94-Point SEO Checklist [Guide 2019

June]

SEO stands for “search engine 

optimization.” It is the process of getting 
traffic from the “free,” “organic,” 
“editorial” or “natural” search results on 
search engines. 
1- ​Unique Domain Name 
You should pick a unique domain name that is easy to 
remember and easy-to-pronounce. You might be tempted to 
pick an exact match domain (EMD). But you should not go for it. 
A partial match domain (PMD) is not only a safe bet but also 
provides some SEO benefits. 
2- ​Use Country TLD Extension 
If you want your website to rank higher for any particular 
country, you should opt for a country code top-level domain (.in, 
.ca, .pt). However, doing so limits your site’s ability to rank 
globally. 
3- U
​ se Keyword in Title Tags 
After content, a title tag is the second most important element 
of a webpage. It tells search engines what the page is about. 
You should always use keywords in the Title Tags of your web 
pages. 
4- F
​ ront Load Title Tags With Keyword 
According to ​Moz data​, web pages having Title Tags starting 
with keywords perform better than those with keywords at the 
end of Title Tags. My friend, make sure that you front-load Title 
tags with important keywords. 
5- ​Use Keywords in Meta Descriptions 
Make sure you use important keywords in Meta descriptions. 
Doing so will help Google know what the pages are about. Also, 
you should not forget to add a call-to-action (CTA) to the Meta 
descriptions of your website. 
6- ​Use Keyword h1 Tag 
After a Title tag, h1 tag plays an important role in sending 
relevancy signals to search engines. According to a study, using 
a keyword in h1 tag offers some SEO benefit. So never forget to 
use a keyword in h1 tag. 
7- K
​ eyword Density Still Matters 
No matter what people say, keyword density still matters. But 
not as much as it used to be. You should include the main 
keyword and other key phrases in a natural manner in your 
content. 
8- ​Use LSI Keywords in Content 
According to a study, long tail keywords not only increased 
website traffic but also converted 2.5 times better than head 
terms. So, my friend, start using LSI keywords in your content. 
Check my post- How to Find Long Tail Keywords (Step-By-Step 
Guide) for more details about long tail keywords. 
9- ​Remove Duplicate Content 
If your website pages have similar content, this is not good for 
ranking. You should remove duplicate content. Google has 
explained the issue of duplicate content at length. 
10- ​Create SEO-friendly URL structures 
According to Search Engine Journal, excessively long URLs may 
affect search engine visibility. URL path also matters – a page 
close to a homepage may get some boost in search engine 
ranking. So make sure your website has SEO-friendly URL 
structures. 
11- O
​ ptimize Images 
On site SEO checklist cannot be completed without image 
optimization. Not only should you optimize the size of your 
images but also optimize Metadata. Make sure file name, alt 
text, title, description, and caption all are optimized to maximize 
SEO benefit. 
12- U
​ pdate Content Frequently 
Google always looks for fresh content that meets searchers’ 
queries. By updating content frequently, you will add a 
freshness factor to it, improving the chance to rank higher. 
Therefore, make a habit to update frequently the content on 
your website. 
13- ​Use Keyword in the First Paragraph 
Having the main keyword in the first 100 words is a strong 
relevancy signal. So you should try to make sure that you use 
the main keyword in the first paragraph. 
14- ​Do Proper Internal Linking 
According to ​Yoast​, “By adding the right internal links you make 
sure Google understands the relevancey of pages, the 
relationship between pages and the value of pages.” 
My friend, your website must have proper internal linking. 
15- Q
​ uality Internal Links Pointing to a Page 
Make sure your important pages are interlinked with high 
authority pages on your website. 
16- H
​ ave High-Authority Outbound Links 
Linking out high-authority websites sends trust signals to 
search engine, thereby helping a web page rank better. 
17- ​Check Grammar and Spelling Errors 
Nobody likes reading anything written poorly, nor does Google. 
Check Grammar and spelling errors on your web pages 
carefully. 
18- ​Readability of Content 
You should write in simple, plain English. Why? Increasing 
readability of your content widens the reach. More people will 
be able to connect with your content. 
