Our On-Page SEO checklist shows you on-page factors to help a website get higher rankings on search engines. And for help on the next step in SEO… we’ll help you with the complete checklist for SEO below.
Is obtaining more business and revenue worth learning a few new things? We certainly think so. That’s why the Bash Foo team is a certified Google Agency.
SEO basics checklist
Here are some basics…
• Perform keyword research to identify your prospective customers’ keywords to find you.
• Make sure that the content on each page is relevant to the keyword you are targeting.
• Include meta tags such as page titles, descriptions, and headings (H1, H2, H3).
• Optimize your page load speed by leveraging browser caching and compressing images.
• Are you using video or image alt tags to help your site structure?
• Make sure the content is original, well-written, and high-quality.
Now for the DETAILED CHECKLIST
Install and Configure an SEO Plugin (If You’re Using WordPress)
If you’re using WordPress, installing and configuring an SEO plugin is important. This will help optimize your website for search engine rankings and ensure that technical search engine optimization tasks, such as creating robot.html and XML web sitemaps, are correctly completed. Popular SEO plugins include The Writer Assistant, which can be found in WordPress.
These plugins often include features such as keyword research to identify your prospective customers’ keywords, meta tags, page loading speed optimization, video and images alt tags, originality of content, and more. With the right plugin in place, you’ll be sure to have all the necessary elements for successful SEO in 2023.
Which tools to use for performing keyword research?
Choosing the right domain name and accurately describing the website is essential for SEO keyword research. Here are the top 5 SEO keyword research tools:
Google Keyword Planner: https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
Moz Keyword Explorer: https://moz.com/products/pro/keyword-explorer
SEMRush: https://www.semrush.com/
Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/
KWFinder: https://kwfinder.com/
Use an SEO-Friendly URL Structure
The URL structure of the URL helps Google crawl your site more efficiently. First, do not include an underscore. Then, ensure that the URL is as brief as possible. If you are using WordPress, be sure to use Permalinks to create “friendly” URLs.
Title tag character length
The ideal length of titles is 50-60 words.
Make sure your site loads fast
The page speed of your website is an essential part of ranking well in search engines since 2010. A slow-loading page can be frustrating for users, thus decreasing the chances of them finding your content.
To help improve this, use tools such as GTMetrix to check the loading speed of each page on your site. Additionally, you can do a site audit with the Site Audit tool to identify any slow pages on your website, which are highlighted in the Performance Report. Making sure your site loads quickly is essential for successful SEO in 2023.
Make sure your website is accessible at one domain
It is essential to ensure that your website is only accessible at one domain to maximize the SEO value of your site. This ensures that all search engine traffic goes to one website, making it easier for users to find and interact with your content.
Additionally, having a single domain helps avoid duplicate content issues, which can lead to lower rankings in search engine results. Having one domain also helps to ensure that your website is appropriately indexed by search engines, which can lead to higher visibility and more significant traffic.
Find and Fix Keyword Cannibalization Issues
Keyword cannibalization is when two or more pages within a website target the same keyword. This can lead to confusion among search engines regarding which page should rank for that keyword, resulting in lower-than-expected rankings and less organic traffic.
To find if there are any keyword cannibalization problems on your site, you can use tools such as SEMRush or Ahrefs. These will help identify duplicate content and tell you which pages use the same target keywords. Once you have identified any issues, you need to fix them. You can do this by either merging multiple pages into one or by adding canonical tags to show search engines where the source of information is located.
Set Up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
Google Search Console is an effective tool for monitoring and troubleshooting website performance in Google search results. It provides insights into how your site is performing, including errors and crawl issues, as well as how often it appears in searches on the web.
Additionally, it helps identify which keywords are driving traffic to your website. Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console but specifically tailored for optimizing a website’s presence in Bing search engine results.
All major search engines have their own webmaster tools that can help improve SEO rankings in 2023 by providing detailed analytics and data about a website’s performance and visibility across different engines. They also provide resources to help optimize a website on both desktop and mobile devices.
Find and Fix HTTP Links on HTTPS Pages
Insecure websites moved on from HTTP to HTTPS years ago and are never coming back. Businesses understand the value of protecting their customer’s security, and website visitors want their personal information protected. They will not visit or shop at insecure sites. Also, Google will penalize your site for loading as HTTP.
Which tools to use for optimizing page URLs?
Optimizing page URLs is integral to improving your website’s SEO in 2023. Several tools can help with this process, such as Screaming Frog and DeepCrawl. These tools identify issues with existing URLs and allow you to customize them according to best practice standards.
Additionally, they provide suggestions on how to improve them for higher rankings in search engine results. They also offer detailed reports which help you analyze the performance of each URL and make necessary improvements if required.
Other helpful tools include Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, which provide insight into how your pages perform in search results and suggest possible optimizations. Using these tools, businesses can ensure their websites are correctly indexed by search engines.
You may want to check your technical site health before starting on content. Why? Much like setting up webmaster tools allows you to monitor your site’s performance, technical SEO ensures your site can be crawled and indexed. Without this, it would be challenging to rank for anything!
A website owner would want to check the technical site health before optimizing content because it is essential for search engine crawlers and bots to be able to find and index their web pages. If a website has technical issues such as broken links, duplicate content, or loading errors, these can prevent crawlers from finding and indexing pages correctly. This can lead to decreased visibility in search engine results, directly impacting organic traffic.
Additionally, if page titles and meta descriptions are not optimized properly, this can affect rankings.
