SEO Checklist – A Complete Guide to Ranking New Websites in 2023

SEO Basics

Set up GSC and Bing Webmaster Tools

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool provided by Google that allows website owners to monitor, manage, and improve the visibility and performance of their website in Google search results. It includes information on website traffic, search queries, crawl errors, and other valuable data that can help with SEO.

Getting started with Google Search Console is super easy. It’s free. And there are many ways to set it up, depending on what works best for you.

Google Search Console (or GSC) is one of the most powerful SEO tools. At its core, Google Search Console helps you monitor, maintain and optimize your website’s organic search presence. Most primarily use GSC to view clicks and impressions. While that’s cool, it has much more to offer.

Here are some of the cool things you get when you set up Google Search Console

• Find search queries that drive traffic
• Find how well all your pages rank
• Identify and leverage backlinks to boost link juice
• Add sitemaps
• Locate errors that need fixing
• Ensure the eligibility for rich snippets and schema
• Make your site more mobile-friendly
• Monitor your Core Web Vitals
• Show if your site has been hacked

Set up Google Analytics (GA)

Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool provided by Google that allows website owners to track and analyze website traffic and user behavior. It provides insights into visitor demographics, user flow, conversion rates, and other important metrics that can help with SEO and website optimization.

Google Analytics is one of the many tools that Google provides to help people understand what visitors are doing on their website. The tool allows you to track and analyze critical data on your site and site visitors.

Here are the steps to set up Google Analytics:

1. Sign in to your Google account or create a new one if you don’t have one.

2. Go to the Google Analytics website at https://analytics.google.com.

3. Click the “Sign up” button.

4. Enter your website name and URL, and select the time zone for your website.

5. Choose whether you want to track a website or a mobile app. For website tracking, select “Website” and enter your website details.

6. Enter your business information, including your industry category and time zone.

7. Enable data-sharing settings and agree to the terms and conditions.

8. Click “Create” to create your Google Analytics account.

9. You will be provided a tracking code you need to install on your website. You can either add the code manually to your website’s HTML code or use a plugin to install it automatically.

10. If you choose to install the code manually, copy the tracking code provided by Google Analytics and add it to the header section of your website’s HTML code.

11. If you choose to install the code using a plugin, download and install a Google Analytics plugin for your website’s platform (e.g., WordPress, Shopify, etc.) and follow the instructions to set it up.

12. Once the tracking code is installed, you can start tracking your website’s performance in Google Analytics.

13. You can access various reports and tools to help you understand your website’s traffic, user behavior, and other vital metrics.

By following these steps, you can set up Google Analytics and start using its tools and reports to understand your website’s performance better and optimize it for better search engine visibility.

Google has a step-by-step guide on how to set up Google Analytics.

Install and configure an SEO plugin (WordPress)

There are multiple SEO plugins for WordPress that you can always choose from. My favorite of them is Yoast. So, I’ll show you how to install and properly configure it.

Generate and submit a sitemap to GSC and Bing.

Create a Robots.txt

Check Webmaster Tools for any manual actions.

GSC Manual Action is a notification from Google Search Console that a website has violated Google’s webmaster guidelines and may be penalized. The website owner must take corrective action to resolve the issue and submit a reconsideration request to Google.

Keyword Research

Now that you’ve learned how to set up the recommended tools and submit your website to search engines, let’s find out which strategic keywords to target in your site’s content and how to craft that content to satisfy users and search engines. The power of keyword research lies in better understanding your target audience and how they are searching for your content.

Keyword Research is the process of identifying and analyzing the search terms people use to find information on a particular topic. It is used to optimize website content and improve search engine rankings.

Doing your keyword research properly will help you answer questions such as:

• What are people searching for?
• How many people are searching for it?
• In what format do they want that information?
• How difficult will it be to rank for a search query?

Keyword research is relevant to your SEO process and your success with rankings. Without it, you could choose the wrong keywords, resulting in no traffic to your website.

Here are the steps you should take to succeed in your keyword research.

Identify the competitors

To identify competitors in keyword research, you can follow these steps:

1. Create a list of your target keywords.
2. Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to analyze the top search results for each of your target keywords.
3. Look for websites or pages that consistently rank in the top search results for multiple target keywords.
4. Analyze the top-ranking websites’ content and structure to understand their strategies to rank highly for your target keywords.
5. Look for patterns in the websites ranking highly for your target keywords (e.g., are they mostly e-commerce sites, blogs, or news sites?).
6. Use this information to refine your SEO strategy and improve your chances of ranking highly for your target keywords.

Find the main keywords.

To find the main keywords in keyword research, you can follow these steps:

1. Start with a broad topic related to your business or website. For example, if you have a pet supply store, your broad topic could be “pet care.”
2. Brainstorm a list of specific keywords and phrases related to your broad topic. For example, for “pet care,” you might come up with keywords like “dog food,” “cat litter,” “pet grooming,” and “pet health.”
3. Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to get ideas for related keywords and to determine the search volume and competition for each keyword.
4. Analyze each keyword’s search volume and competition to identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords. These will be your main keywords.
5. Use your main keywords to optimize your website content, meta tags, and other on-page SEO factors. Make sure to use your main keywords strategically, but don’t overdo it – focus on creating high-quality, valuable content for your visitors.

Find long-tail keyword variations.

