We have prepared this Seo checklist guide & Seo tools list at Seo 2 Ranking so you can have a go- to list anytime you need it.

SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or unsponsored (“organic”) search results.

The best form of Digital marketing for long term & improving the ranking of your website on various search engines.

SEO is the most important part of your online presence and the path toward your SEO Success.

It doesn’t matter how much you advertise your site if search engines don’t rank you high enough to show up in search results.

We know all businesses are on a budget to achieve their goals when starting out, so you just have to knock off as many jobs of your to do list, before the launch as you can to make your business a success.

Below is a list of SEO basics that will set your website on the right path to success, and we will add a list of SEO tools near the bottom of the blog for you to research.

Some paid, but do not overlook the paid SEO tools as they all offer something for free no strings attached.

Which is of amazing benefit when you are just starting out, and of course the free tools that can help you along the way too.

SEO Checklist for your website:

SEO Check list you can complete to keep your website relevant and easier to index and crawl for search engines.
Claim ‘Google My Business’ listing.
Set up Google console and data analytics.
Build business citations.
Check for NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistencies.
Garner more positive reviews from existing customers.
Include testimonials on your website.
Index your location & service in the website title.
Index your location & service in the website description.
Index your location & service in the website heading tags.
Index your location & service in the website image alt tags.
List your location & service in the website page copy (text).
Relevant keywords research of competitors.
Write useful and unique content.
FAQs with Schema.
Build internal links on your website.
Conduct outreach program for backlinks from reputable sources.
Update Google Map (and directions) on your website.
Ensure you website is fully optimized for all devices & mobile-friendly.
Design & develop dedicated pages for each product or service you provide.
Match your website with relevant & suitable social media.

Well, that is the list of basic SEO work you need for your website so let’s dig in on how to do these jobs and get those all-important On-Page SEO jobs ticked off.

How to implement SEO checklist in 2022

Google analytics set up

Google analytics set up has step by step instructions for you to follow to set up your tracking code and to collect all important data from your website.

Google Search console Generate and Submit a Sitemap

Set up it is fairly simple with step-by-step instructions once done your site map for your website will be all done.

GMB-Google My Business

GMB will add your website/Company in your local region and help you show up for relevant searches for services or products you provide.

SEO Tool or Plugin Tool

Next step is to add an SEO tool to your CMS so for example if you are building your website on Kadence WP theme you can add the plugin Rank Math and do everything from H1-H6 to your Schema.

Technical SEO checklist

Website internal links

For sure not a DIY job and as you will know as a business person trying to figure something out, you’re not an expert in well is just a waste of money! As we all know, time lost would have been productive else were.

So, this is a job for your Web Design & Development team! Unless of course you are dead multi-talented and fast at multi-tasking.

Make Sure You Are Using HTTPS

You can review the URL to make sure that you are using HTTPS. If you are using HTTPS, you will see the “https:” protocol before the web address, and a lock icon in the browser address bar.

Find and Fix Crawl Errors

You can run a crawl report to identify crawl errors that Google found in your site.

Common causes for crawl errors are blocked files, inaccessible pages, or missing links to important resources. To fix crawl errors, you should make sure that your site is accessible to search engine crawlers.

Improve Your Site Speed

There are many ways to improve your site speed, which include optimizing your images and compressing them, as well as properly compressing your CSS and JavaScript files.

Fix Broken Internal and Outbound Links

You can check the outbound links and internal links on your site to get rid of the broken links by using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool.

Find and Fix HTTP Links on HTTPS Pages

1. Create a new Google Search Console project and add your website.
Add Crawl > Fetch as Google to your Fetch and Render settings to Fetch as Google.
Open your website in the Google Search Console and navigate to Crawl > Fetch as Google > Fetch.
At the top of the Fetch as Google results, you will see the HTTP links. These are the links your website is using that should be HTTPS.

Website is Mobile-Friendly

You can check your website’s content, navigation and code for responsiveness and review your website’s on-site search capabilities for mobile and tablet users.

SEO-Friendly URL

Structure Use the keywords in your URL to help search engines understand the topic of web page. Also, keep URLs short and readable.

Structured Data

Helps search engines understand how to present your content in the SERPs. To make your content more scannable and easier to read for users, you can use Microdata and RDFa.

Page Depth

Page Depth of Your Site shows how deep the pages go, which can be useful for navigation and search engines.

Temporary 302 Redirects

Are used to temporarily redirect one page to another page temporarily, this method is often used as an alternative to the more traditional 301 redirect method.

Find and Fix Redirect Chains and Loops

Redirect chains and loops are two different things.

A redirect loop is when a single URL is being redirected to itself. This can be caused by bad redirects, or even by a plugin in a CMS. In any case, it doesn’t matter whether you’re on HTTP or HTTPS, this is still a redirect loop.

Redirect chains are when you have two or more URLs redirecting to each other. This can also be caused by a redirect loop, or by a plugin in a CMS. To solve redirect chains and loops you will need to use a redirect checker to match and combine all relevant permanent redirects.

Next, you’ll need to check whether there are any broken redirects, or any redirects that are

On-page SEO basics check list

Title tags

I recommend using a generator for title tags, one of the best title tag generators is Title Tag Generator.

