Comprehensive SEO Checklist (2024)
Blog / Comprehensive SEO Checklist (2024)
Does this topic sound familiar? It should. That’s because every online business needs SEO. And they don’t just need one type. SEO is like a puzzle with several pieces. There’s the regular on-page and off-page SEO, and then there’s technical and local SEO.
I get it. It can be difficult to get your head around. But, trust me, you have to cover all these bases to climb high in the search engines.
If you’re feeling lost, don’t be. I’m here to lend a guiding hand.
I’ve compiled the ultimate SEO checklist as an all-purpose resource for website owners to optimize their traffic and address the multiple facets of SEO needed to rank in search engines.
Key Takeaways
- There are multiple facets to SEO, including on-page, off-page, local, and technical. You need to work on all these areas to climb in the search engines.
- An evergreen approach to SEO using tried and tested methods, like keyword research and optimization, always work regardless of trends and algorithm updates.
- Eighty-eight percent of users have a mobile shopping app. Optimizing for mobile is an essential part of SEO if you want to reach consumers.
- Building a Google Business Profile, submitting to offline directories, and adding relevant business information across all your website pages can help boost local SEO.
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Your Checklist To Get Started With SEO
As I stated in the intro, regardless of new trends and advances, the primary staples for SEO remain unchanged. However, even though you may be familiar with these SEO tactics, drawing up a clear strategy can seem challenging. It doesn’t have to be, though.
The following sections include a detailed SEO checklist for optimizing your site. Follow along, stage by stage, and see how your rankings can grow.
Let’s begin with the basics.
1. Set Up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
If you’re looking for a free way to monitor your site’s performance and traffic, enhance your website listing performance, and fix errors, then Google Search Console must be at the top of your SEO checklist.
Other benefits include:
- Monitoring which keywords are driving traffic
- Searching analytics for viewing impressions and clicks
- Checking which pages Google is indexing
- Understanding your website’s visibility
Sound good? Then, you may want to set up an account.
Although Google is the king of search engines, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sign up for Bing or other competitors.
Bing Webmaster Tools can help you identify and fix any errors preventing your website from appearing higher in search results. Additionally, it’s a great resource for optimizing your website for Bing and improving your overall SEO health by identifying duplicate content issues and checking loading speeds.
If you’re new to Bing Webmaster Tools, sign up for an account and follow the directions.
Additionally, I’ve created a comprehensive list of resources for more guidance on drawing up an SEO strategy.
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2. Set Up Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful tool for traffic and cross-platform tracking, monitoring conversions, accessing reports for analysis, and integrating with Google ads. If you’re serious about SEO and want to track your progress, it’s best to sign up before you start publishing content so you can monitor your website’s progress.
Here are the steps to get started with Google Analytics:
- Follow the directions to sign up for a Google Analytics 4 account. Then, hit Next to add your property to your new account.
- The simplest way to set up Google Analytics 4 is to go to the GA4 Set Up Assistant. There, you’ll see two options. The first is to create a new property. Just click the Get Started button. The second is for connecting an existing account.
- Choose the option you need, then follow the step-by-step instructions.
You can also set up Google Analytics 4 using Google’s Tag Manager.
Use my guide to help you make a smooth transition to GA4.
3. Install an SEO Plugin If You’re On WordPress
WordPress users can easily optimize their sites by including a plugin as part of their SEO checklist.
Plugins like Yoast make SEO a breeze, or you could use alternatives like WPRocket. These tools act like an SEO basics checklist and help to maximize your online visibility.
.Other SEO plugins include:
- The SEO Framework. Free and paid options are available.
- SEO Press. (Choose from freemium or premium packages).
- Rank Math, which has an extensive list of features.
- Nitropack. Free and paid plans are available.
Regardless of whichever keyword plugin you choose, look for one that:
- Is easy to use. The plugin should be easy to install and configure and be intuitive.
- Can track all of your keywords, not just a few of them.
- Updates frequently for efficiency and security. Ideally, you’d want a plugin to update at least once weekly.
