Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn’t complicated. It’s easy to determine what works best for your website and then track your progress to see what is/isn’t working.
SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears higher in search engines like Google and Bing.
We have created a comprehensive SEO checklist to help you improve your website’s rank and organic traffic.
Before we get to the checklist, I want to tell you about 3com3. They give Affordable SEO Service with a free website audit report and keyword research; make sure you do check it out; you won’t regret.
let’s discuss the essential SEO elements. These are essential components of optimizing your website for SEO. Have a look at these:
- URL Structure A URL refers to the address of an internet resource. It should be consistent across your website and reflect the route visitors should follow to reach a specific page.
- Meta Descriptions These short paragraphs appear below the page title or URL link in a search. They should be simple to read and encourage searchers to click through.
- H1 tag: These tags are located in your website’s code, allowing search engines to distinguish each page’s theme.
- Page titles A page title is a short description of a website and appears on search engine result pages (SERPs) and at the top browser’s window. Your page titles should be the same on all pages.
- Keyword and Alt Text (more information on these terms in the list).
Let’s now get started with the SEO checklist. We’ve divided it into the following categories to make it easier for you to understand:
- SEO Basics
- Keyword Research and Optimization
- On-Page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Branding
- Backlinks
- Content
- General Checklist
- Advanced SEO Tips and Tricks
SEO Basics
Let’s begin with SEO basics. This is what you need to know about plugins and other tools that will help you rank high in search engines.
1) Google Search Console Setup
Google Search Console is an excellent free tool you can use to improve your SEO. It’s free to set up, and you can track Google search performance.
2) Install Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to track how people find and use your site. You can view how much traffic your website receives from Google, the most popular pages, the average bounce rate, and other information. These data will give you an idea about the areas that need your attention.
3) Yoast SEO (for WordPress Users): Install Yoast SEO
Yoast is one of the most popular SEO plugins in the world. It makes optimizing your WordPress website for search engines straightforward.
Keyword Research and Optimization
Keyword research, also known as the foundation of SEO, is a practice that allows you to find, analyze, and use keywords to search the internet for the information you seek.
It is essential to know how potential customers search for keywords. Here are some tips to help you do this.
4) Use the Google Keyword Planner to find keywords.
What is the official keyword research tool for Google? It’s the Google Keyword Planner. This tool can be an excellent resource for keyword ideas. It allows you to find search queries with a lot of searches.
5) Look for long-tailed keywords.
Google Suggest is an excellent way to search for long-tail keywords.
Google allows you to enter a keyword. Do not click on “Google Search” and press Enter.
Take a look at the keywords Google displays to you:
These keywords are great to optimize your site because people are searching for them (that is why Google recommended them to you!). This tip is part of our essential SEO checklist.
6) Search for question keywords with Answer the public
Keywords that answer questions are great for blog posts and articles.
They are easily found on Answer to the Public (ATP).
Open ATP and ask the question: “How do you make mint tea?”
This tool is free and displays the queries people search on the internet.
These suggestions will help you answer any questions about your content.
7) UberSuggest is a great tool to find relevant keywords.
UberSuggest will show you relevant keywords if you only enter once. You can filter your search by media type (videos, images, news, etc.). You can filter by media type (video, image, information, etc.) and geographic location.
8) Include your keyword in your URL
Google will understand your page if you include the target keyword in the URL.
9) Include Keywords in your Meta Description
Include your keyword at minimum once or twice in your meta description. Also, ensure you write a catchy meta description. These steps will improve your SEO.
Your keyword should be included in the meta description at least once or twice. Also, ensure you write a catchy meta description. These are steps that will help improve your SEO.
10) Find Low-Competition Keywords using KWFinder.
Enter a keyword in the KWFinder tool to get beneficial data, such as
- cost-per-click (CPC)
- Keyword difficulty
- Search volume
- Estimated visits
- Trends
This information will make it easier for you to select low-competition keywords easy to rank for.
11) Always focus on quality.
Do not compromise the quality of your content to improve your SEO. Keep in mind that you are writing for readers, not robots.
