MindMap Gallery SEO Checklist Update
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SEO Checklist Update
This is a mind map talking about SEO checklist. You can create a mind map like this effortlessly.
Edited at 2020-09-27 06:06:30
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- Outline
SEO Checklist
Purposes
SEO Services
SEO Audit
SEO Analysis
SEO Check list
Before
Client
who is him?
what does he sell?
where are his customers?
who are his customers?
what does he want? Leads, conversions, visits, ...
how many competitors in SERP?
Quantitative search
allintitle:"xxx yyy" analysis
Total Google results count, inurl, allinanchor, ...
"xxx yyy" search analysis
hom many rank better than him?
why?
where?
6/12 months target options
more visits
more time on site
more conversions
more registrations
lower bounce rate
more social sharing
...
Market Analysis
SERP Ranking
SERP Competition & Competitors
Inbound analysis
to consider
1. Architecture (navigation levels, internal linking, unnecessary redirection, too many URLs, orphaned pages, broken links, ...)
2. Indexing & Crawling (canonical, noindex, follow, nofollow, redirects, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, server errors)
3. Duplicate content & On page SEO (more url same page, repeated text, pagination, parameter based, dupe/missing titles, description, h1s, etc..)
4. Backlink Analysis
quality
PageRank
Page and Domain Authority (SEOmoz)
quantity
Google Webmastertools, Bing Webmastertools, SEOmoz, Ahrefs.com, Majestic SEO, ...
anchor text
Domain
History
age of the domain
EMD - keyword exact match in url
registration + hosting data
user history
Spammer neighbords
trust/authority of the host domain
Multi language websites
Use one gTLD
use many ccTLD
robots.txt
does it exist?
is it necessary?
is it correct?
Never block CSS and JS dependencies
http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html
root folder/robots.txt
Bot-Specific directives has priority over generic directives
Directives order doesn't impact on priorities
syntax
User-agent: *Disallow: /privatefolder/Disallow: /privatefile.html User-agent: Googlebot/2.1Disallow: /nogoogle.html Sitemap: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml #allow all CSS and JS filesallow: /*.css$allow: /*.js$ #Alternatively you can explicitly disallow single pagesUser-agent: *Disallow: /~joe/junk.htmlDisallow: /~joe/foo.htmlDisallow: /~joe/bar.html #Example 1: Block all, also sitemapUser-agent: *Disallow: / #Block a file estensionDisallow: /directory/*.estension #Block specific folderwww.dominio.com/directory/subdirectory/chiave/subdirectory/Disallow: /*/keyword/ #Block all url containing a specific wordwww.dominio.com/1chiave.estensionewww.dominio.com/2chiave.estensionewww.dominio.com/chiave3.estensioneDisallow: /*keyword #Block specific folderwww.dominio.com/1chiave1/www.dominio.com/2chiave2/www.dominio.com/chiave3/Disallow: /*keyword*/ #Block a page without block the same page plus parametersDisallow: /directory/file.estensione$Disallow: /directory/file.pdf$ #Block all URL with parametersDisallow: /*? #Block all URL with "get" parameterDisallow: /*?* #To exclude all robots from part of the serverUser-agent: *Disallow: /cgi-bin/Disallow: /tmp/Disallow: /junk/ #To exclude a single robotUser-agent: BadBotDisallow: / #To allow only GooglebotUser-agent: GoogleDisallow:User-agent: *Disallow: / #To exclude all robots from the entire serverUser-agent: *Disallow: / #To exclude all files except one#This is currently a bit awkward, as there is no "Allow" field. The easy way is to put all files to be disallowed into a separate directory, say "stuff", and leave the #one #file in the level above this directory:User-agent: *Disallow: /~joe/stuff/ #To allow all robots complete accessUser-agent: *Disallow:
sitemap.xml
is it complete?
check syntax
General recommendations
XML file named "Sitemap.xml"
file must be no larger than 50MB when uncompressed
place sitemap in root folder - The location of a Sitemap file determines the set of URLs that can be included in that Sitemap. A Sitemap file located at http://example.com/catalog/sitemap.xml can include any URLs starting with http://example.com/catalog/ but can not include URLs starting with http://example.com/images/.
no more than 50,000 URLs for a single sitemap
If you have more than one Sitemap, you can list them in a Sitemapindex.xml file and then submit the Sitemap index file to Google. You don't need to submit each Sitemap file individually.
If your site is accessible on both the www and non-www versions of your domain, you don’t need to submit a separate Sitemap for each version. However, we recommend picking either the www or the non-www version, and using recommended canonicalization methods to tell Google which version you are using.
