The Always Up-to-Date SEO Checklist
This page has been reviewed and updated as of November 19, 2024.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an evolving discipline rooted in both best practices and trending strategies. This is why having the latest information on hand is vital when optimizing website content to be found in search engines.
An SEO checklist lists best practices and reminders that help you optimize a website to perform better in search engine rankings.
Not making mistakes is an important first step for helping search engines, notably Google, reward your site in rankings.
One checklist can’t uncover everything an individual business should do regarding SEO and its website. But this one is pretty close with more than 50 SEO categories that will improve how customers and search engines find and use your site.
We try to keep this checklist brief for easy reference. If you want more explanation, check the linked resources or our SEO Guide to learn how to do search engine optimization.
The SEO checklist is divided into sections, so jump around as needed:
- Content optimization
- On-Page optimization
- Local optimization
- Mobile optimization
- Sitewide optimization
- Server / HTML optimization
- Webmaster tools
- Advanced SEO methods (NEW)
- Case study (NEW)
- Closing recommendations
- FAQ: How can I effectively optimize my website using the SEO checklist to improve search engine rankings?
Content Optimization
1. Target Audience Research
This is a biggie: Know your target audience, their questions and their pain points. Knowing what questions and types of queries they might ask Google helps inform your keyword research.
This, in turn, will help you create content that answers those questions and solves their pain points. (You’ll use keywords you select as a basis for this content — one main keyword topic per webpage — but more on that shortly.)
One great way to get to know your target audience is to create a sample of it and then interview them. There are many ways to go about this — either manually in-house or outsourcing to a third party like AYTM.
Understanding searcher intent is an important step in crafting content. Answering typical questions your target audience might ask can help your page be found for voice search queries.
Remember to update your persona profiles, and trends shift. One small study by NN/g found that 46% of the professionals surveyed update their personas every one to four years.
2. Keyword Strategy and Research
If you want to catch fish, you need to know two things: what bait the fish are biting and where the fish are swimming. Content and keywords work together to attract and convert your fish.
Keyword research needs to be an ongoing process. It starts by identifying a focus phrase or two for the topic you want to write about (using your preferred tools — dozens of good ones are out there, including our SEOToolSet®. Google Ads Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs and more).
When you have a keyword phrase in mind for a page or a section of your site, check it in Google Search. View the top results, the “People also ask” questions and the rest of the search engine results.
This search engine results page (SERP) provides your best clues to the searcher’s intent for this query. Make sure your content fulfills what searchers want when looking for this keyword or look for a more appropriate keyword phrase.
Competitor research is also a big part of keyword strategy. Look at what keywords your competitors are ranking for so you can evaluate if those make sense for you, too.
Finally, map your keywords. This means assigning primary and secondary keywords to specific pages. This is something you will be sure to do if you implement SEO siloing, as discussed in No. 10 a little later.
Keyword research is part of any solid SEO checklist. Be sure to read our in-depth guide on how to do keyword research for SEO. You can also check out our SEO Guide that includes a free version of the SEOToolSet Keyword Suggestion tool.
3. Quality Content
Quality content is the priority for any good SEO checklist.
Google’s algorithm detects low-quality content and demotes its rankings. Google’s “helpful content” update (aka the helpful content “system”), which hit in August 2022, is part of Google’s efforts to clear out the junk in the search results.
So avoid thin content. Focus on robust coverage of your website topics to prove your subject matter expertise, get to know Google’s E-E-A-T principles, and leverage industry experts when possible.
In addition to all of this, know the appropriate content for your keywords and the stage of the conversion funnel your audience is in.
This requires knowing the intent of the keyword for that page and matching the conversion actions. If it’s a page on a more general topic, then a simple element on the page (like a sign-up box) may be an appropriate next step for people.
If the topic is comparing two products — say yours and a competitor’s — you might need to create a conversion-focused landing page, leading people to buy your product.
Also be aware of the growing trend of using AI to generate SEO content. AI-generated content is a tool, NOT a solution, so use those types of tools wisely.
Read these related articles:
- AI content creation: A beginner’s guide (Search Engine Land)
- Why AI-Powered Content Creation Is a Game-Changer for Marketers Everywhere
- What Makes a Webpage Quality?.
4. Featured Snippet Opportunities
As you conduct keyword research, you might find that Google displays a featured snippet (aka answer box) above the search results for your targeted keyword (aka “position zero”).
You have an opportunity to claim a featured snippet if you provide answers to question-type queries.
To win featured snippets, you’ll need to structure the content according to the type of snippet (usually video, text, list or table). Optimize the answer and formatting, whether it’s a table, bulleted list, ordered list, text question-and-answer or other.
You may be able to increase your chances of securing a featured snippet spot (see “More Structured Data” below) by applying schema markup, but it’s not required.
One tool that we like that can help you target featured snippets is inLinks.net.
5. Word Count
The amount of content needed on a webpage can vary by topic, keyword, competition and the intent of the query. (The graphic below outlines the three main intents behind search queries.)
How many words is enough? There’s no black-and-white rule. In fact, Google has been saying for a while now that word count doesn’t matter.
But I believe it’s more nuanced than that. If you analyze the search results for different keyword types, you’ll find that some require more content on a topic than others.
To determine an approximate minimum page length, look at the top-ranked URLs for your target keyword. How long are those pages?
A tool like our SEOToolSet Multi Page Analyzer is handy for this kind of competitive analysis.
Averaging the top competitors gives you a ballpark for what a search engine considers the normal word count for that topic. It’s safe to say that informational webpages almost always warrant more text.
6. Call to Action (CTA)
For each of your pages, ask yourself what the user would need/want to do from here. Then make it easy to do!
Your key pages should clarify what primary action a visitor can take next.
- The call to action (CTA) should be prominent on a product page (for example, “add to cart” or “start a free trial”).
- On a service page, the CTA might be “call us” or “get a quote.” Make the CTA clear and easy to select.
- On the homepage, help the visitor to take the next step in your conversion funnel.
The actual language of a CTA should be active (usually an imperative verb). The placement and design of the CTA should draw the visitor’s attention. But test variations to see what works best for you.
A page doesn’t have to be transactional to warrant a call to action. If an informational page is a top-performing traffic driver, such as a blog post (like this one) that answers a common question or an FAQ page, the call to action might encourage the visitor to “find out more” and enter the conversion funnel or to tell two friends.
For instance, you should bookmark this SEO checklist for future reference now. If you find it helpful, please consider sharing it!
7. Content Freshness
Periodically review your content (webpages and blog posts) to ensure the information is current.
For example, we regularly refresh this checklist. SEO best practices must evolve as search engine guidelines and technology do. If your industry also moves quickly, your content needs to keep up.
Google agrees. From Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (PDF):
“… unmaintained/abandoned old websites or unmaintained and inaccurate/misleading content is a reason for a low Page Quality rating.”
Tip: If parts of your website could use a refresh, see our guide to refreshing your site content for a step-by-step tutorial.
8. Static Content on the Homepage
Your homepage acts as a central hub, passing authority to the top pages on your site through internal links. It’s probably also where people often land when searching for your brand or main products/services.
It’s important to have static text that talks about your brand and top theme(s) on the homepage.
If your homepage has content that constantly changes, such as headlines, it can dilute the theme of your site, which can result in poor rankings for key terms.
So, try to maintain sections of consistent text on the homepage.
9. Duplicate Content
Do searches to see if your content exists elsewhere on the web. You may want to check out CopyScape.com and use it regularly.
If your site appears to have copied content from another source, that’s a low-quality signal to search engines and may cause your site to rank lower. Similarly, if other sites have copied your content, it could be a problem from an SEO standpoint.
A search engine will filter out the dupes if you have duplicate content within your site, such as three URLs with the same content.
Only one URL will display in the results for relevant queries — and the page that Google chooses might not be the page that you want to rank.
One option is to use a “canonical tag” to tell search engines which version should be indexed.
Here’s more on duplicate content.
10. SEO Siloing
SEO siloing structures a website’s content by grouping related webpages in section categories (silos) on the site, either through the URL structure or through cross-linking.
The goal is to have the top of each silo (the landing page of the section) be based on popular search engine queries, and then to build out the section with pages of content related to the primary query/keyword.
Siloing helps search engines understand the content and improves user experience. When done well, it aligns with Google’s principles of E-E-A-T from its Search Quality Rater Guidelines.
For more, check out: SEO Siloing: What, Why, How
On-Page Optimization
Review each important page, from the homepage to a high-priority product page, with an eye to the following issues in this on-page SEO checklist.
11. Title Tag
SEO has always stressed a webpage’s HTML title as a vital tag containing the relevant keywords you want to rank for on this page.
Google has its own guidelines for title tags, and we have our own based on experience.
In general, title tags should be about nine words (within the range of six to 12). You want to ensure that each page’s meta title is unique and describes the most important information about the page.
Use the top keyword before the cutoff in the SERP, which for Google is roughly 60–70 characters including spaces. (Tip: You can use a title tag preview tool to estimate how much will show.)
Remember, the title tag often becomes the clickable title that searchers see in search results (though Google reserves the right to choose a different title for your result).
Nonetheless, even when Google changes the title in the search results, it still uses the HTML on your webpage to understand what the page is about.
A well-crafted title tag may also stand a better chance of being displayed in the search results exactly how you want it to be.
Both the title and description text can influence click-throughs to your site, so focus on writing compelling tags. You don’t want to waste your prime real estate in the SERP with boring copy.
For more, read Why Does Google Change My Webpage Title in the Search Results?
12. Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag should also include the most important information and keywords near the beginning.
If the search engine chooses to display your description text, it will include approximately 24 words or 160 characters with spaces.
Google indicates that it does not consider this tag an important ranking factor. I think anything appearing on a Google SERP page is important. It certainly helps us get clicks — so be sure to act like it is important because it is.
Remember that Google reserves the right to replace your meta description text with a search snippet generated by Google, which is usually pulled from the page’s body content.
A search snippet (aka auto-snippet) appears instead of your meta description whenever Google deems the snippet of text more relevant for a given search. This is common when your description does not contain the query keyword.
Read more about meta tags.
13. Heading Tags
Headings allow a reader to see a page’s main sections and points. They give visual cues for how body content is organized and signal to search engines and readers what topics are covered on a page.
As a technical point, make sure the first heading tag within the body of a page is an <h1>. (Note that WordPress’s text field at the top of the editor that says “Add Title” is actually for the Heading 1.)
The following heading tags can be <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, etc., and should be used like a page’s table of contents. You may have more than one <h1> on a page according to Google, though we recommend only one in most cases.
And be sure not to use heading tags to control font sizes as that may confuse the search engines. Instead, use CSS to control style, and headings to describe content organization.
Navigation elements and other global text should be styled with CSS and not heading tags (watch our Ask Us Anything video for more about this).
For more on heading tags, check out: What Are Heading Tags and Why Are They Important to SEO?
14. Keyword Optimization
Do you have to do keyword optimization? No. But can you help strengthen a webpage’s relevance with a little extra effort? I believe so.
First, let’s discuss the elephant in the room: keyword optimization can seem outdated. Yes, your content is naturally optimized when you write about a topic.
However, all else equal, if you spent a little more time than the competition making sure all the target keywords showed up on your page, and all the relevant related words showed up as well, do you think you might have a better chance of ranking than the competition?
For more, read: How a WordPress SEO Plugin Can Help You Optimize Your Content with Keywords, and check out LSIGraph as a handy tool as well.
15. Image Optimization
Images greatly enhance your pages. Content needs visual elements to break up the text and keep readers interested.
Images also provide additional ranking opportunities through image searches and blended web search results.
However, images can slow down a page’s loading time. To reduce file size and to increase speed as much as possible, resize the files to their display size rather than uploading the original file and making the browser shrink it. Also, include width and height attributes in image tags.