19- H
​ ave Main Content Above the Fold 
Google’s main objective is to provide search results that meet 
the searchers’ queries. The ​Page Layout Algorithm p​ enalizes 
websites that don’t have much content above the fold. 
20- W
​ rite Powerful Headlines 
Copyblogger says, 8 out of 10 people read headlines and only 2 
read the rest copy. Needless to say, headlines play a vital role in 
the success of your content. Craft irresistible headlines that 
readers can’t ignore. 
21- U
​ se Bullets and Numbered Lists 
Mobile searches are more than desktop searches, meaning 
people are using their mobile phones to access the web. And 
nobody likes to scroll down long articles on a mobile phone. By 
using bullets and numbers, you break up your content for 
readers, making it more user-friendly. 
22- ​Frequently Update Your Blog 
It has been proven in many studies that frequently updating 
website blog brings in more visitors. According to ​Hubspot​, 
“Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got 
almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published 
between 0 – 4 monthly posts.” 
23- ​Use Video Content 
People like to watch videos. Youtube has become the second 
search engine. My friend, you cannot ignore video content. Jodi 
Harris has written a great ​article​ on how to create video content 
that brings results. 
24- ​Have a Complete ‘Contact Us’ Page 
Google prefer the websites that have proper contact 
information. So you should make sure that your website has a 
complete ‘contact us’ page. 
25- S
​ erver Location 
Server location might influence your ranking in different 
geographical reasons, especially for geo-specific searches. 
Choosing server in the country where you are going to focus 
your business doesn’t make much difference on your pocket. 
26- ​SSL Certificate 
Security is a top priority for Google, and Google has made 
HTPPS a ranking signal. Make sure your website has SSL 
certificate. 
27- ​Social Sharing Buttons 
The last but not the least in on site SEO checklist, ​you should 
include social sharing buttons​ to make it easy for readers to 
share your content. 
SEO Checklist for Technical SEO 
According to ​Neil Patel​, “Technical SEO just refers to any SEO 
work that is done aside from the content. Essentially, it’s laying a 
strong foundation to give your content the best chance it can 
have to rank for relevant keywords and phrases.” 
Like many other SEO strategies, technical SEO has changed a 
lot. Our technical SEO best practices will keep you updated on 
what brings the top results. 
Let’s discuss SEO checklist for Technical SEO in 2018. 
28- S
​ ubmit Sitemap to Search Engines 
A Sitemap makes it easy for search engines to index the pages 
of your website. Make sure you have submitted the sitemap of 
your website to search engines. 
29- ​Robot.txt 
You should create robot.txt file following search engines’ 
guidelines. Here is G
​ oogle’s document​on robot.txt file. It is 
advisable that you should go through it. 
30- U
​ se Sitemap Priority Tags 
If you want search engines to give priority to a few pages on 
your website, you should properly use sitemap priority tags. To 
get more information about sitemap priority tags, you should 
visit this ​sitemap.org’s page​. 
31- ​Check Indexing of Your Pages 
For maximum benefits, you should get all of your website pages 
indexed. But sometimes, Google removes web pages from 
Google index. You should keep checking indexing of your web 
pages. 
32- ​Check Crawlability 
Site structure, internal link structure, looped redirects, 
unsupported scripts sometimes affect crawlability. So you 
should keep checking crawlability from time to time. 
33- I​ mprove PageSpeed 
As mentioned earlier, mobile searches are more than desktop 
searches now. And Google is experimenting mobile first 
indexing and will start considering pagespeed as​ a ranking 
factor​ by July 2018. You should improve pagespeed of your 
website. 
34- D
​ on’t Forget to Use Canonical Links 
If used properly, canonical links can solve the duplicate content 
issue. Yoast has published a​ long guide​ on the topic. 
35- ​Use Proper Redirects 
Redirects are used to send search engines and users to different 
URLs from the ones they requested. When you are redirecting 
one URL to another, you should follow the​ best redirect 
practices t​ o retain SEO value. 
36- ​Use Structured Data 
Search engines work hard to decipher the content of a page. By 
using​ structured data​, you will provide search engine explicit 
clues about the meaning of the content. 
