What is on-site SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of taking care of your online content so search engines will be able to index it properly and rank it higher among the top search results. If you manage to rank high in organic search results, that means that you will get free and targeted visitors to your website. SEO includes on site and off site actions that you need to take care of. In this post, we analyze all the on site SEO actions you need to implement to your website to “help” search engines rank your website higher!
Why is SEO important for your business?
SEO should be used along with your marketing strategy to improve your ranking on online search engines. SEO is essential to get for free more targeted traffic and real customers, increase visibility, and search engine recognition to rank your content higher.
How will this SEO checklist help you?
An SEO checklist will find weak points that may harm search engine rankings. A thorough check spots the errors on your web page which may need your attention.
It may seem like looking for a needle in the haystack! But it isn’t as complicated as it appears. Most of the basics should have already been integrated into your website by your developer. However, if that’s not the case, here are the essential actions you will make.
1. Subscribe to Google Search Console.
Google Search Console (GSC) monitors your site’s performance in Google Search results. It gives you a full picture of your site and how to improve it in the SERPs (Search engine results pages).
This is important because the higher your website ranks, the more searchers visit it, the more customers you get. You get a clear insight into the metrics relating to the ways your site appears to searches with your target keywords
2. Subscribe to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics (GA) gives information about the audience and their engagement with your website. That is how viewers find and use your site, their interaction, your traffic, your bounce rate, page views and time spent on it, and even some demographic information of your audience. You can also see where you send your traffic, off your site.
Having all this information is valuable for digital marketers to increase traffic and site visibility.
3. Install an SEO plugin.
It is not necessary to have technical skills and knowledge to optimize your site. As you are most likely using WordPress as your main CMS (Content Management System). It helps you create, manage, and adapt content on your website easily. The most popular WordPress SEO plugins that will help you with your SEO on-site process are the following:
All of the above plugins will make your recommendations on how to use your keywords in your content, while also taking care of some basic SEO settings (sitemap, robots.txt, etc)
A complete on-page SEO Checklist includes:
- Keyword search
- ON-Page SEO
- Technical –page SEO
4. Identify your Target Keywords
Keyword search is the key for a Website to achieve top rankings in search engines. Your target keywords will make all the difference. SEO is built on keywords, the words people use to search whatever they are looking for, products, services, information, etc. It is the right keywords that will drive you leads, sales, and conversions.
Your keywords must be relevant to your content. Therefore, you need to research the most appropriate keywords that will cover your needs and the ones used mostly by most users. A good suggestion is to also check the keywords that your competition uses to compare ranking rates and see what brings them traffic. It goes without saying that you do not copy them!
Knowing what your audience needs and what they are searching for can also help you build your site’s content so don’t forget to look for queries most often asked. Then base your search for your target keywords on your research. You will understand the importance of keywords later as you monitor your website rankings and the various checks you will need to carry out.
The best Keyword Tools you can use for that process are the following:
Google Ads Keyword Planner (you need to have an active Google Ads account to get the most of it)
5. Don’t overlook your SEO Titles and Descriptions
An eye-catching title in a blog post or on a website page will grab the audience’s attention and increase your page’s traffic and Click-Through-Rate (CTR) a measure of your page’s success. The title serves both users and crawlers. So make sure to include tags with your keywords on your page. Headers, H1, H2 tags, and title should be related without repeating each other though. Use your keywords or similar terms throughout your pages.
One of the easiest and most common methods is to use clear headings to break up sections of your pages, check that Header tags range most general H1- to the most specific subheading H3.
Don’t forget to optimize your meta description field. Create it in a unique and eye catching using your focus keyword inside. Don’t make it more than 160 characters!
6. Make sure your URLs are SEO- Friendly
The URL is your “web address” on the internet. The URL is another place to include your keyword but keep it short and clear. It gives Google information about your page and helps increase views. The search engines use your webpage’s URL to understand what your content is all about. Check all the URLs on your website for length, make the URLs don’t have too many variables in them, use hyphens to separate words, no underscores. The URL should inform the audience about the page, and what they will see when they click on it. Make sure it gives them the correct information and it is not irrelevant. Keep in mind that permalinks (URLs) should be at most 75 characters long.
7. Put your Content Marketing Skills at Work.
If you want to rank in Google, you need great content. Content has become an absolute necessity in any SEO strategy, make sure that your page’s content matches the searcher’s intent.
Create the right content for your site. Go for quality, not quantity. Make sure your content is long enough for readers and search engines. There is no ‘perfect’ content length but readers often will scan to spot their answers quickly. So, if your content is a bit too long but you think it is all necessary to be included, then make it easier by breaking the text into shorter sections using proper Headings.
Each page should be unique and let the search engines know that with the correct Headers as we mention in the previous section. Keep the viewer’s interest throughout your content. Do proper keyword research before writing for any topic and optimize your content based on your focus keyword.
Create 2-3 internal links with other pages on your site. Link new pages with previous ones. This action shows consistency, coherence, and it helps add to and update your content.