Note: We use a plugin that automatically provides JPEG and PNG images in the WebP image format to browsers that support it, reducing image size by approximately 50%. This seriously improves SEO by decreasing page size and speeding page loads.
File names should describe the image and include a keyword when possible. You can also optimize the caption and the text surrounding an image to reinforce its content.
For more about optimizing images for SEO, review our article on how to improve Google Image Search ranking.
16. Alt Attributes
Make sure to include an alt attribute with each image. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states that a website should describe the image on a page for the vision impaired when the description contributes to an accurate understanding of the content.
Please take this seriously; although not mainstream SEO, compliance failure can lead to serious fines and penalties.
Accessibility is important to users and Google. According to Google, having alt attributes is a primary indicator that your site is accessible.
As an SEO checklist item, ensure that your images have accurate alt text that, if appropriate, includes a keyword for the page.
If an image is purely decorative, it should still have an empty alt attribute within its image tag. Alt attributes are required of validated HTML code (per W3C standards).
17. Video Optimization
Videos are powerful engagement objects that add multimedia interest to keep visitors on your page longer. As highly consumable content, videos provide additional SEO benefits and social sharing opportunities.
Also, note that video is one of the formats for featured snippets in the SERP. To go further, I imagine that a significant portion of how-to query results (in the organic results area) will evolve to be video answers.
So optimize your videos to be found in search. Video content provides ranking opportunities both in regular searches and in video-only search engines where they’re uploaded, especially YouTube.
Like images, embedded videos can slow down a page’s load time. There are a ton of optimization best practices for YouTube, Vimeo and other video hosting sites.
Read our quick beginner’s guide to video marketing and optimization and our article on 10 video SEO tips to improve SERP rank.
15. Structured Data Markup with Schema
Structured data clarifies for the search engine what the content on your page is about. Specifically, marking up your HTML content based on the standards at schema.org helps search engines understand what type of information you’re presenting.
For example, you could use structured data markup to indicate an upcoming event your business is hosting, specifying its date, time, location, and other details. If Google is clear about what’s on your site, then additional information has the potential to show up in your search results.
Dozens of schema types may apply depending on the content you have on your site.
Consider for example:
- HowTo Article Structured Data – Use this to identify how-to articles.
- FAQ Structured Data – Markup a Q&A section with this type of schema, and you may earn a hefty featured snippet such as the one shown below.
Google’s guidelines allow three supported formats for marking up a website:
- JSON-LD (recommended)
- Microdata
- RDFa
This is a technical SEO checklist item: Google requires your markup to include all the required properties for an object to be eligible for enhancements in your SERP listing.
To make sure you’ve done it right, check your page or code snippet using Google’s Rich Results Test Tool.
For more on how to implement structured data on your site, check out:
- What Is Structured Data and Why Is It Important for SEO?
- How to Use Schema Markup to Improve Your Website Visibility in Search
19. More Structured Data
Besides the schema markup we just mentioned, there are other ways you can structure your data to make it more digestible for search engines:
- HTML tables
- Bulleted lists
- Ordered lists
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Table of contents at the top (especially with anchor links)
- Headings that contain a key term or question, followed by the answer in the body text
- TL;DR (“too long, didn’t read”) summary near the top of your article
All of these structural formats can help people read your content more easily. They also encourage Google to use your content in featured snippets, as discussed above. Google gives more information about structured data in the search results here.
20. Social Meta Tags
Social markup, or social meta tags, refers to the code used to enhance content on social media sites like Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Content in these tags dictates what image and text will appear when someone posts a link to your content on a social network. While not a link for SEO, social mentions about your pages are considered trust signals that can boost your content’s reputation.
Including social markup in your HTML ensures you look your best on social media. Facebook Open Graph tags, X Cards markup and Pinterest Rich Pins are the major social markup tags.
Click through if you want more details on each platform’s options:
- Facebook Open Graph tags
- X Cards
- Pinterest Pins in various formats
- LinkedIn Share
21. URL Optimization
This item is featured in nearly every SEO checklist. Long ago URLs were heavily keyword-stuffed, and it is believed that they now have minimal impact on rankings. Still, a descriptive URL can certainly assist with clicks by users.
You want URLs to be descriptive and contain keywords, without being spammy. And shorter URLs are preferable to long URLs. One study by Backlinko found that short URLs tend to have a slight ranking advantage.
For example, don’t do this:
www.acmewidgets.com/T&Xyhtbhyd8ut
Instead, do this:
www.acmewidgets.com/blue-widgets
Also: Use dashes rather than underscores in page URLs. Underscores are alpha characters and do not separate words. Dashes (or rather, hyphens) are word separators, but should not appear too many times or it could look spammy.
URL structure is also important when doing SEO siloing (see No. 10 in this list).
For more on this topic, check out this post by Google’s Matt Cutts (an oldie but a goodie) and ours explaining what is spam.
22. Fully Qualified Links
If you make your internal links fully qualified, search engine spiders, browsers, etc., will have no question as to where the file is located and what it’s about.
If your link looks something like “../../pagename” (a relative link), then it may cause crawl issues for some search engines.
Rather than relative URLs, use fully qualified links, which means beginning with https:// (hopefully not http://). Your sitemap should always have fully qualified URLs. (You can read more about sitemaps below.)
For more, see: Absolute vs. Relative URL Linking — What’s the Big Deal, Anyway?
23. Make JavaScript and CSS External
Externalizing JavaScript and CSS code that blocks keyword-rich content is a best practice for removing unnecessary lines of code in your body text.
Externalizing large files can speed up page load time, which is a factor in Google’s ranking algorithm.
However, there is a tradeoff to consider especially in light of Core Web Vitals.
In some cases, Google recommends leaving smaller CSS or JavaScript code elements inline in your HTML page to reduce the round trip time it may take for the server to request the external resource.
Local Optimization
Businesses with a local brick-and-mortar presence or local service areas have a special set of SEO factors to consider. Here are a couple of important local SEO checklist items.
24. Claim Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile listing is free and is a critical first step for local brick-and-mortar and businesses with service areas.
A Google Business Profile can enable your site to appear in Google Maps, the local pack of Google Search results and Knowledge Graph panels for your business.
Since SEO aims to send traffic to your site from search engines, these appearances are important as SEO items.
There’s a lot more involved in local SEO but claiming your Google Business Profile and a listing in Bing Places for Business gets you started.
25. Local Schema Markup
Local businesses can benefit from on-page schema markup related to their business. (You can browse the available codes at Schema.org).
Especially important for all businesses is the NAP + W code, which designates the business’s name, address, phone number and website.
26. Local Citations and Links
Local citations are usually found in directories where multiple businesses are listed either by business type or by region.
At a minimum, an online citation should include the business name, address and phone number (NAP) as well as the website address. Many directory sites offer opportunities for additional business information, as well.
Local links are different from citations in that they exist on local websites, such as related businesses in the area or hyper-local blogs about the area, rather than on a directory.
Both citations and local links help establish your local presence.
Check out my list of other local search ranking factors. Many factors you may not have considered are vital to SEO.
Mobile Optimization
We’re truly living in a mobile-first world. Businesses need to ensure that their websites cater to the mobile browsing experience.
Google looks at the mobile version of your content when it comes to indexing and ranking.
Yes, you may edit your pages on a desktop for convenience, and perhaps you have very few mobile users on your site. But the Google spider is only concerned with mobile formatting, which is how your site is viewed.
As an SEO checklist to-do, make sure you’re using a mobile-first strategy. I’ve listed a few specifics below.
27. Mobile Usability
Search engines are invested in providing users with a great mobile experience.
First and foremost, Google recommends implementing a responsive design because “it’s the easiest design pattern to implement and maintain.”
Then, you can see how your site performs on mobile devices with Lighthouse, an open-source tool.
You can also use the URL Inspection tool within Google Search Console to understand the way Google sees a specific page rendered on different mobile devices.
Lastly, Bing offers a Mobile Friendliness Test Tool.
Page load speed is also a ranking factor. Skip to the Site Speed and Performance in this SEO checklist for the SEO tools to check page speed.
28. Mobile and Voice-Related Keywords
When was the last time you tried a voice search for your keywords? Try to find your business and competitors as your customer would with a voice search.
Consider:
- Are you using relevant voice search terms like “[keyword] near me”?
- Are you accounting for searches formed as questions or full sentences? (These are increasingly common with the advance of voice queries.)
As an additional test, are your keywords easily pronounced? Do you have an exotic-sounding product or company name? How well do you perform in voice search right now? Are you ranking No. 1 but getting no mobile traffic?
Keyword recognition is an important part of a query, and the wrong query throws off SEO data.
Check out our articles on voice search optimization and mobile SEO for guidance.
Server / HTML Optimization
With Google’s page experience update and the introduction of Core Web Vitals, server-level optimization has become a priority. This section will help you optimize your page experience at the server level.
29. HTTPS
Having a secure site (HTTPS) has been a minor ranking signal in Google for years, and now as part of the page experience ranking factor, HTTPS is no longer optional.
If your site is unsecured (HTTP), users likely see a warning in their browser whenever they try to visit your site. So if you want traffic and rankings, you need a secure site.
Also, consider upgrading your site to HTTP/3. This protocol lets sites be better optimized for performance.
30. No Intrusive Interstitials
Intrusive interstitials are pop-ups that get in a user’s way by covering up too much of a webpage soon after the user arrives.
This no-no is on Google’s page experience list, so be sure your site avoids blocking the content with a pop-up or at least waits until 20–30 seconds after the page is opened.
31. Core Web Vitals
Three metrics that Google calls Core Web Vitals now have some influence on the ranking algorithm.
These metrics are LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), INP (Interaction to Next Paint) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), which measure how easily people can view and interact with your webpage.
Check your scores per page using the Core Web Vitals Report in Search Console among other tools.
For more details, read our Overview of Core Web Vitals and to go in-depth, watch our on-demand webinar 3 Expert Tips to Improve Core Web Vitals.
32. Server Configuration & Maintenance
Regularly check your server looking for 404 errors, improper 301 redirects and other errors. The many diagnostic reports in Google Search Console also point out errors to be fixed.
Server configuration also impacts site speed. This is a major checklist item because speed is a significant SEO issue. Run Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool and pay attention to its recommended fixes.
Server maintenance, especially plugin maintenance, is important at many levels.
For instance, you may have suffered a malware attack. In such cases, a hacker may have exploited a system weakness and installed hidden links or transfers to other sites into your code without your knowledge.
Such attacks will harm your SEO efforts by poisoning your content and potentially harming people visiting your site. That makes safe browsing a priority even if Google decided to drop it as a page experience ranking signal.
To better understand Google’s recent update, read our CMO’s overview of the page experience update or get a free copy our complete page experience guide.
33. Site Speed and Performance
Check PageSpeed Insights in Google Search Console or use tools like GTmetrix.com to analyze and improve a website’s performance on desktop and mobile devices.
For more details on improving page speed, read our page speed issues overview for SEO.
Sitewide Optimization
A website as a whole should demonstrate experience, expertise, authority and trust while conveying subject relevance and optimizing for search engine accessibility.
While your basic content strategy is a big piece of this (see the Quality Content section, above), the following items help support E-E-A-T.
34. Contact Information
An explicit trust signal is to have the business contact information, such as a phone number and physical address, clearly visible on the site. The search engines expect that a trustworthy site will provide this for users. Seriously, be easy to find.
35. Testimonials
Testimonials located on your site support your trustworthiness as a business. They also demonstrate tangible proof of your experience, expertise and value to your customer base. Testimonials are great for signaling your value to your human visitors, too!