37- D
​ on’t Use Flash On Your Website 
As all search engines are not able to crawl and index flash (and 
the ones that do often do it with error), you should avoid using 
flash on your website. SEJ has explained 5 ​ reasons ​why you 
should not use flash. 
38- ​Accelerated Mobile Pages Can Improve Ranking 
Though Google has repeatedly said that accelerate mobile 
pages are not a ranking factor, we can understand that having 
AMPs can improve ranking. How? AMPs improve pagespeed. 
And Google will start considering pagespeed as a mobile 
ranking factor. 
39- ​Optimize for Voice Search 
With the exponential growth of mobile searches, the trend of 
voice search is catching up very fast. You should make sure that 
your website is optimized for voice search. I have written a 
detailed guide to o
​ ptimizing for Google voice search​. 
40- R
​ emove Site’s Downtime 
You should make sure that your site has minimum downtime 
because lots of downtime from server issues may affect your 
ranking. If you don’t fix it, your site might be deindexed. 
41- ​Use Geo-Targeting 
You should consider Geo-targeting if you want to promote your 
business in a specific country. Google might give a little 
preference to websites that have local server IP and 
country-specific name. 
42- ​Remove All Technical Errors 
Coming to the end of SEO checklist for technical SEO, your 
website should be free from every technical error. Even a small 
technical error can have a serious implication. 
SEO Checklist for Off-Page 
Off page SEO are techniques that are executed outside the 
website to improve the search visibility of a website. You must 
understand that off site SEO is not just about building links. Off 
page activities go deeper than that. 
Following are the important pointers for off page SEO checklist 
in 2018. 
43- E
​ arn Backlinks from Aged Domains 
Needless to say, backlinks from aged domains have more value 
than backlinks from newer domains. So keep trying to acquire 
backlinks from aged domains. 
44- E
​ arn Backlinks from Different Root Domains 
One of the most important ranking factors is to get backlinks 
from different root domains. According to a M
​ oz study​, “The 
number of linking root domains correlates well with rankings.” 
45- ​.edu and .gov Links 
As Google values high-authority links, many SEO experts believe 
that .edu and .gov links have a special place in Google 
algorithm. And there is a valid reason behind it. 
46- ​Earn Links from High Authority Domains 
Earning links from high authority websites play an important 
role in ranking. So try to get backlinks from high authority 
websites. 
47- A
​ udit Your Backlink Profile 
To ensure everything is abided by Google’s Guidelines for 
backlink scheme. And you should disavow bad backlinks that 
you find in these audits. 
48- ​Avoid Getting Backlinks from Bad Websites 
Links from bad, spammy websites will downgrade your 
website’s authority, thereby resulting in lower ranking on 
Google. 
49- ​Diversify Your Backlink Profile 
If your website has a big percentage of links that come from a 
single source (blog comments or forum profiles), Google can 
consider it a sign of webspam and may penalize your website. 
Therefore, you should diversify your backlink profile. 
50- ​Have Proper Backlink Anchor 
You should have proper anchor texts of your backlinks, 
explaining clearly what readers will get if they click on a 
backlink. Having confusing anchor to make it a clickbait might 
affect your website adversely. 
51- C
​ heck Internal Link Anchor 
According to ​Brain Dean​, “Internal link anchor text is another 
relevancy signal, although probably weighed differently than 
backlink anchor text.” Make sure you have interlinked web 
pages properly. 
52- E
​ liminate Poison Anchor Text 
Pharmacy keywords, lottery, free win are often signs of spam or 
a hacked site. So backlinks with poison anchor text can hurt 
your website’s ranking. Make sure you disavow backlinks with 
poison anchor text. 
53- ​Avoid Reciprocal Links 
An important point in SEO checklist for off page SEO in 2018! 
According to ​Google Link Schemes​, “excessive link exchanges 
(“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for 
the sake of cross-linking should be avoided.” 
54- ​Try to Earn Backlink from Long Content 
Ask anyone about the best link building strategy and you will 
get the same answer – earning backlinks. It has been observed 
in many studies that long form, editorial content is one of the 
best tools to earn backlinks. 
