Millions of websites are started each year. Most of the entrepreneurs who start their websites are new. Without a complete SEO checklist, they are bound to fail in their quest.
However, close to 40% of those that start new websites already have other online businesses, thus, have some knowledge about how to earn online business, particularly websites.
Whether you are new to these things or you have had other online businesses, then you know that commanding online presence is key. Yes, increasing your website’s organic traffic and subsequently ranking on Google, are important things to put in mind.
To achieve that, we’ve gone ahead to do a comprehensive SEO checklist that seeks to help you not just to rank your website, but also to increase your conversions.
This perfect 2022 SEO checklist is all you need to ensure your business stands out. Be sure to follow all these well-thought SEO practices that have taken our experts several months to pile together.
How to Use This Checklist
To help you have a better understanding of this perfect SEO checklist, we have broken down the article into various sections. Further, we’ve gone ahead to explain each point using simple language. Therefore, be rest assured that we have your best interests at heart.
Although there are several sections on this post, we’ve picked the various aspects from the following points:
- SEO basics
- Keyword research
- On-page SEO
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Content
For a holistic analysis of your website, you will need to focus on all the points mentioned above.
In addition, there will be more pointers, which our experts believe go a long way in helping you take your online business on an upward trajectory.
I want to believe that you now know how to use this SEO checklist. If so, it is time to look at the very first point.
SEO Basics
Whether you are an expert or just started to learn SEO, it is important to know that your website’s online performance depends on best SEO practices.
That means, if you do not employ good SEO practices (some of which we recommend on this SEO checklist), it’d be difficult for your site to rank for target or competitive keywords.
Although some people think that some points on this guide are basic, the truth is they carry a huge difference when implemented properly. Therefore, go ahead and do the following simple tasks. You will start to see good results soon or later.
Set Up Google Search Console
Google Search Console or GSC as many experts refer it to, is one of the basic yet fundamental tools. GSC is free to use and quick to install. The tool gives you essential and invaluable insights on how your website performs.
GSC presents data using numbers and graphs, something that makes it easy to understand. The data presented on the GSC page will help you assess your website and know what you can adjust in order to increase your site’s online visibility, traffic, and conversion.
The other good thing about GSC is it comes with accompanying features (Google properties), such as Google Analytics (GA), Google Insights, and Google AdSense, which you connect via the Google Site Kit.
When properly connected, the Google Site Kit provides you with comprehensive insights that will help you improve your site’s online presence.
Install Bing Webmaster Tools
By now, I’m sure you know that Bing is the world’s second largest search engine. As such, perhaps, you’ve gone ahead and installed it. Don’t worry if you haven’t. You will learn how to install it. Keep reading.
Why should you even trouble yourself by installing Bing? Well, the main reason why you should install Bing is to increase SEO traffic to your website. Even so, let’s answer some of the important questions.
What is Bing Webmaster Tools?
Bing Webmaster Tools or Bing WMT is a Microsoft service. The tool is free to use thus you do not have to worry of spending any penny.
The tool allows webmasters like you to add their websites to the Bing crawler with the aim of the sites showing up in the Bing search engine.
Bing WMT also helps monitor the site’s performance and maintain its various functions online. In short, Bing WMT helps your site to appear in the Bing search engine just as Google Search Console (GSC) is to Google.
You shouldn’t even for a second think that Bing is useless because as mentioned earlier, it is number two after Google. In fact, when Google unleashes its various updates (at times, it releases up to four in one year), some sites depend on Bing traffic.
Therefore, it is important that you install Bing Webmaster Tools and you can do so whether you are a site admin, owner, developer, or even website marketer.
Here are some of the facts you need to know about Bing:
- It has over 12 billion monthly search volume worldwide
- Out of these, 1.3 billion are monthly unique visitors
- In the US alone, Bing has over 500 million unique visitors each month
If those are not enough reasons to install Bing Webmaster Tools then you are lacking a lot.
Like the Google Search Console, once set up, Bing Webmaster Tools helps you monitor your website’s overall health.