Make sure your testimonials and reviews can be indexed. That means displaying them in text (not just images) that’s easy for search robots to digest.
Schema markup allows review ratings to be displayed, extending SEO value by increasing the possibility that your site will be shown for review featured snippets in the search results.
36. Privacy Statement
Another trust signal is having a privacy statement on your site. A privacy statement lets site visitors know what you’re doing with any data you collect about them.
Every site should have a privacy link in its footer to the privacy page. You are welcome to take our privacy statement from our site and modify it for your use.
In addition to bolstering your trust with Google and Bing, offering a privacy statement is a best practice. Privacy laws such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (aka GDPR) require many sites to clarify their privacy policies, have visitors opt-in to allow data collection, and more.
For those not concerned with Europe, there are equally strong laws for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other states have their versions, too. Be sure to research the privacy laws where your site visitors are located and make sure your website complies.
37. Text Navigation
Verify that there is text navigation within your site. You want text links, which are more SEO-friendly than using images for menu items.
Make sure you have text navigation at least on the bottom of the page if there aren’t any crawlable navigation links in the top menu. This is a search engine accessibility issue.
As a note, I strongly encourage you to use breadcrumbs with their schema markup throughout your site. Replace “Home” in that breadcrumb with a top-level keyword appropriate to your homepage (unless you sell homes).
Having internal links that point up from lower-level pages gives an SEO advantage and is also a usability factor.
For more, check out:
38. Sitemaps
Your site should have an HTML sitemap (see Google’s sitemap info). Every page should link to that sitemap, probably in the footer.
You should also have an XML sitemap that you submit to search engines. If you already have sitemaps, check and update them regularly to ensure they contain the currently active pages on your site.
You can learn how to create a sitemap for users and search engines to easily access all areas of your site in our SEO Guide. See: What Is an XML Sitemap and How Do I Create One?
39. Robots.txt File
The robots.txt file tells the search engine spiders what not to index. This file must exist, even if it’s empty. Also make sure the file doesn’t accidentally exclude important files, directories, or the entire site. (This has been known to happen!)
One important item in this file is the locator for your XML sitemap file. We encourage you to have a reasonable robots.txt file (see our robots.txt file if you are an SEO — and read the top eight lines).
For more on this, see: What Is robots.txt? A Beginner’s Guide to Nailing It with Examples
40. Linking Strategy
This section warrants way more than just a few sentences, but it should be noted as part of the SEO checklist.
Your internal linking structure typically stems from your siloing strategy, which is vital to establishing SEO relevance.
In addition, your inbound/outbound links should be part of an organic, natural strategy in compliance with search engine guidelines. As part of site maintenance, monitor your link profile regularly.
It is worth mentioning that with Google promoting PageRank in the past, links became a commodity. As such, a big-money business developed around selling links.
Google has considered selling links as spam for a long time (see its spam policies on links), has enforced several penalties around it and has built a great amount of technology to fight it.
There are still gray areas — see my post discussing guest posting for links as one example. But links do not hold as much weight as they used to. However, quality links still matter.
Also, check out:
- A Jam-Packed Guide on Internal Linking for SEO
- What Are Outbound Links?
- The New Link Building Manifesto
41. Static URLs
Complex, dynamic URLs can be a problem. If your site has any of the following, consider converting your URLs to static URLs:
- More than two query string parameters.
- Dynamic pages that aren’t getting indexed.
- A lot of duplicate content getting indexed.
You can also use mod_rewrite or ISAPI_rewrite as appropriate to simplify URLs. Rewritten URLs will appear to be static URLs. This tends to be a lot of work but is a surefire way to address this issue.
You can also use the canonical tag to tell search engines which page is intended to be indexed as the canonical version. Also see: How to Use the Canonical Link Element for Duplicate Content.
42. No Spam Tactics
Ensure your SEO strategy follows Google Search Essentials and Bing Webmaster Guidelines. If ever in doubt about any of your tactics, you can also refer to what Google recommends for SEO.
Note that many sites have no idea why they do not rank. They have used cheap SEO consultants who perhaps have done cheap tricks to fool the search engines into thinking you deserve rankings.
Such deceptive acts are spam, they may have hurt your site, and until repaired you will not rank. Do not buy cheap.
Webmaster Tools
What’s an SEO without their tools?
There’s a difference between data and wisdom. SEO tools can help you discover what’s happening with your site, but plotting an action plan requires an understanding of SEO. That’s SEO wisdom.
43. Web Analytics
No question — analytics data is important for SEO. Ensure your analytics are properly set up and monitor them regularly to find out if the keywords generating traffic are in your keyword list, and if your site is optimized for them.
A ranking monitor (such as the one in our SEOToolSet) is also useful for tracking SEO changes across search engines.
Admittedly, this is more difficult without specific keyword-tracking data. Google long ago decided to suppress that data (but keep it for PPC) for privacy concerns. Now, that argument is invalid, but the data remains lost to the SEO community.
Our SEO Guide unpacks the role of analytics in how to monitor your SEO rankings.
44. Webmaster Tools Accounts
Webmaster tools, which are known by various names for Google and Bing, give site owners insight into how search engines view their sites.
These free tools collect data and provide essential reports on issues like what search queries bring traffic to your site, crawl errors you need to fix and penalty notifications.
- If you haven’t already, set up Google Search Console for your site.
- Install Google Analytics 4 as well.
- For help setting up a Bing Webmaster Tools account, view this help file.
45. SEO Plugins
Plugins make a WordPress site more SEO-friendly. Many exist, with both free and premium versions. Many people use more than one.
Check out:
46. Other SEO Tools
Every SEO needs a good tool stack; one tool alone will not do everything. As you are building that stack, consider the following:
- The Top SEO Software That Experts Use Every Day
- What Is an SEO Ranking Report?
- 7 Keyword Suggestion and Research Tools to Figure Out the Right Keywords for Your SEO Strategy
47. Manual Penalty Review
If you have been subject to a manual penalty, Google will report it to you within Google Search Console. Check the Manual Actions report and the Search Console message center.
You can also find out if you’ve suffered a penalty from Bing. Review the Search Performance chart within the dashboard of Bing Webmaster Tools. If the number of pages for a given site is set at zero, you have been hit with a penalty.
Note that a manual action penalty is the kiss of death for your SEO efforts. Once you have one, you cannot see the consequences of your improvements until the penalty is lifted. And a search engine never forgets … a penalty can have a lasting impact for some time even after repair.
Read more about dealing with manual penalty actions.
48. Algorithm Updates Review
If your site runs Google Analytics, use the Panguin Tool to check your traffic levels against known algorithmic updates.
If you see big drops or rises in search referrer traffic that coincides with known algorithm updates or receive a manual action notice from Google, you may be affected by a penalty. Read more about penalty assessment and recovery.
Google changes its algorithm all the time, much to the dismay of SEO consultants everywhere. RankBrain and machine learning — powered by artificial intelligence technology — are changing the search results.
While optimization for AI is not as straightforward as checking for traffic drops, familiarize yourself with the real impact of RankBrain and my advice on the shrinking of organic results in Google SERPs.
Advanced SEO Methods
During the lifespan of your website, you will encounter many situations that impact SEO. You will also want to go beyond following a checklist to understanding how to approach SEO from a bird’s eye view.
This section covers some common, more advanced SEO strategies and how to handle them.
49. SERP Features
Understanding the types of features that show up on a search engine results page helps you know what and how you need to optimize to show up on page one.
For more, read:
- What Are SERP Features and Why Should I Care?
- A Quick Reference Guide to Common Google Search Features
50. Whole-SERP SEO Strategy
There is much more to SEO than just ranking in the “blue links” section. Most know that by now.
However, many may not know how to compete at the top of the search results when there are so many SERP features to optimize for.
This is where a whole-SERP SEO strategy comes into play. A whole-SERP SEO strategy analyzes the features that show up most in the search results for target keywords and then optimizes for them.
For example, if you are targeting “how-to” queries, you might find that YouTube videos pop up more often in the search results as an answer to those queries.
That means you will want to focus on creating video content in addition to webpage content for those queries to compete.
For more, check out: What Is a Whole-SERP SEO Strategy?
51. Website Migrations
A website migration is a term used to describe when a website undergoes major changes. Some examples include:
- Redesigning the website and changing the code.
- Renaming URLs.
- Consolidating webpages and implementing 301 redirects and/or URL changes.
- Changing domain names.
- Merging with another website.
- Rearranging the website structure/navigation.
- Moving a website from HTTP to HTTPS.
- Switching to a new content management system.
- Switching to a new hosting provider.
These types of changes can have a profound negative impact on SEO if they are not handled properly.
For more on how to handle this, see: SEO Website Migration Guide and our on-demand webinar Website Migration Dos and Don’ts to Avoid Disaster.
52. Handling New and Old Content
Should you spend your time creating new webpages for SEO, or optimizing old ones? The answer is yes to both.
We recommend spending about 50% of the time generating new pages and 50% optimizing and refreshing old pages so the website remains relevant.
For more, read:
- Creating New Pages vs. Optimizing Old Webpages: Which Is Better for SEO? [Search Engine Land]
- How to Remove a Webpage
53. Diagnosis
There will likely be a time when you lose rankings and traffic. Traffic loss happens for any number of reasons: Lost links, new competition, algorithm updates, reputation blunders — and more.
When this happens, you need to have a plan for how you will diagnose the problem. So check out these articles:
There will be other times when your website fails to produce results (traffic, leads, revenue, etc.) and/or just plainly fails to rank. We’ve hosted a couple of webinars on this subject to help you diagnose the root factors that can cause website failure. Catch these on demand:
54. Press Releases
At first glance, press releases may seem like an outdated SEO tactic. Not so.
It’s true that at one point, SEOs used press releases as a way to stuff keyword-rich links to their site. That tactic has fallen by the wayside, but that doesn’t mean press releases still aren’t good for SEO.
Press releases are still good for what they were created for, which is increasing visibility, which can lead to more brand recognition and traffic.
There are rules, however, for doing press releases in an SEO-friendly way–and best practices that help entice the media to pick up the story.
For more, check out: Why Press Releases Still Matter to SEO and How to Write One That Entices Media
55. Technical SEO Audits
Conduct regular SEO audits to fix any outstanding issue that may be hindering the website’s ability to rank.
How often do you do this?
With ongoing SEO projects, you typically only need the initial SEO audit.
However, any time there is an event, like sudden traffic loss, a site migration, site-wide upgrade, merger and/or every time Google changes the rules, conduct a thorough site audit.
For more, see SEO Audits and Tools: The Good, The Better and The Best.
56. Continuing Education
Implementing the right optimization techniques requires a commitment to learning the foundation of SEO and staying up-to-date on trends and search engine changes.
This is why everyone — from beginner to advanced — benefits from continuous learning, be it through an SEO training class or online SEO training, books, publications, podcasts, webinars, conferences, local in-person events and more.
To learn more, check out:
- In-Person SEO Classes vs. Online SEO Training: The Differences
- 5 questions to evaluate any SEO training course (my article at Search Engine Land)
Case Study
There is no clear-cut way to succeed in SEO; often, we use a variety of strategies to boost a website’s performance in search results and improve user experience.
In this section, I’ll share one case study that uses several of the steps outlined in this checklist. It proves that there is no “one way” to get you from Point A to Point B. It takes experience and wisdom to apply the strategies that will work for each website.
166% Traffic Jump
Through technical analysis, on-page analysis, internal linking analysis and a backlink audit, we implemented the following and boosted a client’s organic traffic by 166%:
- Content siloing
- Content improvements
- Schema markup
- Disavowed links
- XML sitemaps
- Canonicals
- 301 redirects
- Page experience, Core Web Vitals and speed improvements
Read more about our client success stories on our Case Study page.
