1- Unique Domain Name
You should pick a unique domain name that is easy to remember
and easy-to-pronounce. You might be tempted to pick an exact match domain
(EMD). But you should not go for it. A partial match domain (PMD) is not only a
safe bet but also provides some SEO benefits. Read Neil
Patel’s article on how to choose a domain name for maximum SEO
benefits.
2- Use Country TLD
Extension
If you want your website to rank higher for any particular
country, you should opt for a country code top-level domain (.in, .ca, .pt).
However, doing so limits your site’s ability to rank globally.
3- Use Keyword in Title
Tags
After content, a title tag is the second most important element
of a webpage. It tells search engines what the page is about. You should always
use keywords in the Title Tags of your web pages.
4- Front Load Title Tags
with Keyword
According to Moz data, web pages
having Title Tags starting with keywords perform better than those with
keywords at the end of Title Tags. My friend, make sure that you front-load
Title tags with important keywords.
5- Use Keywords in Meta
Descriptions
Make sure you use important keywords in Meta descriptions. Doing
so will help Google know what the pages are about. Also, you should not forget
to add a call-to-action (CTA) to the Meta descriptions of your website.
6- Use Keyword h1 Tag
After a Title tag, h1 tag plays an important role in sending
relevancy signals to search engines. According to a study, using a keyword in
h1 tag offers some SEO benefit. So never forget to use a keyword in h1 tag.
7- Keyword Density Still
Matters
No matter what people say, keyword density still matters. But
not as much as it used to be. You should include the main keyword and other key
phrases in a natural manner in your content.
8- Use LSI Keywords in
Content
According to a study, long tail keywords not only increased
website traffic but also converted 2.5 times better than
head terms. So, my friend, start using LSI keywords in your content. Check my
post- How to Find Long Tail Keywords
(Step-By-Step Guide) for more details about long tail keywords.
9- Remove Duplicate
Content
If your website pages have similar content, this is not good for
ranking. You should remove duplicate content. Google has explained the issue of duplicate content at
length.
10- Create SEO-friendly
URL structures
According to Search Engine Journal, excessively long URLs
may affect search engine visibility. URL path also matters – a page close to a
homepage may get some boost in search engine ranking. So make sure your website
has SEO-friendly URL structures.
11- Optimize Images
On site SEO checklist cannot be completed without image
optimization. Not only should you optimize the size of your images but also
optimize Metadata. Make sure file name, alt text, title, description, and
caption all are optimized to maximize SEO benefit.
12- Update Content
Frequently
Google always looks for fresh content that meets searchers’
queries. By updating content frequently, you will add a freshness factor to it,
improving the chance to rank higher. Therefore, make a habit to update
frequently the content on your website.
13- Use Keyword in the
First Paragraph
Having the main keyword in the first 100 words is a strong
relevancy signal. So you should try to make sure that you use the main keyword
in the first paragraph.
14- Do Proper Internal
Linking
According to Yoast, “By adding the right internal links you
make sure Google understands the relevancey of pages, the relationship between
pages and the value of pages.”
15- Quality Internal
Links Pointing to a Page
Make sure your important pages are interlinked with high
authority pages on your website.
16- Have High-Authority
Outbound Links
Linking out high-authority websites sends trust signals to
search engine, thereby helping a web page rank better.
17- Check Grammar and
Spelling Errors
Nobody likes reading anything written poorly, nor does Google.
Check Grammar and spelling errors on your web pages carefully.
18- Readability of
Content
You should write in simple, plain English. Why? Increasing
readability of your content widens the reach. More people will be able to
connect with your content.
19- Have Main Content above
the Fold
Google’s main objective is to provide search results that meet the
searchers’ queries. The Page Layout Algorithm penalizes websites that
don’t have much content above the fold.
20- Write Powerful
Headlines
Copy blogger says, 8 out of 10 people read headlines and only 2
read the rest copy. Needless to say, headlines play a vital role in the success
of your content. Craft irresistible headlines that readers can’t ignore.
21- Use Bullets and
Numbered Lists
Mobile searches are more than desktop searches, meaning people
are using their mobile phones to access the web. And nobody likes to scroll
down long articles on a mobile phone. By using bullets and numbers, you break
up your content for readers, making it more user-friendly.
22- Frequently Update
Your Blog
It has been proven in many studies that frequently updating
website blog brings in more visitors. According to Hotspot,
“Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic
than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.”
23- Use Video Content
People like to watch videos. YouTube has become the second
search engine. My friend, you cannot ignore video content. Jodi Harris has
written a great article on how to create
video content that brings results.
24- Have a Complete
‘Contact Us’ Page
Google prefer the websites that have proper contact information.
