I’ve updated this post couple of times to make sure that it has all the great SEO practices that work fast. This ultimate beginner’s SEO checklist is actually one of my favorites.
Why? Because I simply don’t hit publish until I go over this list. I want to make sure that my page is perfectly optimized. I recently decided to give SEO a priority and get to make 100K pageviews per month.
For you and myself, I prepared this ultimate beginner’s SEO checklist as a no-gimmicks guidance along the way. I decided to raise up a ranking goal by 2018. I want to strength my SEO credibility and get ranked for a couple of keywords.
I want to strength my SEO credibility and get ranked for a couple of keywords. I’m not giving up to the regular traffic flow anybody else used to get for a new blog.
I’m not anymore going to desperately try to catch people’s attention via social media platforms to get a couple of visits on my blog.
I’m massively growing this blog from scratch, and my plan is to get people to visit my blog because they need to get access to my stunning helpful content.
Challenge:
What I mostly like about blogging is the commitment and discipline you get to grow when you start up a new blog. In November, I put a goal to earn my first affiliate sale out of this blog. And I proudly did.
I made $1,540.56 USD in affiliate commissions only in November 2016. There is no secret sauce or a list of actions to teach you here. I put a plan and worked hard for it. And surprisingly it worked for me from day one.
The Ultimate Beginner’s SEO Checklist:
Sure!
That was the main point of this post to give you access to my ultimate beginner’s SEO checklist. It came to my mind that it’s wise to work on a checklist for me to follow.
It’s even wiser to share what I get to know with all of you.
Within the beginner’s SEO checklist below, I will make sure to delve deeper into mentioning about what you need to do on your site to get better exposure on Search Engines. Whether you’re starting from scratch or have been blogging for a while, this post is exactly for you.
Bear in mind that the following checklist is for you only if you’re serious about your blogging career. I’ve been saying this many times earlier, but here it is once more:
If you’re running a free blog on BlogSpot, WordPress.com, Blogger, Weebly or even if you’re paying for a Squarespace account, then you’re a hobby blogger and not yet so serious about it.
If it’s your case, then please read:
how to get serious about blogging and why self-hosted?
Now, I will assume that you’re running a self-hosted WordPress blog. Let’s nail the beginner’s SEO checklist down here:
START:
- Are you Self-Hosted?
- Create and Optimize a Google Analytics account.
- Install and Sync Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plug-in.
- Sync Google Webmasters Tool.
- Configure a Bing Webmasters Tool account.
- Create an Alexa account, configure, and sync it on your site.
- Setup Social Media Accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc.
- Run an SEO check on Google Search Console.
- Run a website audit on Hubspot’s marketing grader to see where you’re.
SITE READINESS:
- Check and Correct Google Webmasters Tool Reported Errors on your site.
- Create an XML Sitemap and submit it to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Create a Robots.txt and submit it to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Check and correct your page speed with Google Page Speed Tool.
- Make sure your site is Responsive to all devices.
- Use Screaming Frog to detect & correct broken links, and crawl errors.
- Double check and Validate Broken Links via Xenu’s Link Sleuth.
- Use BrowSEO to find more technical errors and correct them.
- Code Validation: HTML validator, and CSS validator.
- Start and Grow a Mailing List (Read my guide here)
ON PAGE SEO Checklist:
- Install and Configure Yoast SEO WordPress plug-in.
- Configure Unique Title (Under 60 Characters).
- Customize Meta Description with Focus Keyword.
- Use Focus Keyword multiple times in your content.
- Include Focus Keywords and LSI Keywords in content.
- Put your Focus Keyword in the first paragraph.
- Use H-tags wisely for your Keywords.
- Build a strong Internal Linking tree.
- Use Permalinks for pages and blog posts.
- Add Social Sharing Buttons (I’m using SumoMe).
- Use Images in your content (I’m using FreePik & PicJumbo)
- Include Alt description for images.
- Link to other relevant authoritative sites.
- Interlinking: Include Inline Related Posts.
Related: On-Page SEO Techniques To Rank On The First Page
KEYWORDS:
- Analyze competitor sites using SEMRush.
- Check where your competitors are getting traffic from via tools like Similar Web.
- Research & List Target Keywords by tools like Google Keyword Planner.
CONTENT:
- Makeup and maintain an Editorial Calendar.
- Setup Google Trends to get notified of trending topics in your niche.
- Check Plagiarism for your content using Plagiarism Checker.
- Setup Social Media Marketing Planner like ViralTag.
- Include Privacy Policy & Terms of Service Page.