Closing Recommendations
This is a very high-level summary of the things you need to consider about performing SEO on your site. Many people only do what is convenient. Some work cheaply and get it wrong. Some SEO teams do not have management support. As I always like to say: Don’t be surprised by the traffic you didn’t get for the SEO work you didn’t do.
One common mistake is not studying SEO before you do it. Seriously, you need to have a reasonable idea of what it is.
Take a course (I recommend ours at SEOtraining.com). To do the initial dust and clean, follow our How To Do SEO Guide.
Also, be sure to ask yourself these questions before doing DIY SEO.
Finally: Get your copy of the Declaration of SEO: 6 Fundamental Truths To Live By e-book and share it with your company. It also comes with a video presentation. This is important if you are an SEO. Trust me.
Bookmark this SEO checklist for future reference. And if you found it helpful, please share it!
If you’re struggling to implement any of the SEO tips and strategies outlined in this checklist, our SEO experts can help.
FAQ: How can I effectively optimize my website using the SEO checklist to improve search engine rankings?
There is no easy button when it comes to SEO — from keyword research to technical SEO and content development to link building, there are a lot of areas you have to pay attention to in order to build a successful SEO program.
Utilizing an SEO checklist is a great way to stay organized and ensure you are following every step in the process. This comprehensive guide outlines the core principles and strategies to optimize your website, improve your SEO and earn more organic traffic.
Whether you’re writing compelling content that resonates with your target audience, or employing savvy on-page optimization techniques, each step of our SEO checklist contributes to your website’s success — and your business.
The journey to successfully optimizing your website starts with a deep understanding of your target audience. Research their challenges, pain points, questions, and search queries to inform your entire optimization process.
Next, develop a keyword strategy to align your content with user intent. Analyze search engine results, identify relevant keywords and focus phrases, and look for opportunities to display your content in featured snippets. Moreover, optimizing your content’s structure and ensuring readability can enhance the chances of securing a featured snippet spot.
For local businesses, optimizing for local SEO is critical to stay competitive online in your area. Create, claim and optimize your Google Business Profile, and ensure you have accurate business information listed. Implement local schema markup, too. You’ll want to include customer reviews and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) details across all platforms.
As search engines emphasize user experience, understanding Core Web Vitals and optimizing your server and HTML configuration must be a priority. HTTPS adoption, avoiding intrusive interstitials, and excelling in Core Web Vitals improves user experience and establishes trust, ultimately increasing your search engine ranking.
Finally, webmaster tools like Google Analytics 4 provide invaluable insights into your site’s performance. SEO tools like SEOToolSet®, SEMRush or Ahrefs can help you track your SERP rankings data, conduct keyword research, uncover potential issues hindering your website performance and much more. Use these tools regularly to make informed decisions that will get the best results from your SEO campaign.
Implement the strategies and tips in this SEO checklist to build a strong online presence, earn more qualified traffic and increase your search engine ranking.
Step-by-Step Procedure
- Understand your target audience by researching their pain points and search queries.
- Do keyword research to identify focus phrases.
- Regularly review search engine results for insights on target keywords.
- Look for opportunities to appear in featured snippets.
- Optimize content structure and readability.
- Focus on website speed and mobile optimization.
- Use proper heading tags for organized content.
- Implement structured data to improve search visibility.
- Optimize Core Web Vitals for better page experience, improved user experience and a technically sound website.
- Maintain a user-friendly URL structure.
- Adopt HTTPS for a secure and trustworthy website.
- Create, claim and maintain your Google Business Profile for local optimization.
- Implement local schema markup to boost visibility in local search.
- Obtain local citations, reviews and links for an improved local presence.
- Check for manual penalties using webmaster tools.
- Stay current on algorithm changes and the latest updates in SEO.
- Optimize server configuration and maintenance.
- Regularly monitor web analytics to track performance and adjust your SEO strategy as needed.
609 Replies to “The Always Up-to-Date SEO Checklist”
Checklist looks nice but in 2024 and 2025 SEO has been changed a lot, all the points you have mentioned are still valid till date, but there are now many other things came in to place after NLP and AI has came into the playground. Algorithms are more evolved now; semantic SEO is working more than the keyword base rankings. I am working on a local SEO project. In local SEO the above mentioned things surely can work, but when it comes to Ecom SEO and international SEO where you have more stronger competitors to compete with, these things might not bring you on top.
Great blog! Your SEO checklist is incredibly detailed and helpful for anyone looking to optimize their website effectively. The step-by-step approach ensures nothing is missed, and I especially appreciate the focus on both technical and content aspects. Keep up the great work—this is a valuable resource for digital marketers!
Thank you for sharing this comprehensive SEO checklist. It’s great to have an always up-to-date guide to keep up with the latest strategies. Your tips will definitely help improve website performance
The “Always Up-to-Date SEO Checklist” provides a practical, dynamic guide for staying current with SEO best practices. It’s an essential tool for anyone aiming to improve search engine rankings and maintain competitive visibility.
Thanks for sharing this informative post! i must say that A large number of online forums still allow do-follow links. We’ve detailed some of the key tactics involved in integrating SEO
This SEO checklist is incredibly useful for staying on top of the latest trends. It’s great to have a resource that’s always up-to-date. Thank you for sharing such practical insights.
Fantastic article on SEO! I really appreciated the in-depth analysis and actionable tips you provided. Your insights into keyword strategies and on-page optimization are particularly valuable. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of effort into explaining these concepts in a way that’s both accessible and informative. Thanks for sharing your expertise—I’m excited to apply these strategies to improve my own site’s performance!
This SEO checklist is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in improving their website’s performance! Its well-organized tasks make it easy to navigate, regardless of your level of expertise. I love the emphasis on technical SEO and content strategy, which ensures a thorough and effective approach. A big thank you to the Bruce Clay team for these valuable insights
This SEO checklist is a goldmine for anyone serious about optimizing their website! The comprehensive breakdown of tasks makes it easy to follow, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro. I particularly appreciate the emphasis on technical SEO and content strategy; it’s a well-rounded approach that covers all the bases. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights, Bruce Clay team! This is definitely going into my bookmarks for future reference.
Content is essential in SEO and SEO and provides the perfect checklist. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing. Can Google pagespeed be used as a reference when measuring SEO? After all, each time we measure from a different SEO scan website, the results will be different.
Hi Powerpoint,
Thank you for your question! Yes, you can use Google PageSpeed as a reference, though you may want to use score averages over 3–5 runs as the reference point rather than a single run of the tool.
Although scans may be slightly different each time you run the tool, those differences are small unless something really changes on the website. In other words, if we start a project and that website is scoring 30–40 every time we run it during a week, then our reference point is around 35. Then, we can make improvements and re-run PageSpeed to see how the averages go up.
Hope this helps!
Many thanks, Bruce; excellent checklist for SEO. Reading your blog entries is enjoyable!
Hi,
Found this article very useful. Thank you so much for providing these all valuable pieces of information in a single article.
Thanks for sharing this helpful info! It’s worth noting that many internet forums still allow do-follow links. We’ve covered some key ways to integrate SEO into your inbound marketing strategy right from the start.
Thank you for your insightful blog post. Your thoughtful analysis has been incredibly helpful and informative. I appreciate you taking the time to share your expertise.
thanks for posting have been following from quite long time your content are really informative and understandable . most of my website will be improved by your blog . I have been following every suggestions and strategy put here,
Great SEO checklist! Clear and actionable steps. Emphasis on content quality and freshness is spot on. Also, internal linking and anchor text diversity are crucial. Thanks for sharing!
This SEO checklist is a game-changer! It’s a comprehensive guide that ensures your website stays optimized for search engines, helping you stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Thanks for sharing this invaluable resource!
This SEO checklist provides a comprehensive guide for ensuring your website’s optimization across various crucial areas. From content and on-page optimization to mobile and local SEO, it covers essential steps to enhance your site’s visibility and ranking. The addition of server and HTML optimization further enriches the checklist, promising a well-rounded approach to improving your online presence.
Hi Dangerous Ales,
We published an article about Bruce’s thoughts on Google’s March update here: https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/googles-explosive-march-updates/
And we will be hosting a free live webinar on Wednesday, April 24 to discuss 5 key takeaways from the update. You can register for that here: https://www.seotraining.com/webinar/google-march24-updates/
This SEO checklist is really helpful for any kind of website to get the top ranking. Thanks.
There are many of these checkpoints that we routinely miss. We appreciate your sharing, which helps us complete our SEO jobs correctly.
We got to learn something new from you. You keep posting such informative posts. Every post of yours is amazing
This is a great checklist!
Keep up the great work!
Thanks. Appreciate this article, it’s a good one!
Thanks for sharing this list. However, there is an important concept that you have missed is the CRO in this checklist
I completely agree – effective keyword research is the cornerstone of any business. Content alone can’t attract the right audience without it. This blog post answers many questions. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I found your SEO content to be incredibly valuable. I’ve bookmarked your website and plan to incorporate your checklist into my upcoming SEO projects. Thank you, Bruce.
Very Informative.
I must say that this checklist gonna help most of the SEO beginners as well as advanced marketers to understand the flow and the process to achieve maximum results.
Thanks Bruce
I totally agree with all, especially that the title needs to grab the attention of the searcher and that the description is your sales pitch as to why the page should be clicked on.
This SEO checklist is a lifesaver! Thanks for breaking it down into actionable steps. It’s a must-have resource for anyone looking to boost their website’s visibility online.
Great piece of SEO content. I have bookmarked your site and will be using your checklist on my future SEO projects. Thank you Bruce.
Content and keywords are bloodlines of any SEO strategy. I personally believe that now links game has gotten weaken now and currently putting quality content and keeping social signals very strong so that your content gets viral and it starts building natural links.
Thanks Bruce,
I cant agree more, specially point 24. Mobile and Voice-Related Keywords, I found it’s being ignored by many SEO expert
The checklist is fantastic, and I will appreciate of your this kind of effort. And Want to add one more thing regarding the seo checklist that I will personally experience. That’s your content; yup, we optimize our article, but now in 2023, we need topical authority in our topic.
Thanks for sharing this Checklist. SEO helps establish your brand’s authority and reliability.
Thank you for providing such a valuable resource. I’m excited to implement the suggestions from “The Always Up-to-Date SEO Checklist” and watch my website climb the search engine rankings. Kudos to you for recognizing the need for an up-to-date guide in the ever-evolving world of SEO!
Excellent article! I’ve learned so much from this SEO checklist. The comprehensive list of optimization techniques and best practices is incredibly valuable for improving search engine rankings. The author’s expertise and attention to detail shine through, making this article an indispensable resource for anyone looking to optimize their website. Thank you for sharing this informative and actionable checklist that has empowered me to enhance my SEO efforts!
Hey Bruce Clay! I love this article and the Declaration of SEO: 6 Fundamental Truths To Live By ebook with its accompanying video presentation.
It’s an invaluable resource for any experienced or novice SEO, and I’m so glad you are offering it to your readers.
I agree that some SEO teams don’t have the management support they need to be successful.
Still, even if they have that support, they should also ensure they use their resources appropriately and get the best quality work possible.
This means ensuring that whoever is doing the work clearly understands what needs to be done and how to do it efficiently – no cutting corners or taking shortcuts.
Another essential point you make is the need for collaboration between departments.
SEO teams should not be working in silos – they should work closely with other departments, such as marketing, product, and development, to ensure that all efforts are integrated for maximum efficiency and success.
I also appreciate your emphasis on ensuring the website’s content is useful and valuable to its audience.
Content is vital for any successful website; if it isn’t helpful or relevant, users will quickly move on to something else with what they need.
Finally, measurement is an integral part of any successful SEO strategy.