To find long-tail keyword variations, you can follow these steps:

1. Start with a broad keyword related to your business or website. For example, if you have a fitness blog, your broad keyword might be “exercise.”
2. Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to get ideas for related keywords and to determine the search volume and competition for each keyword.
3. Look for longer, more specific keyword phrases that include your broad keyword. For example, you might find long-tail variations like “best exercises for weight loss,” “exercises to reduce back pain,” or “home exercises for beginners.”
4. Look for related keyword phrases that might be relevant to your audience. For example, if your fitness blog is geared toward women, you might look for long-tail variations like “exercise for new moms” or “postpartum exercise routines.”
5. Use the long-tail variations you find to optimize your website content, blog posts, and other on-page SEO factors. Long-tail keywords are typically less competitive than broad keywords, so they can help you rank higher in search results and attract more targeted traffic to your site. Make sure to use your long-tail keywords naturally in your content and focus on providing high-quality, valuable information for your readers.

Create a keyword map.

A keyword map is a document that organizes keywords or key phrases into specific pages of a website. It is a way of assigning a target keyword or key phrase to a particular page or section of a website based on the relevance and search intent of the page. The keyword map helps to ensure that each website page is optimized for a specific keyword or keyphrase, which can improve the page’s search engine ranking for that particular keyword or keyphrase. A keyword map can also help to ensure that there is no overlap or competition between different website pages for the same keywords, which can cause keyword cannibalization and harm the website’s search engine ranking. Overall, a keyword map is a valuable tool for improving a website’s search engine optimization and ensuring that each website page effectively targets the right keywords.

To create a keyword map, you can follow these steps:

1. Start with a list of your primary target keywords. These are the high-traffic, high-priority keywords you want to focus on for your SEO strategy.
2. Group your target keywords into themes or categories. For example, if you have a pet supply store, you might group your keywords into categories like “dog food,” “cat food,” “pet grooming,” and “pet health.”
3. Identify the pages on your website that are most relevant to each keyword category. For example, you might create a page on your website specifically for “dog food” and another for “pet grooming.”
4. Map each target keyword to a specific page on your website based on relevance and search intent. For example, if someone searches for “best dog food for puppies,” you might map that keyword to your “dog food” page and optimize that page’s content to address that specific search intent.
5. Create a content plan for each page based on the mapped keywords. Make sure to use your keywords strategically in your page titles, meta tags, and on-page content, but don’t overdo it – focus on creating high-quality, valuable content that meets the needs of your target audience.
6. Monitor your rankings and traffic for each keyword and page, and adjust your keyword map and content strategy as needed to improve your search performance over time.
7. Use a spreadsheet or a visual tool to organize and track your keyword map. A spreadsheet is a simple and effective way to organize your keyword map. Still, a graphical tool like a mind map or flowchart can help you visualize the relationships between your keywords and pages more efficiently.
8. Conduct ongoing keyword research and analysis to identify new target keywords and refine your keyword map over time. Keyword research is a continuing process, so stay up-to-date with search trends and adjust your keyword map as needed.
9. Test and experiment with different keyword strategies and techniques to find what works best for your website and audience. Some strategies you might try include targeting long-tail keywords, optimizing for featured snippets, or creating content based on popular search queries.
10. Keep track of your results and make data-driven decisions about your SEO strategy. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your search performance, and use that data to refine and improve your keyword map and content strategy over time.

Analyze the page intent of ranked results.

To analyze the page intent of ranked results, you can follow these steps:

1. Examine the search query: Determine the primary and secondary keywords used in the search query.

2. Look at the top-ranked results: Examine the titles, meta descriptions, and URLs of the top-ranked results to identify the common themes.

3. Identify the intent: Based on the common themes, categorize the search intent into informational, navigational, or transactional.

4. Analyze the content: Visit the top-ranked pages to examine the content and structure of the pages.

5. Evaluate the user experience: Look at the page layout, usabilities, and engagement metrics, such as time on page and bounce rate.

6. Compare with your content: Compare your content with the top-ranked pages to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.

By following these steps, you can better understand the page intent of ranked results and use this information to optimize your content for search engines.

Make a list of questions being asked.

To make a list of questions being asked by your website users from search, you can follow these steps:

1. Review your website’s analytics: Look for the queries that brought users to your site from search engines.

2. Look for common phrases: Identify the common terms or questions users ask in the search queries.

3. Check out search engine suggestions: Look at the “related searches” or “people also ask” sections in search engine results pages to identify questions related to your content.

4. Analyze comments and feedback: Look for common questions or comments in your website’s feedback and comments sections.

5. Use a keyword research tool: Use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to identify commonly asked questions related to your content.

6. Look for questions on social media: Check social media platforms to identify questions being asked by your audience.

By following these steps, you can create a list of questions being asked by your website users from search and use this information to optimize your website content to address user needs better and improve your search rankings.

Check the target keyword difficulty.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website’s technical elements to improve its search engine visibility and user experience. It involves implementing best practices and optimizing the backend of a website to make it easier for search engine crawlers to access and understand the site’s content.

Examples of technical SEO elements include website speed and performance, mobile-friendliness, website security, website structure and navigation, HTML tags and schema markup, website indexing, website crawlability, and website architecture.

Technical SEO improves a website’s search engine rankings, increases website traffic, and provides a better user experience. By optimizing the technical elements of a website, search engines can better understand the content and structure of the website, and users can more easily navigate and access the website’s content.

Ensure the site is using HTTPS.

To implement HTTPS on your website, you can follow these steps:

1. Obtain an SSL/TLS certificate: Purchase an SSL/TLS certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA) or get a free certificate from Let’s Encrypt.

2. Install the certificate on your web server: Install the SSL/TLS certificate on your web server. The installation process may vary depending on your web server and hosting provider.

3. Update your website settings: Update your website settings to use HTTPS. You may need to update your website’s configuration files or content management system (CMS) settings.

4. Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: Redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS to ensure that all visitors use the secure connection. You can do this by adding a redirect in your web server configuration or using a plugin if you use a CMS like WordPress.

5. Update all website links: Update all links to HTTPS instead of HTTP. This includes internal links, external links, and embedded media.

6. Test your website: Test your website to ensure that all pages are being served over HTTPS and that there are no mixed content errors.

By following these steps, you can implement HTTPS on your website and provide a secure and encrypted connection to your website visitors. HTTPS is essential for protecting sensitive information like login credentials, payment information, and personal data from being intercepted or accessed by third parties.

Check for duplicate versions of the site.

There are several ways to check for duplicate versions of your website. Here are a few methods you can try:

1. Use a plagiarism checker: You can use a plagiarism checker tool like Copyscape, Siteliner, or DupliChecker to check for duplicate versions of your website. These tools can scan the internet for duplicate content and report any matches found.

2. Check your server logs: Check your server logs to see if any URLs are being crawled that are similar to your website. If you find any, visit the URLs to see if they are exact copies of your website.

3. Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console can help you find duplicate website versions. Go to the “Coverage” report, and look for any errors related to duplicate content. If you find any, click on the error to see the URLs of the duplicate content.

4. Use Google search: Enter the URL of your website into Google search and see if any other websites come up that have the same content. You can also use advanced search operators like “site:” to search for duplicate content on a specific domain.

Once you have identified any duplicate versions of your website, you should take steps to remove them. This can involve contacting the website owner and asking them to remove the content or using tools like DMCA to request the removal of infringing content.

Get rid of duplicate content on your website.

Checking for and getting rid of duplicate content on your website is crucial to ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and provides the best user experience. Here are some steps to follow:

1. Use a website audit tool: Several website audit tools can scan your website and identify duplicate content. Some popular tools include Screaming Frog, SEMrush, and Ahrefs. These tools will crawl your website and create a report that shows duplicate content and where it is located on your website.

2. Review the report and identify the duplicate content: Once you have the report, review it and identify the duplicate content. This could be duplicate pages, product descriptions, or even sections of text that have been copied and pasted throughout your website.

3. Decide what to do with the duplicate content: After identifying the duplicate content, you need to decide what to do with it. You can either remove the content or make changes to it so that it is unique. It’s important to note that even if you have duplicate content on your website that you don’t believe to be harmful, it could still impact your SEO and user experience.

4. Implement changes: If you decide to change the duplicate content, ensure that you make it unique and relevant to the page it is on. If you choose to remove the content, ensure that you redirect the URL to the relevant page. This will ensure that users who may have previously accessed the duplicate page are directed to the correct page.

5. Monitor your website: After implementing changes, monitor your website to ensure that the duplicate content has been removed and that your website is performing well in search engine rankings.

By following these steps, you can identify and remove duplicate content on your website, which will help to improve your website’s SEO and user experience.

Check for crawl errors and fix them.

Crawl errors on your website can negatively impact your website’s search engine rankings and user experience. Here are the steps to check for crawl errors and fix them:

1. Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor and improve your website’s presence in search results. It also provides information on crawl errors. Login to Google Search Console, and go to the “Coverage” report to see if there are any crawl errors.

2. Identify the errors: The “Coverage” report will show you the type of crawl errors on your website, such as server errors, soft 404 errors, and other errors. Identify the errors that need to be fixed.

3. Fix the errors: Once you have identified the errors, you need to fix them. Some common errors include broken links, missing pages, and server errors. To fix broken links, update the link URL to the correct page or remove the link. Create a new page with relevant content for missing pages or redirect the URL to a similar page. For server errors, contact your web hosting provider to identify and fix the issue.

4. Test the fixed pages: After you have fixed the crawl errors, test the affected pages to ensure that they are loading correctly and that the error has been resolved.

5. Resubmit the sitemap: After fixing the crawl errors, resubmit your sitemap to Google Search Console to ensure that the search engines crawl the updated pages.

6. Monitor the website: Regularly check Google Search Console to monitor your website for any new crawl errors and to ensure that your website is performing well in search engine rankings.

By following these steps, you can identify and fix crawl errors on your website, which will help to improve your website’s search engine rankings and user experience.

Improve site speed

Website speed is an important factor for user experience, as well as search engine rankings. Here are some ways to improve your website speed:

1. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN distributes your website’s content to multiple servers around the world. This helps to reduce the time it takes for your website to load, as users can access the content from a server that is geographically closer to them.

2. Optimize images: Images are often the largest files on a website, which can slow down page load times. Optimize your images by compressing them without compromising their quality, resizing them to the appropriate dimensions, and using the right format (JPEG, PNG, or WebP) for each image.

3. Minimize HTTP requests: Minimize the number of HTTP requests by reducing the number of files on your website, combining multiple files (such as CSS and JavaScript files) into a single file, and using CSS sprites for images.

4. Use browser caching: Browser caching allows users’ browsers to store certain elements of your website, such as images and CSS files, on their local computers. This can significantly reduce load times on subsequent visits to your website.

5. Minimize server response time: Minimize the time it takes for your server to respond by using a fast web hosting provider, optimizing your website’s code, and minimizing the use of external resources.

6. Use a lightweight theme or template: If you’re using a CMS like WordPress or Drupal, choose a theme or template that is lightweight and optimized for speed. This will help to reduce load times and improve user experience.

By following these steps, you can improve your website speed, which will help to improve user experience, search engine rankings, and overall website performance.

Check for broken internal and external links.

