All companies and brands with an Internet presence are interested in web positioning, so it is important to have an SEO checklist. This way you will know what are the most important aspects that need to be present in different marketing strategies.
Currently, ranking high on search engines has become the obsession of brands. And with good reason, because this implies that the content will have more visibility and receptivity from users searching for something specific.
Getting top rankings can be a challenge, but it can be easier if you have an SEO checklist. Keep in mind that having an organized list of what you need to achieve your goal will make it much easier to achieve it effectively.
Check out the SEO Checklist
As with any strategy, you need to have a solid structure in order to achieve your goals. In the case of web positioning, you need to have an SEO checklist to guide you through this process. This list is divided into several relevant categories:
A.- Be prepared with the right tools
Web positioning is a job that needs great allies. Therefore, the first thing you should have in this SEO checklist are the tools that will be of great help to you:
1.- Google Search Console
This is one of the favorite tools of SEO specialists, as you make sure that Google knows your web pages. It also helps you take them into account when generating your results pages or SERP.
It will show you detailed information about those queries that generate traffic to your website. As well as the performance of individual pages within the domain such as impressions and clicks. It also helps to detect errors, measure conversion rate or CTR and so on.
Keep in mind that all this can be configured according to the period you want and various filters that give you the ability to plan a precise optimization strategy.
2.- Hosting Service
More than a tool, it is a highly relevant service, so you cannot choose a hosting provider lightly. Consider that it will be responsible for storing all your Web site’s files, media and databases on a server.
This service must be maintained 24/7 and be ready to protect your domain from malicious attacks. A good hosting provider can help you increase your upload speed. Also, to offer extra services such as SSL certificates, corporate e-mail, developer tools, among others.
B.- Do an SEO audit.
Once you have the necessary tools, the next step is to check the current status of your website. It will be very helpful in determining how your strategy has gone and what you need to improve to rank on Google. Therefore, you need to evaluate these factors:
3.- Validate how much information there is in Google about your website.
Before you start making changes, the first thing you should do is to know the size of your website. To do this, you can use one of the above tools, including Google Search Console. It will allow you to see how many and which pages are indexed in the search engine.
This means it will show you all the pages registered in Google’s amazing library. You may have many articles, but maybe the search engine does not recognize them. If you set it up from the beginning, you will know what to work with.
4.- Verify that your pages do not have a “no-index” tag.
It is essential that you do this check because if your pages are tagged “no-index,” this indicates to Google that it should ignore them and not rank them. Consider that when a page is not indexed, it means it is not in the search engine’s library. But if it is archived, it will be able to rank.
5.- Make sure you have uploaded a sitemap.
Another thing to consider in your SEO checklist are sitemaps, these are sort of plans that make it easier for Google to read and rank your pages. There are both URLs and images, and with these files you indicate which page belongs to a category and which ones are most important.
Knowing whether or not you have a sitemap will help you understand how highly your page is currently ranked.
6.- Find out what links your site receives.
You need to be aware of the type of links you receive on your website and the amount. Focus on the visible words and where they are placed. Also, you need to evaluate the relevance of the sites that put your link on their website.
7.- Evaluate search traffic and keyword analysis.
Your SEO checklist must also have a good analysis of search traffic, as it will let you know what words a website is found with. Search Console provides a table indicating what users search for on Google before they reach one of your pages.
As far as keywords are concerned, you need to do keyword searches. This gives you the ability to do an organized, detailed and thorough search of the phrases or words most used by your potential visitors.
C.- On-page SEO and off-page SEO.
What other aspects should be on your SEO checklist? You cannot miss on-page SEO, as it is what allows you to optimize the internal elements that make up your website. This way, you can make sure that your site has an effective structure.
But off-page SEO should also be on this checklist. Unlike the previous one, it focuses on improving and effectively managing the actions that occur off the page.
Now, it is important to know what should be listed in each of them:
8.- On-page SEO
- You need to work on your pages to make navigation easier for the user.
- Add buttons and calls to action on your main pages that lead to the most important content.
- Write new titles and descriptions for your pages.
- Configure your website so that the most important text is in the written content and not in images.
- Eliminate animations and heavy files that have no value to the user.
- Add title tags.
- Place alternate text (alt text) in images.
- Make sure forms work properly.
- Include your contact information in a visible place.
- Optimize the loading speed of your website.
- Make necessary changes in the main menu and footer for greater accessibility.
- Change your page URLs so that they are user-friendly.
- Get rid of duplicate content from articles or pages.
- Add structured data to your pages and products in case of e-commerce.
- Eliminate duplicate content due to language conflicts.
- Work with responsive design.
9.- SEO off page
- Take advantage of social networks and email marketing to promote your content.
- Recommend your articles to sites that might be relevant.
- Contribute by writing content for more popular websites than your own.
- Create a Google My Business account to add points to your online presence.
D.- Content Marketing
Content is king in any digital marketing strategy, which is why you should add content marketing to your SEO checklist. Some of the things to consider at this point are:
10.- Know the trends in your industry.
You need to study the market before creating any kind of content, you need to know what customers are interested in about your product or service. This way, you can have a clearer view of where the industry is going and you will be able to create content that is found, read and shared by users.