Let’s dive into how to excel in each area this year.
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How To Use My SEO Checklist
Think of SEO as constructing a robust building. Start with a solid foundation (technical SEO) and then layer on content and link-building strategies. Follow this checklist from top to bottom for the best results.
In today’s competitive online landscape, having a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is more important than ever. SEO can help you increase your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), leading to more organic traffic and, ultimately, more sales.
This blog post will outline 45 ways to increase your search traffic in 2023. These tips are based on the latest SEO best practices and are designed to help you improve your website’s rankings and attract more visitors.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the foundation of a successful SEO strategy. It ensures that your website is technically sound and easy for search engines to crawl and index. Here are a few technical SEO checklist items to address:
Set up Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you track your website’s performance in the SERPs. It can also identify any technical errors preventing your website from ranking.
Install Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console but specifically for the Bing search engine.
Set up Google Analytics: Google Analytics is another free tool that helps you track your website traffic. It can provide valuable insights into your audience, such as their demographics, interests, and behavior.
Install an SEO plugin: If you use WordPress, you must install an SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast SEO. These plugins can help you automate many of your technical SEO tasks.
Create & submit a sitemap: A sitemap is an XML file that lists all your website’s pages. Submitting your sitemap to Google can help them index your website more quickly.
Generate a robots.txt file: A robots.txt file tells search engines which pages on your website they should and shouldn’t crawl.
Content SEO
Once you’ve taken care of the technical aspects of your website, you can start to focus on creating high-quality content that will attract and engage visitors. Here are a few content SEO checklist items to address:
Use EAT Signals: EAT stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Google is increasingly emphasizing EAT signals, so it’s essential to ensure that experts create your content and that your website is a trusted source of information.
Make sure your site is mobile-friendly: Mobile-friendliness is a major ranking factor, so it’s important to ensure your website is easy to use on mobile devices.
Ensure your site is fast: Website speed is another important ranking factor. Make sure that your website loads quickly and smoothly.
Find & fix crawling errors: Crawling errors can prevent search engines from indexing your website. Use a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs to identify and fix crawling errors.
Find & fix indexing errors: Indexing errors can also prevent search engines from ranking your website. Use Google Search Console to identify and fix any indexing errors.
Use HTTPS for more security: HTTPS is a known lightweight ranking factor. Make sure that your website is secure.
Eliminate duplicate content: Duplicate content can confuse search engines and hurt rankings. Make sure that you have no duplicate content on your website.
Check for canonical tags: Canonical tags help search engines avoid indexing duplicate content. Make sure that you have canonical tags on all of your pages.
Fix all broken links: Broken links can hurt your user experience and rankings. Make sure that you fix all of your broken links.
Add structured data: Structured data can help search engines understand your website content better. Use schema markup to add structured data to your website.
Fix orphaned pages: Orphaned pages are pages on your website that aren’t linked to any other page. This can make it difficult for search engines to find them. Ensure you link to all of your pages from other pages on your website.
Good keyword research is the foundation of your SEO strategy. Here are a few keyword research checklist items to address:
Build a keyword strategy: Before delving into the world of keyword research, it’s crucial to establish a well-defined strategy. This involves understanding your target audience, their search behavior, and the overall goals of your SEO campaign. Randomly selecting keywords without a strategic plan can lead to wasted effort and ineffective optimization.
Use ‘Google Suggest’ to find long-tail keywords: Google Suggest, the drop-down menu that appears as you type your search query, is a treasure trove of long-tail keywords. These keywords are more specific and less competitive, making them ideal for niche websites or targeting specific audiences. You can uncover valuable keyword opportunities that align with your target audience’s search intent by analyzing Google Suggest.
Find solid keywords with Google Keyword Planner: Google Keyword Planner, a free tool offered by Google Ads, is an invaluable resource for keyword research. It provides comprehensive data on search volume, competition, and related keywords, allowing you to make informed decisions about your keyword selection. By utilizing Google Keyword Planner, you can identify high-quality keywords relevant to your content and potentially drive organic traffic to your website.
AnswerThePublic: Uncovering User Search IntentAnswerThePublic is a unique and powerful tool that helps uncover the questions and queries people are searching for. Analyzing search patterns and autocomplete data visualizes these search terms in a user-friendly format. AnswerThePublic provides valuable insights into your target audience’s language and phrasing, allowing you to tailor your content to match their search intent and improve your chances of appearing in relevant search results.
