The following list is a personal quick way to check for major SEO things I need to do. I think it covers the basics and can be further detailed to present the tasks in greater detail.
Onsite SEO checklist
- Keyword list for present and future content
- Unique titles on every page
- Unique description metatag on every page
- Keyword present in title of page
- Keyword present in body text
- Keyword present in file names embedded on page
- Keyword present in ALT property of images from page
- Keyword present in anchor text from other related pages from the same domain
- Pages that target the most competitive keywords are located higher in the internal link architecture (closer to the home page or right on the home page)
- Create a sitemap for indexing purposes (with direct link from the main page)
- Decide on the main keyword for the main page and use variations of this keyword in navigation
- Create a tag cloud of the topical-related-words used by competitors. This way you can learn the “language” of your market (in case you don’t know it yet)
Offsite SEO checklist
- Analyze competition to know how they use the keyword on their pages
- Analyze competition in terms of backlinking. I know from what websites my competition gets its links and what are the anchor texts
- Create a list of websites from where I’ll try to get backlinks (by following the domain profiles that link to your competitors)
- Search for potential related websites that can offer the possibility of posting articles with anchor rich links from the body text
- Identify blogs that receive guest posts
- Comment on highly influence blogs. You’ll get exposure toward the other readers of the blog
- Submit site to DMOZ
Offsite Authority building checklist
- Create profiles on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube
- Work daily on the Twitter profile: the goal is to build a strong network that will retweet your posts
- Create a Facebook page. Facebook pages are indexed in Google and giving the number of Facebook users it’s like a separate entity on the Internet. Sometimes it helps for small brands to create a product related page rather than a brand related page
- Create a YouTube channel. Aim searches that return videos in SERPS and suggested searches by YouTube search box
- If you are a B2B company make a LinkedIn profile and get in touch with other entrepreneurs that might need your service/products or might recommend you
- If you are a B2C company group with complementary business and recommend each other
- Use social media channels to provide information without direct selling your services
If you have any point to add to the list please do so and I’ll update it!
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