Basic-SEO-Checklist

The idea of writing an SEO checklist came to me in the midst of a heated debate about what actually matters when it comes to SEO and what doesn’t. I could spend a lifetime debunking theories that have been put forth by experts and specialists.

SEO is a hot topic and the TOTECS admin centre is full of features that you should be taking advantage of to boost your rank. I have discussed this in detail in my SEO series, from the start of the year, so have a look through them to see how to make sure you are taking advantage of these features.

I’ve come up with a basic checklist outside of the Admin Centre of things you need to check, do regularly, have, sign up for and generally keep an eye on to get the most of our your SEO.

THE CHECKLIST

1.Google Analytics account and a spreadsheet that tracks the most important data monthly (Unique visitors, Sessions, Bounce Rate). Also important things to track are what kind of browsers people are using to view your website and how much mobile traffic is coming your way.

2.Set up a Google Analytics Webmaster Tools within your Analytics account to get access to even more collected data.

3.Are you using Googles Keyword Planner Tool? I’ve banged on enough about that one to hopefully never have to mention it again… am I right? Monitoring and tracking your keywords gives you vital data that helps you further tailor your Titles and web page headings and content.

4.Check how long your domain name is registered for. Domains with expiry dates further into the future rank higher so if you pre-purchase many years to come the odds will be ever in your favour.

5.Word count per content page shouldn’t be any less than 250 words. Obviously amount of words can vary depending on the topic but anything less than 250 isn’t recommended as it could be penalised as low-quality.

6.While we’re talking about content make sure there isn’t any duplicate content on your website. Google doesn’t like this. Make sure it’s fresh, original content.

7.There should be absolutely no broken links within your website. Make sure each and every single link WORKS - takes the customer somewhere! It can be a tedious task to test each likebut get it over and done with and give yourself one big tick.

8.Test the speed of your website (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/). Thankfully we are mid our migration project which means very soon all of the websites using the TOTECS platform are going to be on our High Availability Servers. So far we have had amazing speeds for the websites that have been migrated.

9.Responsive design. I’ve explained before that Google changed it’s algorithm last month which means any websites that aren’t optimised for web will not show up as high in mobile results as they used to. Google will be tweaking their mobile search rank algorithm over the next 12 months so its best to start preparing as soon as humanly possible.

10.Claim your Business/Brand name on the following websites to create brand consistency and to make sure no one else takes your name on a platform you may want to use one day:

http://www.twitter.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.instagram.com
http://www.yelp.com
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.linkedin.com
http://brand-name.wordpress.com/
http://brand-name.tumblr.com/
http://pinterest.com
http://www.hulu.com
http://technorati.com
http://about.me/
http://brand-name.posterous.com/
http://profile.typepad.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.etsy.com/
http://en.gravatar.com/
http://www.scribd.com/
http://brand-name.hubpages.com/
http://www.flickr.com/
http://photobucket.com/

If you have any questions about today's column shoot us an email or give us a call on 1300 123 500.

Til next week,
Kasia

Blog