4. Create and Submit Your Sitemap
Creating and submitting a sitemap makes it easier for crawlers to index your pages and identify any changes you’ve made since the last time the search engines crawled your site. Additionally, a site map increases visibility while aiding navigation and improving poor linking.
There are several different ways to create a sitemap, but the most common is an XML file (XML Sitemaps has free and paid tools if you need some). Once you’ve made your sitemap, submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. They’ll crawl your site and add it to their indexes.
Here’s an example of what an XML sitemap looks like:
However, only some sites need a sitemap. According to Google, sitemaps work best if:
- You’ve got a large site.
- Your site contains a substantial archive of isolated or poorly linked content pages.
- You’ve got a new site with limited external links
- Your site contains rich media, like videos and photographs.
Now that you’ve done that, it’s time to set up a robots.txt file.
5.Create a Robots.txt file
Don’t forget to add a robots.txt file when creating or editing a website! This file tells search engine bots which parts of your website they’re allowed to crawl and index.
The benefits of including robots.txt as part of your SEO checklist are:
- Helping improve your website’s load time by preventing unimportant pages from loading.
- Preventing search engines from indexing duplicate content on your site.
- Blocking search engines from indexing spammy or low-quality pages.
- Focusing your SEO efforts on the most important pages of your site.
Here are things to consider when creating your robots.txt file:
- Which pages on your website do you want search engines to crawl and index?
- Which pages do you want to block from crawlers?
- What parameters do you want to set to crawl specific pages or sections of your website?
- How often should the robots.txt file be updated?
When it’s complete, your robots.txt. might look like something like this:
6.Make Sure Your Site Is Indexable
If you’re running a website, it’s vital to ensure the search engines can crawl and index it. After all, you want potential customers to find you online, right? Here are a few things to tick off your basic SEO checklist to help ensure the search engines can do just that.
- Check your site is accessible to crawlers. Search engines need access to all the pages on your website to index them. You can check this using the URL Inspection Tool in the Google Search Console.
- Use keyword-rich titles and descriptions on your pages. This can improve your site’s ranking in search results.
- Add links to other related pages on your site so search engines understand your page’s topic and rank it accordingly.
You should also consider changes to Google’s scoring system, such as the ‘helpful content’ update. Google prioritizes high-quality, user-focused content that provides valuable and relevant information to searchers. Highlighting the importance of creating unique, helpful content to rank higher in the SERPs.
Additionally, Googlebot crawls and indexes just the first 15MB of your web content, so place your most essential content first. Keep this in mind when you’re putting your SEO technical audit checklist together.
Your On-Page SEO Checklist
When optimizing your website for search engines, on-page SEO is a critical component. By ensuring you optimize your website’s content, structure, and metadata, you can improve your rankings, attract more traffic, and boost engagement. In the next section, we’ve got an on-page SEO checklist that can help you achieve these goals.
7. Choose Focus and Secondary Keywords to Optimize For
Your primary keywords work best when you use them alongside focus and secondary words. Secondary keywords are words that relate to your primary keywords. When you use them in content, they can get it in front of a broader audience and help bolster your website rankings.
When selecting focus and secondary keywords, concentrate on a select few with the biggest impact. Here’s a handy SEO keyword research checklist to help you do that:
- Choose keywords relevant to your business and audience.
- Target your keywords for your ideal customers, but also ensure they are popular enough that people use them in search engines.
- Use a mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords to get the most out of your SEO efforts.
- Research what your competitors are targeting and try to find gaps you can fill.
- Once you’ve selected your target keywords, make sure they appear throughout your website, including in the title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content.
To help with research, use my Ubersuggest keyword discovery tool.
Or try Google’s Keyword Planner.
8. Learn What it Takes to Rank for Your Chosen Keywords
This one should be on everyone’s SEO checklist. Your chosen keywords are no good to you if you’re not ranking for them. How do you do that? You can start by following these pointers:
- Understand data points, such as search volume, cost per click (CPC), SEO, and search difficulty.
- Draw up a content strategy and create a content marketing strategy checklist.
- Then, carry out keyword research. You can either use Ubersuggest or any of the other keyword tools out there.