Additional Keyword Research Considerations
As you delve deeper into keyword research, consider these additional factors to enhance your strategy:
Search Intent: Understand the intent behind user searches, whether informational, navigational, or transactional.Keyword Difficulty: Assess the level of competition for specific keywords, targeting those with a balance of search volume and achievable ranking potential.Keyword Relevance: Ensure that your chosen keywords align with your website’s content and target audience to attract relevant traffic.Keyword Frequency: Strategically incorporate keywords throughout your content, but avoid keyword stuffing, which can harm your website’s credibility.Keyword Updates: Regularly monitor and update your keyword list to reflect search trends and user behavior changes.
Keyword Research – A Continuous Process Keyword research is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and adaptation. By staying up-to-date with search algorithm updates, understanding emerging trends, and analyzing your website’s performance, you can continuously refine your keyword strategy and maintain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving landscape of SEO.
Link Building
Link building is another vital part of your SEO strategy. It involves getting other websites to link to your website. This helps improve your website’s authority and credibility, leading to higher rankings in the SERPs. Here are a few link-building checklist items to address:
Guest blogging: Guest blogging is a great way to get backlinks to your website. It involves writing blog posts for other websites and including a link to your website in your author bio.
Broken link building: Broken link building involves finding broken links on other websites and then contacting the website owner to inform them about the broken link. You can then offer to replace the broken link with a link to your website.
Resource page link building: Resource pages are pages on other websites that list a collection of useful resources. You can contact the website owner to inform them about your website and ask them to include a link to it on their resource page.
Social media promotion: Social media promotion can help you get more exposure for your website and attract more visitors. This can lead to more backlinks to your website.
Infographic creation: Infographics are a great way to represent information visually. Creating infographics and then sharing them on social media can help you get more backlinks to your website.
Local SEO
You’ll need to optimize your website for local search if you have a local business. This involves ensuring that your website appears in the search results when people search for businesses in your area. Here are a few local SEO checklist items to address:
Create a Google My Business listing: Google My Business is a free tool that helps you manage your business’s online presence. Make sure that you have a complete and accurate Google My Business listing.
Get your business listed in local directories: You can get your business listed in several local directories. This can help you get more exposure for your business.
Use local keywords: Make sure that you use local keywords throughout your website. This will help your website appear in the search results when people search for businesses in your area.
Build citations: Citations mention your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) online. Building citations can help you improve your local rankings.
Encourage customer reviews: Customer reviews can help you improve your local rankings. Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews of your business online.
Following these tips can improve your website’s search traffic and attract more visitors.
Backlinks
What are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?
Backlinks are links from other websites pointing back to your site. They act like votes of confidence. The more quality sites link to you, the more trusted your content is in the eyes of Google. So, sites with more relevant backlinks tend to rank higher in search engines.
How Can I Get Backlinks?
There are a few common ways a website can earn backlinks:
Create helpful, authoritative content that sites want to link to
Reach out to relevant sites to contribute guest posts with a link back to your website
Interact and engage with online communities like forums and let your expertise shine through
Look for opportunities to sponsor niche events, resources, or podcasts that will feature your site
Start by cleaning up any issues that might deter backlinks, like broken pages or thin content. Then, build relationships, provide value for others, and watch new links trickle in over time!
What Makes a Good Backlink?
Focus on getting links from established sites closely related to your industry or topic. Avoid low-quality links from obscure, unrelated, or questionable sites, as these can hurt your rankings. Slowly build a diverse network of relevant, reputable backlinks over time. Quality over quantity is key!
Miguel
Well been working with computers since the mid 80's and online since the late 80's early 90's so I am one of the older guys even though I am only in my early mid 30's ;) I feel alot older , I have worked in many different fields and am currently running companies in Mexico that both secure government contracts and Finance, have been involved in the finance part of many projects over the last few years and have so far been succesfull in all endevors, don't get much free time but when I do I would like to start rebuilding this site that I bought from Austin,since I am not a programer I will probably be writing about all kinds of things wordpress, security, seo, marketing, making money online, hosting, news, technology, bussiness, social networking and what ever comes to mind, when ever I get the chance to blog