So you should make sure that your website has a complete ‘contact us’ page.
25- Server Location
Server location might influence your ranking in different
geographical reasons, especially for geo-specific searches. Choosing server in
the country where you are going to focus your business doesn’t make much
difference on your pocket.
26- SSL Certificate
Security is a top priority for Google, and Google has made HTPPS
a ranking signal. Make sure your website has SSL certificate.
27- Social Sharing
Buttons
The last but not the least in on site SEO checklist, you should
include social sharing buttons to make it easy for readers to share your
content.
SEO
Checklist for Technical SEO
According to Neil Patel, “Technical SEO just
refers to any SEO work that is done aside from the content. Essentially, it’s
laying a strong foundation to give your content the best chance it can have to
rank for relevant keywords and phrases.”
Like many other SEO strategies, technical SEO has changed a lot.
Our technical SEO best practices will keep you updated on what brings the top
results.
Let’s discuss SEO checklist for Technical SEO in 2018.
28- Submit Sitemap to
Search Engines
A Sitemap makes it easy for search engines to index the pages of
your website. Make sure you have submitted the sitemap of your website to
search engines.
29- Robot.txt
You should create robot.txt file following search engines’
guidelines. Here is Google’s document on
robot.txt file. It is advisable that you should go through it.
30- Use Sitemap Priority
Tags
If you want search engines to give priority to a few pages on
your website, you should properly use sitemap priority tags. To get more
information about sitemap priority tags, you should visit this sitemap.org’s page.
31- Check Indexing of
Your Pages
For maximum benefits, you should get all of your website pages
indexed. But sometimes, Google removes web pages from Google index. You should
keep checking indexing of your web pages.
32- Check Crawlability
Site structure, internal link structure, looped redirects,
unsupported scripts sometimes affect crawlability. So you should keep checking
crawlability from time to time.
33- Improve Page Speed
As mentioned earlier, mobile searches are more than desktop
searches now. And Google is experimenting mobile first indexing and will start
considering page speed as a ranking factor by
July 2018. You should improve page speed of your website.
34- Don’t Forget to Use Canonical Links
If used properly, canonical links can solve the duplicate
content issue. Yoast has published a long
guide on the topic.
35- Use Proper Redirects
Redirects are used to send search engines and users to different
URLs from the ones they requested. When you are redirecting one URL to another,
you should follow the best redirect practices to
retain SEO value.
36- Use Structured Data
Search engines work hard to decipher the content of a page. By
using structured
data, you
will provide search engine explicit clues about the meaning of the content.
37- Don’t Use Flash On
Your Website
As all search engines are not able to crawl and index flash (and
the ones that do often do it with error), you should avoid using flash on your
website.
38- Accelerated Mobile
Pages Can Improve Ranking
Though Google has repeatedly said that accelerate mobile pages
are not a ranking factor, we can understand that having AMPs can improve
ranking. How? AMPs improve page speed. And Google will start considering page
speed as a mobile ranking factor.
39- Optimize for Voice
Search
With the exponential growth of mobile searches, the trend of
voice search is catching up very fast. You should make sure that your website
is optimized for voice search. I have written a detailed guide to optimizing for Google voice search.
40- Remove Site’s
Downtime
You should make sure that your site has minimum downtime because
lots of downtime from server issues may affect your ranking. If you don’t fix
it, your site might be deindexed.
41- Use Geo-Targeting
You should consider Geo-targeting if you want to promote your
business in a specific country. Google might give a little preference to
websites that have local server IP and country-specific name.
42- Remove All Technical
Errors
Coming to the end of SEO checklist for technical SEO, your
website should be free from every technical error. Even a small technical error
can have a serious implication.
SEO Checklist for Off-Page
Off page SEO are techniques that are executed outside the
website to improve the search visibility of a website. You must understand that
offsite SEO is not just about building links. Off page activities go deeper than
that.
Following are the important pointers for off page SEO checklist
in 2018.
43- Earn Backlinks from
Aged Domains
Needless to say, backlinks from aged domains have more value
than backlinks from newer domains. So keep trying to acquire backlinks from
aged domains.
44- Earn Backlinks from
Different Root Domains
One of the most important ranking factors is to get backlinks
from different root domains. According to a Moz
study, “The number of linking root domains correlates well with
rankings.”
45- .edu and .gov Links
As Google values high-authority links, many SEO experts believe
that .edu and .gov links have a special place in Google algorithm. And there is
a valid reason behind it.
46- Earn Links from High Authority Domains
Earning links from high authority websites play an important
role in ranking. So try to get backlinks from high authority websites.
47- Audit Your Backlink
Profile
To ensure everything is abided by Google’s Guidelines for
backlink scheme. And you should disavow bad backlinks that you find in these
audits.
