The Ultimate SEO Checklist to Follow in 2023

Want to make your web page rank high in 2023? This SEO checklist is your companion. Search engine optimization is optimizing web page content to rank high on search engines. The activities include URL slugs, optimizing tags, adding headers, and others.

Here, we will explore everything from the tools for on-page and off-page SEO to finding ways to rank higher on search engines. As the leading SEO company Bangalore service provider, we have added the best practices to ensure a website structure that aids the optimization efforts. Indeed, this is one of the most complete SEO checklists in 2023. 

So, if you want to rank higher on Google rankings in 2023, you will love this blog. Without delay, let us dive further. 

And, before we go on to the SEO checklist, why not clear some basics? We will first learn some essential tools to help you get your website track results. 

1. Setup the Google Search Console 

The Google Search Console is one of the most powerful SEO tools to help you track the site’s performance on Google Search. Some of the features of the Search Console are- 

• Fix errors on the website 
• Gets the sitemap
• Know your page experience score
• See those keywords that bring more traffic

So, setting up Google Search Console is the first step to optimize your website search on Google. 

2. Setup the Google Analytics 

Google Analytics helps you to see how people find and use your website. Some of the top features of Google Analytics are-

• Find the web pages that bring the highest traffic to your website. 
• Check other websites that send you traffic.
• Know the traffic you get from Google. 
• Find the page views, average bounce rate, and site time. 

You can also connect Google Analytics with Google Search Console to get helpful information from your account. 

3. Install Bing Webmaster Tool 

The next step is to set up the Bing Webmaster tool as the Bing search engine gets around 1 billion visitors in a month, so optimize it. Also, the search engine has various features such as a built-in keyword search tool. 

4. Install Yoast SEO 

Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin available in the online industry. It is easy to optimize your WordPress websites for search engines with Yoast SEO. It also helps business owners to focus on technical SEO stuff such as sitemaps or robots.txt. 

5. Mobile First Design 

Another essential factor to consider is the quality of your website’s mobile browsing experience. Make sure to format the website for easy navigation and looks good on mobile browsers. Google is focusing more on Mobile-first indexing to let you align your website with this tool to increase or maintain your search engine rankings. 

7. External SEO 

Besides the website architecture and on-page SEO, it is also necessary to focus on external or off-page SEO. It is the process to find out what your competitors are doing, working on social competitiveness, and checking backlinks. You can use the Serpstat tool for off-page SEO to run your business effectively. 

“Now let us grab on further to explore the SEO Checklist for 2023.”

Keyword Research Checklist 

Researching keywords is the foundation of search engine optimization. This checklist will show you how to find keywords that customers search for. 

• Find Relevant Keywords for Your Business 

Once you have set up your website, it is time to plan the content. And, as it is all about an SEO checklist, your content should focus on search engine optimization. Write blog posts or articles that help you get more traffic from non-branded or branded keywords. Therefore, to get the desired traffic from search engine results, use a business keyword strategy to get the desired success.   

• Visit Online Platforms 

There are various online communities to find keywords like Quora, Forums, and Reddit. These platforms offer an advantage as they find questions that people in your industry ask. Let us understand more through an example. 

Quora is one of the biggest question-and-answer platforms that lets customers ask questions on multiple topics and get answers from everyone involving experts in that particular topic. 

• Find Low Competition Keywords Using Keyword Finder 

Keyword Finder is a free and premium keyword research tool. The tool is unique to give you tons of data on every keyword. When a keyword is typed on the Keyword Finder tool, you get the information on- 

• CPC
• Trends 
• Estimate Visits 
• Search Volume 
• Keyword Difficulty 

All this helps you choose low-competition keywords to give easy rankings. 

• Use Google Keyword Planner to Get Solid Keywords 

The Google Keyword Planner is the best Google keyword research tool. It is made to display Google ads. It is very beneficial for SEO keyword research. It is also super accurate as the data comes directly from Google. 

•  Find Question Keywords 

Question keywords are perfect for articles and blog posts. For instance- ‘how to make cold coffee?’ You can easily find them using the Answer the Public tool providing you with the list of questions people search online. 

Now you can answer the questions using your blog or article content. 

• Check the Competitive Difficulty of the Keywords 

Every business’s SEO checklist should focus on finding out how competitive the keyword is. So, a keyword will not be very competitive if only a few web pages use it. On the other hand, there is a keyword that everybody is writing about that will have a highly competitive difficulty. In several cases, it is easy to target smart keywords till you create great domain authority related to your competition. 

• Know the Keyword Search Intent 

Keyword search intent provides information about several keywords when users look at them. It also lets you know why they look it up. For instance- to fix a bike tire, you might look for ways to set it up. The right way to know about the search intent for your keyword is to Google it and see the results. Google figures out what people search for when they enter a specific word. 

On-Page SEO Checklist 

Now that your keyword research strategy is finished, let us start creating SEO-optimized content using target keywords. SEO is critical in this section also, so here are some essential things to check while you develop your website content. 

• Use Short URL and Add Target Keyword in It

If you have a long URL, it becomes harder for people to share it with others. Use a URL shortener tool like Twitter to keep the URL short. Also, adding a target keyword in the URL highlights is essential for both the search engine and the users who see the URL. All this makes your page easier to find and remember.   

• Include Target Keyword in the Relevant Parts 

For ranking high on the search engine results, it is necessary to include the target keyword in the SEO, SEO title, H1 title, description, first paragraph, and subheadings. Putting the keyword here makes it easier for the search engine to find it. Also, earlier keyword placement signifies the importance of the keyword. 

