The following list is a personal quick way to check for major SEO things I need to do. I think it covers the basics and can be further detailed to present the tasks in greater detail.
Onsite SEO checklist
- Keyword list for present and future content
- Unique titles on every page
- Unique description metatag on every page
- Keyword present in title of page
- Keyword present in body text
- Keyword present in file names embedded on page
- Keyword present in ALT property of images from page
- Keyword present in anchor text from other related pages from the same domain
- Pages that target the most competitive keywords are located higher in the internal link architecture (closer to the home page or right on the home page)
- Create a sitemap for indexing purposes (with direct link from the main page)
- Decide on the main keyword for the main page and use variations of this keyword in navigation
- Create a tag cloud of the topical-related-words used by competitors. This way you can learn the “language” of your market (in case you don’t know it yet)
Offsite SEO checklist
- Analyze competition to know how they use the keyword on their pages
- Analyze competition in terms of backlinking. I know from what websites my competition gets its links and what are the anchor texts
- Create a list of websites from where I’ll try to get backlinks (by following the domain profiles that link to your competitors)
- Search for potential related websites that can offer the possibility of posting articles with anchor rich links from the body text
- Identify blogs that receive guest posts
- Comment on highly influence blogs. You’ll get exposure toward the other readers of the blog
- Submit site to DMOZ
Offsite Authority building checklist
- Create profiles on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube
- Work daily on the Twitter profile: the goal is to build a strong network that will retweet your posts
- Create a Facebook page. Facebook pages are indexed in Google and giving the number of Facebook users it’s like a separate entity on the Internet. Sometimes it helps for small brands to create a product related page rather than a brand related page
- Create a YouTube channel. Aim searches that return videos in SERPS and suggested searches by YouTube search box
- If you are a B2B company make a LinkedIn profile and get in touch with other entrepreneurs that might need your service/products or might recommend you
- If you are a B2C company group with complementary business and recommend each other
- Use social media channels to provide information without direct selling your services
If you have any point to add to the list please do so and I’ll update it!
Thank you! Very useful tips all on one page. Will book mark this page for my future reference.