Marketing

SEO Checklist 2020

By August 10, 2020 No Comments

A Complete SEO checklist for websites in 2020

 

Need an SEO checklist to ensure your site is built to rank higher on Google as well as other search engines?

You’re in the right place!

We’re here to provide you with a basic SEO 2020 checklist. Even if you’re not an SEO pro, after reading this article, you will be able to make positive changes happen on your own. So without wasting time, let’s dive in.

Basic SEO Checklist

These are the essential SEO principles you should know, the “basics” or the fundamentals you need to make sure to follow. Once you have your website up and running which can be on a variety of platforms (WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento). Make sure…

First and foremost,

– Install an SEO plugin or addon

Start by installing a good SEO plugin (an example is Yoast SEO on WordPress). It’s a user-friendly plugin that’s easy to navigate even for inexperienced users or non-SEO experts. Yoast SEO will help you with creating the sitemap, optimizing each page’s descriptions, and make other technical aspects easy to understand and fix. Yoast SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress and some other CMS’ (Content Management System). However, in case your CMS doesn’t support Yoast SEO, simply search on Google for the best SEO plugin for your CMS.

– Create a Sitemap

Creating a sitemap is essential in ranking your website. It enables Google to crawl and index the pages of your website.

How can you create a sitemap?

Google search a Sitemap generator that works for your CMS. Once you’ve done that, the next step is to go to Google Search Console and submit your sitemap. If you’re new to SEO, we will explain how to submit your sitemap in another article. Usually, each plugin, addon, or tool will provide step-by-step instructions to make your life easier, and in case some of it seems confusing, you can always find related content on YouTube. After all, we are in 2020 😉

– Create a robots.txt file

Robots.txt file is a text file that tells search engines like Google and Bing which pages or files to crawl or not crawl on your website.

Regardless of your niche, you will have sensitive pages that only visitors that take particular action can have access to. A good example is pages that contain personal user information on an eCommerce website.

–  Install Google Analytics and Link Google Search Console

Google Search Console will enable you to track your website performance while Google Analytics will provide you with data you can analyze and improve. Always make sure to log into your Google Analytics account and link Google Search Console.

Keyword Research Checklist

This checklist will enable you to optimize your content for search engines. It’s required for you to know the phrases and words people are using to search for your type of business.

Below are self-explanatory steps that you help you get it right:

  • Identify keywords for page-specific topics;
  • Identify your competitors;
  • Conduct keywords research using tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMRUSH, Moz, and others;
  • Analyze your keyword competition in terms of search volume

Onpage SEO Checklist

Congrats on completing the first steps, now onto the On-Page SEO checklist.

On-Page SEO implies optimizing the content on your pages. Here are the steps:

  • Use short URLs (slugs that are related to your keywords of the page)
  • Use descriptive titles and meta tags
  • Link relevant internal and external resources
  • Use descriptive alt text for your images

Off-Page SEO Checklist

Off-Page SEO is as important as On-Page SEO.

Here are steps to get your Off-Page SEO:

  • Use good headers and subheaders, catchy content intros, etc.
  • Make sure your content readability score is not less than 65%
  • Write short sentences and paragraphs
  • Overall, write quality content

Technical SEO Checklist

Most website owners tend to feel overwhelmed here. They think it’s complicated to do Technical SEO. Well, it won’t be complicated for you if you can meticulously carry out the following steps:

  • Improve your site speed (make sure to use web-optimized images, use dedicated servers, and not shared hosting, reduce redirects, run speed tests to see what areas can be improved)
  • Fix crawl errors
  • Fix broken links
  • Use Https and fix Http links on your pages
  • Make sure your website is user-friendly
  • Target the right audience
  • Make sure your website is made Mobile Friendly.

We hope you find this article helpful!

Although you may have completed the checklists we have provided, keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process. Keep doing it, keep monitoring your website, and keep researching new ideas, and you will get a positive impact.

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