1) Prepare Your Website With A Solid SEO Foundation
Your first stop when kicking off an SEO project is to:
- Set up Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Set up Google Analytics.
- Install and configure SEO plugins.
- Generate and submit a sitemap.
- Create a robots.txt file.
Every once in a while, especially when working on a new project or after any large changes, you should:
- Check GSC for manual actions.
- Make sure Google can index your site.
2) Create Your Strategy With Keyword Research:
- Keyword research is the basis for any successful organic SEO strategy.
- Create and tweak your strategy often based on these keyword research best practices:
- Identify your competitors.
- Find your main “money” keywords.
- Find long-tail keyword variations that help you capture high-conversion traffic.
Once you’ve established your keywords, it’s time to refine your strategy:
- Create a keyword map.
- Analyze the intent of pages that rank.
- Identify questions that are being asked.
- Understand how difficult it is to rank for your target keywords.
3) Check For Errors & Perfect Your Technical SEO
- Make sure you are using HTTPS.
- Check for duplicate versions of your site in Google’s index.
- Find and fix crawl errors.
- Improve your site speed.
- Fix broken internal and outbound links.
- Find and fix HTTP links on HTTPS pages.
- Make sure that your website is mobile-friendly.
- Use an SEO-friendly URL structure.
- Check the page depth of your site.
- Add structured data.
- Check temporary 302 redirects.
- Find and fix redirect chains and loops.
4) Make Sure Your Content Meets The Right Needs With On-page SEO
- Create The Right Content & Optimize It With SEO In Mind
- Find and fix duplicate, missing, and truncated title tags.
- Find and fix duplicate and missing meta descriptions.
- Find and fix multiple H1 tags.
- Improve title tags, meta tags, and page content.
- Once you know which pieces of content are propelling your site forward, your next step is to:
- Ensure images use alt tags.
- Improve internal linking.
- Find and fix keyword cannibalization issues.
- Find and fix orphaned site pages.
- Ensure your site’s content is up to date.
5) Analyze Your Competitor’s Backlink Profiles
- Analyze your competitors’ link profiles.
- Conduct a link intersect analysis.
- Turn un linked mentions into links.
- Find new link building opportunities.
- Set up and optimize your Google Business Profile.