55- A
​ void Backlinks from Poorly Written Content 
Acquiring backlinks from poorly written content adversely affect 
the ranking of a website. You should always try to avoid geting 
backlinks from thin, spammy content. 
56- B
​ uild Broken Links 
Never ignore broken links as having them sends a sign of a 
neglected website. You should audit your backlink profile from 
time to time to find and build broken links. 
57- ​Get Reviews on High Authority Website 
More positive reviews build the authority of your website on 
search engines, thereby improving the chance of getting a 
higher ranking. So persuade your users to write reviews on 
high-authority websites, such as Yelp, Better Business Bureau, 
etc. 
58- ​Aim for Link Earning 
Instead of making link building your primary link building 
strategy, you should aim for creating resources and earning 
links. 
59- E
​ nsure Backlinks Relevancy 
You should make sure that the content you’re acquiring 
backlinks from is relevant to your business. Getting backlinks 
from irrelevant content might adversely affect your ranking on 
search engines. 
60- C
​ omments on Leading Blogs and Forums 
Commenting on leading blogs and forums not only provides 
you with the tons of referral traffic but also gives you some PR 
value. However, you should always leave insightful comments, 
or else Google might punish you considering it a webspam 
practice. 
61- C
​ reate a Detailed Infographic for Link Earning 
A detailed infographic is one of the best ways to earn backlinks. 
So include it in your off page SEO activities. 
62- ​Check Your Competitors’ Backlink Profile 
If you want to outgrow your competitors, you should audit your 
competitors’ backlink profiles. This will help you plan an 
aggressive backlink building strategy to beat your competitors. 
63- ​Use Social Media Ads 
The reach of organic social media sucks. Rarely, you can achieve 
your business objective through organic promotion. From time 
to time, you should employ paid social media ads to boost 
reach. 
64- ​Use PPC Campaigns 
To provide the much-needed initial boost to your content, you 
should run PPC campaigns. 
65- U
​ se Google Keyword Planner 
Google keyword planner will help you find untapped 
opportunities. Always, create off page optimization content after 
doing proper keyword research. 
66- ​Make a Kickass Outreach Strategy 
To maximize the success of your off page content, you need to 
get your content promoted by your audience and influencers in 
your niche. To do so, you need to make a kickass outreach 
strategy. 
67- ​Do Guest Posting 
This is another important point in SEO checklist for off page SEO 
in 2018. You should write guest posts for leading websites in 
your business domain. However, Google d ​ iscourages guest 
posting campaigns​ and large-scale article marketing with 
keyword-rich anchor text links. 
68- B
​ e Active on Quora 
This question and answer community has around 190 million 
unique visitors as of April 2017. This means you have a great 
potential to build your brand here. By being active on Quora, 
you can know what you should create that your audience would 
love to read. Also, Quora can provide you with the tons of 
referral traffic. 
SEO Checklist for UI/UX 
The simple, good, old days of SEO are now over – you stuff a web 
page with keywords, build links, and you are there. Now, it takes 
hundreds of factors to rank on search engines. 
UI/UX is now included in the best SEO practices. 
Here is an SEO checklist that you should follow in 2018 to get 
better search results. 
69- ​Have Responsive Website Design 
You will never know on which device your audience is accessing 
the web. Therefore, you should have a responsive website 
design to reap the maximum benefits. 
70- U
​ se font of at least 14 pixels 
Mobile searches are more than desktop searches. So, my friend, 
font size matters. You should use the font of at least 14 pixels. 
71- ​Use Font Color That Complements Your Theme 
To offer high-quality user experience, you should make sure that 
font color complements your website theme. 
72- ​Enough WhiteSpace Between Headings and Paragraphs 
White space not only makes your website pleasing but also 
makes content easy to skim. Make sure there is enough 
whitespace between headings and paragraphs. 
73- U
​ se Large Size Touch Elements 
If you use small size touch elements, users might click on the 
wrong buttons. Therefore, you should use large size touch 
elements. 
74- H
​ ave Graphic-rich Content 
To increase dwell time on your website and avoid pogo sticking, 
you should have graphic-rich content on your website. 
