Achieve top search engine rankings for your website with this ultimate SEO checklist
Is your website working as hard as you are? If you’re not seeing the traffic and rankings you expect, it might be time for an SEO checkup.
Just like a tune-up for your car, your website occasionally needs a thorough inspection to ensure it’s running smoothly and appearing where potential customers can find it.
This guide offers a step-by-step walkthrough for evaluating your site’s search engine performance.
We’ll cover everything from the basics of site structure to the finer points of content and links, all without the confusing tech speak.
Whether you’re a newcomer to SEO or looking to brush up on the essentials, you’ll find practical tips here that can make a real difference.
What to Check in an SEO Audit?
Technical SEO: This is about making sure your website is easy for search engines to find and look through. If your website’s setup is good, search engines can easily understand and show your site in search results.
On-page SEO: Here, we focus on what’s actually on your website. This includes the words you use, how you organize your content, and the setup of your pages. It’s all about making sure that both people and search like what they see and can understand it easily.
Off-page SEO: This part looks at what other people think about your website. It’s about building a good reputation outside your own site. Things like other websites linking to you or people talking about your brand on social media play a part here. This helps search engines see that your site is trustworthy and valuable.
By looking at these three areas, you can make sure your website is set up to perform well in search results, attracting more visitors and giving them a good experience.
Additional Technical SEO Tips
- Run a technical SEO audit using the Free SEO Quake extension.
- Use Screaming Frog with Detailed SEO extension for SCHEMA, canonical, and more insights.
- Force advanced crawl with your setup, paying for an SEO audit tool or Screaming Frog.
- Fix broken links using Google Search Console or Screaming Frog.
- Minimize crawl depth by showing more products/posts per paginated page.
Additional On-Page SEO Tips
- Use SEO-friendly URLs that include the primary keyword.
- Use structured data to enhance listings in search results with rich snippets.
- Ensure that keywords are used naturally and sparingly to avoid penalties for keyword stuffing.
- Use breadcrumb navigation to enhance user experience and bolster site architecture for search engines.
- Utilize robots meta tags to control search engine indexing preferences on a per-page basis.
- Use directives like “noindex” or “nofollow” strategically to manage crawler access and link juice distribution.
Additional Off-Page SEO Tips
- Share your content on platforms like Medium or LinkedIn to reach a broader audience.
- Networking at industry conferences can lead to opportunities for guest blogging, collaborations, and high-quality backlinks from reputable sites in your sector.
- Partner with other companies to create content that appeals to both of your audiences, which can help you gain access to their customer base and links from their site.
- Support or partner with a charity and get involved in community service—this can sometimes result in mentions and links from charity websites and press.
Put Your SEO to Work
Alright, you’ve got the tools, the tips, and the know-how. Now it’s time to put your SEO strategy into action! Remember, SEO isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing process. Regularly review and tweak your strategies, stay updated with the latest trends, and keep experimenting with new ideas.