Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your website earn more significant traffic and better rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Whether you’re new to SEO or looking to better optimize your website, following a must-have SEO checklist can make your SEO journey more organized and your goals more achievable.
Use the SEO strategies that follow to help your business see success. This essential SEO checklist will cover all your necessary to-dos.
Essential SEO Tools for New Websites
Whether you’re building a new website or optimizing your company’s current website, the best SEO tools for reporting are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- Google Analytics is necessary for your website to track traffic to your website, bounce rate, time on site, conversion, and more.
- Google Search Console (which connects to your Google Analytics) helps you review performance for top impressions, clicks, links per page, and more.
If you don’t have these two tools set up already, make this step your first priority.
Technical SEO Fixes
You will need to audit your website for errors and improve or fix any technical problems. You’ll want to check your website for broken URLs (or 404s) and can do so by running your website URL through an SEO tool like Screaming Frog or Link Check.
Other technical SEO must-dos include making your website HTTPS, which shows search engines your website is secure. You will also need to make a mobile-friendly version of your website; otherwise, you risk losing significant traffic and revenue. Lastly, you want to optimize your website for page download speed, as speed can dramatically affect your rankings. Run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insight Tool and go from there.
Essential On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization of your website's text and code will help Google understand your site and lead to better rankings. Some on-page optimizations include work on title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags.
- Your title tags tell readers and Google what your page is about, so make these very relevant and use keywords.
- Meta descriptions will appear in search results, and this summary text should be intriguing to your audience. Keep them at 160 characters or less.
- Adding alt tags will help Google understand what your images, videos, and audio content pieces are about.
Keyword Research
Researching and selecting the keywords or terms related to your business is one of your first must-do steps. You can use tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner to see the search volume for each keyword. Focus on longer, specific, relevant keywords for your business or industry. Once you have your keyword list, you can start incorporating them into your website content. Try to choose specific primary and secondary keywords per page, without overlap.
Generating Content
Now for the fun part, creating the content! Content on your website may include blogs, videos, text, infographics, etc. Your keyword research will come in handy when creating relevant, valuable content for your customers. Your content needs to be informative and engaging and help your target audience fully understand your business.
Local SEO Techniques
Local SEO, or submitting your business for several online directories, will help new local customers find your business. Specific guides you should consider creating business profiles for include, Google Business Profile, Bing Places for Business, Yelp, and Yellow Pages.
Social Media Outreach
Your business has massive engagement, traffic, brand awareness, conversion potential, and more when you promote your business on social media channels. Popular social media platforms you should consider using include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Houzz, and TikTok. Choose only those that best relate to your business.
Contact the SEO Experts at Americaneagle.com
Several initial on-page and off-page optimizations start your SEO journey. Incorporating this SEO checklist into your current strategy can positively impact your business growth. Work with your team of content creators and developers to implement these optimizations on your website.
Looking to accelerate your online growth? Americaneagle.com is your go-to web design and digital marketing services partner. Our experts work diligently to ensure your online presence is constantly reaching new audiences and increasing conversions and revenue. We provide data-driven approaches to digital marketing through keyword analysis, campaign management, strategy, consulting, and more. If you're looking for B2B SEO solutions, don't worry, we've got you covered there, too. Contact us today to learn more.About Author