Therefore, checking the technical health of a website is essential before any SEO optimization begins, as it ensures that search engines can crawl and index web pages correctly.
Ensure Your Site’s Content Is Up to Date
When a website visitor visits a site that has not been updated in a long time, they are likely to be unimpressed and may even choose to leave the site. This is because outdated content can be visually unappealing and often contains broken links or outdated information, leading to confusion.
Additionally, if the website does not appear professional, it implies that the business does not care about providing the best experience for its customers.
Search engines also downgrade websites with outdated content, making them less relevant for users searching for up-to-date information. Therefore, businesses should regularly update their content to maintain high rankings in search engine results.
Internal linking best practices
There are a number of WordPress plugins that can help website owners provide better internal linking.
Yoast SEO: This plugin helps optimize URLs and guides how to use keywords in internal links. It also creates a sitemap that makes it easier for search engine crawlers to find pages on the site and allows users to set up redirects for broken links.
Link Whisper: This plugin helps website owners identify potential internal linking opportunities and breaks down the link juice on each page, making it easier to optimize internal links. It also allows users to create custom text-based URLs that are more SEO-friendly than the default WordPress URLs.
WP Link Status: This plugin provides an overview of all internal links on the site and allows users to identify broken or redirecting links quickly. It also helps find orphaned pages not linked to any other page, which can hurt SEO.
Which tools to use for designing a mobile-friendly website?
A mobile-friendly website is essential in today’s digital world since more people use their mobile devices to search for products and services than ever before.
An SEO expert at Bash Foo says, “Over 60% of all web searches are now conducted on mobile phones, so optimizing a website for mobile use is no longer optional. It has become essential for providing a great user experience and maintaining visibility in search engine results”.
Which tools to use for creating unique title tags and meta descriptions?
1. Yoast SEO: This plugin helps optimize URLs and provides guidance on using keywords in title tags and meta descriptions. It also generates an XML sitemap, making it easier for search engine crawlers to find pages on the site, while its custom fields feature allows users to add unique titles and descriptions to each page.
2. SEO Squirrly: This plugin helps create SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions by suggesting the best keywords based on user search preferences. It also offers an image optimization feature that allows users to add ALT tags to images for improved visibility in search engine results.
3. All-in-One SEO Pack: This plugin automatically generates titles and meta descriptions based on the content of a page, while its advanced settings allow users to customize title tags and meta descriptions. It also offers an XML sitemap feature which helps search engine crawlers find pages on the site more easily.
How do I find SEO keywords for my website
Finding SEO keywords for your website is essential in optimizing it for search engine results. It involves the process of researching and selecting relevant keywords to use on your pages, as well as analyzing keyword trends to identify emerging opportunities.
Tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush, KWFinder, and Ahrefs can help with this process by providing keyword suggestions and data on search trends.
Additionally, website owners should pay attention to the keywords their competitors are using to gain a competitive edge. Finally, it is essential to prioritize long-tail keywords as these tend to have higher search volumes and less competition than shorter ones.
Off-Page SEO & Link Building Checklist
Hiring an agency to provide your off-page SEO and link-building services can be beneficial in many ways. An experienced agency will have the knowledge and expertise to optimize a website for search engine visibility and create quality backlinks that increase referral traffic.
They also understand the importance of staying up-to-date with the latest algorithms and ranking factors to keep the website visible in search engine results.
Furthermore, an agency can save you time and effort as they can identify the most effective strategies quickly and execute them efficiently. Ultimately, a good SEO agency will help your website get more traffic and higher rankings, resulting in improved visibility for your business online.
Which tools to use for setting up a Google My Business profile?
Google My Business is a great tool to help businesses reach customers online. Setting up a Google My Business profile can be done quickly and easily, allowing business owners to create an informative page about their business that appears in search engine results. To do this, users can utilize tools such as the Google My Business website or app, which allows them to add information such as business hours, photos, and contact information.
Businesses can also use third-party tools such as Moz Local, SE Ranking, and Yext to manage their Google My Business profiles more effectively.
These tools make it easier to track rankings and reviews, create accurate listings across multiple sites, and monitor changes in search engine algorithms. You’ll find that marketing agencies like Bash Foo can do this very efficiently.
Why write compelling Title Tags?
Title tags are crucial to any website, as they let search engines know what your page is about. Writing compelling title tags can help attract more visitors to your site, as they will appear prominently in search engine results and give users an idea of the content that awaits them. Title tags should be unique and descriptive so that they stand out.
Break things up with images
Since this article is supposed to be a list, we didn’t pepper the article with photos; however, adding photos is never bad for SEO.
We recommend pictures as they help solve problems, break down the text, and aid visual recognition. Do not simply put pictures into your web pages willy-nilly. Ensure you create and identify images that enhance the readers’ experience. Typically we use graphs, charting, and images to illustrate the point.
Add internal links
Internal links allow search engines to see what you’re referring to. Then it helps Google and others navigate your website. It’s already been covered how important it is for content to include links to external sources.
If you’re adding a link to other pages, you should add a link to them. Find links in your website that can be found using external links.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this ultimate on-page SEO Checklist will help you increase your website’s rankings in the search engine results pages.
Utilize the recommended tools and strategies to optimize your website for maximum visibility in SERPs and get more traffic to your business online.
If you need help setting up a Google My Business profile or have any other questions, contact Bash Foo at 937-912-4519 or agency@bashfoo.com. We’re here to help you get the most out of your website and increase your visibility online. Good luck!
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