Besides, it enables you see how people are finding your website. The tool’s features come in handy in showing detailed reports on what keywords are driving traffic to your website.
The report also shows page/post clicks and impressions; things that help you understand your site’s performance.
Setup Google Analytics
Here is another truth you need to know; without the right facts that come at the right time, it’ll be hard to make the right decisions and Google Analytics (GA) will help you do just that.
To be honest, no other free tool that gives you rich data as GA that will help you make the right decisions.
Among the important statistics, Google Analytics will help you with include:
- Daily/weekly/monthly pageviews
- Number of users on your website at any given time
- The source of traffic
- Returning vs new visitors
- How visitors are finding your site (referral, organic, social media)
- Gadgets visitors are using (desktop, tablet or phone)
The good thing with Google Analytics is it’s a free tool and is among the core features of the Google Site Kit that I mentioned earlier.
Install and Configure a Yoast SEO Plugin (If You’re Using WordPress)
If you are using WordPress as your Content Management System (CMS), it will be easy for you to install and configure Yoast SEO plugin.
Thanks to the plugin, you are able to monitor how your webpages and posts are performing in the SERPs.
Yoast comes in two forms – basic and premium. Even with the basic version, you are able to configure many important things on your site.
Some of the things Yoast SEO plugin will help you configure include:
- Readability score (how hard or easy it is for clients to read and understand your posts)
- SEO score
- Meta description and meta tags
- Basic post formatting among other things
Do not panic if you are using a different CMS. Your developer may be able to help you setup Yoast SEO plugin.
The premium version comes with comprehensive features that help you turn around your content to meet with clients’ and the search engine’s needs.
Generate and Submit a Sitemap
There are people who at this time of digital age who argue that it is not necessary to create and submit a sitemap. That is backward thinking! It is not only necessary to create and submit a sitemap but also important.
Submitting a proper sitemap will help the search engine to conduct a proper crawling of your website. The search engine will then identify which pages should be indexed or not.
When you create and submit a sitemap, it becomes easy for the search engine to know when you make a new post, when you create a new page, and category.
The search engine also gets to know when you update a live page or post. It is also easy for the search engine to translate the page whenever the need arises.
Although Google supports various sitemap formats, the most common is XML format. If you are using WordPress as your preferred CMS, it becomes very easy to create and submit a sitemap.
Even if you are not using WordPress, it is still easy to create and submit a sitemap using the available free or premium tools.
NB: Once you create your XML sitemap, do not forget to submit it to the Google Search Console (GSC) and the Bing Webmaster Tools (Bing WMT).
Create a Robots.txt File
Robots.txt file is another important thing that you need to do to improve your website’s online performance.
The file does its work by informing the search engine what pages on your website that needs crawling. In addition, it is the Robots.txt file that determines what pages on your website cannot be crawled.
However, for many people who prefer creating a Robots.txt file, they intend it to prevent the search engine not to crawl certain pages.
Nonetheless, that does not mean that the Robots.txt file can be used to direct the search engine from de-indexing certain pages.
In some instances, it is possible for the Robots.txt file to be generated automatically. Therefore, before you decide whether you need the file, check whether your site already has an automated Robots.txt file.
If upon checking, you find out that your website does not have a Robots.txt file, create one. That is even if you currently don’t need to prevent the search engine from crawling some of your webpages.
If you are using WordPress CMS, you’ll find an array of free SEO tools that can help in the creation of the Robots.txt file.
However, if you are using a different CMS, you will need to create the file manually using a text editor before uploading it to the site’s domain root.
Check Search Console for Manual Actions
Although rare, Google imposes manual actions that affect some sites negatively. However, you may still ask, what brings manual actions? Google imposes manual actions on sites that deliberately violate a number of Google’s elaborate regulations.
Some of the specific reasons why Google may impose manual actions on your site include:
- Thin content
- Structured data issues
- User-generated spam
- Unnatural links to and from your site
- Pure spam
- Hidden text
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