Title tags are the primary, and sometimes the only, description of a page in search results. The title tag appears exactly as entered by the user in the browser’s address bar. A great title tag describes a page well and is concise.

URLs

On-Page URLs are short, succinct, keywords-rich URLs that should look natural and be easy to read. They also act as a search engine ranking factor.

Alt text

Text found in an image’s “alt” attribute is actually a part of the HTML code that is interpreted by search engine robots. You can use this text to describe the images in your website and to increase the likelihood of search engines including your website in their search results.

Meta descriptions

Yes. The meta description is a short, concise description of the page that is used in search engine result pages (SERPs) to describe what the page is about.

How to write a good meta description It’s recommended to keep meta descriptions under 155 characters. There are many ways to write a good meta description.

The most important thing is to include keywords, and if possible, use natural words.

Fix Orphaned Site Pages

There are two ways to get rid of orphaned site pages: Delete orphaned site pages through Google Search Console Enable “delete” for the site pages from Google Search Console

Site’s Content Up to Date

Having your site’s content up-to-date is very important for your visitors and your search engine rankings. Your visitors want to get relevant information instantly, and search engines such as Google want to ensure that your site’s content is up-to-date for the same reason.

Off-page SEO Checklist

Analyze Your Competitor’s Link Profile

Analyze your competitor’s link profile to understand the link profiles of the most successful websites in your niche and the keywords they are ranking for. This will give your insight into the best resources for building links.

Link Analysis

One of the best tools for link analysis is SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer. You can use the Open Site Explorer to analyze your link profile, do competitive analysis, and uncover opportunities to improve your rankings and performance.

Turn Unlinked Mentions into Links

Unlinked mentions are often those that you find in your competitor’s content or in the content of your own site that still have no link to your page.

If you can find these mentions and link them to your page, you can increase the rankings and traffic you get from search engines.

Find New Link Building Opportunities

Find new link building opportunities by browsing a variety of sites. Look at how other sites are getting back links and try to contact those companies. You can also search for sites that are linking to your competitors.

Optimize Google My Business

To Optimize your Google My Business-GMB begin by ensuring your business information is up-to-date. Make sure your hours of operation, phone number, street address, and website are correct. Next, add high-quality photos of your business so customers can see what you look like in real life.

Keyword Research checklist 2021

So, what is next? Well of course now the hard part is writing compelling and high-ranking content, coming up with highly relevant H1-H6, Meta descriptions and web content that makes people want to avail of your products & services etc.

Easier said than done or easy peasy!

Well, that will depend on your skills you possess or the team behind you, so let’s dig in, Keyword Research first port of call before you write anything not one word should touch paper / Word in this day and age.

Keyword research tools

You may need to put your hand in your pocket at this stage SEMrush, ahrefs etc. Are great for this work, you can also use free tools such as Keyword surfer & others they do give you a hell of allot for free though the data is older!

SEO Keyword Map

So, you now have your Keywords in place, you are ready to form your Pilar topics and your cluster topics for writing your website content in what we call in the Search Engine Optimization Industry a Keyword map.

Keyword Cannibalization Issues

Keyword Cannibalization is when a page has identical or very similar phrases to another page. It is a common occurrence in almost all websites. It is caused when multiple pages contain the same or similar keywords.

SEO steps to Success

These steps really help in forming a very well-structured layout that is informative for the reader and easy to crawl with the search engines.

You can do a lot of research on your industry competitors in the tools in this list to find out what to go after in your Kw plan.

A mix of directories and Social for business to list your Prescence.

Getting your business listed in directories and social is an important step in being as visible as you possibly can and should always be incorporated into your SEO plan.

There are instances where some of these platforms or directories may have more relevance to said businesses you will need to decide this for yourself so as not to waste time, energy or resources.

Best Directories & Social list for 2021

LinkedIn
Clutch
Pinterest
Instagram
GMB
Apple Maps
Yelp
Bing
Facebook

SEO Tools list that will get your SEO fired up and not cost you a cent to start with just some learning!

Google Analytics
Bing Webmaster Tools
Rank Math WP SEO Plugin
Yoast WP SEO Plugin
SEObility
Arefs’ Keyword Generator
Google Search Console (GSC)
Screaming frog
SEMrush
AWR
Keywrodtool.io
Rank Tracker
SEO Minion
SEO Quake
Answerthepublic
Data Studio
Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations
Keyword Hero
Keyword Explorer
Keyword Planner
Keyword Surfer
Disavow Tool
Google My Business
Tag Manager
Buzz Sumo

You Could also add video to your website or link to a YouTube Channel, full SEO Plan, Add Customer Testimonials to your website and ask them to add reviews in review sites.

Expand keyword research of your competitors, Implement keyword content strategy throughout your web pages.

If you would like more of a breakdown of some of these tools, you can head over to our blog on SEO tools which will be published soon.

To get a clear picture of what you will need to use in your SEO objectives.

Need professional SEO.

Call, Email or write to get the help you need when setting up your SEO strategy.
Knowledgeable and experienced staff who have been working in this industry for a combined 20+ years.
Free SEO consultation for 30 minutes.