An SEO audit checklist ensures your site stands the best chance of ranking #1 on search results pages.
Start optimizing your website (and reaching the top ranks.) using our comprehensive seo checklist below:
Here Are Points For Effective Results:
Basic Setup
There are various website optimization tools that can assist with SEO efforts; therefore, every SEO checklist for new (and old) websites must include configuring essential tools like GA4 and Search Console as a starting point.
Follow our Website SEO Checklist and set up and link all accounts related to your site.
SEO Basics Checklist
- Set up your GA4 account.
- Set up Google Search Console.
- Set up Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Install an SEO plugin (if you use WordPress).
- Submit your sitemap to search engines.
Keyword Research
Conduct a keyword analysis to understand which search phrases Google user experience, user intents use when seeking information about your business or sector online so that once identified, you can incorporate those terms onto your website to attract both visitors and, more importantly, potential consumers.
This SEO checklist covers all of the main steps of target keyword research; for a deeper insight, check out our beginners guide.
Now, lets review this seo keyword research checklist for new websites.
Keyword Research Checklist.
- Locate And Identify Core And Associated Keywords.
Nobody understands your business better than yourself; thats why keyword research begins with brainstorming to generate a preliminary list of prospective keywords.
Your list should contain phrases relevant to your business; anything regarding its industry or even headquarters could be an excellent starting point in keyword research.
At first glance, an electrician could use target keywords such as "electricians in [city]." However, their efforts would include more general searches like "how to wire a dimmer switch," among others.
Though your firm will differ significantly, the principle remains unchanged: consider keywords your target consumers might search organically before proceeding with marketing initiatives.
If you are stuck, try keyword research tools to locate more keyword options and information.
- Evaluate Keyword Values And Rankings.
When optimizing keywords, consider search traffic, cost-per-click (CPC), and competitiveness. Complying with this part of your website optimization checklist can assist your SEO strategy, keyword strategies by targeting only valuable words.
Search volume (or frequency of monthly searches) will provide the best indication of how many visitors could come through your website and convert into buyers.
However, keywords with high search volumes might not be the optimal solutions; companies strive to rank for these highly searched-for terms, which means increased competition for you and greater risk for their competitors.
Keywords with high search traffic often follow this pattern.
- Long (3+ words).
- Specific
- 10+ monthly searches
- Low competition.
- High significance.
- The finest keywords frequently follow this trend.
Long-tail keywords bring visitors directly to your website without targeting too many individuals at one time, providing easy yet steady traffic for your brand online.
As more long-tail keywords are targeted by your brand online, more potential searches may result in them ranking for specific queries that relate directly to it, and more visitors may flock there from that source.
Once your website is established on solid foundational grounds, the next step should be targeting more generic keywords; however, almost every company can benefit from focusing on long-tail terms instead.
Specific keywords also match buyer intent more effectively; someone searching for "mens size seven running shoes" is far more likely to become a buyer than searching for just "shoes."
Once you identify your most valuable keywords, they should become the focus of your efforts while naturally including secondary ones as necessary.
Analyze Search Intent.
People search specific phrases because of their intent behind doing so; understanding this search intent is vital when adding keywords to pages and ranking for them.
Searches like "red dress" could provide general buying or style inspiration, while searches like "long sleeve red dress under $50" likely indicate someone looking to purchase.
Knowing this distinction will influence both content creation and keyword targeting strategies.
As you develop your keyword list, be sure to take some time and search each term individually to view which pages rank highest in search engine results pages for those specific phrases.
In order to rank and compete against them effectively, your content must mirror that found on those top results (without duplicating).
At its core, understanding each keywords intent should be your aim to ensure your content satisfies it.
Technical SEO
Utilizing a technical SEO checklist may seem intimidating at first, yet technical SEO remains necessary, so we created this essential checklist of technical SEO.
Make sure your website can be crawled easily with our
Technical SEO Checklist.
- Ensure your website is crawlable.
- Ensure your website is indexable.