48- Avoid Getting
Backlinks from Bad Websites
Links from bad, spammy websites will downgrade your website’s
authority, thereby resulting in lower ranking on Google.
49- Diversify Your
Backlink Profile
If your website has a big percentage of links that come from a
single source (blog comments or forum profiles), Google can consider it a sign
of web spam and may penalize your website. Therefore, you should diversify your
backlink profile.
50- Have Proper Backlink
Anchor
You should have proper anchor texts of your backlinks,
explaining clearly what readers will get if they click on a backlink. Having
confusing anchor to make it a clickbait might affect your website adversely.
51- Check Internal Link
Anchor
According to Brain
Dean, “Internal link anchor text is another relevancy signal,
although probably weighed differently than backlink anchor text.” Make sure you
have interlinked web pages properly.
52- Eliminate Poison
Anchor Text
Pharmacy keywords, lottery, free win are often signs of spam or
a hacked site. So backlinks with poison anchor text can hurt your website’s
ranking. Make sure you disavow backlinks with poison anchor text.
53- Avoid Reciprocal
Links
An important point in SEO checklist for off page SEO in 2018!
According to Google
Link Schemes, “excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or
partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking should be avoided.”
54- Try to Earn Backlink
from Long Content
Ask anyone about the best link building strategy and you will
get the same answer – earning backlinks. It has been observed in many studies
that long form, editorial content is one of the best tools to earn backlinks.
55- Avoid Backlinks from
Poorly Written Content
Acquiring backlinks from poorly written content adversely affect
the ranking of a website. You should always try to avoid getting backlinks from
thin, spammy content.
56- Build Broken Links
Never ignore broken links as having them sends a sign of a
neglected website. You should audit your backlink profile from time to time to
find and build broken links.
57- Get Reviews on High
Authority Website
More positive reviews build the authority of your website on
search engines, thereby improving the chance of getting a higher ranking. So
persuade your users to write reviews on high-authority websites, such as Yelp,
Better Business Bureau, etc.
58- Aim for Link Earning
Instead of making link building your primary link building
strategy, you should aim for creating resources and earning links.
59- Ensure Backlinks
Relevancy
You should make sure that the content you’re acquiring backlinks
from is relevant to your business. Getting backlinks from irrelevant content
might adversely affect your ranking on search engines.
60- Comments on Leading
Blogs and Forums
Commenting on leading blogs and forums not only provides you
with the tons of referral traffic but also gives you some PR value. However,
you should always leave insightful comments, or else Google might punish you
considering it a web spam practice.
61- Create a Detailed
Infographic for Link Earning
A detailed infographic is one of the best ways to earn
backlinks. So include it in your off page SEO activities.
62- Check Your
Competitors’ Backlink Profile
If you want to outgrow your competitors, you should audit your
competitors’ backlink profiles. This will help you plan an aggressive backlink
building strategy to beat your competitors.
63- Use Social Media Ads
The reach of organic social media sucks. Rarely, you can achieve
your business objective through organic promotion. From time to time, you
should employ paid social media ads to boost reach.
64- Use PPC Campaigns
To provide the much-needed initial boost to your content, you
should run PPC campaigns.
65- Use Google Keyword
Planner
Google keyword planner will help you find untapped
opportunities. Always, create off page optimization content after doing proper
keyword research.
66- Make a Kickass
Outreach Strategy
To maximize the success of your off page content, you need to
get your content promoted by your audience and influencers in your niche. To do
so, you need to make a kickass outreach strategy.
67- Do Guest Posting
This is another important point in SEO checklist for off page
SEO in 2018. You should write guest posts for leading websites in your business
domain. However, Google discourages guest posting campaigns and
large-scale article marketing with keyword-rich anchor text links.
68- Be Active on Quora
This question and answer community has around 190 million unique
visitors as of April 2017. This means you have a great potential to build your
brand here. By being active on Quora, you can know what you should create that
your audience would love to read. Also, Quora can provide you with the tons of
referral traffic.
SEO Checklist for UI/UX
The simple, good, old days of SEO are now over – you stuff a web
page with keywords, build links, and you are there. Now, it takes hundreds of
factors to rank on search engines.
UI/UX is now included in the best SEO practices.
Here is an SEO checklist that you should follow in 2018 to get
better search results.
69- Have Responsive Website Design
You will never know on which device your audience is accessing
the web. Therefore, you should have a responsive website design to reap the
maximum benefits.
70- Use font of at least 14 pixels
Mobile searches are more than desktop searches. So, my friend,
font size matters. You should use the font of at least 14 pixels.