- Include Affiliate and Advertising Disclosure Pages.
- Add your site to High PR profile creation sites for SEO.
SEO Tasks List 2018:
That was it all.
Make sure you’re following and applying the above strategies and steps on your website. By doing applying the beginner’s SEO checklist above, you’re flagging readiness and telling the search engines: Hey, I’m over here!
Basically, SEO is not about certain steps you follow and that’s it. SEO is a long-term strategy which you need to work hard for in order to rank in search engine results.
There’s no magic tool or a secret sauce to be unveiled. It’s about your practices and how you persist for it.
I remember that day when I offered my client an add-on service of Search Engine Optimization for his site. He asked me: Does it mean that after you’re done with it, I can see my site on the first page of google for that certain keyword?
Related: List Building: How To Grow Your Email List From Zero?
Conclusion:
Some people understand SEO the wrong way. They think it’s something that’s easy and can be achieved overnight. They don’t know why should Google or any other search engine link back to their sites while they got nothing new or updated on there?
Like I said, the above-mentioned (beginner’s SEO checklist) steps are necessary to optimize your site for search engines.
You’re simply getting your site ready for a ranking potential. However; you still need to work hard on content to get ranked.
You still need to give search engines reasons to rank you on their front pages. Why should they do so? Remember; Google got 10 spots only on the front page, why they should (organically) include your site within it?
Thanks for sticking by until right here. Please let me know in comments below if you’ve got questions or inquiries. I would love to help you further.
Did you find this post useful?
Make me a favor and share this blog post (beginner’s SEO checklist) with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Hi Karim,
Good tips thanks!
One thing: All your links to other websites make me leave yours! Not good for your SEO man..
Kind regards,
Jon,
You may be right. But SEO is all about helping visitors and giving them real value. Don’t you agree with me?
Regards,
Karim
Wow, this is Really amazing. Thank you so much for express your knowledge. I’m such Owner of IT Firm those have recently started with my Colleague.
Dewin,
That’s very good.
Make sure to include such tips on your site and I’m sure you will get found on search engines very fast.
All the best,
karim
Great SEO check list!
Nicely covered all the aspects of all round SEO!
Thanks for such amazing detail and depth post, Karim. I will try to keep some of those techniques in mind. Surely hope they will help me with my blog. I will be sharing this SEO techniques with my fellow shortly.
Jigar,
Thanks a lot for your comment,
And Please keep in touch. I would like to hear back from you.
Regards,
Good amount of information about SEO and good way to increase traffic is present in your post. Really good content for beginner, thanks.
Ron,
Thanks so much.
All the best for you and your site!
Awesome post. I always surprise to see your income from blogging while I make 0$ from my blog. Your post will help me to boost my traffic. I always believe, any hard labor give me result. SEO is always a drake method. I didn’t get any specific idea about it.
Shafiullah,
Thanks for your comment.
I would suggest that you download my Free eBook on +49 Smart Legit Ways To Make Money Online. In this ebook, I’m sharing most of the strategies I’m using every single day to double and triple my monthly online hustling income.
Please let me know shall I can be of any further assistance,
Karim
Wow this is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. I’m such a noob when it comes to SEO, but this post is something I can understand and it’s a good start. I can’t wait to read more good posts from you 🙂
Natalie,
I’m glad it turned to be useful.
I will make sure to share more SEO knowledge.
All the best,
Hello Karim,
I am a beginner in the blogging and learn many things from your blog and Also inspired by your blogging journey. I am following all of your strategies about blogging to make my blog better. Thanks.
And this SEO checklist post is fantastic for every beginner.
Thanks Again.
Jatin,
Thanks so much for your comment.
Please don’t hesitate to get back to me shall you need assistance.
All the best!
Hello Karim,
Thanks for replying,
I need assistance for integrating inline opt-in form below Navbar menu.
How can i set that?
please can you provide me tutorial ?
Thanks Again.
Jatin,
Thanks for your comment,
I went ahead and created this tutorial for you:
Bloom Email Optin Plugin: How To Create An Inline Form?
It’s my step by step guide on how to create and configure an inline email optin form below the navigation menu like what I’ve here.
Please don’t hesitate to get back to me shall you require any further assistance,
This is a very comprehensive and concise guide for SEO. You really made great effort and research for it. That is exactly what I’ve been working on these days. I also like the way you set new goals for your blog. I hope you the best. Keep going.
Ahmed,
Thanks a lot for your awesomeness. You really made my day!
All the best for you and your online businesses.
Regards,
Karim