SEO Checklist: Drive High-Quality Traffic With An Optimized Website

Conquer Your Search And Website Traffic Goals

Whether you’re creating a new website or optimizing your current website, you need to achieve your search and traffic goals.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process and an important skill for all marketers. With many websites acting as “storefronts,” it’s important to not only drive traffic to your site but to drive the correct traffic.

SEO is a highly fluid process that is continually changing with new search algorithms and buyer behavior. All of the steps in this guide are important for your website’s search ranking. Having a well-rounded website will increase not only your search ranking but also the quality of traffic to your site.

If you would like to learn more about the processes involved in this checklist, take a look at the keyword selection guide that we have created. This in-depth guide will provide you with a deeper understanding of these concepts.

Pre-Optimization

• If you haven’t already done so, set up Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
• Install and run Screaming Frog for your website URL

Accessibility

Ask yourself: Is your website accessible by search engines?

• Check to see if any pages are blocked by robots.txt
• Are there any 404 errors or 500 series codes?
• Check for 302 redirects (temporary) that should be 301 redirects (permanent)
• Run an XML sitemap and compare it with website page numbers to ensure proper indexation
• Use Pingdom, GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed to test site performance (remember, the more data, the better)
• Use Screaming Frog to look for broken links, errors and crawl problems

Indexation

Ask yourself: Is your website being properly indexed?

• Check that Google is indexing the proper number of pages
• Do a brand search to determine if you’re ranking for your company’s name
• Check for search engine penalties

On-Page Ranking Factors

These are site characteristics that will have a direct impact on search engine ranking.

• Check for duplicate content
• Check for URL-based duplicate content
• Ensure that your pages are not ranking for the same keywords
• Write high-quality, relative and valuable content for your consumers
• Title tags: Are you using keywords in your titles?
• Meta descriptions: Are your meta descriptions 160 characters or less and do they include your specific target keywords?
• Header tags: Stick to one per page
• Image alt text: Use alt text to increase keyword relevance
• Outlinks: Are you linking to your relevant and valuable content?
• Images and logos: Are they relevant and optimized for the pages they are on?
• URLs: Are they clean and readable? URLs should always include a target keyword
• Targets keywords should be used in all aspects of HTML markup

Off-Page Ranking Factors

These are external sources that influence search ranking.

• Check the popularity of your site: Is traffic increasing? How do you compare to similar sites?
• Is your site trustworthy? Are you providing content that reflects your marketing?
• Look at your backlink profile (backlinking is a great way to increase popularity and trustworthiness)
• Create and properly brand the major social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+)

Congratulations, you’ve done it! You now have a search-optimized website that will help your prospects find you. Now that the platform is built, remember to follow these guidelines as you create new pages and content for your site. Although it may seem overwhelming, SEO can be a marketer’s best friend and it’s what will drive highly qualified traffic to your website. If you would like to learn more about SEO, check out Picking The Right Keywords In 6 Easy Steps.