It allows us to see what works and doesn’t and how to improve our strategies.
This is a killer list. I am going to try each of these steps on my blog and report back to you.
As a Blogger & SEO Manager, This SEO Checklist most important for me. Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate you sharing this useful information on SEO firms. That aids in my company’s decision to hire the best firm.
Thanks for sharing such a useful checklist. SEO drives traffic, promotes your brand, engages with customers, and directly relates to user experience.
Great article on SEO. SEO contributes to your authoritative voice in your field. Authority then leads to brand trust, which ultimately leads to brand loyalty
Nice information on seo checklists. These tips will make any website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers.
Hey,
This blog is amazing and informative.
Thanks for sharing the top SEO checklist, I can definitely use in my website.
Really great tips for SEO checklist. It’s really helpful and authentic information. Thanks for sharing valuable tips.
I always follow these steps when I do on-page for my new website and my website ranking day by day progress. Keep it up, mate.
Thanks for sharing a great list. This is very necessary for every SEO who want to be successful in this competitive market. I recommend it to all my colleagues.
What you will get is a list of the most important dates for any SEO campaign. It will cover the basics from organic search engine optimization to paid search engine optimization.
I think I’d like to add that social media monitoring has become an increasingly important part of the checklist since you started writing it six years ago.
Now more than ever, brands shouldn’t just be reactive to social media mentions, or simply see it as a means of reputation management…but should structure their content strategy around addressing people’s pain points, which they air organically on social media. Social media can also uncover long-term trends and shifts in audience preferences – you just need to start gathering the data to form the insights….
Thanks Bruce Clay for sharing SEO Checklist. This is helpful in setting up the priority for SEO too. Appreciate this article, it’s a good one!
This is both informative and educational. It was extremely beneficial and expanded my knowledge. Thank you for your contribution. Except for the first point, which I believe is the most important, I agree with everything. Above all, your content must be relevant and useful to your readers. Furthermore, because most online readers today have the attention span of a spaniel, it must be written in an engaging style and get to the point quickly.
Thanks Bruce Clay for sharing SEO Checklist. This is helpful in setting up the priority for SEO too.
agree,
Nowadays the main factor is FCP and LCP which website is opened in under 4 second so according google algorithm google will push rank up on particular keyword. for example, visit Indglobal official website.
such an helpful article SEO is really much needed for a website to rank up and generate traffic on site
Thank you for the post, it’s worth checking the updates about SEO which increase our visibility of website
Thanks for explaining that you want to ensure your site is optimized for what your audience is looking for.
This is a great SEO checklist! i Appreciate for this article, it’s a good one for Digital Marketing Person.
Great to see the inclusion of SItewide and Server Optimization on the checklist, many of us SEO persons miss it while optimizing big stuff we just outsee these or just ignore them, which later affects the site enormously.
Thank you for such a detailed checklist, it will be of significant meaning to the freshers.
Thank you for sharing this useful information! I must mention that a big number of internet forums still accept do-follow connections. We’ve gone through some of the important methods for incorporating SEO into your inbound marketing approach from the outset.
Many of checklist has been updated now but key factors are still like fundamentals.
Nice post, many of important points you discuss in this post about the whole process of SEO. thank you so much
Thanks for the post! Lists are very important and interesting. I can’t imagine my actions without lists. It’s so convenient, everything is clear and you won’t forget anything.
thank you for the detailed post.
thanks Bruce,
You have shared amazing content;
I have bookmarked your website to read more content
That was great. SEO is an important part of website rank in Google. Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate you providing this useful article! I must admit that many internet forums continue to allow do-follow connections. We’ve covered some of the most important strategies for incorporating SEO into our project.
I liked your article, you explain each step very well, but i think the most important factors in SEO are content and backlinks. I believe that’s what makes the difference.
This is informational and educative. Really helpful and improved my knowledge. Thank you for sharing
for crawling and indexing use google console right, and submit sitemap. definitely i use in my website.
SEO is definitely getting more complicated, and I think AI will only make it more complex. But as long as you stay up to date on the latest trends and use a checklist like this one, you’ll be able to optimize your website for better search engine rankings. Thanks for sharing!
This SEO list is excellent! While it’s true that none of these could ever truly be complete, I believe that this is a crucial point to keep in mind whenever anybody reviews their tactics.
Thanks for share, which standard can we use to measure SEO, I mean every time we measure from a different SEO scan website the results will be different, can Google pagespeed be a reference?
Hi Didi,
Thanks for your question! Page speed is one of the many metrics you can reference to measure SEO. In fact, there are over 200 factors that Google uses in its algorithm. (You can learn more about them here: https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors)
You’ll want to identify which metrics are most important to your business, then measure and analyze those. Some of the more critical metrics include organic traffic, keyword ranking, SERP visibility, click-through rate, bounce rate, backlinks, page speed and conversion rate.
This is the ultimate SEO checklist. I’m already using some of these and getting better results.
According to industry experts, it’s recommended you revisit your keyword strategy on a quarterly basis and at least 3 – 6 months before any campaign or promotions.
Content optimization and on-page optimizations are the most important strategies to achieve high SEO rankings.
What an amazing article on SEO checklist. Short and precise. I especially loved the insider tips! Very informative and helpful.
Technophilic is a Digital marketing services in Dubai. We are a set of creative people who help build online businesses with various services, including SEO, SMO, SMM, Pay-per-click, web development, designing, etc.
What a amazing article on SEO checklist. Short and precise. I especially loved the insider tips! Very informative and helpful.
I agree with everything except the first point, which I believe is the most important. Above all, your content must be useful and relevant to your readers. Furthermore, it must be written in an engaging style and get to the point quickly, as most online readers today have the attention span of a spaniel.
We have recently launched a new website and this checklist really help me to gain authority faster.
Highly informative, keep posting more and it was an eye opener for newbies. Such a useful checklist.
Thanks for sharing this informative post! i must say that A large number of online forums still allow do-follow links. Your website related to new useful topic is very informative and article is also very usefull due to lot of comments posted.
This is such a great post.
I always work on a checklist once my article is ready. I found some new points that I’ve never seen before.
Thanks for the article, now I will always focus on all points of the SEO checklist.
Thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us. As a result of your help in understanding SEO, I am now able to easily apply this checklist.
Nice post, many important points you discuss in this post about the whole process of SEO.
Appreciate this article, it’s a good one!
Thanks for sharing this useful checklist, For optimizing any website everyone should use these points.
Thanks for this amazing list. I would love to have some training from you soon
The content is well written and its very helpful. for me
Hi Varun,
Thanks for your comment! If you’re interested in SEO training, we recommend signing up for the Bruce Clay SEO Training & Membership program at https://www.seotraining.com. It’s the best way to get trained and learn what it takes to compete in the search results. We hope you’ll try it!
Thank you for giving the top SEO checklist. It was very useful to me. It has all those things which I wanted. I think the checklist has many important factors that any website needs to give it a good ranking. I will try them all. It will take some time, but it is really worth it. Thanks again for sharing the checklist.
When I optimize my business website, I’ll give more importance to optimizing the content. Because the content has a huge role in Google ranking. Once the content is optimized, I perform other on-page optimizations. This gave better results for my site.
Wonderful SEO checklist. I was looking checklist and finally found it. Thank you so much.
As a great SEO expert my main concern is to cover all basis of SEO’s and I do this by checking on page and off page check lists, I have done many different projects a local SEO site was also something I have done, and with that check list I have achieved good results.
This is an amazing checklist Bruce. This is all one need to optimize a new website or even to analyze a website that needs complete optimization.
This is rich content. Now I know why my site hasn’t been performing well. I’ll inculcate this into my day to day activities. Thanks sir!
Thanks for sharing this top SEO checklist, so helpful! I can definitely use to optimise our website. I think focusing on improved content core metrics and UX is the best long-term approach.
thanks for posting such great content. I found it’s being ignored by many SEO experts.
Great tips! A long checklist for SEO, I think you covered everything. I will be saving this list :) Thanks!
As a great SEO expert my main concern is to cover all basis of SEO’s and I do this by checking on page and off page check lists, I have done many different projects a local SEO site was also something I have done, and with that check list I have achieved good results.
This is the best and ideal checklist for SEO. Bruce Clay, absolutely thanks.
I agree with all points but probably just to emphasize the first point which I think is the most important. Your content must, above all, be useful and relevant to your readers. In addition it must also be written in engaging style and get to the point quickly because most online readers today have the attention span of a spaniel.
Great Job Bruce
I cant agree more on Mobile & Voice Search role, it needs to be highlighted with all SEO professionals.
I appreciate you sharing your SEO check list with us. It is quite beneficial to me. When I’m looking for SEO, I constantly forget something. Having this checklist on hand will be extremely beneficial in ensuring that I do not overlook any vital details. I usually overlook image optimization. Now that I have this checklist, I am confident that I will work flawlessly.
As I am an SEO beginner, this post really helps me a lot as I do SEO in my work. Great one
very good article , given more information about seo checklist for my website ranking boost.
What a fantastic post! I just arrived at this article through Google Search. This is one of the best articles on seo checklist. I enjoyed it a lot. But I want to add how to track results to your post.
Off to share this post right now!
Hello,
Excellent article. Thanks so much for sharing this checklist. This is very useful.
Awesome post! I shared this with my SEO team to note these points and follow them and they found it very informative. Keep sharing more content in the future.
Hello, Bruce. I appreciate you sharing your SEO check list with us. It is quite beneficial to me. When I’m looking for SEO, I constantly forget something. Having this checklist on hand will be extremely beneficial in ensuring that I do not overlook any vital details. I usually overlook image optimization. Now that I have this checklist, I am confident that I will work flawlessly.
Try to include some additional checklist to enhance your article, Differentiate the category based on the nature of end goal
Thanx for sharing the SEO checklist keep updating it because we don’t know when search engine update their norms
I have never seen like this post about Keyword Research. I really needed something like this. Keyword research play a very important role in SEO and it will really helpful for SEO. Thankyou for sharing like this comment.
Dude
I agree after reading this the blog posts designed to help you execute a comprehensive SEO audit on any site. The checklist also ensure that your images have accurate alt text that, if appropriate, includes a keyword for the page .Anyway thanks for sharing the topics . Keep rocking always
SEO checklist 100% correct. On-page seo is most important to the website.
yes image optimization is one of the good thing to our website, but we want to use almost same size of the images but while using AMP our website is looking totally different in AMP version,
AMP version is not calculating in technical SEO its showing a lower ranking
but this a good checklist
As new businesses open up every day, the competition for the reader’s attention grows. You’ll be able to meet the specific criteria that search engines use to rank websites if you keep up with the latest SEO trends. Google makes hundreds of changes to its search algorithms every year. While the majority of the changes are minor, they could affect your search ranking.
social media. Social media can also uncover long-term trends and shifts in audience preferences
A single checklist cannot cover all a company should do in terms of SEO and its website. However, this one comes close with over 40 SEO categories that will enhance how clients and search engines locate and utilize your site.
Thanks for posting such good content. This SEO checklist is very helpful for digital marketers.
You worked hard to have a thorough grasp of the SEO checklist. Thank you for supplying the following information; it has greatly aided me in improving my website ranking and learning something new.
Great information on SEO. Short and accurate. I especially like the tips from the experts! Very helpful.
This checklist is hundred percent authentic & good for SEO, i do keep in touch these type of activities.
Thanks Bruce, I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. Such an very informative and its very helpful for me.
I would like to thank you for sharing such a informative checklist. You have covered all the necessary points.
Thank you for providing such a useful SEO checklist. It is quite beneficial. Only by having a great understanding of SEO will we be able to appear in Google.
