SEO – Checklist for Beginners
Here is a short checklist which brings all the chapters of this tutorial together. Use it before you publish a page, and again for the full site once in a while.
Before you write
- I know the main keyword of the page and its search intent.
- No other page of my site targets the same keyword.
- I checked what the top pages give, and I can make a better one.
Content
- The page answers the question fully, in simple words.
- It has something original: experience, examples, data or pictures.
- The facts are correct and the sources are given.
- It has the author name, and the date is correct.
On-page SEO
- Title tag is unique, about 50 to 60 characters, with the keyword. See Title Tag.
- Meta description is unique and clear. See Meta Description.
- There is one H1, and a logical order of H2 and H3. See Headings.
- The URL is short, lowercase and readable. See URLs.
- Images are compressed, have alt text, width and height. See Images.
- There are internal links to related pages, and the anchor text is descriptive. See Internal Linking.
Technical SEO
- The site uses HTTPS, and all http URLs redirect to https. See Mobile Friendly and HTTPS.
- The page works well on mobile.
- The page is fast. Core Web Vitals are good. See Page Speed.
- The page has a self canonical tag. See Canonical URLs.
- The page is not blocked by robots.txt, and has no accidental noindex. See Robots.txt.
- The page is in the XML sitemap, and the sitemap is submitted. See XML Sitemap.
- Structured data is added where it fits and has no errors. See Structured Data.
- A real 404 page exists, and there are no broken links. See 404 Page.
Off-page and local
- I have a plan to earn good backlinks in a safe way. See Backlinks.
- For a local business, the Google Business Profile is complete. See Local SEO.
Tracking
- The site is verified in Google Search Console. See Search Console.
- Google Analytics 4 is working. See Google Analytics.
- I check the reports every week or month, and improve the pages which have many impressions but few clicks.
After you publish
- Check the page with the URL Inspection tool, and request indexing for an important page.
- Share the page with people who may find it useful.
- Come back after a few weeks, check the search queries in Search Console, and improve the page.
Note:
SEO is a long game. Small good habits done every week give a better result than a big effort done one time. Also read the interview questions and try the exercises of this website, to practice.
Congratulations! Chapter Finished. Learn more about the similar topics:
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