Do not include session IDs in URLs
syntax
<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=’UTF-8’?><urlset xmlns=’http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9’><url><loc>http://www.mysite.com/</loc><lastmod>2012-05-25</lastmod><changefreq>monthly</changefreq><priority>0.8</priority></url><url>etc, etc, etc</url></urlset>
<Tag> - <Importance> - <Description><urlset> - Required - Encloses all information about the set of URLs included in the Sitemap.
<url> - Required - Encloses all information about a specific URL.
<loc> - Required - Specifies the URL. For images and video, specifies the landing page (aka play page, referrer page). Must be a unique URL.
<lastmod> - Optional - The date the URL was last modifed, in YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD format (time value is optional).
<changefreq> - Optional - Provides a hint about how frequently the page is likely to change. Valid values are:- always. Use for pages that change every time they are accessed.- hourly- daily- weekly- monthly- yearly- never. Use this value for archived URLs.
<priority> - Optional - Describes the priority of a URL relative to all the other URLs on the site. This priority can range from 1.0 (extremely important) to 0.1 (not important at all).Does not affect your site's ranking in Google search results. Because this value is relative to other pages on your site, assigning a high priority (or specifying the same priority for all URLs) will not help your site's search ranking. In addition, setting all pages to the same priority will have no effect.
Image Sitemap
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"> <url> <loc>http://example.com/sample.html</loc> <image:image> <image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc> </image:image> <image:image> <image:loc>http://example.com/photo.jpg</image:loc> </image:image> </url> </urlset>
Crawlability
Visible HTML links
Avoid only JS/Flash navigation
Tree Structure
easy navigation
Keep low navigation levels
Questions
how many URLs are indexed?
how many URLs are crawled by Googlebot everyday?
how many URLs are in the sitemap.xml?
How many URLs found crawling?Ex: Screaming Frog
How many canonical tags?
How many with parameters?
How many URLs are noindex?
How many URLs with duplicated content?
Indexability
Google Index
site:
Google index vs sitemap vs crawler
operators --> site: -subfolder
www vs not-www
site:example.com -inurl:www
site:www.example.com
check indexed pages
Indexed Pages Analysis (index vs sitemap)
Google Operators Queries
Main domain Page indexed --> site:example.com/
site:www.example.com
site:www.example.com -/eng/ -/blog
Primary Index --> site:example.com/*
Secondary Queries
- intitle:- inurl:- intext:- inanchor:- link:- filetype:
Good
sitemap total urls = indexed pages
Status Score = # URL in Google index / # URL in sitemap
> 0,8 = Good
< 0,8 = Not good
Bad
sitemap tot urls < indexed pages
check canonical, double contents/urls and unwanted indexed files
sitemap tot urls > indexed pages
why some pages are not indexed?
noindex?
duplicated content?
Tools
Google Webmaster Tools
Google search [site:www.example.com]
Screaming Frog
WebSite Auditor
HTTP status code
Internal/External
3xx, 4xx, 5xx
Redirections
Setup an IP redirection
Setup preferred domain
Redirect www to not-www or vice versa
Moved page
301
The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URI and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one of the returned URIs. Clients with link editing capabilities ought to automatically re-link references to the Request-URI to one or more of the new references returned by the server, where possible. This response is cacheable unless indicated otherwise.
Deleted page
404
404 Not Found: The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.
Temporary Redirect
302
302 Found (HTTP 1.1) / Moved Temporarily (HTTP 1.0) A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect. It passes 0% of link juice (ranking power) and, in most cases, should not be used. The Internet runs on a protocol called HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which dictates how URLs work. It has two major versions, 1.0 and 1.1. In the first version, 302 referred to the status code "Moved Temporarily." This was changed in version 1.1 to mean "Found."
307
307 Moved Temporarily (HTTP 1.1 Only) A 307 redirect is the HTTP 1.1 successor of the 302 redirect. While the major crawlers will treat it like a 302 in some cases, it is best to use a 301 for almost all cases. The exception to this is when content is really moved only temporarily (such as during maintenance) AND the server has already been identified by the search engines as 1.1 compatible. Since it's essentially impossible to determine whether or not the search engines have identified a page as compatible, it is generally best to use a 302 redirect for content that has been temporarily moved.
if the page you are removing has a suitable alternative page on your web site, then 301 it. Do not always 301 the page to your home page. If there is no suitable, and by suitable I mean, a page that is very similar to the page you are removing, then 404 the page.301 if there is a related and similar page to the page you are removing. 404 if there is not.
