpful for SEO because it tells about search volume, competition, and popularity. The most required information is search volume and how people search for a keyword in a month. It gives you an idea of how many people visit your website and how they convert into customers. Keywords with a lot of searches are not the best options because keywords that are more searched have more companies to rank for them. This creates more competition and shows how keywords are valuable for you.
On-Page SEO Checklist
Continuing with the SEO checklist, let’s have a look at the on-page SEO factors so that your content can become crawlable and understandable in the eyes of the search engine and users.
Pages with Low Word Count
The length of the text on pages shows the quality and depth of the content that you provide. The pages with low word count will be poorly placed on SERPs. This is because crawlers can’t determine the authenticity of the content. The number of words varies on the pages. As long as your content is relevant and targets the specific keywords, it is great but the lower word count will result in a poor user experience.
Integrate Subheadings, Lists, and Tables
Subheadings, lists, and tables break your content into productive chunks and it becomes easier for the reader. It is recommended to add a related keyword in headlines when required. Lists and tables acquire featured snippets. They usually show short paragraphs, lists, and tables. Answering the questions that have search potential enhances the probability of extracting the featured position.
Use of Title Tags
Search engines use little tags to understand what content on the web is all about. Multiple search engines show different search results. A concise and clear title helps the user to know what the link is all about and is it the best option to click on. Let’s have a look at potential tag issues
Duplicate Tags
The use of duplicate tags makes the search engine confused and it can’t determine the relevancy of each page on your site. If you are unable to create the unique title tags for certain pages then make the content available in the first place. If it can be done then adjust one or both titles. If the content on the pages is similar then add a recognized tag to the pages so that Google can identify which is more important in search.
Long Title Tags
If the length of the title tag is longer than 65 characters, it needs to be decreased so that it is displayed on a search results page. A title that is too short may stop the searchers from clicking your link whereas a visible title helps them to understand the nature of the content.
Missing Title Tags
Search Engines and users use tags to understand what a link is all about. Missing the tags will lower the page’s ability to rank the content for SERPs.
Multiple Title Tags
The pages with multiple title tags are the least preference of users. Search engines favor unique and descriptive titles.
Meta Description
A Meta description is the text that is written under the title tag on the SERP. It is important to write a persuasive Meta description, no matter if it is not displayed on the search engine. Search for duplicate Metas on your website. If the users are not compelled by your Metadata, then it will reduce traffic on your site.
Add Descriptions of Images
Image descriptions help search engines with indexing sites with non-text content. Including the appropriate keywords into your image description or titles will bring potential additional traffic.
Check URL length
It is very enticing to use the full name of your article in a URL. A long URL name can be curtailed. Shorter URLs are easier to share and they are readable.
Adding More Links
Adding more links to your content will help to check other sites. Do not add too many links as they give a negative impact.The content with more links is always hard to navigate. Make sure you add links to relevant content only.
Onsite Links
On Site links are called internal links. They give access to other pages from your site. Onsite link helps the browsers to navigate through content easily. They are considered as a building block of your site. Moreover, it helps in distributing page authority. Better internal linking will increase customer engagement, thus leading to a high ranking.
Wrapping Up
There’s a lot more to learn about making your site SEO-friendly. You need to build a website that Google loves. In this way, you will get more traffic.
Start with these basics first and look for advanced SEO tactics for better results.
By Hazel Ansley