This SEO method is the best combination of resources , and it help me to rank my site on google. The ultimate SEO checklist that will help me to drive more success in SEO. Thanks for covering best practice strategies and tasks that we need to know about SEO.
You worked hard to develop a comprehensive understanding of the SEO checklist. It helps in the improvement of my website’s rating and the acquisition of new information.I appreciate your SEO advice. Continue to post so that we are kept informed. Thanks
SEO is like a backbone for any business and I am glad you have cleared so many things quite efficiently.
Thanks for sharing the top SEO checklist for everyone , I can definitely use in my website. Keep up this great job .
A complete Guide for SEO Checklist. Thanks for sharing and discussing very interesting points.
Need to include Website’s SEO audit too. Its very important while doing SEO. Informative blog.
Seo is a practice to show websites on google SERP. Many tactics we are used to ranking higher in google search results. Unique content is always a king of natural work. With the help of content, we can boost our top pages through internal linking on keywords. Use a variation of keywords in content or web blogs for better search. Sometimes our website pages couldn’t rank higher but our blog shows in SERP. People do not use a specific query. They always search for different topics or phrases. Google is also a select your content according to a user search query. That’s why we use variation in content.
Hi bachelorarbeit,
If you’re looking for information on main SEO topics, check out our free SEO Guide: https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/search-engine-optimization/
Happy to come over to this site. You’ve got shared an exceptionally valuable checklist as you’ve secured all essential focuses.
I am glad I came across this article. The checklist you shared is enough for my website’s improvement. Surely going to share with my friends. Thanks a lot
Web optimization stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it describes the logic behind the placement of websites when you conduct a search on a specific internet search engine (like Google).
hi , really appreciate the efforts you have put in! everything is clear about the seo checklist
Glad to come across this website. You have shared very useful checklist as you have covered all necessary points.
Wow! tremendous Blog for those who want to make their carrier in SEO. This one article covers every important point of SEO
Thanks for sharing such a good SEO checklist. It is very useful. We need to have strong knowledge on SEO, then only we can appear in Google.
Absolutely awesome checklist. Pretty much covers everything that one should look at for any website they are building.
Content is king. Keywords are like the heart of any SEO strategy. Also, link building is very important and can help increase the juice of your website. The content is spot on and well delivered.
This is an awesome and comprehensive checklist. This is an important reminder for anyone when they review their strategies at any time.
As I am one of SEO beginner & this blog post really help me a lot in terms of SEO. which I include in my task. Great one
Nice post, many of important points you discuss in this post about the whole process of SEO.
Thank you so much for guiding us about SEO checklist. It will help a lot while performing any online content writing task. I don’t know about others but it is very helpful for me because provide Business Plan Writing Services UK. And it is very important to write a business plan according to SEO point of view. So that it will help the owner to rank better and quick.
Wow! I love your posts so greatly. You know how to excavate those hidden treasures in SEO.
The UI of the website is also very different and amazing for me.
I Really Enjoy it.
This is awesome. Bruce. Well put together and outlines everything that is needed for proper SEO.
Website optimization agenda that you imparted to us is truly sufficient and without a doubt assist us with excursion in SEO review. Keep it up!! also, much obliged for sharing.
This information was very useful and have a unique concept.Thanks for sharing this post with us.
This is the best information about SEO that I have came through. This post is very helpful for us, thanks for providing.
This is a comprehensive and exhaustive SEO checklist. I’m still on the fence about having duplicate content. Best list ever.
Hey!
This is good information
Thanks so much for sharing this checklist. This is very useful.
By breaking down your strategy and thinking about SEO checklist, it will be much easier to organize and execute your optimization plans.
I am always looking for ways to improve my SEO game and I found this post very helpful. You covered a lot of ground in terms giving advice on how best approach the whole process, not just writing content or structuring an article with keywords sprinkled throughout but also including links from other sites that may have expertise relevant enough others will want it too!
A great SEO Checklist. Thanks for this great checklist. Everyone must use this for their website.
I think I’d like to add that social media monitoring has become an increasingly important part of the checklist since you started writing it six years ago.
Now more than ever, brands shouldn’t just be reactive to social media mentions, or simply see it as a means of reputation management…but should structure their content strategy around addressing people’s pain points, which they air organically on social media. Social media can also uncover long-term trends and shifts in audience preferences – you just need to start gathering the data to form the insights.
A great post outlining the best ways to improve a website from a user experience perspective. Thank you.
SEO checklist that you shared with us is really up to the mark and surely help us out in SEO audit. Keep it up!! and thanks for sharing
Hey Bruce, Amazing! I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. It is great help for me. I always forget some or other thing while checking for SEO. Keep share this type of information, Thanks.
Great blog here! Also your web site loads up fast!
What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
Hi SEO Freelancer,
We host our website on WordPress. We make it a priority to ensure our site loads fast! You can optimize your website to load quickly too. Here’s a good place to start: How Fast Should My Webpage Be and Why Should I Care?
Wow, I’m impressed! You’ve created a great SEO checklist. Your writing explores each item in detail and is very helpful.
Great post!! It’s helpful for me. These SEO strategies will really have an impact on our website. Thanks for sharing!!
This blog is beneficial as it has given me numerous ideas for my next blog, along with practical examples.
Wow! Great in depth guide with so many details. I love how you went into things step by step. Great piece.
Thank you for sharing an article on the SEO checklist. It’s really helpful for doing my work efficiently.
SEO is one of the most important aspects of marketing strategy, but it can be confusing to know where to begin. But This article gave a great overview on what SEO is and how you can get started with implementing it for your business. Keep it up. Really loved it from top to the bottom.
Enjoyed reading the article above , really explains everything in detail, the article is very interesting and effective. Thank you and good luck for the upcoming articles. Content and keywords are bloodlines of any SEO strategy. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an evolving discipline. It’s rooted in both best practices and trending strategies. This is why having the latest information on hand is vital when you’re optimizing website content to be found in search. I think I’d like to add that social media monitoring has become an increasingly important part of the checklist since you started writing it six years ago.
Hi Creative Solutions,
Your situation determines your approach on what to focus on. Ads provide a more instantaneous traffic source, can be targeted, and are generally expensive. They are great for launching a new product and for getting early conversion data by keyword. SEO is a better long-term strategy since the ongoing costs are much lower. In some cases, it may make sense to focus on both.
Thanks,
This is a great list and I found a lot of useful information. I believe as long as you are producing fresh and quality content and applying the right techniques, rankings are bound to happen.
Great information for experts in this field. But why they miss off page optimization in the checklist. Still many of the SME doing off page acitivity to build their backlinks
Thank you for sharing this informative post. This is very insightful. I can definitely use it for my website
Very useful and informative.. SEO has a very important facts on On-page. will follow this rules. Can you tell , which SEO tool is good and user-friendly.
Hi Ashitha,
If you’re looking for SEO tools, we recommend starting with SEOTOOLSET®, our powerful suite of software tools. Learn more at https://www.seotoolset.com/tools/
Hi wirschreiben,
Yes, we do have a blog post about Local SEO. Check out Bruce’s Checklist for Local SEO.
Finally found the best SEO checklist. Thanks for this in-depth guide. Appreciate the hard work.
This list is fantastic thank you. Some tips are obvious but some I never even thought of until I read this article. Plus the things I did know are missing a few finer details so appreciate the in-depth explanations.
This SEO Checklist is a collection of resources to help me to get my website onto the first page of Google.
The ultimate SEO checklist that will help me to drive more success in SEO. Thanks for covering best practice strategies and tasks that we need to know about SEO.
Hey bruce, nice article buddy. Having this kind of SEO checklist handy is very useful for newbies and intermediate bloggers. This would definitely help new seo learners like me..
Valuable and informative tips related to the SEO checklist. Well, I am also dealing with the SEO on regular basis. This is really an amazing list for me. Hope to use your list details :) Thanks
Perfect SEO checklist. Thanks for this in-depth article. I will share it with my SEO team.
Great Article. However you can add two more things in the local optimization section for SEO Checklist that is Guest Posting and Blog Commenting. Keep up the great work of providing valuable information to your readers.
Good article with in-depth knowledge! Thanks for updating the checklist in 2021.
Web optimization represents Search Engine Optimization, and it depicts the rationale behind the positioning of sites when you play out a hunt on a specific internet searcher (like Google).
So, SEO can be characterized as a computerized promoting methodology that helps increment the amount and nature of the traffic to your site.
The streamlining a piece of SEO involves a progression of steps that you can take to rank higher on Google and hence get free natural traffic.
What a fabulous article on SEO checklist. Short and precise. I especially loved the insider tips! Very helpful.
Substance and watchwords are bloodlines of any SEO technique. I for one accept that presently interfaces game has gotten debilitate now and as of now putting quality substance and keeping social signals solid so your substance gets viral and it begins building normal connections.
It is really a very good article. SEO requires a best foundation without knowing we can’t be in Google.
I want to say wow to your blog. This is a high standard SEO checklist. You have explained each part precisely and to the point. I appreciate your step-by-step approach. Your explanation makes this material accessible for a wide audience. Your blog helped me to improve myself in many ways thanks for sharing. I have bookmarked more article from this website. Such a nice blog you are providing.
Please update me about new blogs.
Your articles are always awesome. Your SEO tricks and checklists are really great for me.
I like your SEO strategy.
The website loading speed is amazing. It sort of feels that you’re doing any distinctive trick. Moreover, The contents are masterwork. you have performed a excellent activity in this matter!
I think I’d like to add that social media monitoring has become an increasingly important part of the checklist since you started writing it six years ago.
Great points you have mentioned, and I personally do feel Header tags are very important in SEO.
Thanks Bruce,
I cant agree more, especially point 24. Mobile and Voice-Related Keywords, I found it’s being ignored by many SEO expert
Schema markup is important in nowadays and others seo tactics will helps to improve website rankings
Your checklist is very informative. All the points you mention are important, but in my opinion keyword strategy is the most important of all of them.
It is truly a great and useful piece of info. I am glad that you simply shared this useful information with us.
Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
informative, great content, designing is an art, narrating that process is good and healthy, this checklist is helpful when designing all
Thanks for sharing such an informative SEO checklist with us. Could you please help me in creating a knowledge graph for my companies.
Yup. Mobile is the new leader and it will continue to take ground. We can’t ignore the realities of mobile. you wrote a great article, it’s a good one!
It is really a very good article. SEO requires a best foundation without knowing we can’t be in google.
I mainly forget image optimization. Now with this checklist, I believe I will work perfectly.
A very well refined SEO article! Excellent tips. Highly recommend this article to SEO students and owners of small businesses looking to optimise their website.
Thanks for the evergreen SEO checklist which definitely helps beginners like me to optimize the post pages according to On-page SEO.
This is nice information for SEO like on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and go to SEO for over a website
Great information shared by you on SEO Checklist which is very important. Thank you for it.
The main goal of content optimization is to make the content as useful as possible to the readers. And in the process, turn it more enticing to the search engines. By focusing on content optimization, you’re also giving Google the data it needs to learn more about your content. When Google can determine what your content is about, it will be easy for it to gather more information about your business.
It’s a great SEO checklist. Very useful for people like me who always love to do things their own. Looking forward to upcoming updates.
Search Engine Optimization is a great way to get website to rank on google search engine on specific keywords so that you can be relevant to your niche keywords. Nowadays Google is much interested in content, back then only back-links were enough to get your website ranked but now, you have to post some great quality content, like blogs articles or even web 2.0 submission. Unique content will be encourages by Google and your ranking will be promoted by submitting unique quality content.
In On-page SEO Checklist, we can also add these points
1. Include Your Keyword In Your URL: Your URL helps Google understand what your page is all about. And a keyword-rich URL can improve your organic CTR.