Redirect pages one-to-one, never many-to-one
Site URL
friendly url
keyword rich URLs
nevers use non-ASCII characters
www.example.com/page-title
page-title: keyword at beginning
blog:
www.example.com/2012/01/page-title
www.example.com/page-title (WordPress 2013)
URL Canonical
Good
http://www.mysite.com/
point to same domain
same subdomain
alfa.example.com can point to www.example.com
point https -> http
Bad
http://www.mysite.com
http://mysite.com/
http://www.mysite.com/index.html
http://mysite.com/index.html
chain canonical
syntax on id url
on page: http://www.example.com/page.html?sid=123
<head><link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/page.html"/></head>
URL structure
no underscore in url
silo structure
avoid URL parameters
keyword-rich URLs
no uppercase
use absolute url inside links: http://...
HTTPS
check redirections
navigation path
tree structure
use a light navigation (1-4 levels)
dynamic menu
breadcrumb
dynamic sidebar
footer
company info
Related post/article/product
Internal link structure
check internal link distribution
use specific anchor text
use sitemap.html
use homepage deep links for top products/pages
check most linked pages
Link
Links Position Weights
Links Higher Up in HTML Code Cast More Powerful Votes
External Links are More Influential than Internal Links
Links from Unique Domains Matter More than Links from Previously Linking Sites
Links from Sites Closer to a Trusted Seed Set Pass More Value
Links from "Inside" Unique Content Pass More Value than Those from Footers/Sidebar/Navigation
Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value than those in Alt Attributes of Linked Images
Links from More Important, Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value (even from less important pages)
Links Contained Within NoScript Tags Pass Lower (and Possibly No) Value
A Burst of New Links May Enable a Document to Overcome "Stronger" Competition Temporarily (or in Perpetuity)
Pages that Link to WebSpam May Devalue the Other Links they Host
Internal Links
Internal Links Distribution
more internal links to important pages
use keyword in anchor text
use keywords in URL
use structured levels: draw a tree/SILO
better no more than 100 link on page
Warning: Internal nofollow
<a rel="nofollow" href="www.example.com">Example</a>
Tools
Screaming Frog
Xenu
Broken links
Google Webmaster Tools
Download a back link report to see if you're missing out on links pointing to orphaned, 302 or incorrect URLs on your site. If you find people linking incorrectly, add some 301 rules on your site to harness that link juice
Open Site explorer
ahrefs.com
Majestic SEO
PageRank Distribution
YES
page A "index"
page B
page A "noindex"
page B
page A
page B "disallow"
page A "English"
page B "French"
NO
page A "404"
page B
page A
page B "404"
page A "disallow"
page B
page A "nofollow"
page B
Breadcrumbs
Use breadcrumbs!
schema.org markup
anchor text keyword rich
absolute link under HTTP
relative links under HTTPS
find not-HTML elements
with Google cache
can you see all elements?
fetch as Googlebot - GWMT
Avoid cloaking
No-JS Navigation check
try disable JS in browser
are you still able tu use and navigate the website?
CSS
remove unused rules
Merge
minify
Avoid iFrames
Check text/html ratio
Meta tag
Check HTML declared language vs real language
TAG Title
First TAG position: <head><title>Title</title></head>
Length: max 56 char included spaces
6-12 words
512 pixels
use important keywords at the beginning of the title
Weight: Keyword < Category | Website Title
Tool: AdWords keyword research
no repeat keywords
unique titles for every page
Avoid Stop Words
articles (such as “the”, ”an” and “a”)
auxiliary verbs (such as “am”, “is”, and “can”)
conjunctions (such as “and”, “or”, “but” and “while”)
particles (such as “if”, “then”, and “thus”)
prepositions (such as “of”, “that”, “on” and “for”)
pronouns (such as “he”, “we”, “which” and “her”)
...
Meta Description
Use Title keywords inside description text
length: max 156 char
24-48 words
920 pixels
use keywords at the beginning
repeat TOP keywords max 2x
unique description for every page
Meta keywords
from 5 to 20 words, include title keywords
longest first
initial cap
comma separated
unique SET for every page
if the page is an AdWords landing page, use AdWords bought keywords
META Language Tag
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="it">
Tip: better placed in sitemap
Multi Language:rel="alternate" hreflang="x"
in HEAD section
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.example.com/page.html" /><link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-gb" href="http://en-gb.example.com/page.html" /><link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-us" href="http://en-us.example.com/page.html" /><link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://de.example.com/seite.html" />
Meta Refresh (Warning, not safe)
Meta refreshes are a type of redirect executed on the page level rather than the server level. They are usually slower, and not a recommended SEO technique. They are most commonly associated with a five-second countdown with the text "If you are not redirected in five seconds, click here." Meta refreshes do pass some link juice, but are not recommended as an SEO tactic due to poor usability and the loss of link juice passed.
