SEO checking list

8 SEO Tips: ToDo List

1. Website security

Make sure that your website is turned from HTTP to HTTPS.

2. SiteMap (.xml + html)

Existence of a sitemap both in
• .xml this can be done automatically with a CMS extension or the file can be placed on the root directory of the website ;
• SiteMap on an HTML page with the structure of your website. This page should be linked at the footer of your website. It will help Google to scroll your website, understand the structure and make it rank on Google.

3. Robots.txt

If you want Google to exclude some pages from Google, this should be added in the file and be present at the root of your hosting.

4. Page Speed Insight

Check out the Page Speed of your website for mobile and desktop and implement the modifications. Usually, the modifications will need to be done by a Developer, but basic stuff like Image optimization can be easily be done by a WebMaster

5. GA & Search Console

This will allow you to submit your sitemap, check for broken links, check how your website is ranking on Google (number of visits, time, location, queries, check with competitors…).

This can be done from any Google account, you need Gmail access – You can share the access with other colleagues that also possess a G-account. If you use WordPress, you can verify the property via a plug-in and the statistics would automatically be displayed in your back-hand of WordPress, as on your G-account.

6. Keywords Research

A keywords research is essential to know which term you want to rank for on Google. For this, I use Ahref – SEMRush websites. You will need to use these keywords at a specific pace on the page ( Title, H1, H2…)

7. Valuable content

Create content that is long enough, including the keywords, and write content that makes sense and is valuable for your visitor (The Google algorithm can understand the content and change the position of the ranking).

Yoast can be a helpful extension if you are using WordPress.

8. Duplicate Content

Do not Copy-Paste existing text content from other websites (duplicate content).

Your content always needs to be readable, do not add too many Keywords – otherwise, your website would be blacklisted from Google and not rank anymore. This is called Black Hat in SEO. If your website is existing for a few years, contains a blog with a lot of pages and articles, make sure that there are no “Ghost pages” that are not updated and still ranking on Google.

I found duplicate content with big websites. That is not good for the User Experience. Visitors might find out your website via Google Search, if he is landing on a blank page, he might leave straight away and this would have an impact on your Google Analytics / Google ranking and statistics.

Tools & Plugins

I am using a mix of various tools to check the source code and improve a website.

• HTML Validator is a Firefox extension that checks the HTML & CSS code of the website to spot any errors and give recommendations on how to make your website on the norm of W3C.
• Firefox Inspector is a Firefox extension I am using to look at the source code of a website and be able to debug and test CSS modification straight away.
• Screamingfrog A spider web crawler, to check the status of SEO (Security, H1, H2, Title, Keywords, alt...)
• Siteliner For Duplicate content
• Check My Links For broken links and to ask for LinkBuilding

This is not an exhaustive list.

Author: Delphine Camberlin
Published: March 2022