- Fix broken links and 404 errors.
- Use responsive web design to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
- Ensure your website is secure (HTTPS).
- Check your sites speed.
- Evaluate your webpage experience.
- Outline your sites architecture.
- Evaluate your internal links.
Content Creation
Content is anything on a website - such as text, videos, music files, or photos - that engages your user experience and keeps visitors coming back for more.
Websites use six primary forms of content, from blogs and infographics, to attract potential customers, ideal customers, and target customers.
Content creation and optimization should form part of any SEO plan; for this reason, it warrants its SEO checklist.
Content Creation Checklist.
- Adopt diverse relevant content formats on your website.
- Instantaneously respond to search intent.
- Use headers to organize material.
- Include a table of contents when dealing with more significant documents with multiple headers.
- Integrate multimedia components.
- Shorter paragraphs and phrases increase readability.
- Include internal connections.
- Target relevant articles/target useful content/ E-E-A-T
On-Page Optimization
While On-Page optimization involves simplifying code and text to increase readability and ranking on Google, improving it further can only benefit your site in search terms of increased readership and PageRank.
Google rewards those who make its job simpler; in turn, this increases your overall rank.
Follow the steps outlined in this on page seo checklist to optimize your site for search engine ranking, including optimizing title tags and using relevant keywords.
On-Page Optimization Checklist
Establish Short URLs.
As part of on-page adjustments, create SEO-friendly URLs by giving each page its own short, essential address - this helps readers easily comprehend where they came from and feels more natural for readers who arrive there themselves.
Its also cleaner and more realistic when using short external links than longer, complex ones.
Optimize Your Title Tags
Title tags are an integral component of SEO tools on every webpage. Title tags act as abstract titles of your page for Google to recognize, as they appear in search results pages and can influence whether someone clicks through to them.
Google can read text fairly well; thus, if your title tags do not correspond with the context of your pages content marketing, Google wont rank you among search results.
Title tags work best when they naturally feature elements that attract visitors attention, including numbers or terms with dramatic or eye-catching language that grabs peoples attention when browsing results pages.
That could include anything from lists with numbers to phrases that shock or scare user engagement - anything to grab their interest when browsing results.
Write Effective Meta Descriptions
Creating an engaging title for your page can draw in traffic that might otherwise go to competitors. Also, create appealing meta descriptions.
Meta descriptions provide visitors with a summary of your website that informs them what to expect if they visit it.
Meta descriptions appear as subheaders within Google search results and dont directly affect ranking in SERPs; they help convince visitors to click.
Add Alt Tags To Photos.
Alt tags give Google information about an image, video, or audio file.
Remember when we mentioned Google couldnt "see" photographs? Heres how you solve that issue.
Alt tags should provide succinct three or four-word descriptions of multimedia elements on a web page to allow Google to evaluate how great an experience your visitors have on your website.
This allows them to determine whether it meets Googles standards or not.
As soon as you embed multimedia files onto a page, always include an alt tag with them - even though this might seem like an insignificant detail, using alt tags could make a significant, impactful statement about who ranks higher with search engine rankings.
Recheck Keyword Usage Within The On-Page Text.
Since Google is becoming more advanced with every passing year, it remains vitally important that every page includes seed keywords specific to its topic.
As your informational keywords will be linked with title tags, this step should be easy; all that needs to happen is for you to write about your topic while naturally including appropriate keywords.
If you find yourself inserting competitive keyword ideas at random places throughout your website, take a step back and assess whether this strategy is the most efficient method of optimizing search engines and increasing organic rankings.
Google considers primary keyword stuffing an unacceptable practice; therefore, if the primary keywords interrupt your writing flow or overwhelm it with too many references, then this indicates an issue with your use.
Write as you speak, and words naturally appear on a page.
Add Schema Markup
Google now understands synonyms using latent semantic indexing (LSI).
This information is significant for two key reasons.
Ranking relevant but non targeted primary keywords allows you to reach new markets more effectively.
