The Ultimate SEO Checklist for 2020
What SEO is?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)is the main tool to rank a website in Search Engines. It requires many efforts to fulfill all the requirements of SEO. In fact, SEO is a technical term and SEO assistance can always be a good option. SEO is as necessary as your content to rank in Google. The Ultimate SEO Checklist for 2020 will be helpful for the good SEO of your Website and Blog.
In this article, We’re sharing some important tips for SEO that would be helpful to rank your website in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and Baidu, etc. There are too many Search engines but these are the few most popular search engines. Each Search engine has a different Algorithm to crawl a website. Your most focus and target should be Google because it is the world’s largest search engine. But we have to keep in mind, fulfilling all the search engine requirements. Here are the Benefits of SEO.
The Ultimate SEO Checklist for 2020
1. On-Page SEO
Here is an On-page SEO checklist that will help you to rank your website in search engines.
i. Title and Headings:
Your page Title and Headings should be filled and it must match your niche and the top selected Keywords of your site. Use only one H1 tag per page because it is one of the critical SEO affecting things. Keep your page Title 50-60 characters long, by doing so there’s a possibility that Google will display your 90% of Title. 60 Characters’ length is recommended for good SEO results. Meta Descriptions can be of any length but Google generally truncates snippets to 155-160 characters. It will be good to keep your meta description between 50-160 characters long so that it can clearly describe your website.
ii. Duplicate Content:
There should be no duplicate content on your website. Keep a check on every blog post Title. No more repeated terms should be in your description.
iii. Page Size:
Does Page size effect SEO?
Yes, Page size affects SEO. Optimize your page size as minimum as possible. Page Size matters a lot. If your website/ Blog will have a size of more than 125 kb, the Search engine will take time to crawl it for a search. As a result, your site will be loaded at the end of all the results and no one wants to check the results other than the first page. You can reduce your page size by minimizing the JavaScript files and CSS files on your landing page.
iv. Page Uploads time:
As discussed above that page upload time impact your site crawling, minimizing the size of your page can increase your upload time. The maximum allowed upload time is 0.4 seconds but try to limit it to 0.2 seconds. Page uploading time also depends on the hosting server that provides you with hosting services. A good server response rate will help your site to quickly crawl by search engines.
v. Images Optimization:
Search engines also check images of SEO that you upload on your site. Properly optimize all the images you upload. Make sure that the alt attribute is filled for all the images. It will be better to focus on the image Title, alt attribute, and image description of all your images.
vi. Permalinks:
Permalinks setting is also important to rank your website on Google. So, the Permalinks should be SEO-friendly URLs. SEO-friendly URL contains keywords that describe the article. They are easy to read by both search engines and humans. SEO-friendly URL will help you rank higher in search engines. URL should not contain dates or any other extra information that puzzles search engines.
2. Keywords and Selection Tools
The Keywords and Selection Tools SEO checklist will specify all the steps required for the SEO of your website.
i. Keyword Difficulty:
Selecting targeting keywords requires a bit of effort. Every selected keyword will not work for you. Long-tail keywords are always a good choice for small websites. Because larger websites have already ranked with short tail keywords and defeating them is always a challenge for small businesses. Always check the difficulty of a keyword before selection.
ii. Google Search Result:
Take an idea of Google search Results for your targeted keywords. You can check it out from Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest. It will not only give the number of Google search results but also show you the complete details of those selected words. You can check Keyword Difficulty and analyze competition from here, low and top page bid for ads.
iii. Analyze Competition:
Always analyze the competition before the selection of the keyword. Try to avoid those words at higher competition. Usually, short tail keywords are of higher competition. Keywords with a difficulty rates higher than 50 can be extremely tough for your website to get good ranks in Google. So always prefer to select a low competition keyword.
iv. Google Related Searches:
After checking the keyword difficulty, Google search results, and competition, go for Google-related search results. It will give another idea for your keywords and it really has made easy the selection of the right keyword. You can check it out from Google Keywords Planner and Ubersuggest both. In my opinion, Ubersuggest is easy to use for new bees. The interface is designed beautifully by the owner Neil Patel. It also gives Keyword ideas of Suggestions, related keywords, Questions ideas for the Keyword, Prepositions, and a comparison of ranking difficulty. Ubersuggest also has a feature of website audit and ranking check.
v. Frequently Asked Questions:
Use Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on your website because search engines also look at it. It is also one of the SEO factors. Most of the time readers search for FAQs to find answers for their queries.
3. Link Building
The Link Building SEO strategy will explore all the steps required for the SEO of your Website and Blog.
