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Search Engine Optimisation Starter Checklist This list is the basics of what you need to do to set up and manage your website search engine

optimisation. Before you start it is important that you use one google account for all your google

products and tools https://accounts.google.com/signup

On-Page & Off-Page SEO Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)

Structure your site according to how your customers need to navigate your content

Make your website responsive / mobile friendly (test here https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ )

Are you using AMP on mobile pages? https://www.ampproject.org/

Is your domain.com redirected to www.domain.com (or vice versa)

Keep important pages top level

Include breadcrumb navigation (and markup – see GSC section)

Include html sitemap (normally link in footer)

Include cookie notice

Complete keyword research - Online research using Google Search Console GCS (search

analytics data) and other tools like keyword planner, Google auto complete, Google trends etc

- Offline research – talk and listen to customers, brainstorm with colleagues, existing marketing collateral

- Validate – choose the most relevant from the lists you have collated above

- Prioritise – choose the ones that will bring you the best, most relevant traffic

Include your target keywords / search phrases in the following areas (if possible – remember user impact)

- Page names (especially if they are generating breadcrumb navigation and page titles)

- Page url’s (do not change an existing url without putting a 301 redirect in place)

- Page / article headings (h1) - First line of copy if possible and bold if possible also - Secondary headings (h2-h6) use headings to structure

your content primarily) - Body of content – amount will depend on amount of text

but at least a 2-3 times. You do not need to use the exact phrase many times - use synonyms and acronyms

- Image alt text - Link anchor text (the text that is clickable)

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- Meta html page title – keep to 70 characters and front load

- Meta content description – keep to 160 characters - Link anchor text on links coming from external sites

Is fresh RELEVANT content being added on a regular basis e.g. blog, articles, case studies etc. This is extremely important as it keeps your site fresh, keeps people coming back for more and provides credibility and shows your expertise.

Inbound links – are you increasing the amount and quality of links from external websites

Add social share buttons to key content e.g. blog articles, case studies etc. (Google does not directly use social signals but they do look at traffic and bounce rate etc)

Local SEO – - Include your NAP details (Name, Address and Phone

Number) in the footer on all pages, location and contact page

- Ensure NAP details are the same across all online listings - Set up your Google local listing (see below)

Google Analytics www.google.com/analytics

Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)

Set up GA and installed code on website

Set up e-commerce tracking (if selling online)

Set up goals e.g. forms filled in, time on site etc

Set up event tracking e.g. videos viewed, documents downloaded etc

Set up monthly report and set it to be emailed to you monthly

Activate demographic data

Connect with Google Search Console

Google Search Console GSC (previously Google Webmaster Tools) https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)

Submit site and verify (submit domain.com and www.domain.com)

Generate and submit XML sitemap

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Review pages submitted vs indexed (ensure correct number submitted and most are indexed)

Review crawl errors and fix (normally 404 errors so 301 redirects will be needed)

Review structured data and implement if none present (as a basic you should mark up the following)

- Products - Breadcrumb - Logo - Local business - Search box - Corporate contacts e.g. CEO - Social media profile links - Articles - Events - Courses - Music - TV & Movies - Recipes - Reviews - Videos - Social media profile links

Info available here: https://developers.google.com/structured-data/

Set preferred domain (in settings)

Set geo target (if relevant to do so) Info here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ie/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html

Review search analytics to ensure your chosen keywords are getting a good ranking and generating traffic (use this data for keyword research also on existing sites)

Review HTML improvements report for duplicate meta data and canonical issues (fix issues that arise)

Review links to your site and ensure this number is growing all the time from relevant high ranking sites (alternative tool to monitor and manage this is Open Site Explorer)

Review server response time and website overall speed using Google Page Speed Insights – aim for 80/100 or over Server response time below 200ms

Ensure all relevant pages can be indexed (Robot Txt file in GSC or review meta in code – handy Chrome Ad-On https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/noindexnofollow-meta-tag/aijcgkcgldkomeddnlpbhdelcpfamklm ). This means that you have not blocked search engines form indexing relevant pages.

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