12) Incorporate your keywords once in the first 150 words
Google considers the first 100-150 lines of your page very important.
Therefore, make sure you include your keyword only once.
13) Use internal links
Write a new piece of content and link to at least 2-5 pages on your site.
Tip – Use keyword-rich anchor texts in your internal links
14) Use external links
Link to at least 5-8 authoritative websites within your article (e.g., Wikipedia). Google will know that your content has been well-referenced and trustworthy by linking to it.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to server optimizations that allow search engine spiders to crawl and index your site more effectively.
These are the areas you should be focusing on when looking for best practices:
15) Your site’s loading speed
Slow websites are a significant problem for SEO strategies. Bounce rates will increase by 103% if your website takes longer to load.
Check, does your site load extremely fast?
Your website won’t rank if it doesn’t.
To find out how fast your website loads on mobile and desktop, visit PageSpeed Intelligences. You will see what you can do to speed up your website.
16) Repair broken outbound and internal links
Broken links can only be described as poor user experience.
You can fix broken links (by updating or simply removing them) by looking at the Site Audit Report.
17) Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Did you know that Google has switched to mobile-first indexing of all websites in 2019? Your organic visibility will suffer if you don’t provide a mobile-friendly experience.
To check the mobile-friendliness of your website, use Google’s Mobile-friendly Testing Tool. 87% of smartphone owners use search engines daily. Your website should be mobile-friendly.
18) Make sure you’re using HTTPS
This is a key component of any SEO checklist. It is high Time that HTTPS encryption is implemented on your website. Since 2014, HTTPS has been a ranking element.
19) Use an SEO-friendly URL structure.
An SEO-friendly URL structure allows search engines to crawl your pages and quickly determine what they are about. Your URLs should be clear and concise.
This is an SEO-friendly URL:
https://www.domain.com/yellow-shoes/
Tip Use hyphens to separate words in URLs. Never use underscores.
20) Create and submit a sitemap
Sitemaps communicate to crawlers which files are essential to your website. They also provide crucial information about those files. This could include information about the page’s changes, its last update, and when it was last updated.
Google supports many sitemap formats. XML is the most popular. You can typically find your website’s sitemap at https://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml.
You can use one of the many sitemap generators available to create an XML sitemap. Once you have completed it, make sure you submit it to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
Off-Page SEO
Let’s talk about the SEO checklist for this particular category:
- Make social media profiles on the platforms where your target audience is active.
- Join LinkedIn Pulse, which is LinkedIn’s publishing platform.
- You can guest podcast (it allows you to speak directly with new podcast listeners who are a part of your target audience).
- Keep active on Pinterest, and join relevant boards.
- To build relationships, comment on blogs.
- Contribute to newsletters
- Find events that you could sponsor.
- Optimize Google My Business.
- Make unlinked mentions linkable.
- Ask websites to link back to your images.
- Register on websites that offer award-winning services.
- Expert roundups are a good idea but don’t do it too often.
- Create badges that your community can use to promote their website.
Advanced SEO Tips and Tricks
There are many ways to improve your SEO. Let’s talk about advanced SEO tips and tactics.
21) Limit Website Downtime
Google states that site reputation can be negatively affected by unplanned outages.
You can use Pingdom to track down site downtime.
22) Increase the dwell time of your website
Dwell Time is another important ranking factor.
Dwell Time refers to the Time a Google searcher spends browsing a web page from search results before returning to Search Engine Results Pages.
People will stay if they find what they’re looking for on your site. Google is aware of this. You should ensure that searches remain on your site longer by using ways to do this.
23) Relaunch outdated content and update it
Are there old posts on your blog that have been forgotten?
These steps will help you update and improve your home.
24) Improve the formatting
25) Add new screenshots
26) Increase the meat content
Get Your Professional Website Design!
Finally, you can relaunch the site. This may increase search engine traffic.
This is how to improve your SEO.
Wrapping up
This is the definitive guide to improving SEO in 2022.
Learning all the SEO tips and strategies in this SEO checklist These 26 SEO tips will help you improve your SEO. Now it’s Time to get started!.