Checking for broken internal and external links on your website is important to ensure that your website is user-friendly and optimized for search engines. Here are some steps to follow:

1. Use a link-checking tool: There are several link-checking tools available that can scan your website and identify broken links. Some popular tools include Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and SEMrush. These tools will crawl your website and create a report that shows broken links and where they are located on your website.

2. Review the report and identify broken links: Once you have the report, review it and identify the broken links. This could be internal links that point to non-existent pages on your website or external links that point to non-existent pages on other websites.

3. Decide what to do with the broken links: After identifying the broken links, you need to decide what to do with them. You can either remove the broken links or update them to point to the correct pages.

4. Implement changes: If you decide to update the broken links, ensure that you update them to point to the correct pages. If you decide to remove the broken links, ensure that you remove them from your website.

5. Test the links: After implementing changes, test the affected links to ensure that they are working correctly and that the broken link has been resolved.

6. Monitor your website: Regularly check your website for new broken links and ensure that your website is performing well in search engine rankings.

By following these steps, you can identify and fix broken internal and external links on your website, which will help to improve your website’s user experience and search engine rankings.

Find and fix HTTP links on HTTPS pages.

HTTP links on HTTPS pages can cause mixed content issues, which can affect your site’s security, performance, and SEO. To find and fix HTTP links on HTTPS pages, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a tool like Site Audit, Sitechecker, or Chrome DevTools to scan your site for mixed content errors and identify the pages and links that are causing them.
2. Edit the links on the affected pages so that they point to HTTPS pages instead of HTTP pages. You can use relative URLs, protocol-relative URLs, or absolute URLs with HTTPS.
3. If you have any external resources that are loaded over HTTP, such as images, scripts, or stylesheets, you should either replace them with HTTPS versions or host them on your own server.
4. If you have any redirects from HTTP to HTTPS, you should update them to avoid unnecessary redirections and improve your site speed.
5. Test your site again to make sure that all the mixed content issues are resolved and that your site is fully secure.

Use SEO-friendly URL structure.

An SEO-friendly URL structure is easy to read, understand, and remember for both users and search engines. It can help you rank better, drive traffic, and improve user experience. To create and use an SEO-friendly URL structure on your website, you can follow these tips:

1. Keep your URLs short and static, meaning they don’t change with user input or session variables. Avoid using unnecessary parameters, characters, or words that don’t add value to your URL.
2. Use a simple folder structure that reflects your site hierarchy and makes sense for your content. Use only a few subfolders or levels that can confuse users and search engines.
3. Use the right keyword in each page’s URL that matches the topic and intent of your page. Don’t stuff keywords or use irrelevant ones that can harm your SEO and credibility.
4. Go for credibility using HTTPS, a secure protocol that protects your site and users from hackers and malware. HTTPS also gives you a ranking boost and a trust signal in the SERP.
5. Ensure your URLs are close to your page titles and H1 tags, which are the main elements that tell users and search engines what your page is about. Use hyphens to separate words and avoid underscores or spaces.
6. Avoid duplicate content issues and use canonical tags when needed. Duplicate content is multiple pages with the same or similar content, which can confuse search engines and dilute your ranking potential. Canonical tags tell search engines which page is the original or preferred version to index and rank.
7. Make an XML sitemap that lists all the pages on your site and their URLs. An XML sitemap helps search engines discover and crawl your pages faster and more efficiently. You can submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and other tools to monitor your site’s performance.

Add schema markup

Schema markup is structured data that helps search engines better understand and display your web pages. Schema markup can enhance your appearance in the SERP with rich snippets, such as ratings, reviews, prices, images, or events. To add schema markup to your web pages, you can follow these steps:

1. Choose the schema markup you want to use for your web pages, such as articles, products, events, or reviews. You can find the list of schema types and properties on schema.org.
2. Generate the schema markup code using a tool like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper, Schema Markup Generator, or Schema App. These tools allow you to enter your webpage URL or HTML code and select the data you want to mark up. They will then generate the schema markup code in JSON-LD, Microdata, or RDFa format.
3. Copy the schema markup code and paste it into the appropriate place on your webpage. Depending on your format and tool, you may need to paste the code in your HTML’s head or body section or use a custom field or plugin in your CMS.
4. Test your schema markup code using a tool like Google’s Rich Results Test, Structured Data Testing Tool, or Schema Markup Validator. These tools allow you to enter your webpage URL or code and check if your schema markup is valid and can generate rich results. They will also show you any errors or warnings you need to fix.
5. Publish or update your webpage with the schema markup code and monitor your performance using tools like Google Search Console or Google Analytics. You can see how your schema markup affects your traffic, impressions, clicks, and conversions. You can also adjust your schema markup as needed to improve your results.

Check the page depth.

Page depth is a metric that measures how many pages a user visits during a session on your website. It can indicate how engaged and interested your users are in your content and how well your website is structured and navigated. To check the page depth of your website pages, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a tool like Google Analytics to track and report your website’s page depth and other metrics. You must set up a Google Analytics account and install the tracking code on your website pages.
2. In Google Analytics, go to Audience > Behavior > Engagement. You will see your engagement report, which shows your website visitors’ session duration and page depth.
3. Click on Page Depth to see your website’s page depth distribution. You will see how many sessions had a page depth of 1, 2, 3, and so on. You can also see the average page depth, the total number of pageviews divided by the total number of sessions.
4. You can also segment your page depth report by different dimensions, such as device, source, medium, or landing page. This can help you understand how various factors affect your page depth and user behavior.
5. You can also compare your page depth with other metrics, such as bounce rate, conversion rate, or revenue. This can help you evaluate the performance and effectiveness of your website pages and optimize them accordingly.

