There is a lot of data floating on the internet about Search Engine Optimization and we are not here to bore you with stale information. The only reason to write this blog is to give you a checklist that you can follow-up with your SEO expert and get the best visibility for your products and website on any search engine. SEO is applicable to Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all of the competitors combined. That is how important this article is.
(Caution: Some of the data & checkpoints may not apply to your case and instead of getting confused, you must research more)
What is SEO?
In the simplest of words – any activity that makes your content more visible to the search engine is called SEO. Once your website or product is search engine friendly, you get better search ranks and ultimately higher traffic. Below are the seven types of SEO and each has a small checklist to begin your journey.
Technical SEO
As its name suggests, all the technical aspects of SEO are covered. Every technical parameter can affect the searchability of a website, webpage, or product. Here is a quick list that you can cross-check with your website developer.
Optimized robots.txt. These are the code snippets that help search engine crawlers to find relevant data.
Is the site added and verified by Google Search Console?
Similar to the index report, there is a Coverage report. It helps to find and fix the crawlers.
Create an XML sitemap and submit it to major search engines like google, bing, yahoo, etc.
Is the site and URL structure optimized?
Select SEO friendly web design that can load fast as well.
Use of Schema Mark-up for structuring data and pin-pointing search engines to an important part of the content.
On-Page SEO
Search engines have the ability to crawl each and every content on your website. It is your responsibility to make this search friendlier. Ranking of the website takes place on a per page basis although the engine may see the website as a whole unit. The below checklist will help you in building better On-Page SEO.
Each Page’s title must be good enough to tell its content and intent.
Optimize the H1 Tag that is shown at the top heading of the page on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
Optimize the subheadings with long-tail keywords.
Optimize the size of images, their text, and file name with relevant keywords.
Page formatting must be visitor friendly. Search engines have special tools to gauge it.
Content SEO
This is a part of On-page SEO only. The content on the website is optimized for best results. You add pictures, articles, videos, blogs, and anything that supports the cause of your company, website, product, etc. Publishing great content that people love and share is one important parameter for ranking. Below checklist will help you generate SEO friendly content.
Maximized use of researched keywords for the content created.
Use of long tail and semantically relevant keywords in titles, headings and content.
Sizeable content that actually adds value and gives enough clues to search engines about its context.
Share a link about relevant & high quality content from other websites.
Frequently published content like blogs and videos.
Off-Page SEO
Promoting the content and finding other businesses and websites that can vouch for your work is called off-page SEO. Some people think that Off-page SEO means getting maximum backlinks, yet it has more to do with the trustability of your content on the internet including social media engagement and customer ratings. The below checklist must be followed to make the best use of Off-page SEO.
Get backlinks from other people on their websites, youtube videos, social media channels, etc.
Promotion of brand by other websites in press release articles, brand mentions, discussion of the brand on learning forums, etc.
Influencer endorsements.
Social Media Bookmarking.
Well received answers about relevant topics on google, quora, etc.
Website reviews on search engines.
Local SEO
If you have a registered office for business, it must be used to boost your local sales. Its power depends on the area of service as well. This technique marks your presence in local search results. The below checklist helps in Local SEO.
Name, address, contact details shall reflect on all pages of the website.
Add local business Schema on the homepage.
Create a Google My-Business account.
Register with trusted directories or yellow pages of the internet - like burrp.com, getit.in, mouthshut.com, justdial.com, etc. whatever works for your country.
Promote your business on local online newspapers and bloggers.
Mobile SEO
More than 60% of Google searches happen on mobile devices now. It is imperative to optimize the website for being mobile-friendly. Ignoring the mobile view and doing only desktop amendments is like ignoring your customers and visitors. You don’t want that right? Google has made it clear that their algorithms of the console are adapting for the mobile devices. Here is a checklist for SEO for mobile devices.
Conduct a Mobile-friends test for your website.
The website loads fast on mobile.
Customer experience is good in terms of smooth flow while browsing.
Aggressive advertising is not popping up and blocking the view.
Check for click bugs regularly.
eCommerce SEO
It is a very big and booming industry. SEO is used very aggressively on any shopping website and even the people selling courses, products, and services online want to stay ahead of the competition. They re-optimize content on a high frequency. If you are selling something too, here is a must-do checklist:
· Make sure the homepage is well optimized with all essential product information that people generally search and compare products with. Page categorizing must cater to both visitor’s and search engine’s needs.
Optimize products for an exact and long-tail keyword match.
Add maximum visual content like pics and videos but let them be small in size & easy to load.
Add necessary schemas of offers, prices, features, etc. on every product.
The store is well promoted on social networks.
Publish mini-blogs on how the product has helped people.
Ask people to put as many reviews and ratings as possible.
Think creative ways of making page share-worthy.
Key Learnings
SEO works best with the best research and planning. Each checklist will somehow become usable in your context as your primary aim is to increase On-Page visibility for search engines and off-page visibility on other websites and social media.
Off-page sharing of your content depends on the quality of what you publish. Make sure you publish the best content you can come up with. Being mobile-friendly is a core-essential feature to start with and technical SEO provides you an edge like nothing else.
Start Today.
Comments