- Analyze the data to identify the best keywords. Again, Ubersuggest is your friend here.
- Optimize for featured snippets. To secure featured snippets, start by digging up long-tail keywords and the questions users are asking. Understanding search intent and creating high-quality content that answers users’ queries is also important.
- Optimize meta descriptions by including relevant keywords, keeping them under 155-160 characters, and adding a call to action.
- Use your main keywords strategically, including them in critical areas like tags, headings, and throughout your content. Ensure any long-tail keywords flow naturally.
- Include keywords in anchor text. For instance, “to learn more about SEO best practices.”
To help you, I’ve published a comprehensive guide that talks you through all the steps above.
9. Research Your Competitors’ Keyword Profiles
Understanding what your competitors are doing right (and wrong) should also feature in your keyword research checklist. To truly optimize your website and its content for your target audience, research your competitors’ keyword profiles to see what terms and phrases they are targeting.
By doing this research, you can get a good idea of the competition you’re up against, along with the terms and phrases that are most important to your target audience. Armed with this information, you can then begin targeting those same terms and phrases on your own website, helping to improve your rankings and visibility over time.
The result? They can be spectacular, helping you to rank higher, save money, and maximize your ROI.
To find competitors’ keywords, use my tool, Ubersuggest, for finding competitor keywords. It’s easy to use. Just enter the URL, choose your country, and click ‘search’ to discover:
- Common keywords
- Keyword gaps
- Traffic over time
10. See What Search Intent Your Primary Audience Has in Google
Search intent is one of the top factors for SEOs to consider. But what do we mean when we’re talking about ‘search intent,’ and why should it be on your SEO checklist?
First, search intent is a critical ranking factor, and many top SEOs base their content strategies on this concept.
Understanding what the searcher wants enables you to create content that meets those needs and provides the information they’re looking for.
As you can see from this chart, there are four main types of search intent:
To find search intent, put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask:
- What are your prospects typing into Google or whatever search engine they use? (Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ feature is a great starting point for this).
- What questions are searchers trying to answer? Again, ‘People Also Ask’ can assist you with this.
Then:
- Use keyword research to determine popular keywords and phrases related to your topic.
- Look at SERPs and see the results (keywords will appear in bold).
11. Build Out Internal Links
Internal links optimize your website’s structure and enhance user inexperience. They also enable search engines to understand your website pages’ hierarchy and relevance. Additionally, internal linking improves your website’s SEO and ranking power, helping to increase your online visibility.
To build an internal link profile, begin by selecting your priority pages. These will vary depending on the type of site, but think about:
- The page’s relevance and content value
- Authoritative pages with awesome, relevant content to the topic of the linking page.
- Pages that you want to increase in the SERPs or increase your conversion goals.
Next, conduct a thorough audit of your website’s current internal linking structure and look for orphaned pages that don’t have internal links.
Now, draw up a strategy to include internal links naturally throughout your content to provide value to the user by guiding them to related or important pages. Your internal link profile structure might look something like this:
12. Check for Oversized Image Files
It’s a simple equation: the larger your image files are, the longer they take to load. This can negatively impact the mobile experience, affect website aesthetics, and increase data consumption.
Use a tool like ImageOptim or Google PageSpeed Insights to check for oversized image files. The PageSpeed tool checks loading times and offers tips to improve them.
ImageOptim compresses images without compromising quality; you can use it with Mac, Linux, and Windows.
These tools will analyze your images, tell you how large they are, and show you how to optimize them for better performance.
13. Look For Duplicate Content and Keyword Cannibalization
The search engines may penalize your site if you use the same keyword phrase too many times.
In addition, if you have multiple pages that target the exact keyword phrase, the search engines may not know which page to rank higher. What does this mean for your website? It’s called keyword cannibalization, and it could mean lower search engine rankings for all your pages. That’s the last thing you want when you’ve worked hard to establish your website.
A basic SEO checklist of your focus keywords ensures you aren’t inadvertently optimizing your pages for the same keyword phrases.
In addition:
- Vary your keyword usage throughout your site. Don’t just focus on using them in your titles and headings; include them in the body of your text as well.