2. Use Short URLs: A recent analysis of 11.8 million Google search results found that short URLs rank best in Google.
3. Front-Load Your Keyword In Your Title Tag
This is such a great post.
Because i always work on checklist. Once my article ready. I found a some new point. Which i never see before.
Thank’s for article. Now i will always focus on all the SEO checklist
Thanks for sharing these wonderful SEO tips! Only a SEO professional can handle all the SEO checklist before any new website goes live. Make sure you choose the right company! Thanks again for this blog!!!
Thanks for sharing this SEO checklist. All Sitemaps is also important SEO Part. Sitemaps tell search engines where to find the content on your site so they can easily crawl and index your pages.
This SEO checklist is really very helpful, it helped me a lot in gaining the traffic.
this is really perfect and up to the date points of the SEO checklist. We should always follow the SEO checklist during the starting of any SEO Campaign to avoid mistakes. We are a Mobile App Development Company and this checklist helps us a lot.
This content is very helpful for me .when I read it helped me to learn about SEO. thanks for sharing
Thankyou for Sharing this amazing content with us. keep sharing and posting. you are very good writer
I’ve read a lot of SEO guide and really spent a great amount of money, learning SEO basics. But this guide, really outrank them all. Keep sharing quality info.
This is a great checklist! While you’re right in saying that none of these could ever really be comprehensive, I think it’s an important reminder for anyone when they review their strategies at any time.
Hello Bruce Clay, Thank you so much for share the complete and detailed blog on the SEO checklist. I have definitely bookmarked this for future reading.
Thank you so much for the detailed information regarding SEO. I am sure this article will guide many of the beginners throughout their projects.
I dnt understand we consider Content freshness as what? While anything we are covering has already been covered. I think rather than fresh content we can work on the content presentation, how you present content. Look, 10 people trying to explain the same topic, but only 1 person will be able to convince a layman, why? How he is presenting and making it easy to understand makes the difference.
This is a very complete and detailed SEO checklist. The thing that makes it interesting is that you have categorized the checklist into multiple categories like on-page SEO, mobile SEO checklist, etc.
This checklist was straight fire! I have definitely book marked this for future reading and any updates you make. Thanks for the breakdown on the robot.tx file!
I really liked this detailed blog covering all aspects of SEO Checklist. It contributed a lot to my website’s mobile optimization process. Thanks a lot for sharing this to all :)
tanks dear bruce
Content and keywords are bloodlines of any SEO strategy.
I personally believe that now links game has gotten weaken now and currently putting quality content and keeping social signals very strong so that your content gets viral and it starts building natural links. very good
Thanks for sharing this informative post! i must say that A large number of online forums still allow do-follow links.
Hello Bruce, A good piece of SEO content. Having this checklist handy will be a great help so that I don’t miss any important points. Keep Posting Keep Inspiring!
A good piece of SEO content. I have bookmarked your site and will be using your checklist on my future SEO projects. Thank you.
This is a great checklist! While you’re right in saying that none of these could ever really be comprehensive, I think it’s an important reminder for anyone when they review their strategies at any time.
Hey Bruce, I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. It is great help for me. I always forget some or other thing while checking for SEO.
Much obliged for disclosing that you need to guarantee your site is upgraded for what your crowd is searching for.
Hello Bruce,
This is a great checklist!
I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. Having this checklist handy will be a great help so that I don’t miss any important points.
Thanks so much for the Checklist! I do my best to create unique and original content, and I hope to see it affecting my ranking. I’ll be sure to keep on top of all of your tips!
Thanks, Bruce, Sharing such a great SEO checklist with us, 24 and 25 is my favourite, always loves to consume your content.
This is an amazing post. It covers all the fundamental elements needed to rank well. Will be keeping these in mind when creating and reviewing content.
Hi,
Your post is awe-inspiring. I must appreciate the writer’s reasonable effort to add all kinds of SEO checklist in one blog. It’s an ultimate list. You covered all SEO checklist new updates. No doubt, your blog is beneficial for SEO experts.
Thank You!
As an SEO beginner myself, I found this content really insightful. I can tell from my experience that, SEO can be overwhelming at most times. Thank you Bruce Clay for sharing the content. Also, I would like to add one more important aspect to SEO which is “Readability”. I have found it to be very important too.
Great Post. practical and effective techniques for doing SEO. Thank you for sharing such valuable information.
Dear Bruce Clay,
Excellent article on the SEO checklist. I really appreciate you Thanks For sharing & Keep it up.
Great Checklist. What i believe if someone follow these tips, can achieve good ranking in the search engines.
One of the main thing that I found most of the sites don’t optimize for their CTA buttons CTA buttons should be placed at the right place but with the right text and colour as well.
Couldn’t miss out accelerated mobile pages but difficult to manage them for ecommerce sites
Technical seo, authority and relevance are the key factor for ranking in search engine. These things will be the ranking factor until google remains.thank you bruce clay.
Thanks for this SEO Checklist Bruce! This is a great help for my seo agency.
-Little Big Marketing
Thanks for sharing this great check list. I must say that a large number of old time websites (early 2000s) still allow do-follow links. Although I believe that this will not be ranking factors in a recent future for Google or Bing. Great Article!
Wow, best SEO checklist. I have gotten a lot of knowledge about this article. Thanks for the share.
Blogging is the power today in online world, also freedom of expression. This is the future. Thanks for this useful information.
This is a great checklist! While you’re right in saying that none of these could ever really be comprehensive, I think it’s an important reminder for anyone when they review their strategies at any time. SEO Strategies along with google algorithm and the contents made the website each page for tough keywords rank easier. Thank you for sharing an important article.
This is a great checklist! I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. To have this checklist handy will be great help so that I don’t miss any important point. By the way, we followed this checklist for our manila website.
Bruceclay! Thanks for this but i have the question that, Do you suggest same checklist for doing Local SEO, or do you have a separate Checklist for doing that?
We sure do! You can find the checklist for local SEO here: https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/local-seo-search-ranking-factors/
“For example, we refresh this very checklist regularly.”
The irony! If you did I think this grammar would improve. lolsies
Solid post. I was looking for the SEO checklist that i can use for my website. This article Covers everything. Thanks for sharing this detailed and informative blog post.
Thank you for sharing this amazing checklist. It covers all the points for SEO people.
The way you explain SEO strategy especially keyword research strategy and duplicate content section is very helpful for me as I am a beginner in this field.
Hello!
A couple of things we haven’t focused on… but will now. Top notch work and insights. Bang on from our experience as well.
According to the study conducted by Moz, Google’s display titles max out (currently) at 600 pixels.
Google announced back in 2009 that meta titles do not impact search engine rankings and are therefore not considered an SEO ranking factor. And while meta titles do not have a direct impact on the way a website will rank, the contents of these titles can greatly influence user the click-through rate.
Use a tool like SERP Pure optimization tool or the WordPress Yoast to preview meta titles and meta descriptions and keep them under the limit.
Keep up the great work!
As I ‘m a SEO beginner and this post really help me a lot in terms of SEO, which I include in my task. Great one
I don’t think link building will ever go out of style. I think Google will crack down a bit more heavily on the quality of the link, but I think it will always be a major part of SEO. You just need to focus on quality versus quantity when it comes to trying to build links. Great post!
Great post! I shared this with one of my team member who’s a web copywriter and he said this post is really well researched. Keep up the good work.
I couldn’t have agreed more. About the words count in content, there are many opinions to this. Some pro bloggers say at least 2000, and some say 1200 words and above. Their presentation has made blogging look too hard. But from your explanation, I think there is sense in it. In all this, I love your listed SEO checklist, as they are well explained.
’ve read a lot of SEO guide and really spent a great amount of money, learning SEO basics. But this guide, really outrank them all. Keep sharing quality info.
This is a solid check list. The only think missing is an infographics and a video summary for it to rank higher on uncle G
I thoroughly concur with all, particularly that the title needs to catch the eye of the searcher and that the portrayal is your attempt to close the deal regarding why the page ought to be tapped on. Incorporate the advantage that the guest will get from tapping on the page and a source of inspiration if space permits.
This one article covers every important point of SEO and provides the perfect checklist. I will definitely use this list for SEO in future.
This is the ultimate and perfect checklist for SEO. Bruce Clay, thank you for sharing this list.
Complete SEO Checklist!
I appreciate your effort that you made this checklist and that is helping us.
Extraordinary post! I am a steady guest to your site and perusing web journals is my leisure activity. Be that as it may, today I felt great as the blog has brought up some incredibly legitimate focuses and it will also help me to get more SEO friendly and optimized blogs.
Firstly i want to thank you!! This is really wonderful article about SEO tips! All these are common that every expert should follow and these are standard tips that a professional should keep on a eye! A professional can handle to set right all these checklist for a website.. Make sure you choose a right company! Thanks again for this blog!!!
An extremely careful piece on SEO. I trust you referenced everything! Content freshness is regularly the key, alongside backlinks. These two structure the center, and different things grow up around them.
Thank you for the detailed information. Let me now make a few observations concerning the some points.
Heading tags not for SEO. You need to use H1, H2, H3 to make a webpage accessible to all users.
Keyword tag сan hurt SEO of page as J. Muller said.
“Google will search its index and find the page containing that string in its meta keywords tag. It’s also a good location for misspellings of your key terms.” Both points make no sense.
“Copied content from another source, that’s a low-quality signal to search engines” that’s not true. All big news sources use the copied content from small (or local) news sources. Google recommend to use cross-domain canonical but Google the first one to ignore this canonical tag.
If website, that use the copied content doesn’t violate DMCA, there won’t be a problem.
Thanks for the list, I thought that being an old post it wasn’t updated and I see that it is.
Thanks for the article.
informative SEO checklist, I’m wondering how to add structured data in WordPress without the plugin.
Thanks for the list! I haven’t seen the privacy statement on other lists. Great tip.
Your content and the keywords placed throughout them will make the difference when it comes to SEO, always remember that these aspects are the blood of the site.
This is a really useful list of regular checks that should be done, thanks for sharing
Links are still crucial with rankings, but now it is mostly relevant links that give you the rankings. You have to be careful with the anchor text, make sure you are starting out with branded links and diversify them. I believe a brand new site has the advantage because they can build the links the correct way.
On page has been effective since the beginning and its clear understanding by users. I fully agree with all the information.
Thank you for this post this is really great and helpful for me.
Thanks for explaining that you want to ensure your site is optimized for what your audience is looking for.
A lot of thanks to sir, I regularly follow your articles. It is a lot of help to those who are hungry with learning digital marketing and unable to invest in courses. I appreciate your social nature. Thanks for sharing such great information, Hope you will publish more.
A great SEO Checklist. Thanks for this great checklist. Everyone must use this checklist for their website.
yes, its good to go with the WordPress recently I was working on the project and i am not a tech person but belive the WordPress is an open-source platform and a very big community so because of this I didn’t find any difficulty.
it’s clear that on-site SEO is very important for the website its look like that there were so small issue but that small issue will impact so much of the website so better resolved first your technical seo and after that will procced on off page.
One of the most dynamic article those who wants to to learn and get updated about digital marketing (SEO) trends. Content freshness, Pageload speed, localization plays crucial rule in SEO in 2020. And ofcourse, get ready to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (Chatbots, Marketing Automation, etc…)
Thank You for the wonderful insights!
Great checklist there, I also like to make use of related keywords to mix things up and prepare more natural-looking content. Short tail, long tail and LSIs all three.
I totally agree with all, especially that the title needs to grab the attention of the searcher and that the description is your sales pitch as to why the page should be clicked on.
A great SEO Checklist. Thanks for this great checklist. Everyone must use this checklist for their website.
thanks, bruce clay for the wonderful information about seo. It is a very useful topic nowadays.
