If you're looking for an SEO checklist to help you boost your site's organic traffic and Google ranking, you've come to the right place. We've put together the definitive checklist for driving SEO performance in 2021.
Use this as a reference point for verifying that your site is adhering to best practices and that you're not being held down by issues that you've overlooked, from SEO basics to must-knows when examining your off-page signals.
It works for eCommerce stores, local businesses, affiliate sites—anything.
What is the best way to use this SEO checklist?
Most SEO checklists don't explain how SEO is a continuous process. Instead, they provide a list of random chores and claim that if you check them off, SEO is complete.
That isn't the case, so we've assigned one of these tags to each item on our checklist:
✅ Do it only once.
🕑 Do it on a regular basis.
🔄 Do that every time you add a new page to your website.
Because of this arrangement, you don't have to go through the entire checklist right now. Complete the one-time chores first, then the periodic tasks, and finally the continuous tasks each time a new page is published.
Here’s the checklist:
✅ Set up Google Search Console.
✅ Set up Bing Webmaster Tools.
✅ Create a Google Tag Manager.
✅ Set up Google Analytics.
✅ Create and submit a sitemap.
✅ Create a Robots.txt file.
Visit our SEO Basics section for a detailed explanation.
Technical SEO:
✅ Make a structure for your website (new sites only).
✅ Check to see if your site can be crawled.
✅ Check to see if your site is searchable.
✅ Verify that you're using HTTPS.
✅ Ensure that your website is only accessible through one domain.
✅ Ensure that your website loads quickly.
✅ Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly.
🕑 Repair any broken pages
🕑 Correct any concerns with duplicate content.
Visit our Technical SEO section for a detailed explanation.
Keyword Research:
🔄 Find a primary keyword.
🔄 Assess search intent.
🔄 Assess your chance of ranking.
🔄 Research what people want to know.
Visit our Keywords Research section for a detailed explanation.
On-page SEO:
🔄 Use short and descriptive URL's.
🔄 Write a compelling title tag.
🔄 Write a compelling meta description.
🔄 Link to relevant resources.
🔄 Optimize your images.
🔄 Add schema markup.
🔄 Add internal links.
Visit our On-Page SEO section for a detailed explanation.
Content:
🔄 Solve the reader's problem.
🔄 Write a winning intro.
🔄 Use subheadings to create a hierarchy.
🔄 Break things up with images.
🔄 Use short sentences and paragraphs.
Visit our Content section for a detailed explanation.
Link Building:
🕑 Replicate your competitor's links.
🕑 Reclaim lost links.
🕑 Pursue unlinked mentions.
🕑 Publish guest posts.
🕑 Pitch resources pages.
🔄 Find people linking to inferior content.
🔄 Tell more people about your content.
Visit our Link Building section for a detailed explanation.
Final thoughts
It would be impossible to include everything that is relevant in one checklist because SEO is a continuous activity. However, if you address the points on the checklist above, you'll be well on your way to higher rankings. You'll also most likely be way ahead of the pack. That is the only thing that matters.