Force page refresh
Syntax
Place inside <head> to refresh page after 5 seconds:<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5">
Redirect to http://example.com/ after 5 seconds:<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5; url=http://example.com/">
Redirect to http://example.com/ immediately (BETTER):<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://example.com/">
An alternative is by sending an HTTP redirection header, such as HTTP 301 or 302
Robots meta tag
upload the robots.txt in the root directory
www.example.com/robots.txt
lang
<html lang="en">...</html>
In XHTML, the language is declared inside the <html> tag as follows:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">...</html>
ref: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp
noindex
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
nofollow
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow" />
noarchive
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">
no Google cache version
noodp
no open directory project
<meta name="robots" content="NOODP">
noydir
nosnippet
<meta name="googlebot" content="nosnippet">
hreflang
better in sitemap.xml
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="http://www.ex.com/fr/index.html" /><link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.ex.com/en/index.html" />
Link
<a href="http://www.w3schools.com" hreflang="en">W3Schools</a>
Meta Noindex
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
HTTP Header
X-Robots-Tag: noindex
Unavailable_after
<meta name="googlebot" content="unavailable_after: 25-Aug-2007 15:00:00 EST">
HTTP Header
X-Robots-Tag: unavailable_after: 7 Jul 2007 16:30:00 GMT
Headings H1 - H6
Use H1 one time for page, H2-H6 could be repeated
Use in order: H1>H2>H3>H4...
Headings should contain TOP keyword phrases
Length: 2-6 words
Check Tools:
Screaming Frog
Website Auditor
Marketing Grader
Traffic Travis
Xenu
Google Doc XMLIMPORT (f)
Strong & Italic
Use it on Keyword phrases and related terms
indexing tag
canonical tag
rel alternate
rel prev, rel next
Tools
URLsMatch.eu
Screaming Frog
Google Search Console
Images
Original images perform better
if you can't: filter it, resize it, mirror it, ...
image tag alt="define"
1 word every 16*40 pixels
1-12 words
include relevant keywords
unique text for each image
image tag title="define"
always define image dimensions in HTML
spider supported formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP or SVG.
Additionally: - the image filename is related to the image’s content;- the alt attribute of the image describes the image in a human-friendly way;- HTML page’s textual contents as well as the text near the image are related to the image.
Logo alt tag: "brand name" > "home" > "logo"
Compression .JPG 80%
Upload scaled images
schema.org markup
Rich Snippet
Microdata/Microformats/RDFa
Rating Stars
WordPress
GD STar Rating
Recipes
recipe details
Authorship
Multi-author
Single Author
Thumbnail
Products Price
Schema.org
Google Rich Snippets Testing tool
Rich Snippet submission form
breadcrumbs markup
Use Local business markup
Custom 404 page
check status code
must be 404!
Content optimization
1. Post it on your website with no strings attached. It’s free and yourequire no personal information from prospects2. Blog about it3. E-mail your in-house database4. Post it on your social media profiles5. Publish a press release (pitch it to the media too)6. Create an ad campaign using banner and text ads7. Reach out to popular and respected bloggers in your industry andget them to blog about it8. Mention it in your next monthly newsletter9. Use it as a basis for a webinar or podcast episode10. Produce a video about it
update frequency
constancy rewards
logic organization
Menu design
Tree design
In blog use categories & TAGS
SEO copywriting
Study SERP to find nice free places
AdWords keyword Tool for traffic
study best title
*see TAGS
study right keywords
use at least 350 words
Keyword density
Good
human friendly
< 5%
Bad
> 10%
too much kw repetitions
bad human readability
write with steps
Intro
content
End
nice images
alt tag with main keywords
title tag with main keywords
image file name with main keywords
link title
call to action
forms on landing pages
affiliate links
phone calls
readability
text dimensions
easy words and phrases
Content and Usability
design
deep/levels
max 3
load speed
latency
image caching
pages caching
compression
CDN
Tools
Page speed
Good
Speed >75%
Yslow
Good
B
GT metrix
Mobile
– Mobile friendly website (Wordpress Touch/Mobify/...)– Mobile ads (SMS Text/video/Google Mobile ads)– Mobile & Social integration– Mobile apps/QR codes
content
body text & word count > 350
content generation
frequency
content quality
keyword focus
SEO copywriting
tag HTML5
tag Schema.org
freshness
Keywords
Keyword list
on site analysis
competitors websites
AdWords keywords tools
competitors
cost
competitors
traffic
estimated traffic
cost
competitors
traffic
phrase
exact
Google Analytics
Goal
conversions
filters
Branded / not branded
ITA/ENG (lingua)
time on site
visit deep
Google SERP Analysis
opportunity
new keywords
easy ranking areas
weak competitors
treath
aggressive competitors
what they do?