Check for redirects (301 & 302)

Redirects tell web browsers and search engines that a webpage has moved to a new location. There are different types of redirects, such as 301 (permanent), 302 (temporary), or 307 (internal). Redirects can affect your website’s performance, SEO, and user experience, so it’s essential to check and fix them if needed. To review and fix redirects on your website, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a tool like Redirect Checker, Turgs Website Indexer Tool, or Redirect Path to check your redirects’ status code and destination. These tools can help you identify any broken, unnecessary, or incorrect redirects on your website.
2. Review your redirects and determine whether they are appropriate or not. For example, you should use 301 redirects for permanent changes, such as moving your domain or changing your URL structure. You should use 302 redirects for temporary changes, such as testing a new page or redirecting users to a different website version. You should use only a few redirects or redirect chains, as they can slow down your website and confuse search engines.
3. Fix your redirects by changing the status code or the destination URL as needed. You can use different methods to create or edit redirects, such as editing your .htaccess file, using a plugin, or using a server-side script. For example, to set up a permanent redirect with PHP, you can use the header() function:
4. Test your redirects using the same tools as before to ensure they work correctly and show the correct status code and destination. You can also use tools like Google’s Rich Results Test or Structured Data Testing Tool to check if your redirects are affecting your rich snippets or structured data.
5. Monitor your redirects and their impact on your website’s performance, SEO, and user experience. You can use tools like Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see how your redirects affect your traffic, impressions, clicks, and conversions. You can also adjust your redirects as you need to improve your results.

On-Site + Content SEO

Onsite + content SEO combines two aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) that aim to make your website more relevant, user-friendly, and authoritative for your target keywords and audience.

Onsite SEO refers to optimizing a page’s content and HTML source code, such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings, images, URLs, and internal links. Onsite SEO helps search engines crawl, index, and understand your website better and improve your site’s speed, usability, and accessibility.

Content SEO refers to creating and publishing high-quality, comprehensive, and engaging content that matches your users’ search intent and expectations, such as blog posts, guides, infographics, product pages, and trending topics. Content SEO helps your website rank higher in the search results, attract more organic traffic, increase your dwell time, and boost conversions.

Onsite + content SEO is a crucial part of your SEO strategy because it helps you provide the best possible experience and value to your visitors and search engines, which can improve your online visibility, reputation, and authority.

Check & fix duplicate or missing title tags.

Title tags are the HTML elements that define the title of your web pages. They are displayed as clickable headlines in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and in the browser tabs. Title tags are important for SEO, user experience, and social sharing, as they help users and search engines understand what your pages are about and how relevant they are to their queries. Duplicate or missing title tags can negatively affect your SEO, as they can cause confusion, lower your click-through rate, and reduce your ranking potential. To check and fix duplicate or missing title tags on your website, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a tool like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, or Sitechecker to check the status and performance of your title tags. These tools can help you identify any pages that have duplicate, missing, or too-long title tags, as well as how they appear in the SERPs and how often they are clicked.
2. Review your title tags and determine whether they are unique, descriptive, and relevant for each page. For example, you should avoid using the same title tag for multiple pages, leaving the title tag blank, or using generic or irrelevant words. You should also make sure your title tags are within the recommended length of 50-60 characters, as longer titles may be truncated in the SERPs.
3. Fix your title tags by editing the HTML code or using a plugin, depending on your website platform. For example, if you use WordPress, you can use a plugin like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO to create and manage your title tags. You can also edit the title tag manually by adding or modifying the <title> tag in the <head> section of your page. 
4. Test your title tags again using the same tools as before to make sure they are working properly and showing the correct title and length. You can also use tools like Meta Tags Analyzer or Redirect Path to check the meta tags and redirects of your pages, as they can also affect your title tags and SEO.
5. Monitor your title tags and their impact on your website’s performance, SEO, and user experience. You can use tools like Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see how your title tags affect your impressions, clicks, and conversions. You can also make adjustments to your title tags as needed to improve your results.

Check & fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions.

Meta descriptions are the HTML elements that provide a brief summary of your web pages. They are displayed as snippets below the title tags in the SERPs and in social media platforms. Meta descriptions are important for SEO, user experience, and social sharing, as they help users and search engines decide whether your pages are relevant and worth clicking. Duplicate or missing meta descriptions can negatively affect your SEO, as they can reduce your click-through rate, lower your ranking potential, and create duplicate content issues. To check and fix duplicate or missing meta descriptions on your website, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a tool like Google Search Console, Sitebulb, or Meta Tags Analyzer to check the status and performance of your meta descriptions. These tools can help you identify any pages that have duplicate, missing, or too-long meta descriptions, as well as how they appear in the SERPs and how often they are clicked.
2. Review your meta descriptions and determine whether they are unique, descriptive, and relevant for each page. For example, you should avoid using the same meta description for multiple pages, leaving the meta description blank, or using generic or irrelevant words. You should also make sure your meta descriptions are within the recommended length of 150-160 characters, as longer descriptions may be truncated in the SERPs.
3. Fix your meta descriptions by editing the HTML code or using a plugin, depending on your website platform. For example, if you use WordPress, you can use a plugin like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO to create and manage your meta descriptions. You can also edit the meta description manually by adding or modifying the <meta name= “description” content=”…”> tag in the <head> section of your page.
4. Test your meta descriptions again using the same tools as before to make sure they are working properly and showing the correct description and length. You can also use tools like Redirect Path to check the redirects of your pages, as they can also affect your meta descriptions and SEO.
5. Monitor your meta descriptions and their impact on your website’s performance, SEO, and user experience. You can use tools like Google Search Console or Google Analytics to see how your meta descriptions affect your impressions, clicks, and conversions. You can also make adjustments to your meta descriptions as needed to improve your results.