• Add Alt Tags on Images 

An Alt tag is the text added behind your images. The Alt image text describes the image on the website and search engines can index it. Also, Alt text can help blind people access the product description even if they cannot see the image. 

• Optimize the Images for High Speed 

If the website loading time is slow, it affects the SEO automatically. Search engines avoid slow-loading sites by letting people leave websites that do not load fast. And, when a person leaves the online web store, it reduces the SEO rankings and contributes to the bounce rate. 

• Get Link to Authoritative Sites 

No SEO checklist is complete without focusing on the domain authority. A website with high domain authority is one that search engines have identified as a destination for data on a given topic. If the business gets linked to these authoritative sites, it will enhance the domain authority improving the SERPs position. 

• Include Internal Links in the Content 

Another essential thing to maximize the performance of your SEO is internal linking. It allows the users to check out other pages and have an opportunity to see what your website offers. For professional e-commerce business websites, good customer engagement on your site increases the site’s traffic. Also, internal linking strengthens the business’s SEO.  

• Add Schema Markups 

Before we start discussing the point, let us know the schema markups. It is a system developed for website owners to show the importance of their content. It allows the search engine to understand the website and provide the information to the users more accurately. So, if there are high-level keywords, schema markups help the search engine to find deeper. 

One popular method that business owners utilize is FAQ schema which lets the users see essential information at the bottom of blog posts in the form of Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs. 

Post-Publishing SEO Checklist

As you have pushed the publish button, it does not mean that the SEO is done. For more traffic on search engines, it is necessary to maintain your website by modifying the existing content and driving better links using a post-publishing SEO checklist. Some of the main components of the checklist are- 

• Fix Broken Links 

A threat to SERP rankings is broken links. There are times when website owners remove and relocate different pages. When this happens, you can end up seeing a broken link. Search engines may penalize your website for having many of them, so fixing it is crucial. You can utilize the SEO audit feature of SEO tools such as Serpstat to discover broken links and redirect them. 

• Focus on Google Search Engine Rankings 

If your SEO actions are not successful, you should start looking for the targeted keywords rank for which you have created content. Focus on them and monitor if any changes indicate trends in competitors and search intent.

• Optimize the Google CTRs

When it is on the SEO checklist, focus on the favorable rankings you receive and maintain them. One way to do this is by using A/B testing to increase the Google CTR. For instance- you can use a ClickFlow tool to boost the CTR and chance of your business success. When users click on search engine results to view your webpage, there is an increase in the SERP ranking. 

• Prune All the Unnecessary Content 

It is an essential part of an SEO checklist to know when to take content offline. When content becomes irrelevant, remove it from your website if you cannot update it. By pruning out unnecessary content, you can keep customers interested in your website for longer to rank your SERP position. 

• Republish Unwanted Content 

Not all content is good if you work hard to make it better. For instance- adding content about large gatherings has been removed over the last few years. People posting about this nowadays have to update their content. For this, you will have to say things that users want to know according to the change of shifts or circumstances. 

• Build Backlinks Using HARO 

The last point on the post-publishing SEO checklist is creating backlinks using HARO. It stands for “Help a Reporter Out” and is a place where media reporters ask for sources of content that they want to build. They can schedule your interview on the phone or ask you to submit a quote. HARO is the best way to showcase your expertise and create backlinks for your website. 

Content Checklist

Now we move on to the content part. Content is an essential part of the SEO strategy, no matter what business you are in and what your niche is. Users always look at the content that you put on your website. Here are some main elements to consider from the content checklist. 

• Cover the Topic Completely

It is necessary to cover the complete topic in the content you are adding to the website. This process starts with the keyword research stage and should be a part of the SEO workflow till the end. It can be done in many ways like- 

• Create one content piece that covers all the areas of the topic. 
• Or you can use the Hub and Spoke content writing structure.  
• Use Hub and Spoke Structure 

The Hub and Spoke content method includes creating one large content piece known as the content hub to briefly cover all areas of the topic that you are writing about. Then, you have to support this with spoken content to explain the subtopics of the content and link the hub content to each spoken content piece. Hub and Spoke content method is the ideal way to cover all the content topics and let the customers understand them briefly. 

• Use a Simple and Sleek Structure for the Content 

A simple content structure is necessary for both the users and the search engine as it makes the content easy to scan, read, and understand. According to a tweet by Ross Hudgens in 2022, a sleek website structure can help your site to rank better.  

An easy content writing structure can be- 

• Heading 1
• Heading 2
• Heading 2
• Heading 2

And, a bad structure can be- 

• Heading 1
• Heading 2
• Heading 2
• Heading 2
• Heading 3
• Heading 3

By comparing both structures, it is easy to find that the first one is easy to understand and read further. Here, we have added the actual image provided by Ross to know the content writing structure. 

Conclusion 

No matter how much you stay away from SEO, it is a hard work process to run the business effectively. It has become true as the competition level on the internet has increased over the past few years. Also, there are various other tools available in the online market that increase and boost search engine rankings. Therefore, the SEO checklist added to this write-up will help you fight against the tough competition and stay ahead in your respective field. 

Before you begin, we will be happy to hear from you and let us help you with different kinds of SEO services and report to us back at the end of the year with high search engine rankings and profit.  

For more access to digital marketing services in Bangalore, you can connect with the leading yet professional team of e-commerce web developers at the most renowned company, Indglobal Digital Private Limited.