natural ranking
AdWords
social
link building
tools
KW analysis
potential traffic
SEO and PPC competition
Google Analytics
access kw
time on site
visit deep
Ubersuggest
http://ubersuggest.org/
Google AdWords
kw tools
traffic tools
Rank Traker
Keep ranking history
competitors ranking
EVE Milano Keywords Tool
www.evemilano.com/keyword-tool/
Language Management
use rel alternate href lang
change language button
redirect to the same page
do not redirect to the homepage!
Usability
Mobile implementation
Responsive design
setup meta viewport
Dinamic site
desktop and mobile has same URL
identify user-agent
setup http vary
Dedicate mobile site m.
identify user-agent
setup Mobile redirect
check Webserver Performances
GTmetrix
PageSpeed
webpagetest
Inbound
External 404
if backlink brings authority, redirect the 404
check Link popularity for the 404 resource
check Backlink anchor text
check Most linked pages
avoid too many site wide backlinks
Local directories to start
Backlinks (Inbound)
Rank inbound link?
PageRank
DomainRank
Ahrefs.com Rank
Majestic
Moz Rank
Page Authority
Domain Authority
Link building
Anchor texts
Brand
min 60%
Brand Name
KW + brand name
URL
Navigational
max 20%
click here
Local
Local Brand
City + Brand Name
Local Transational
City + Service Keyword
Transational
max 20%
Exact Service Keyword
KW
different KW for different landing
social bookmarking
See social section
social networks
See social section
link ads
use nofollow tag
publish quality content for natural linking
Blogs and Forums
find comments dofollow
warning: don't buy links
link exchange?
no site-wide
yes dedicated page
web directories
local
general
dmoz
yahoo! directory
yellow pages
Local Directories
Yelp
Foursquare
Google Map
article marketing
infographics
guest article
on related blogs
Feed RSS
Use partial RSS file
Register RSS to Aggregators websites
Insert deep links inside RSS
Correct Broken links - 404
definitive
use Redirect 301
Yes PageRank
temp
use Redirect 302
No PageRank
link pruning?
- Ask for link removal- Ask nofollow tag- noindex on destination page- Disallow with robots.txt- redirect 410- redirect 404- copy page and move internal link + noindex
Social signals
Channels
Google Plus
Authorship Link for bloggers
use Keyword and description
frequent updates
use sidebar links
actions
Content generation
frequent updates
Call to action
nice contents
Commenti
analysis and shared answers
Landing page/Form
flash
static html
imagemap
cms
ecommerce
Like button indication
app
form
Open Graph integration
website side
Advertising
Inside Facebook
min CTR > 0,03 (3%)
min CPL > 0,3 (30%)
Landing customization
social shared ads
Outside Facebook
More expensive
use url builder
autocontent generation
Facebook Connection
rss graffiti
auto Hashtag generation
Company page
personal page
Group
ADS
budget: min 10$/day and 2$ click
not all language (!)
Share button plugin on website
Pin it button plugin
create topic dashboards
follow the moods, don't use it only to promote
Social Plugins
Like button
to Company page
to Website URL
Open Graph TAG implementation
Comments
Boxes
fans
sharing activity/recommendation
Facebook Connect
Auto login
Share button
Follow
tweet feed
Linkedin Button
follow company
follow profile
share button
Social Bookmarking
Stumble Upon
Digg
Del.icio.us
Google +1
"Add to my circles" Button
+1 Button
Pin It Button
Follow Me Button
Google penalties
Internal 2x content
External 2x content
Low quality and/or thin content
Bad backlink profile
much more...
Negative aspects
duplicated contents
internal
external
check kw rank history
duplicated meta
server down time
spam and site-wide links
link pruning activities
Sponsored links
malware on server
Directory backlink
if unique source
hidden text
by css
longer url with too much parameters
too much levels
adsense abuse
bad usability
bad contents
high bounce rate
short content
short time on page
flash
low quality out-bound links
spamming/stuffing/hiding
spam inbound links
having too many transactional anchor text
advertising abuse
site wide links
dofollow sponsor links
link selling/buying