71- Use Font Color That Complements Your Theme
To offer high-quality user experience, you should make sure that
font color complements your website theme.
72- Enough Whitespace between Headings and Paragraphs
White space not only makes your website pleasing but also makes
content easy to skim. Make sure there is enough whitespace between headings and
paragraphs.
73- Use Large Size Touch Elements
If you use small size touch elements, users might click on the
wrong buttons. Therefore, you should use large size touch elements.
74- Have Graphic-rich Content
To increase dwell time on your website and avoid pogo sticking,
you should have graphic-rich content on your website.
75- Avoid Interstitials
“To improve the mobile search experience, after January 10,
2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition
from the mobile search results may not rank as highly.”
Avoid using interstitials if you want to dominate mobile
searches.
76- Use a Distinct Color for Links
To make your website more user-friendly, you should use a
distinct color for links so that users can easily understand where links are.
77- A Line should not be More Than 65 Characters
As a big percentage of people read on mobile devices. It is
better not to write more than 65 characters in a line.
Bonus Points:
Thanks for reading so far. We have come to the end of the post.
But wait!
Here are some bonus points that can help you rank better on
search engines.
78- Ask People to Contribute to Your Blog
Asking industry experts and influencers to write on your blog.
This will increase the traffic on your blog. Influencers and industry experts
tend to have a big list of followers, so you will see a traffic boost when they
will share their guest posts published on your blog.
79- Do Google Maps Marketing
As Google Maps results also appear in search results, you cannot
ignore Google Maps Marketing if you
want to outgrow your competitors. It is the best tool to target locals.
80- Do local SEO
Local SEO is
important to reach prospects in your locality. So follow the best
local SEO strategies to dominate local ranking.
81- Optimize for ‘Near Me’ Searches
With the growth of mobile searches, more and more people are now
conducting ‘keywords + near me’ searches. Therefore, you should optimize
your business for keywords+near me searches.
82- Avoid Temporary Link Scheme
Adopting a temporary link building scheme will do more harm than
any good to your website, so you should avoid it. Here are Google’s Guidelines for Link Schemes.
83- Never Ignore Google Webmaster Messages
Google Webmaster messages often provide you with early warnings
of what went wrong with your website. Therefore, you should never ignore Google
Webmaster messages.
84- Never Have Ads above the Fold
Having ads above the fold can get your website penalized under
Page Layout Algorithm. So you should avoid it.
85- Never Hide Affiliate Links
You should never hide affiliate links. According to Brain Dean,
“Google’s algorithm may pay closer attention to other quality signals to make
sure you’re not a “thin affiliate site”.
86- Get Brand Mentions on News Sites
Getting brand mentions on news sites not only helps in PR but
also helps in building a reputation on search engines. So never ignore any
opportunity to get brand mentions on news sites.
87- Create official LinkedIn Company Page
Most real businesses have LinkedIn company pages. So having an
officiant LinkedIn company page will be beneficial.
88- Incorporate User-Generated Content
People trust user-generated content, so does Google.
Incorporating user-generated in your SEO and content marketing strategies will
yield better results.
89- Avoid Excessive 301 redirects
Links coming from 301 redirects dilute some page rank value. So
you should avoid excessive 301 redirects.
90- Use Google Analytics
Any SEO checklist 2018 will not be complete without emphasizing
the importance of using Google Analytics. You will get tons of intelligent
insights to optimize your SEO campaigns for better results.
91- Have a Human Editor on Your Blog
Having editors can help. Though never confirmed, Google filed a patent for system and method for
supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results.
92- Promote Your Content Aggressively
Needless to say, how good your content is, it will not bring you
maximum results unless you promote your content aggressively. I believe you
should focus 50% of your efforts on content creation and 50% on content
promotion.
93- Use Skyscraper Technique
Use Skyscraper technique to maximize the success of your
content. Brian Dean was able to boost his site traffic by 110% in just 14 days
with this technique.
94- Do Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a great way to amplify the reach of your
content. When an influencer shares your content, not only more people will see
your content but more people will also trust your content.
Outstanding article. I wish each topic had a working link for more information though. Readytemp website needs a makeover to catch up with the latest web design and search engine technology.
ReplyDeleteThis is the most comprehensive and useful SEO (processes) post I've read in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteI know the effort that goes into creating and publishing such valuable content.
Thank you for the trouble you took. This content has definitely added a lot of value to me.
Warmly,
Ivan Bayross
Wow! Talk about the most detailed transparent and spot on read I have had the pleasure to read in some time, relating to SEO. The only thing I have to say now is, you're a true leader and there's no limits to what one can accomplish when there is care like this in all the work they do. Cheers!
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But indeed great work!!
So helpful and relevant. Thank you
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