- Make sure each page has its own unique title tag and meta description.
- If you have several websites with similar content, ensure that you aren’t using the same keywords on all of them.
- Use Google Search Console to check for duplicate content and cannibalization issues.
14. Be Sure to Create Useful, Actionable Content
Okay. Creating content is already on your SEO checklist, but it can’t just be any content. It needs to be engaging, useful, and actionable. Why?
First, you need engaging content because you don’t want readers leaving part way through before they’ve got to the CTA or taken up your lead magnet offer. If your content is dull and uninspiring, and your readers aren’t doing what you want them to do, you’re wasting your time.
Looking for some inspiration? Here’s a helpful post to help you create epic content.
Next, it goes without saying that your content should be helpful. You want readers to leave
feeling like they’ve learned something.
Finally, write actionable content. You want readers to finish your article knowing what they can do to implement your ideas and get results.
Here are some tips for making your content actionable:
- Include how-tos and step-by-step instructions
- Ask questions and answer people’s pain points
- Add CTAs so readers know what to do next
- Incorporate stats, storytelling, and images
- Get personal. Share your story and inspire readers
Use the above points as your content marketing strategy checklist for an evergreen SEO strategy that keeps pace with SEO trends.
One last thing: always keep Google’s guidelines in mind when creating content.
15. Build Around E-E-A-T
Implementing everything the search engines are looking for can seem like a huge job. But when unsure, remember these four words: Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Google started using E-A-T in its quality guidelines some time ago to gauge the credibility and quality of websites’ content.
In recent years, Google has concentrated more on subject matter expertise when evaluating content quality. This led to the evolution of E-E-A-T (Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Expertise).
Although all these acronyms may seem confusing, the concept is really simple: Websites that can demonstrate their expertise are more likely to rank higher in the SERPs.
You can do this by:
- Highlighting the qualifications and experience of writers or contributors with author bylines, bios, and links to their credentials or social profiles to show author expertise.
- Boosting your site’s credibility by linking to authoritative and original sources.
- Adding backlinks to any website or author mentions on authority websites, in publications, or endorsements from respected niche experts. This establishes your website as a reputable source within its industry or niche.
- Using reliable sources to back up stats and facts, and displaying contact info, privacy policies, and terms of use to provide transparency.
Ensure you apply the same steps to user-generated content and regular contributors.
16. Make Sure You Have a Descriptive URL
Descriptive URLs assist with your SEO efforts and make it easier for customers to find your website. Also, by using descriptive URLs, it’s easier for searchers to understand what your content is about. Plus, it enables
Descriptive URLs assist with your SEO efforts and make it easier for customers to find your website. Also, by using descriptive URLs, it’s easier for searchers to understand what your content is about. Plus, it enables search engines to deliver relevant content to the right people.
to the right people.
Additionally, more descriptive URLs can improve click-through rates, as users are more likely to click on a link that accurately reflects the page content.
To help craft more descriptive URLs, you can use tools like Ubersuggest, Google Ads Keyword Planner, or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to find popular keywords related to your business.
Then:
- Use clear, concise language that accurately reflects the page’s content.
- Do not use unnecessary words or symbols like & or %.
- Ensure each URL is unique and does not duplicate another page on your site.
- Keep URLs as short as possible without compromising readability.
You’re aiming for something like this: www.example.com/blog/seo-basics-checklist
rather than: www.example.com/blog/article?id=64711
17. Add Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Image Tags
Title tags are one of the main factors search engines consider when determining a web page’s rank. Things like title tags and image tags provide information about your page to search engines and can help them rank higher.
Then, there are meta descriptions.
You’ve all seen these before. They’re the short blurbs that appear under your title in search engine results pages (SERPs), and they’re your opportunity to persuade people to click through to your site.
They look like this:
Finally, adding image tags to your pictures is one of the simplest ways to improve your SEO. Image tags tell search engines what your image is about, which helps them rank your page higher in search results.
Your Technical SEO Checklist
Beyond just optimizing your website’s content, technical SEO can have a big impact on your search engine rankings. Technical SEO involves optimizing the technical aspects of your website to improve its performance, speed, and user experience. Let’s explore a technical SEO checklist that can help ensure your website is optimized for success.