Find & fix multiple H1 tags

Having multiple H1 tags on a website’s pages can affect the website’s search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience. To find and fix multiple H1 tags on your website’s pages, you can follow these steps:

1. Use a website auditing tool: There are many website auditing tools available that can crawl your website and identify issues, including multiple H1 tags. Some popular tools include SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog. These tools will provide you with a list of all the pages that have multiple H1 tags.

2. Review the list of pages with multiple H1 tags: Once you have the list of pages, review each page to determine whether the H1 tags are relevant and necessary. In some cases, you may have inadvertently added multiple H1 tags, or they may be duplicates.

3. Correct the H1 tags: Once you have identified the pages with multiple H1 tags and reviewed them, you can correct the H1 tags. The most straightforward approach is to change any additional H1 tags to H2, H3, or other lower-level headings.

4. Test the pages: After making changes to the H1 tags, test the pages to ensure that they display correctly and that there are no broken links or other issues.

In addition to the above steps, it’s also a good practice to follow the guidelines for HTML structure and ensure that each page has a unique and relevant H1 tag that accurately reflects the page’s content. This will help with both SEO and user experience.

Improve title tags, meta descriptions, and page content

Improving the title tags, meta descriptions, and page content of your website can have a significant impact on its search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience. Here are some tips for improving each of these elements:

1. Title tags: The title tag is the text that appears in the search engine results and at the top of the browser window when a user visits a web page. Here are some tips for improving title tags:

• Use relevant keywords: Include relevant keywords that accurately reflect the content of the page.
• Keep it concise: Title tags should be 60-70 characters in length, including spaces.
• Make it unique: Each page should have a unique title tag that accurately reflects its content.
• Make it compelling: Use action-oriented language to entice users to click through to your website.

2. Meta descriptions: The meta description is the text that appears in the search engine results under the title tag. Here are some tips for improving meta descriptions:

• Use relevant keywords: Include relevant keywords that accurately reflect the content of the page.
• Keep it concise: Meta descriptions should be 160 characters or less, including spaces.
• Make it unique: Each page should have a unique meta description that accurately reflects its content.
• Make it compelling: Use action-oriented language to entice users to click through to your website.

3. Page content: The content on your web pages is crucial for both SEO and user experience. Here are some tips for improving page content:

• Use relevant keywords: Include relevant keywords in the content, but do not overuse them.
• Keep it relevant: Ensure that the content is relevant to the page and provides value to the user.
• Make it scannable: Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make the content easier to read.
• Keep it updated: Regularly update the content to keep it fresh and relevant.

By following these tips, you can improve the title tags, meta descriptions, and page content of your website, which can lead to better search engine rankings and a better user experience.

Perform a content audit and prune low-performing content.

Performing a content audit and pruning low-performing content can help to improve the quality of your website’s content, make it more relevant to your audience, and boost its search engine rankings. Here are the steps you can follow to perform a content audit and prune low-performing content:

1. Identify your website’s content: Make a list of all the content on your website, including pages, blog posts, videos, and any other types of content.

2. Define your goals and KPIs: Decide on the goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to use to measure the performance of your content. This could include metrics such as page views, time on page, bounce rate, and conversion rate.

3. Analyze the performance of your content: Use Google Analytics or another web analytics tool to analyze the performance of your content. Look at metrics such as page views, time on page, bounce rate, and conversion rate to determine which pieces of content are performing well and which are not.

4. Assess the quality and relevance of your content: Evaluate the quality and relevance of each piece of content. Determine if the content is still relevant to your audience, if it provides value if it is up to date, and if it is high quality.

5. Decide which content to keep, update, or remove: Based on your analysis of the performance and quality of your content, decide which pieces of content to keep, update, or remove. Keep the content that is performing well and is relevant to your audience, update the content that is out of date or low quality, and remove the content that is not performing well or is no longer relevant.

6. Prune the low-performing content: Remove the content that is not performing well or is no longer relevant to your audience. This can be done by deleting the content, redirecting it to a new page, or consolidating it with other content.

7. Monitor the performance of your content: After pruning the low-performing content, monitor the performance of your content to see if the changes have had a positive impact. Analyze the metrics you identified in step 2 and adjust your content strategy accordingly.

Performing a content audit and pruning low-performing content can be a time-consuming process, but it can help to improve the quality and relevance of your website’s content, which can lead to better search engine rankings and a better user experience.

Add alt tags to images.

Adding alt tags to images on your website is important for both accessibility and search engine optimization (SEO). Here’s how to add alt tags to images:

1. Open your website’s content management system (CMS) or HTML editor.

2. Navigate to the page where the image is located and select the image.

3. Locate the “Alt text” or “Alt tag” field in the image settings.

4. Write a concise and descriptive alt tag for the image. The alt tag should describe the content and purpose of the image as if you were describing it to someone who can’t see it.

5. Save your changes and publish the updated page.

Some tips for writing effective alt tags include:

• Be descriptive: The alt tag should accurately describe the content and purpose of the image.
• Be concise: The alt tag should be no longer than a sentence or two.
• Use relevant keywords: If appropriate, include relevant keywords in the alt tag, but do not overdo it or stuff the tag with keywords.
• Use proper grammar and punctuation: The alt tag should be written in proper English and use appropriate punctuation.

By adding alt tags to your images, you can make your website more accessible to users who are visually impaired or have other disabilities and improve its SEO by making it easier for search engines to understand the content of your images.