75- ​Avoid Interstitials 
According to ​Google​, 
“To improve the mobile search experience, after January 10, 
2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on 
the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as 
highly.” 
Avoid using interstitials if you want to dominate mobile 
searches. 
76- ​Use a Distinct Color for Links 
To make your website more user-friendly, you should use a 
distinct color for links so that users can easily understand where 
links are. 
77- ​A Line Should not be More Than 65 Characters 
As a big percentage of people read on mobile devices. It is 
better not to write more than 65 characters in a line. 
Bonus Points: 
Thanks for reading so far. We have come to the end of the post. 
But wait! 
Here are some bonus points that can help you rank better on 
search engines. 
78- A
​ sk People to Contribute to Your Blog 
Asking industry experts and influencers to write on your blog. 
This will increase the traffic on your blog. Influencers and 
industry experts tend to have a big list of followers, so you will 
see a traffic boost when they will share their guest posts 
published on your blog. 
79- ​Do Google Maps Marketing 
As Google Maps results also appear in search results, you cannot 
ignore ​Google Maps Marketing​if you want to outgrow your 
competitors. It is the best tool to target locals. 
80- ​Do local SEO 
Local SEO​ is important to reach prospects in your locality. So 
follow the​ best local SEO strategies​to dominate local ranking. 
81- ​Optimize for ‘Near Me’ Searches 
With the growth of mobile searches, more and more people are 
now conducting ‘keywords+near me’ searches. Therefore, you 
should​ optimize your business for keywords+near me searches​. 
82- A
​ void Temporary Link Scheme 
Adopting a temporary link building scheme will do more harm 
than any good to your website, so you should avoid it. Here are 
Google’s Guidelines​ for Link Schemes. 
83- ​Never Ignore Google Webmaster Messages 
Google Webmaster messages often provide you with early 
warnings of what went wrong with your website. Therefore, you 
should never ignore Google Webmaster messages. 
84- ​Never Have Ads Above The Fold 
Having ads above the fold can get your website penalized under 
Page Layout Algorithm. So you should avoid it. 
85- ​Never Hide Affiliate Links 
You should never hide affiliate links. According to Brain Dean, 
“Google’s algorithm may pay closer attention to other quality 
signals to make sure you’re not a “thin affiliate site”. 
86- G
​ et Brand Mentions on News Sites 
Getting brand mentions on news sites not only helps in PR but 
also helps in building a reputation on search engines. So never 
ignore any opportunity to get brand mentions on news sites. 
87- C
​ reate o
​ fficial LinkedIn Company Page 
Most real businesses have LinkedIn company pages. So having 
an officiant LinkedIn company page will be beneficial. 
88- ​Incorporate User-Generated Content 
People trust user-generated content, so does Google. 
Incorporating user-generated in your SEO and content 
marketing strategies will yield better results. 
89- A
​ void Excessive 301 redirects 
Links coming from 301 redirects dilute some page rank value. So 
you should avoid excessive 301 redirects. 
90- U
​ se Google Analytics 
Any SEO checklist 2018 will not be complete without 
emphasizing the importance of using Google Analytics. You will 
get tons of intelligent insights to optimize your SEO campaigns 
for better results. 
91- H
​ ave a Human Editor on Your Blog 
Having editors can help. Though never confirmed, Google filed a 
patent ​for system and method for supporting editorial opinion 
in the ranking of search results. 
92- ​Promote Your Content Aggressively 
Needless to say, how good your content is, it will not bring you 
maximum results unless you promote your content 
aggressively. I believe you should focus 50% of your efforts on 
content creation and 50% on content promotion. 
93- ​Use Skyscraper Technique 
Use Skyscraper technique to maximize the success of your 
content. Brian Dean was able to boost his site traffic by 110% in 
just 14 days with this technique. 
94- ​Do Influencer Marketing 
Influencer marketing is a great way to amplify the reach of your 
content. When an influencer shares your content, not only more 
people will see your content but more people will also trust your 
content. 
————————————————————————————- 
Is your website struggling with google ranking? 
I’m open for any help – C
​ ontact me
Emai: ​marketing@gugoslav.com
Website: gugoslav.com

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