18. Check Your Page Loading Speeds
Page speed is a killer that you don’t want to impact your ranking factors and user experience. Monitoring page loading speeds in technical SEO is essential because slow-loading pages can increase bounce rates, which negatively impact user engagement and conversions.
That’s because search engines like Google consider page speed to be one of the ranking factors in their algorithm. And pages that load faster tend to rank higher than those that load slower.
Check your page speeds and optimize them regularly to improve user experience and search engine visibility. Doing so will likely see higher traffic to your site, which means there is an opportunity for better business outcomes.
To increase speed:
- Optimize images using an image-compression plugin like Smush or the WebP format.
- Consider changing your hosting provider to a company with fast server response times.
- Use caching techniques to allow future data requests to get processed faster.
19. Make Sure Your Pages Meet Core Web Vitals
Page loading speed goes hand in hand with the other Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics.
Ensuring that your pages meet CWV is crucial in technical SEO because it impacts user experience and search engine rankings.
CWV are a set of metrics that measure website performance, including loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.
Google uses these metrics to evaluate a website’s page experience, and pages that fail to meet CWV may be penalized in search rankings.
By optimizing your pages to meet these metrics, you can improve user engagement and satisfaction.
Leading to:
- Better search engine visibility
- Increased traffic to your site
- More conversions
I find CWV is crucial for small businesses and digital marketers to focus on so visitors won’t bounce and SMBs can keep rising in rank.
20. Use Schema Markup to Target Rich Snippets
One way to improve your website ranking is by using schema markup. Schema markup is code you add to your website, which tells search engines what your content means. This can help the likes of Google better understand your content and rank it accordingly.
Rich snippets allow you to add extra information to your search results. Snippets come in different formats like movies, recipes, and maps:
These rich snippets can help you stand out from the competition and attract more visitors to your site due to improved click-through rates (CTRs). This signals to the search engines that you have quality content and can ultimately help you rank higher in SERPs.
Note: Google has started rolling out its AI Overviews, and it may impact the presence of rich snippets.
21. Be Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
Is your site mobile-friendly?
According to research, 88 percent of consumers have at least one mobile shopping app. The top reason for using apps? A better user experience.
Visitors who have a negative user experience may not come back for more. Therefore, it’s well worth including this on your SEO checklist.
How do you do this? It’s easier than you think. You can:
- Use responsive design so your site adapts to different screen sizes.
- Optimize images for mobile by resizing and compressing them. Imagify offers a free monthly plan for up to 200 images.
- Check your site on different browsers and devices. If you need a tool for this, here’s a list.
- Use Google Search Console or PageSpeed Insights to test your website performance and get tips to enhance it.
Note its clear images and intuitive, highly visible search function.
22. Look for 404 Errors
Everyone should check this one off their SEO basics checklist!
Even though they may seem harmless, broken links can hurt your website’s SEO.
Not only do they create a poor user experience, but they can also impact your site’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). You should regularly check for and fix broken website links to avoid this.
Here’s an example of a 404 error page from LEGO:
Use a tool like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to check for broken links and pages. These tools allow you to spot broken links and find pages that Google has yet to index.
When you’ve found a broken link, you’ve got a few options:
- Edit the link so that it points to the correct page
- Create a 301 redirect so that the broken link is redirected to another page on your website
- Remove the link from your website altogether.
I also have a guide available if you’re looking for a deeper dive into what you can do about 404 errors.
Your Off-Page SEO Checklist
Now that we’ve covered the basic rules of technical SEO, it’s time to dive into the world of off-page SEO. This involves optimizing factors outside your website, such as link building, social media engagement, and brand mentions. This off-page SEO checklist will help boost your website’s rankings and online visibility. All you need to do is follow along:
23. Have a Plan in Place to Report on Ranking Success
You’ve worked carefully on your SEO checklist, but are you forgetting something? Like tracking your ranking success, maybe?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re doing awesome, but you don’t know that for sure unless you’re tracking your progress (rankings).