Do you think SEO can be completed without Backlinks?
i. Case Studies:
The link-building case study has proved it to be one of the best ways to rank your website on Google. Don’t try it to be too deeper. Also, you can rank your site as high as you want. The more and strong backlinks, the higher would be the ranking. SEO can never be completed without backlinks. In fact, Backlinks are the second most important factor after On-Page SEO. Conduct research on link-building techniques and backlinks strategy to do it in a better way.
ii. Guest Posting:
Guest posting also known as guest blogging is the process of contributing a blog to another person’s website. It is a good way to build relationships, exposure, backlinks, and authority. Backlinks increase your domain authority and as a result rank higher in Google. You can request blog owners for Guest posting to increase your SEO results.
iii. Infographics:
Infographics represent your article’s message in an effective way through the visual description. It sustains the reader’s attention in a visually pleasing manner. Use Infographics with other web elements, as it facilitates higher ranking in search engines. Infographics make lengthy, heavy and boring topics easy to understand and enjoyable.
iv. Disavow Spam:
When you disavow a link, you are telling Google not to factor in that specific link when crawling your website. You can use a manual method to disavow links and also you can use the Disavow tool to Disavow Spammy links, so Google disregards them.
Note: One should use the Disavow tool very carefully and in extreme conditions because it can also harm your site. Black Hat SEO specialists didn’t recommend using the Disavow tool.
4. Technical SEO
The Technical term will explore all the steps required for the Technical SEO of your Website.
i. Website Speed:
Website Speed comes under technical SEO terms. We have already discussed a few ideas to increase website speed. Page size, Server response time, Image size, Theme responsiveness, JavaScript files and CSS files are the main corners to look at.
ii. Response Time:
The response time of your website must as fast as possible. Usually, 0.4 seconds are considered acceptable from an SEO point of view. But it depends on your theme structure and the JavaScript and CSS file your site upload. When a website takes longer to upload, many a time user closes it before landing the first page and it badly affects a website’s ranking.
iii. Responsive Theme:
Your theme must be and responsive and should support all types of formats. The responsiveness of your theme helps your site to get good ranks in Google. It must be able to easily fit on all three, Desktop, Tablet and Mobile screens. The responsive theme also generates user interest and a user can stay on your site for a longer period.
iv. Broken Links:
Broken links are not only bad for user experience but can also be harmful to your site SEO and for Google. Where Broken links are the links that don’t work and trigger a 404 error page. There could be any reason for the broken links. It could be page is moved without adding a redirection. A website is no longer available. The content has been deleted. It could be due to a change in the URL structure of the website. Broken links down your rankings on Google. Also, you can improve your site SEO by removing broken links.
v. Reduce Crawl Depth:
The lower the crawl depth the better would be the search results. Keep your URL simple and specific. Weight is given to pages for searching on how many clicks they take to reach the desired content. You can lower your site’s depth through the help of internal linking, using internal backlinks and external backlinks.
vi. Index Only Pages:
In Index only pages you set rules for the search engines. Index-only pages help search engines to only index the desired pages. In this method, you can direct the search engine to your site’s original content. In this regard Backlinks from other sites could also be helpful. Add your site maps so that they will help search engines to Index only Pages by reducing your page crawl time. Getting other websites to link to yours is not only an important ranking factor but a great way to pick up the indexation of your site.
5. User Experience
User Experience is one of the main things that can increase your website Bounce Rate. In the User Experience SEO Checklist we will explore all the steps required for the best audience reflection strategy of your Website.
i. Short Paragraphs:
Short paragraphs are always easy to read and attract reader intentions. No matter how long your article is, divide it into short paragraphs so that it keeps the reader engaged for a longer period of time. Also, make your paragraph easy and interesting to read.
ii. Easy Navigation:
Navigate your site items and services easy to access. Clear and easy access will generate user interest in your site and also if a new user visits your site for the first time, he/she will be able to easily navigate your services.
iii. Accessible Contact Info:
Your contact details should be available to all types of users. Because, if anybody wants to contact you, he will be able to easily do it, if your contact information is available. Usually, a contact form is a good idea to do so.
iv. Comments Structure:
Comments structure also matters a lot to generate user interest in your site. Moreover, comments are always helpful for the user as well as for the website owner. Through comments, a reader can easily share his thoughts with the site owner. These comments also help site owners to interact with readers and it is a good source of inspiration and motivation too. Your comment structure should be attractive and should be available in your all blog posts. In my point of view, commenting session up to three levels are easy to read and looks attractive.
These are the few basic but very important SEO checklists. I am pretty sure if you analyzed these points then you can get good ranks in Google and other search engines. Here is the link to How to Rank a website on Google.
What is your strategy for SEO?
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