These are the tips the SEO pros use to raise their website rankings. If you want your website to bring you more business, schedule a no-cost consultation with Fisher Design to see what we can do for you.
2019 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist
- Set up Google Analytics. www.analytics.google.com
- Set up Google Tag Manager. Install tag on website.
- Set up Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools).
- Set up Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Perform keyword research. https://ads.google.com/intl/en_in/home/tools/keyword-planner/
- Install Yoast to your WordPress Website.
- Metadata: Add keyword phrases into page title, meta description, H1 header and throughout copy. If your business is city specific, add the main cities in each.
- Program keyword into URL, if possible.
- Have only one H1 header per page. (This is the main headline)
- Make sure you have at last 100 words per page; 500+ is best. Use keyword at least 3 times.
- Optimize your site for audible search. Answer questions people may ask Alexa or Siri: who is the best…
- Use synonyms in your copy, for example, lawyer and attorney.
- Add alt tags to all images.
- Add photo captions with keywords to as many images as possible.
- Name photos using good keywords.
- Cross link your pages to other pages within your website, from SEO-rich anchor text. Cross link bulleted list of services from home to other pages.
- Evaluate your competitor’s ranking and back links. https://www.semrush.com/features/backlinks/
- Regularly update your website copy and blogs.
- Contribute articles on other websites relevant to your business.
- Check Google Search console for bad links, crawl errors or 302 redirect errors.
- Make sure you don’t have duplicate copy or duplicate meta data. Never duplicate copy from another website.
- Make sure your website is mobile friendly
- Make sure your site is ADA compliant. www.Wave.webaim.org
- Use Schema markup.
- Check site’s load speed on mobile and desktop versions. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite/ and install caching software plug-in
- Create sitemap and submit to Google and Bing.
- Create robots.txt file and submit to Google console.
- Make sure your site does not have noindex or nofollow codes on pages you want Google to see.
- Set up as many social media channels as possible with links to your website.
- Set up as many directories as possible with links to your website. Yext is good for this. For example: Yelp, White pages, Yellow pages, trade organizations like thejomm.com, Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, Women Business Owners
- Optimize your Google My Business Listing and update often. Ask your clients to give you five star reviews and send them the link to do so. Would you mind leaving me a good review? (you will need a gmail account to do this)