SEO Checklist
Part 1 – Get Organized (or repair pre-existing Webmaster setup problems)
Item A – Webmaster Accounts for SEO |
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| Setup Webmaster Accounts | Setup all your critical Webmaster Accounts |
| Webmaster Best Practices | Best practices managing your webmaster accounts |
| Manage Google Places | How to manage Google Places |
Item B – SEO Localization Issues |
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| How to List on Google Maps / Bing Maps | Localization on Google Maps / Bing Maps |
| How to Delete a Google Places Listing | Remove Errors on Google Maps / Bing Maps |
Part 2 – The SEO To-Do list
Item A – Infrastructure Checklist |
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| SEO Sotfware Downloads | Gotta Have it |
| Sitemaps | Sitemaps to help Search Engines |
| Robots | Welcome mat for Bots |
Item B – On-page SEO Checklist |
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| Check for HTML Errors | Before SEO there is HTML |
| Keywords | Research and Selection of Keywords |
| Domain name | Having the keyword(s) in the domain is ideal |
| URL | Having the keyword(s) in the URL is ideal |
| Title tag | Top keyword(s) should be first – 70 characters max |
| Meta Description Tag | The Meta Description Tag is the black text in SERPs |
| Keyword tag | Every keyword MUST appear somewhere in the body text |
| Keyword density in body text | 5 – 20% |
| Individual keyword density | 1 – 6% |
| Keyword in H1, H2 and H3 | Ideal, but be careful – no keyword stuffing |
| Keyword font | bold/italic for keywords |
| Keyword proximity | keywords which are split in two get lesser rank |
| Keyword phrase order | Very Important not to swap |
| Keyword prominence | The position of keywords in the page |
| Keyword in alt text | Google Florida update - Keywords where convenient but should describe graphic. Do not spam. |
| Keywords in Out-bound Anchor Text | Links out – use keywords in anchor text – limit 3 hyphens |
| Keywords in In-bound Anchor Text | Internal Links – use keywords in anchor text – limit 3 hyphens |
| Check Dead Links | Check often – remove dead links |
| Navigation | Two clicks to any page – no page deeper than 4 clicks |
| Orphan Pages | Primary content must be in navigation |
| Outbound links | at least 1 deep-link to self-site |
| Links to external pages | Google patent – Link only to good sites. Do not link to link farms. |
| Outgoing link Anchor Text | Google patent – Should be on topic, descriptive |
| Link stability over time | Google patent – Avoid “Link Churn” – once a page is built, do not change links on a page (frequently) |
| Less than 100 links out total | Google says < 100 – conventional thinking – potential SEO Myth |
| Linking to Authority | 3 sites > than self-site PR. Careful not to link to linkfarms |
| Domain Name Extensions | .gov sites seem to be the highest status .edu sites seem to be given a high status .org sites seem to be given a high status .com standard .net and other are sub-optimal |
| Page Size | 300kb is good with 100kb target for load speed |
| Page Load Speed | Increasing important to search engines |
| Hyphens in URL | Fewer hyphens the better – conventional thinking – potential SEO Myth |
| Code to Content Ratio | Lower is better – Content-lite pages tend to have a high code:content Ratio |
| Website Freshness | Google says newer content gets priority |
| Theme | If content is not quantifiable to a theme it may be considered spammy |
Item C – Off-Site SEO |
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| Blog for Search Rank | How to Blog with SEO in Mind |
| Backlinks | Where to get the best Backlnks |