When you create a report, it should cover things like:
- Your technical SEO efforts and overall technical health so you can view mobile-friendliness, crawlability and speed, etc.
- Keyword performance: This analyzes how specific keywords are doing in the search engines and how much traffic they’re driving
- Page performance: These reports show traffic metrics and bounce and conversion rates for individual pages.
- Backlinks: These show the quality and quantity of backlinks and missing or broken links.
- KPIs, so you know you’re reaching your traffic, conversion, CTRs, and other goals.
However, you can include additional info, as pictured below:
24. Plan a Link Building Strategy for Finished Content
You’ve just about made it all the way through your off-page SEO checklist.
Now, you want to start creating a link building strategy for all your fantastic content to enhance your SERPs further.
Where do you begin, and why is link-building important? Hold on while I talk you through it.
Aside from the lift it can give your SEO, link building can increase organic search results and conversions. For example, one brand achieved a remarkable 10x growth in organic traffic within just six months by implementing a solid backlink strategy. Impressive, huh?
Below are some simple tips you can use to start link-building today:
- Create high-quality content and post it on authoritative blogs as guest posts.
- Start a resource directory on your website.
- Ensure your content is well-written, useful, and relevant to your target audience.
- Research which websites may want to link to your content and reach out to them directly.
- Link to authority sites in your articles and reach out to authors or website owners to let them know.
Your Local SEO Checklist
Local SEO should be a top priority if you want to attract more local customers to your business. Optimizing your website and online presence for local search can help increase your visibility in local search results and drive more foot traffic to your business. You can get started with this local SEO checklist:
26. Build A Google Business Profile Page
When it comes to local SEO, starting your Google Business Profile (GBP) is key so your customers in the area can find you.
Having this page will put you among your competition as an option for potential customers looking for a brand like you.
A GBP page helps potential customers find your business, learn about your services, and contact you easily.
To start a Google Business Profile page, go to Google Business Profile, click the “Manage Now” button, and enter your business name and address. Here’s the GBP listing for the American Museum of Natural History:
From this profile, you can book tickets, visit their website, get directions, save the listing to favorites, and find contact details.
27. Submit Your Site to Online Business Directories
Submitting your site to online business directories improves your online visibility and increases your chances of being found by potential customers. (Hint: like the Google Business Profile.)
Online business directories allow businesses to list their contact information, services, and location.
I recommend you start by submitting to these free online business listings:
Also, sign up to Manta, Better Business Bureau, your local Chamber of Commerce, and any niche sites related to your industry.
When you submit your business to these directories, you add another avenue for people to find your business online.
Many online directories have high domain authority, meaning having your business listed can provide valuable backlinks to your website.
Just like that, you can boost your search engine rankings after everything is set up.
28. Make Sure Relevant Business Info Is Available Across All Your Pages
You’ve got to ensure your customers can find you online and know where to find you offline, too.
That means including crucial details like:
- Opening hours
- Name, address, and phone number
- A contact email/form
- Calls to action.
And don’t forget to add a map to make it even easier for your customers to find you.
Don’t just make do with putting these details on your home page, though. Often, searchers can land on your website from different search engine results, and they may only look at one page. If they don’t see all the info they want or need at first glance, they may just click away.
By ensuring that this information is consistent across all your web pages, you can improve:
- Your visibility in local search results
- Your access to potential customers
Having this information readily available can also increase trust and credibility with users, ultimately leading to more conversions.
Conclusion
A lot of stuff to cover, right? But these evergreen tips will help you create a solid SEO strategy.
There’s no getting away from algorithm updates that can influence elements of SEO, but methods like selecting keywords, creating helpful content, and optimizing technical elements will keep your ahead of the game.
Use this article as your guide, and remember that SEO is a long-term project, not a once-off. Keep working at it, and your site will likely reap the rewards over time.
In conclusion, diversification of marketing strategies is not just a recommendation; it’s a necessity in today’s digital marketing environment. At DaoSoftcode, we specialize in creating customized, diversified marketing strategies tailored to each client’s unique needs and objectives. Contact us today to unlock the power of diversification and elevate your digital marketing initiatives for sustainable growth and success.