SEO Checklist (Complete): Be More Friendly With Search Engine in 2022

Just an awesome content isn’t enough nowadays to compete in this tightly knitted internet world.

You always have to be one step ahead of your competitor. To stay ahead of your competitor, all you need to do is spying around the website at an advanced level.

But to compete at a basic level,  you need to follow certain SEO techniques.

Following is a list of Complete SEO Checklist in 2020 which you can implement right away!

SEO Checklist for Website ( Including Technical)

1. Google Search Console is a free Google SEO tool which tracks the performance of your site in google search engine.
   • Best feature is to know through which keywords you are receiving the traffic.
   • Here’s a free guide from Yoast: The Beginner’s Guide to Google Search Console.
2. Submit the XML sitemap to Google Search Console through which search engine understands the structure of your website. Also, through this search engine find your pages to get indexed.
   • Here’s the guide from WPBeginner: What is an XML Sitemap and How to Create.
3. With Google Search Console, you can identify Crawl Errors.
   • In older version of Search Console, it was easy to figure out that option which use to be right under Crawl.
   • Now in the new version of Google Search Console, you can find that in the ‘Coverage’.
4. Within Google Search Console, you will find another interesting feature to find out how Google views your page. 
   • Fetch as Google under Crawl ( in the older version). With this feature, you give full access to your page to Google with fetch and render.
5. Bing Webmaster Tools is another free SEO tool. Though it’s not as popular as Google Search Engine, still you cannot underestimate its presence.
6. If you are curious to know ‘how people try to find you, traffic stats, which pages are giving you good traffic, bounce rate, page views and time spent on your site’ then Google Analytics is right there for you.
   • Here’s a Google Analytics Guide from Moz: How to Use Google Analytics. 
   • And If you are keen to learn more about it, then there is a Google Analytics Certification Course.
7. With Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, you can figure out whether your site is Mobile Friendly or not.
   • Making your site mobile optimized helps search engine and your rankings as well.
   • Here’s the Baclinko’s Guide for Mobile SEO.
8. Set Up Google Tag Manager to manage your tags for free. This tag manager is simple to use and highly reliable with easy integration.
9. If you are using a WordPress site then Yoast SEO plugin is very popular among SEO aficionados! Why? Because of it’s simple and clear instructions for content which helps to optimize the site easier for the search engine. 
   • Here’s a Guide of Wpeginner to Install and Setup WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast. 
10. Broken Links hurt SEO’s a lot. In fact, that’s a headache to deal with. But fortunately, we have tools and plugins to figure them out.
    • If it’s a WordPress site then install a plugin, there are plenty of them or else you can use Dead Link Checker ( Free Tool). 
11. Make sure there won’t be any Duplicate Meta Tags which create a bad image of your in front of your good friend (search engine).
    • You can check duplicate meta in the Google Search Console under Search Appearance> HTML Improvements.
12. Do check your Website Loading Speed on regular basis with PageSpeed Insights.
    • Search Engine respects the site which loads with good speed to provide the best user experience. 
    • Site loading speed is directly proportional to the bounce rate (apart from bad or irrelavant content). If site loads with good speed then people will stay on it and this reduces the bounce rate which is good.
    • Here you can look for ‘ What is Bounce Rate’.

SEO Checklist for Keyword Optimization

Keyword research plays a vital role when it comes to SEO. For best SEO results, proper use of keyword is mandatory.

Here in this SEO checklist, I will suggest a couple of ways to search for keywords.

1. Find the primary keyword which is relevant to your site or topic.
2. Find relevant terms or phrase related to the primary keyword using Uber Suggest or Google Keyword Planner or through Google Search Bar.
3. Make a note of 3 to 4 relevant keywords or phrase.
4. Once SEO based Keyword Research is done and Content writing is done, Make sure you use the Primary Keyword in the Title.
5. Use the primary keyword in at least one Heading Tags.
6. Make use of primary keyword within the first 150 words or in the first paragraph.
7. Content should be more than 300 words, but the longer the content the more scope you’ll have to use the keyword. The more informative it is the more Google Loves it.
8. Keyword density should be less than 3%.
9. Use of relevant keyword or phrase within the content for a couple of times.
10. LSI keyword existed article weighs better in google search results. Here you can find ‘ Everything You Need To Know About Semantic’. You can use tools like lsigraph.com.

SEO checklist for On-Page Optimization

1. According to Moz’s 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URL’s, including the primary keyword in the URL is a good practice.
2. Create short permalinks like www.solopreneurstation.com/seo-checklist, as Short URL’s ranks the best according to Backlinko.
3. If you would like to go with bigger permalinks, then remember the rule ‘less than 128 characters’.
4. Starting Title with Primary Keyword is a best practice.
5. Use numbers or best or guide or year or something which can make you stand different in the lot.
6. Optimize your images with a file name and alt tags ( with keywords). It helps Google to understand much better about your content.
7. Use external links in your content to provide references which are trusted websites. In this way, you show Google that your content is authentic. At least more than three external links.
8. Internal linking means anchoring your own web pages in the content. Use keywords to anchor the content.
9. Reason for anchoring the keywords is to tell the search engines that anchored page is related to that topic or keyword.
10. Use the primary keyword in the meta description and keep the meta description length in between 160 to 320 characters. Also, make use of LSI keyword which gives greater results.
11. Minimum one image per post or page.
12. Make use of tags, and try to optimize with a content ( use of relevant keywords).

SEO Checklist for Off-Page

1. Analyze your profile links with Ahrefs. Then check your competitor link, do some spy work and then start building links.
2. Do build quality backlinks with Social Bookmarking.
3. Contact the top blogs related to your niche and do a guest blog post.
4. Find PR website related to your niche and make use of them.

SEO checklist for Content

1. Create content with small paragraphs which makes it easy for the reader to read.
2. If the topic is broad then try to create content with at least 2000 words, which is called as pillar content in Content Marketing Strategy.
3. Similarly, if the content is part of broad content then try to create content with at least 1000 words which is called as cluster content.
4. If it’s about image or infographic then write more than 300 words. (Make use of keywords).
5. Make use of Schema to help your rankings. For that, you can use the Google Structured Data Testing Tool.
6. Start blog with introduction which creates an enthusiasm to read.

Conclusion

As you can see, most of the above-mentioned SEO Checklist points aren’t anything new.

But the thing is we forget them sometimes because of too much planning.

Best SEO results can be achieved when the basic implementation is rightly done.

What’s your opinion about my post? If you think I missed anything, please comment below. Happy to take suggestions.

Looking forward to discussing broadly on SEO hacks and I will update this complete SEO Checklist 2020 eventually.

Check out my hand-picked guides if you are about to start Digital Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Journey!

• What is SEO and How it Works
• 12 Free SEO Tools You Should Be Using in 2020
• Affiliate Marketing Guide for Beginners to Make Money Online in 2020