Writing conversationally allows writers to produce better writing that engages readers more closely.
Making LSI work for your sites requires some calculated thought. Use the table below as a starting point and ensure that relevant pages on your website appear when similar searches arise.
With all this work completed, your on-page SEO is almost finished.
Local SEO
Local SEO involves listing your business in multiple web directories to attract local clients.
As part of our local SEO checklist, well cover some key sources, but there are multiple strategies you can employ when optimizing for local search.
Local SEO Checklist
- Create a Google Business Profile.
- Set up Bing Places for Business.
- Claim your listing on Yelp.
- Join Yellow Pages.
- Include website-based optimization.
Social Media
For effective client acquisition, make sure your SEO approach includes social media marketing as an avenue. Social media marketing gives businesses access to consumers where they spend their time online and encourages them to interact, promote, or purchase your companys products or services.
As the worlds most widely used social network, Facebook provides the ideal starting point.
Social Media Checklist
- Identify the social channels where your audience is engaged.
- Start producing type of content ideas.
- Research your competition.
Link Building
Link building refers to the practice of getting other websites to link back to your own. Links are one of the primary SEO ranking criteria as Google sees them as votes of trust between sites - acting like digital recommendations between each.
Google considers quality over quantity when ranking links; even with only a handful of legit sites linking back, Google will rank you higher than if one competitor accumulated 1000 spammy backlinks instead.
An effective link-building plan begins by amassing numerous high-quality links - which is far easier said than done.
A high number of these quality backlinks is ideal to start any link-building campaign immediately.
What steps can be taken to help reach such lofty objectives? Below, we present several successful link-building strategies that should help achieve that result.
Link Building Checklist
- Reclaim Lost Links
- Identify unlinked mentions.
- Guest blog.
- Promote content.
- Natural acquisition.
SEO Is An Ongoing Activity.
SEO should not be seen as an isolated event but as something ongoing requiring constant effort and enhancement to make money-making efforts possible on websites.
Eventually, youll discover new optimization methods until you turn your site into an efficient moneymaker. Our off-page SEO checklist will be with you throughout your journey in SEO.
Ongoing SEO Checklist
Make Regular Website Audits.
As your SEO efforts advance, conducting regular website audits will enable you to pinpoint areas where your site could improve quickly.
Implementing annual or quarterly checks ensures that everything remains on track while not overlooking any aspects.
Create and set aside time in your quarterly calendar for website audits; SEO audits should include features that evaluate these areas such as:
- Linking
- List of Keyword Targeting and Use.
- Content (Age, Location, and Freshness)
At a minimum, it would be prudent to continuously review most of the SEO techniques on this list.
Maintain Content
Updating pages regularly is crucial to improving their rank. While certain pages may rank highly initially, once obsolete, they may lose organic traffic - altering such pages could result in immediate increases.
Establish a schedule for updating high-quality content with evergreen material as often. Some types of sites, like statistics pages, should be regularly refreshed with fresh data; others, such as industry-related pieces, only need updating occasionally.
Monitor All Connections And Traffic Flows.
Links and organic traffic levels may fluctuate over time, making accurate measurements of success more challenging.
To accurately evaluate how successful your page is, monitor how many backlinks and visitors it receives over time.
If your pages no longer rank well, modifying them first is recommended.
Set Continued Goals
Our continuing SEO checklist concludes with setting continual goals. Creating effective ones becomes far more challenging without knowing your desired outcomes for SEO campaigns.
Establish monthly, quarterly, and yearly targets to stay on course with SEO initiatives.
Want More Information About Our Services? Talk to Our Consultants!
Conclusion
Our SEO checklist can assist your company with getting underway with search engine optimization (SEO).
Applying an SEO checklist on any website does not come quickly or effortlessly; it requires effort, persistence, and some prior SEO knowledge to be successful.
At Developers.dev, a digital marketing and branding services can quickly assist you in fulfilling all tasks on your checklist.