Improve internal linking

Improving internal linking on your website can help to improve its usability, navigation, and search engine optimization. Here are some steps you can take to improve internal linking on your website:

1. Conduct a site audit: Review your website to identify pages that are related to each other and could benefit from internal links. Look for pages that receive high traffic and pages that have similar content or topic.

2. Use descriptive anchor text: When creating internal links, use descriptive anchor text that accurately reflects the content of the page you’re linking to. This helps users and search engines understand the context of the link and can improve its relevance to the user.

3. Link to relevant pages: Ensure that the pages you link to are relevant to the content of the page you’re linking from. This will help users find more relevant content on your website and can improve the user experience.

4. Use a reasonable number of internal links: Avoid overloading your pages with too many internal links as this could result in a poor user experience and may be seen as spammy by search engines. Only include links that are relevant to the content of the page.

5. Create a logical site structure: Ensure that your website has a logical structure and that your pages are organized in a way that makes sense. This will help users navigate your site more easily and can also improve your search engine rankings.

6. Use breadcrumbs: Consider using breadcrumbs to help users navigate your site and understand where they are in the site hierarchy.

7. Update your internal linking strategy regularly: Review and update your internal linking strategy regularly to ensure it aligns with changes to your website content and user behavior.

By improving your internal linking strategy, you can help users find more relevant content on your website, improve the user experience, and boost your search engine optimization efforts.

Check for keyword cannibalization.

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages on your website target the same keyword or key phrase, which can result in confusion for search engines and lead to lower rankings for all the pages involved. Here’s how you can check for keyword cannibalization on your website:

1. Identify your target keywords: Make a list of the keywords or phrases you want your website to rank for.

2. Analyze your website’s pages: Review your website’s pages to see which ones are targeting the same keywords. You can do this by searching for your target keywords in the URL, title tags, meta descriptions, and body text of each page.

3. Use a tool to check for keyword overlap: There are several tools available, such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console, that can help you identify if multiple pages are targeting the same keyword.

4. Analyze the performance of the pages: If multiple pages are targeting the same keyword, check their performance in search engine rankings and website traffic. Pages that are targeting the same keyword should ideally be ranking for different variations of the keyword or different long-tail keywords.

5. Decide which page to optimize for each keyword: Once you have identified the pages that are targeting the same keywords, you will need to decide which page to optimize for each keyword. This will involve adjusting the content, title tags, meta descriptions, and other on-page SEO elements to better target the chosen keyword.

6. Consolidate or redirect pages: If you have multiple pages that are targeting the same keyword, you may need to consolidate the content into a single page or redirect some of the pages to a single page to avoid keyword cannibalization. This can help to ensure that your website is optimized to rank for a wider range of search terms.

7. Monitor your website’s performance: After making changes to your website to fix keyword cannibalization, monitor its performance in search engine rankings and website traffic. You may need to continue optimizing your website’s content and on-page SEO elements to ensure that your website is optimized to rank for the target keywords.

By checking for and fixing keyword cannibalization on your website, you can ensure that each page is targeting a unique set of keywords and that your website is optimized to rank for a wider range of search terms. This can help to improve your search engine rankings, drive more organic traffic to your website, and improve the user experience.

Update content to ensure it is still relevant

Regularly updating your website’s content can help to ensure that it remains relevant and engaging to your audience. Here’s how you can update content on your website to ensure it is still relevant:

1. Perform a content audit: Review your website’s existing content to identify any outdated or irrelevant content that needs to be updated or removed.

2. Analyze your audience: Identify your target audience and their needs to ensure that your updated content is relevant and engaging to them.

3. Update the content: Once you have identified the content that needs to be updated, revise the text, images, and other multimedia elements to ensure that they are accurate and up-to-date. You may need to add new information or statistics, remove outdated information, or reorganize the content to make it more accessible.

4. Optimize the content for SEO: Update the title tags, meta descriptions, and other on-page SEO elements to ensure that your updated content is optimized for search engines.

5. Repurpose the content: Consider repurposing your updated content into new formats, such as videos, infographics, or social media posts, to reach a wider audience.

6. Promote the updated content: Once you have updated your content, promote it on your website, social media channels, and other marketing channels to ensure that your audience is aware of the changes.

7. Monitor performance: Monitor the performance of your updated content in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions to assess its effectiveness and identify areas for further improvement.

By regularly updating your website’s content, you can ensure that it remains relevant and engaging to your audience, improves your search engine rankings, and helps to drive more traffic and conversions to your website.

Off-Site SEO

Off-site SEO (also known as off-page SEO) refers to the various techniques and strategies used to improve the visibility and reputation of a website on external platforms, such as other websites, social media, and online directories. Unlike on-page SEO, which focuses on optimizing the content and structure of a website, off-site SEO is all about building the website’s authority and credibility through external factors.

Off-site SEO involves a wide range of activities, including link building, social media marketing, influencer outreach, content marketing, and online reputation management. The goal of off-site SEO is to establish the website as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information and to create a positive brand image and reputation.

One of the most important aspects of off-site SEO is link building, which involves getting other websites to link back to your website. High-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites can significantly improve a website’s search engine rankings, as search engines consider them as a sign of the website’s authority and relevance.

Other important factors in off-site SEO include social media engagement, online reviews, and brand mentions on external platforms. These can all contribute to a website’s overall visibility and reputation, helping to drive more traffic, leads, and sales.

Overall, off-site SEO is an essential part of any comprehensive SEO strategy, as it helps to establish a website’s authority, credibility, and reputation in the eyes of both search engines and human users. By using a variety of off-site SEO techniques, businesses can improve their online visibility, reach a wider audience, and ultimately drive more traffic and revenue to their website.

