Brief SEO Checklist
- Start With On-page SEO (SEO-friendly websites always win).
- Choose The Keywords Wisely (Don't waste resources on wrong keywords).
- Be Consistent With Off-page (Build more backlinks).
- Use a Web Analytic To Track (Use a tool like Google Analytics).
- Never Forget About Mobiles (Build responsive websites).
- Website Speed is Important (Optimize for website's loading speed).
First Things First:
SEO is Not a Rocket Science!
SEO is definitely one of the best ways to get quality organic traffic to any website from Google. However, most webmasters have had bad experiences with their SEO agencies or SEO experts. However, the fact is, when you know what you need to make your website rank on Google, you will learn how to play the game.
Even the best SEO activities may not work if your website is not SEO-friendly. You may have heard the phrase “SEO-friendly website” several times. But what exactly is an SEO-friendly website?
If you are wondering about on-page SEO activities, here is the list. Below are some of the basic yet essential on-page SEO checkpoints that your website must pass on.
- Proper header tags (H1, H2, H3) should be used to structure the content. Try using keywords in header tags, when logical.
- SEO-friendly & user-friendly meta titles & descriptions must be added for each page to improve click-through rates.
- Optimization of images with logical file names and alt tags.
- Optimizing URLs with short, descriptive, and target keywords.
- SEO-optimized website content ensuring proper (logical) usage of keywords.
- Don’t forget to include long-tail keywords in the texts.
- Ensure there are no broken links on the website (links that go nowhere on click).
- It is good to have a blog section on the website and regularly publish unique & informative posts on it.
If you are starting your website development, ensure your web developer knows how to build an SEO-friendly website. However, if you already have a website but don’t pass through the above checkpoints, make the necessary tweaks, even if it requires hiring a web specialist.
Choosing the right keywords is essential for a website’s SEO success. It’s not always about targeting the high-competition keywords. Instead, you can start with the keywords that your potential buyers are actually using to find your services.
Most SEO service providers also fail to hit the right keywords because they choose either low-competition or extremely high-competition keywords, even for new campaigns.
So, what’s the best way to start SEO with the right keywords?
Below are some of the effective ways to determine the best keywords for your website/business:
- Use a free tool like Google Keyword Planner to discover keyword ideas based on search volume, competition, and trends.
- Understand your customers’ pain points, translate them to long-tail phrases or keywords, & choose the ones you think suit your niche and business.
- Analyze your competition and see what keywords they are using.
- Type a keyword into Google and check the autocomplete suggestions for related terms.
- If your website has already been live for some time, you can also use your Google Webmasters tool to check out the impressions that your website gets.
Once you list appropriate keywords, implement them wisely in your website content and start creating backlinks for them.
Along with the necessary on-page SEO activities, off-page tasks are equally important. A few key tasks must be done for the off-page SEO. However, one important thing to remember is consistency. SEO is not a fast process. It takes time for search engines to understand & analyze the credibility and consistency of an online business/website.
Many website owners stop their SEO efforts in just a few months when they don’t see any results. Don’t do that. At least hire an SEO expert to analyze your website’s SEO and ensure you are on the right track.
Below are some of the beneficial off-page SEO activities that must be done to get quality traffic from Google:
- One-way backlinks: Building one-way backlinks is perhaps one of the most effective off-page activities that have always been the #1 reason for achieving SEO success. It’s basically creating links (with the appropriate keywords) on other quality websites that point back to your relevant web pages. The more backlinks your website has, the higher the chance to get ranked on search engines.
- Participation in forums & blogs: Signing up with various forums and blogs and sharing your comments there, along with a link that points back to your website, is another excellent way to build credibility.
- Guest blogging: Earlier in this blog post, we talked about blogging on our website, but this is another excellent SEO activity to post posts on others’ blogs or websites and leave the links there that point back to your website.
- Social networking: Active participation in social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc., can also raise your website’s quality score.
- Local SEO: Creating a Google My Business page and using it for the backlinks, email signature, etc., is also an effective way to rank your website on Google local results.
A web analytic tool helps website owners and webmasters to track users and their behaviors on the website. This information may include the location of users, the time they spend on the website, the devices they use to visit the website, the browser they use, and many other things.
Google Analytics is one of the best & free web analytic tools available today. Your website must have a web analytic tool integrated from the first day of your website’s launch.
How can a web analytic tool like Google Analytics help with SEO?
Below are some of how you can leverage a web analytic tool to enhance your website’s SEO:
- Keyword impressions & clicks: When integrated with Google Search Console, Google Analytics can do wonders for your website. It can show you the keywords for which your website gets impressions and clicks.
- Website’s key data: Google Analytics can show essential metrics such as bounce rate, pages per session, and average session duration that can further help improve your website’s on-page SEO.
- Area of improvement: Through Google Analytics, you can view the weak areas of your website and improve them for better SEO. For example, you can spot pages with high bounce rates or slow loading times and accordingly optimize your website.
- Monitor SEO results: Through Google Analytics, you can monitor the results of your SEO efforts. You can check if your website’s traffic is increasing because of your SEO efforts. Accordingly, you can make changes to your SEO approach.
For any website to rank on search engine ranking pages, it must have a mobile-friendly design. Search engines like Google seriously consider the responsiveness of a website an essential factor in showing it to users on their pages.
One of Google’s ultimate goals is to provide its users with the best experience. It is, therefore, straightforward to understand why they prioritize mobile-friendly websites.
There are several benefits of building a responsive website design. Below are some of them:
- Best user experience: Mobile-friendly websites make it easier for mobile users to browse the website easily single-handedly on their phones or smart devices. As a result, they spend more time on the website.
- Quick loading speed: Responsive websites also render the content of web pages quickly on mobile devices. It’s because of the website’s fluid/responsive layout and architecture.
- Search engine rankings: As explained above, major search engines like Google prioritize responsive websites to show up to users when searching for anything.
- Higher conversion rates: Because of the easy accessibility of CTAs (buttons, forms, etc.) on responsive websites, it becomes convenient for mobile users to use their thumb to take desired action on the website (filling out the form, paying for the products or services, etc. )
The website’s loading speed determines its fate on search engine ranking pages. In other words, Google also considers the website’s loading speed a vital signal to rank them on their result pages.
Therefore, when you hire a web design agency or a developer to create your website, ensure they can optimize its loading speed. There are many ways in which a web developer can optimize websites for their loading speed.
Why is a website’s loading speed so important?
- Better user experience: Needless to say, slow-loading websites sabotage users’ browsing experience. Nobody likes to wait for the web pages to load forever. If your users find your website too slow to load, they will quit immediately.
- Higher conversions: Quick loading speed means better user experience, which means a low bounce rate and leads to more engagement and conversions.
- Better SEO rankings: As explained already, slow-loading websites get deregulated by most search engines. If your website loads quickly, you will have higher chances of ranking on search engines than your competition with a slow-loading website.
- Loyal customers: Users who visit your website and experience slow-loading web pages may not quit immediately; they may never return to your website.