Technical Checklist
- Migrate your website to https if you have not done so. Ensure your website pages deploy http-enabled encrypted connections
- Set up and verify your site with Google Search Console
- Create XML sitemap with SEO relevant pages and follow guidelines to submit it to Google via Search Console
- Check the “website uptime” for your website and change hosting providers if necessary
- Test your site’s mobile friendliness and optimize it for mobile
- Fix all duplicate title and meta-description tags (view them using a tool like Screaming Frog or Deep Crawl)
- Make sure your website pages load in three seconds or less
- Install Google Analytics
- Create and add a robots.txt file to your site to speed up indexing
- Identify/fix crawl errors
Content Checklist
- Use brief, descriptive URLs
- Complete keyword research
- Primary keyword to target per each piece of content
- Identify and target long-tail keyword variations
- Think about questions people ask in search, include answers in your content
- Set achievable goals for keyword rankings
- Write engaging title tags and meta-descriptions to encourage click-throughs
- Use one H1 on your page, inclusive of your keyword
- Link to relevant internal and external resources
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- Focus on readability elements (sub-heads, images, graphics, etc)
- Use subheadings and short paragraphs
- Show authority and expertise to generate trust on each topic you choose
- Fix outbound broken links
- Check your content on mobile devices for easy use and readability
- Include semantically related keywords in your copy to improve on-page SEO
- Create and implement an internal linking strategy for main keyword targets and pillar pages
Offsite SEO Checklist
(Build Links to your home page, service/product pages, news and blog content)
Listings:
- Local Business Listings
- Social Media Listings
- News Websites
- Industry Websites and Sponsorships
While the art of quality link building is not fast or easy, you can get started with this checklist:
- Research Competitor links with Ahrefs or Majestic SEO
- Pursue unlinked mentions of your company/brands
- Reach out to quality, industry bloggers for opportunities to write for them
- Create link-worthy content and pitch it to journalists, industry bloggers, and websites
- Set up a content promotion strategy to encourage natural links to your website
- If your brand generates news and press releases, build a network of journalists to help you share the news
- Measure your citation and trust flow with Majestic SEO, aim for a score above 30 for both metrics
- Download the MozBar and monitor your website’s domain authority. Set a goal to raise domain authority over a period of time.
If you keep these guidelines in mind, you’ll be on your way to having a better-optimized website for your clients and they enjoy more traffic and readers, as a result.