Audit competitor backlinks

Auditing your competitor’s backlinks can provide valuable insights into their overall SEO strategy, as well as identify potential opportunities for your own link-building efforts. Here are some steps to audit your competitor’s backlinks:

1. Identify your competitors: First, identify the main competitors in your industry or niche.

2. Use a backlink analysis tool: Use a backlink analysis tool like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to analyze your competitor’s backlink profile. These tools can help you identify the websites that are linking to your competitors’ sites.

3. Analyze the backlinks: Once you have identified your competitor’s backlinks, analyze the quality and relevance of the links. Look for links from high-quality, authoritative websites that are relevant to your industry or niche.

4. Identify link-building strategies: Analyze the types of links your competitors have earned and the strategies they used to acquire them. Look for patterns in the types of websites they are getting links from, the anchor text they are using, and the content they are promoting.

5. Identify opportunities: Once you have identified your competitor’s link-building strategies, identify opportunities for your own link building efforts. Look for websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your site and consider reaching out to them to request a link.

6. Build relationships: Building relationships with other websites in your industry or niche can be a powerful way to acquire high-quality backlinks. Consider reaching out to websites and influencers in your industry to build relationships and earn links.

By auditing your competitor’s backlinks, you can gain valuable insights into their overall SEO strategy, identify opportunities for your own link building efforts, and improve your overall search engine visibility.

Perform link intersect analysis.

Link intersect analysis is a technique used to identify the websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your own website. This can help you identify potential opportunities for link building and improve your overall search engine visibility. Here are the steps to perform link intersect analysis:

1. Identify your competitors: Identify your main competitors in your industry or niche.

2. Use a backlink analysis tool: Use a backlink analysis tool like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to analyze the backlink profile of each of your competitors.

3. Export the backlink data: Export the backlink data for each of your competitors into a spreadsheet.

4. Perform link intersect analysis: Use the link intersect tool in your backlink analysis tool to compare the backlink profiles of your competitors. This will show you the websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your own website.

5. Analyze the results: Analyze the results of the link intersect analysis to identify the websites that are linking to your competitors. Look for high-quality, authoritative websites that are relevant to your industry or niche.

6. Reach out to websites: Reach out to the websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your own website. Consider offering them something of value, such as a guest post, infographic, or other content that they may be interested in sharing.

7. Build relationships: Building relationships with other websites in your industry or niche can be a powerful way to acquire high-quality backlinks. Consider reaching out to websites and influencers in your industry to build relationships and earn links.

Performing link intersect analysis can be a valuable way to identify potential opportunities for link building and improve your overall search engine visibility. By using a backlink analysis tool to compare the backlink profiles of your competitors, you can identify the websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your own website and take steps to acquire these high-quality, authoritative links.

Find and reach out to unlinked mentions.

Finding and reaching out to unlinked mentions of your website is a powerful way to acquire high-quality backlinks and improve your overall search engine visibility. Here are the steps to find and reach out to unlinked mentions:

1. Set up Google Alerts: Set up Google Alerts for your brand name, website name, and any relevant keywords related to your industry or niche. This will notify you whenever your brand or website is mentioned online.

2. Identify unlinked mentions: Review your Google Alerts to identify any unlinked mentions of your brand or website. Look for websites or articles that mention your brand or website but do not link to it.

3. Prioritize opportunities: Prioritize the unlinked mentions based on the authority and relevance of the website or article. Focus on the websites or articles with high authority and relevance to your industry or niche.

4. Reach out to the website owner: Reach out to the website owner or author of the article to request a link back to your website. Be polite and professional in your outreach and explain why the link would be valuable to their audience.

5. Provide value: When reaching out to the website owner or author, consider offering them something of value in exchange for the link. This could include a guest post, an interview, or other content that they may be interested in sharing with their audience.

6. Follow up: Follow up with the website owner or author to ensure that the link has been added to the website or article.

By finding and reaching out to unlinked mentions of your website, you can acquire high-quality backlinks and improve your overall search engine visibility. By setting up Google Alerts, identifying unlinked mentions, prioritizing opportunities, reaching out to website owners, providing value, and following up, you can effectively leverage unlinked mentions to improve your SEO strategy.

Look for new link building opportunities.

Finding new link building opportunities is an ongoing process that can help improve your website’s search engine visibility and increase organic traffic. Here are the steps to look for new link building opportunities:

1. Identify your target audience: Identify your target audience and determine the types of websites they visit and the types of content they engage with.

2. Research relevant websites: Research relevant websites in your industry or niche that have high domain authority and engage with your target audience. You can use backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to find these websites.

3. Identify broken links: Look for broken links on the relevant websites. You can use a tool like Check My Links or Broken Link Checker to find broken links.

4. Offer a solution: Reach out to the website owner or webmaster to let them know about the broken link and offer a solution by suggesting your own website or a relevant piece of content on your website as a replacement.

5. Guest posting: Consider guest posting on relevant websites in your industry or niche. Look for websites that accept guest posts and offer to contribute high-quality, valuable content in exchange for a backlink.

6. Create valuable content: Create valuable and shareable content on your website that other websites may want to link to. This could include infographics, videos, guides, or case studies.

7. Social media: Use social media to engage with your target audience and build relationships with other websites in your industry or niche.

By following these steps, you can identify new link building opportunities and improve your website’s search engine visibility. By offering solutions, guest posting, creating valuable content, and using social media to engage with your target audience, you can build high-quality backlinks and improve your overall SEO strategy.

Create & Optimize Google Business Profile listing.