8. A picture is worth 1000 words. Visualize your Content
Adding images and videos to your page can catch the audience’s attention more quickly. A majority of people now prefer visual content. Some people would rather see visual content than read a text. Videos and images provide a better understanding of the content, depending on its intent. But keep images to the right size so as not to slow your site speed but remain clear.
SEO Optimize your Images
The images are a reflection of your content but Google can’t see them, so optimize your image alt tags and filenames. To help audiences who are visually impaired understand the content better create a descriptive image file name and ALT tags that will rank high in Google image search.
9. Update your content regularly. Stay on Top Ranking
Remember we live in a fast-paced world everything evolves quickly so must your pages. See what is important and relevant in your marketing field and be creative and authentic. Keep up with the changes. You will be rewarded with more traffic, links, and new customers. You can use Google Trends to get inspired for new topics to write for
10. Use Internal Links
Internal linking helps your pages get found. Include one or two links from one page to another on your site. The intent must be relevant and connect in some way. This keeps your audience more engaged and will find more information for their searches. When you launch new content, link it to 2-3 other pages on your site. Again use target keywords in your internal links but don’t make it too much! You are never advised to spam search engines since that may hurt you in the long term! On-Site SEO is performed on all pages to give a better opportunity for ranking on search engines.
Technical SEO Checklist
All your work and effort to optimize your site is in vain when there are technical problems so don’t overlook the technicalities. Technical SEO ensures that your site can be crawled and indexed.
11. Index your pages properly using SSL
All pages are indexed so Google Search Console can crawl all your pages. Make sure that you are using HTTPS. Look at your browser’s URL to confirm that.
12. Avoid Duplicate Content
Google will index only one version of your site. But if you have more versions for your sites make sure all redirect to one.
13. Avoid Crawl Issues
The Web Crawler searches documents on the Web that is search engines use crawlers to browse and build an index. What may happen is that sometimes people can see all your pages but Google can’t. When Google cannot view a page on your site, that is a “crawl error” and your page will not rank. Spot a crawl error, understand what caused it, and fix it.
14. Optimize your Site Speed
Audience interaction is strongly affected by slow sites. Users are impatient even a few seconds can make a big difference. Find what hinders your speed; content quantity, duplicate content, too many pages, images, etc. Your viewers will not wait they will move on to another site. Don’t forget the audiences are the future customers, you cannot afford to lose them. You can always check your website speed on desktops and in mobiles using Google Page Speed Insights Tool
15. Monitor Internal and Outbound Links.
SEO- links are one of the major ranking signals for search engines.
Broken links taking users to nowhere is a big disappointment. Fix them by updating your URL or simply remove the link. Keep redirects simple, straightforward, and avoid multiple tasking redirects. Get as many links as you can.
16. A mobile-friendly site is a must.
Mobility is the new norm. So you need to follow the trends. Since Google switched to mobile indexing unless you do likewise your organic traffic will diminish.
17. Stay on Top
Use Schema.org to structure your data, places, local business, and all that matters to you most. Well-structured data is listed on top of SERPs.
18. SEO Structure – Keyword Cannibalization
When creating a new website, even if it’s a small business website or an eCommerce website, you need to define an SEO strategy. It’s one of the most important things that many digital marketers don’t include in their SEO checklist.
For example, if you plan to rank high on the keyword “Greece Vacation Packages” then you need to include that keyword on your homepage’s SEO title, description, etc. However, if you plan to write blog posts about vacation packages to Greece, then it’s not a good idea to create a post category with the name “Greece Vacation Packages” since that keyword is being used to make your homepage rank high and if you use the same keyword as focus keyword in other posts or categories or tags, then you don’t help search engines to rank properly your website. That’s called Keyword Cannibalization since you are using the same keyword in various pages and you make it difficult for Google to find out which page among all of them to rank high on that specific keyword.
So, what’s the best practice? The Best practice is to use one keyword on your homepage to make it rank higher and similar but not the same keywords in your internal pages. In our example, you can create a category named “Holidays in Greece” or “Greek Island Tours” but DON’T use the same focus keyword multiple times on your website. The same applies to eCommerce websites. When creating product categories, try to include similar keywords but NOT the same keywords that you are using on your homepage or in your blog posts!
19. Keyword Density
Even if there is no ideal keyword density (number of the appearance of your keyword/ total number of words), our basic advice is NOT to make it high or too low. Do make your content look natural and do include your focus keyword multiple times in your content but don’t spam! A keyword density of 0.50% to 1% sounds like a good keyword density. Don’t forget also to include keywords similar to your focus keyword in your content.
Move Ahead. Take the Lead
With millions of searches on Google every day, your website must be ranking on top. SEO increases your site’s visibility to potential customers by analyzing and implementing website strategies to improve your ranking.
The checklist can be used by eCommerce, local businesses, start-ups —whatever kind of business you’re running. You don’t need to implement everything on the list but the more you do the better results you get.