Hi Riya – We have several articles with help for creating a sitemap. Start with this in our SEO Guide: https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/create-sitemap/
Thanks, Bruce for sharing your knowledge it will very helpful in 2020 also.
Hope you will Publish more content like this
Hey, this SEO checklist is really very helpful for my website. Kudos to the author for sharing such a blog
Great post of SEO content. I have bookmarked your site and will be using your checklist on my future SEO projects. Thank you for sharing.
This is great information on SEO for experts or beginners to get started. Thanks for putting together!
Such a valuable post. You have covered all the essential and recommend checklist items for the SEO perspective. It really helps.
I totally agree with that proper keyword research are the foundation of any business. Many say content is the king however they fail to realize that content with proper keyword research would not attract right audience. This blog post clarifies many doubts. And thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I totally agree with this all point you mention in SEO checklist, It really plays important role at the time of SEO
I totally agre with these blogpost and I totally agree with all, especially that the title needs to grab the attention of the searcher and that the description is your sales pitch as to why the page should be clicked on. Include the benefit that the visitor will get from clicking on the page and a call to action if space allows.
Hi,
Valuable discussion for me. I have understood the concept of local SEO that you must target your local audience/niche for ranking purpose on Google. In terms of hosting providing business online, you have a mass audience in the world that you have targeted or people are getting services from all over the world. What would be your point of view in this case?
Thanks this SEO checklist is really helpful for me. My website audit score is proving after implementing your checklist points on my websites
I’ve read a lot of SEO guide and really spent a great amount of money, learning SEO basics. But this guide, really outrank them all. Keep sharing quality info.
We did an on-page and off-page seo side-by-side and that’s how we got the result. It’s easy to fix the site and the titles and keywords, but it’s harder to make a good off-page SEO without links. Tnx.
Thank you for this valuable information! Quality SEO is always a meeting point between content and technique.
amazing checklist. totally agree with your points and thanks for helping us with these type of amazing articles.
SEO-checklist is very helpful for me. I am using it step-by-step and get my expected results. Thanks for sharing such a needful post.
I liked the length and breadth this blog has covered for the much-awaited SEO-Checklist from BruceClay. It helped a lot in Mobile Optimization of my website.
On-page optimization is like a base and link building will be effective if the base is strong. I think you should have a strong base to do effective SEO of your website.
What a fantastic SEO checklist, Bruce. SEO is essential to get top in SERP. You have covers.every important point of SEO. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Hi Author,
Such an great post regarding SEO checklist. Thanks for such an post. Please mention something about canonical tag in next post. By the way i am an seo expert and it is such an great post for the beginners and expert as well.
Great points structure is so important. Nice checklist, very informative this is a great page to share
Thanks for sharing the detailed post. Really, most of the web developers don’t cater these things while developing websites and thus they have to make changes in future which are recommended by marketing experts. Keep sharing.
Great checklist there, I also like to make use of related keywords to mix things up and prepare more natural-looking content. Short tail, long tail and LSIs all three.
I just want to say this is a worth checklist that helps every Seo to build their SEO strategies.
All of these SEO points are still valid for 2019. In short, stick with On-page methods, it will keep your web page rank for more time.
Hey.
Thanks this SEO checklist is really helpful for me. My website audit score is proving after implementing your checklist points on my websites
Wow, Bruce what a well-written post on the always up to date SEO checklist. I am glad that I got so many things to learn about SEO from this post. But I am having one question can you please elaborate the structured data markup more briefly as i am very new to SEO. Also, I would like to learn more things about it. Thank You for sharing such an informative and interesting blog. Keep the frequency so that I can learn more new things.
Video optimization is considerably a new thing in SEO but it can give additional benefits to your readers. Some user don’t like to read the whole content. Video blogs can provide additional assistance and thus the user engagement increases.
This is a really useful list of regular checks that should be done, thanks for sharing.
Why not post an article about the working off page SEO as in these days it is a headache to do quality off page SEO.
Asif: They contribute to a site’s authority and trustworthiness, which Google considers as part of its E-A-T quality factors. But backlinks must appear natural and come from relevant sites. We have a number of articles on our site with ideas for earning these types of links in a search engine-friendly way.
Solid checklist Bruce! Something most beginners can reference back to when starting out. Most of SEO is pretty basic but people tend to over-complicate things in the beginning and end up over optimizing a site.
This article covers every impressive and important point of SEO and provides the perfect Knowledge detail information . I will definitely implement this list for SEO in future keep more update thanks
Two of my website got ranked just with on-page seo. If you do the content optimization and perform proper research, you can easily outperform your competition. Now i don’t recommend Off-page techniques. These are good if you want short term results, but for long term, i’ll always recommend On-Page tactics.
Valuable and informative tips related to the SEO checklist. Well, I am also dealing with the SEO on regular basis. This is really an amazing list for me. Hope to use your list details :) Thanks
This is really a solid list of impactful SEO activities. If a beginner applies a few per section, I honestly don’t think they would be going too far wrong…
A lot of SEO folks neglect structured data as a very integral SEO strategy. In the future, a lot of SEO is not going to be about links and long-winding content alone. It would be a culmination of the Trust and Authority Google has transferred to your domain. SEO is now more about online user behaviour. Google simulates this at best by crawling your structured data to understand the purpose of your website and see if your website actually adds value to an actual human.
What a great SEO checklist, Bruce!
I’ve bookmarked this webpage & I thank you very much :)
After reading your blog, I have decided that I will definitely follow your instructions regarding how to keep up dating SEO Checklist.
Awesome list – almost warrants a day spent using this guide as a reference and working though each step bit by bit. No, actually, this DOES warrant a day of checking and updating !!
As SEO keeps updating almost every day, the learning process never stops. You can get doomed even when you follow all the checklist. These tips and checklists are superb though for any website.
A really thorough piece on SEO. I believe you mentioned everything! Content freshness is often the key, along with backlinks. These two form the core, and other things sprout up around them.
This is really perfect and up to the date points of SEO checklist. We should always follow SEO checklist during the starting of any SEO Campaign to avoid mistakes.
Your checklist is very informative. All the points you mention are important but in my thinking Keyword strategy is the most important in all of them.
I’ve read other blogs that have the same topic as yours and I think you forgot to include the responsiveness of a website, though your list is almost complete. But still, your post is very informative and I learned something from it. Glad that you shared this.
This is a really useful list of regular checks that should be done, thanks for sharing.
Thank you Very much for SEO Checklist One of the Best post I’ve come across with. Unique Contents are critical for better SEO, and It is also very beneficial for potential websites to rank naturally. Thank you for explaining the whole process in a detailed manner. Learned new tips and also much obliged for this article.
Perfect Checklist for my website. I focus on unique content but I do not see results. How Much Does Linking matter for SEO now? Thanks
Sam: There are lots of factors contributing to ranking. Links are one important signal of valuable content, but they must be natural. Don’t be tempted by link scheme offers. We have many articles on our website with ideas for earning links. Two to start with: https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/link-building/ and https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/50-ways-get-quality-seo-links/. Thanks for commenting!
Sometimes the newer google update makes it very difficult for ranking factors. One of my website de-ranked during the recent google update. But i’m still trying to improve my content and provide better user experience. What are your recommendation on Comments? Does they help build your website authority ?
Abdul: Focusing on improved content and UX is the best long-term approach. Bravo! As for comments, you have to weigh the pros and cons for your unique site. Relevant user-generated comments (such as these on our blog) can add depth to a site and increase its authority, especially if there’s two-way engagement. But you have to monitor and weed out the low-quality comments. You also need to make sure the extra content isn’t slowing down your page load speed too much. Hope that helps!
Hey! I’m Riddhi Shah and I have read your post about ‘the ultimate blog SEO checklist’ and found it really interesting. Building any website or blog takes research, hard work, and dedication. SEO plays a vital role to make a website stand out among the competition. Making an ultimate blog SEO checklist doesn’t mean to implement all ranking factors at once, but it means to implement all of the factors meant to help you gain traction in any niche, regardless of your skills. All the SEO checklist you have made up are amazing and informative. I have had a really good time reading this interesting post and would definitely like to read more such blog posts from your end in the future.
Amazing Checklist.
It covers all the fundamental elements needed to rank well.
I sure will be keeping these in mind when creating and reviewing content.
That is a really great post. I get many successful tips for optimization of my website.
But I have still confusion about page speed. Did page speed still a factor in search ranking on google?
Wow! tremendous Blog for those who want to make their carrier in SEO. This one article covers every important point of SEO
Thanks for providing the above information it was really helpful for us. I got to know that content optemisation helps in improving the ranking .
Wow, is this ever a comprehensive and exhaustive SEO checklist. I’m still on the fence about having duplicate content. Obviously, stealing other people’s content is unethical and running location pages through a Find and Replace function to rank for specific local terms probably will catch up to you; however, from what I’ve read and watched, some Googlers and their support docs have expressed otherwise.
Thanks for updating the checklist in 2019. From my point of view better than backlinko site’s blog.
Perfect & complete list. I can’t remember a point which is not included in this list. In contrary, I learn something new
Insightful post. I appreciate your guidance on SEO. Keep posting so we remain updated. Thanks
Content is very important in SEO and SEO and provides the perfect checklist. Thanks for sharing this
You put a great effort to build a proper understanding of SEO checklist. It helps me to improve my website ranking and add something new in my knowledge.
Thanks!
This is very comprehensive and no doubt super useful for reference anytime. Thank you so much!
Just a suggestion – It would be great if you can actually provide a condensed checklist format that fits in a single sheet like A4 that we can print it out and have it handy.
Hey!
Excellent article. Thanks so much for sharing this checklist. This is very useful.
This is worth checklist that every SEO enthusiast look into this and this might will help in their strategist
Yes, after the recent Mobile first update, website speed plays a huge role in your ranking. If you are unable to optimize your website for mobile, I recommend using AMP.
Regards
Great piece of SEO content. I have bookmarked your site and will be using your checklist on my future SEO projects. Thank you Bruce.
We regularly miss out on a number of these checkpoints. Thanks for sharing and enabling us do the right job with our seo tasks.
SEO is most good technical way to promote your website in any search engine. Here you have shared excellent article and information about SEO checklist. This techniques should helpful for us to get rank first. Thanks for sharing.
Nice post, many of important points you discuss in this post about the whole process of SEO.
Hey Bruce, I am glad you shared this SEO checklist with us. It is great help for me. I always forget some or other thing while checking for SEO. To have this checklist handy will be great help so that I don’t miss any important point. I mainly forget image optimization. Now with this checklist, I believe I will work perfectly.
Thanks for sharing this informative post! i must say that A large number of online forums still allow do-follow links. We’ve detailed some of the key tactics involved in integrating SEO into your inbound marketing strategy from the start.
Yup. Mobile is the new leader and it will continue to take ground. We can’t ignore the realities of mobile.
Appreciate this article, it’s a good one!
Thanks Bruce,
I cant agree more, specially point 24. Mobile and Voice-Related Keywords, I found it’s being ignored by many SEO expert
Content and keywords are bloodlines of any SEO strategy. I personally believe that now links game has gotten weaken now and currently putting quality content and keeping social signals very strong so that your content gets viral and it starts building natural links.
This is a great checklist! While you’re right in saying that none of these could ever really be comprehensive, I think it’s an important reminder for anyone when they review their strategies at any time.
I think I’d like to add that social media monitoring has become an increasingly important part of the checklist since you started writing it six years ago.
Now more than ever, brands shouldn’t just be reactive to social media mentions, or simply see it as a means of reputation management…but should structure their content strategy around addressing people’s pain points, which they air organically on social media. Social media can also uncover long-term trends and shifts in audience preferences – you just need to start gathering the data to form the insights.
Rhys McKay, Content Specialist – Zag.ai