FREE SEO Checklist

Initial Work

Campaign Goals Identified

Keyword Research

Keyword Allocation 

SEO Healthcheck 

Competitor Analysis

Initial Rankings (set up tracking) 

On-Page SEO Audit

Page Titles & Meta Data

No duplicated title or metadata across multiple pages.

Title tags are 50-65 characters.

Title tags are not missing from any pages.

Complete H1 tags on all pages

H1 tags have not been duplicated across multiple pages.

H1 tags are not missing from any pages.

Pages do not have multiple H1 tags.

Correct use of tags including H2, H3 etc. 

URL structure is simple, readable and mirrors the site hierarchy

Image ALT and Title tags are being used throughout the site (include keywords, specific & not duplicated).

The site copy is original.

There is a decent amount of content on all pages of the site.

There is no user-generated comments or other spam on the site (check forms).

There are not any pages with keyword-stuffing on them.

There are contact details/ a call to action above the fold

Exact match keywords across pages inc. titles, meta, etc. 

Are breadcrumbs on-site? 

Check and fix any broken links

CSS Stylesheet Minification

Mobile-Friendly Test

AMP Integration if relevant

Favicon on all devices

Initial blog added

Ecommerce

Main category page content completed.

Product information is unique.

Google Webmaster Tools Audit (& Bing webmasters)

Webmasters account is set up. 

Parameter behaviour is specified properly

The canonical version of the site specified

XML sitemaps are uploaded to Webmasters

Webmasters is not returning a large number of crawl errors.

There is not a large difference between URLs indexed and the number of URLs receiving organic traffic

All domain variations added. 

Preferred domain selected. 

The preferred country selected. 

Data Highlighter Tool Used

Bing Webmaster tools setup inc. sitemap

Bing month one error check

Site Speed Audit

Browser caching is enabled where possible.

Gzip Compression is enabled where possible.

There is not an excessive amount of requests for resources.

Query strings have been removed from static resources.

Images are compressed and correctly sized

Code has been minified where it can be.

The site does not have render-blocking JavaScript.

The site is making use of HTTP2

Google Analytics Audit

Google Analytics is implemented correctly.

Adwords & Analytics Linked

If old site, check for old pages that have received traffic 

Check for UK Traffic (spam)

Set Up Named Views of data if required

Conversions

Contact Form Above Fold/On Landing Pages

Goal Tracking Setup

Thank You Page 

Contact Form Direct to Thank You 

Main Citations & Directories

Google My Business Set Up 

Bing Local Setup

Yelp 

Yell

Scoot 

Free Index 

Europages

Local Directories eg. Peterborough Today

Thomson Local 

Use Moz Local for Any other citations & consistency

Check All Existing Listings (using Google Webmasters)

Social Media 

Facebook Set Up & Optimise

Facebook Ads

Facebook Pixel Set Up 

Twitter Setup & Optimise

Instagram Set Up & Optimise

Linkedin Setup & Optimise

YouTube Set Up, post videos with keywords & URL in descriptions, and keywords in subtitles

Pinterest Set-Up & Optimise

Google Posts

Any Industry Specific Social Media Accounts?

Gather any image or video resources for use on social media posts

Google Adwords Audit

Adwords Setup 

Multiple Ad Groups Created 

Location Set 

Exact, Phrase and Broad Match Added (set at different bids)

Sitelink Extensions

Callout Extensions

Call Extensions

Any Other Relevant Extensions 

Multiple Ads Created 

Call Only Ad

Keyword Insertion Ad 

Negative Keywords 

Mobile Bid Adjustments 

Location Bid Adjustments

Bing Ads Set Up? Import Google Adwords Data 

Google Shopping Campaign

Shopping Showcase if required

Google Remarketing Campaign 

Google Display Ads 

Email Marketing 

Gather and upload audiences to email marketing software

Build initial Email Marketing Campaign/template

Technical SEO Audit

Error pages return 404 status codes, or redirect appropriately.

All URLs work with either HTTP or HTTPS, but not both.

All URLs work with either www or without www, but not both.

Canonical hostname redirects are implemented correctly.

Self-referring Canonical tags are implemented on the site to prevent duplicate content.

Canonical markup is indicating desired content correctly.

The same content is being served to all user agents, including crawlers.

The site is not cloaking content.

Internal links function without JavaScript.

Internal links do not go through 3xx redirects.

Internal links do not return 4xx errors.

Page copy is shown when fetch and rendered.

The site does not rely on loading any important content via iframe.

The site does not hide any important content in Flash.

Google does not have a bloated index for the site.

The site is not being duplicated due to any other domains or subdomains.

URL patterns (or parameters) are not returning the same content.

The site is making use of HTTPS (SSL Certification) 

Add new domains in Webmaster tools.

Paginated content is marked up using rel=next.

Google guidelines are being followed for infinite scrolling/JavaScript pagination

The site is only using 301 redirects.

JavaScript redirects are not being used.

Meta refresh redirects are not being used.

There are no internal redirect chains.

There are no redirect chains on URLs with external links.

The IP address is being redirected to the domain name

The faceted navigation does not result in a large number of indexable/crawlable URLs.

Nofollow links are used where and only where we want content not to be discovered.

The meta directive noindex tag is used where appropriate to reflect what we want in the index.

The Robots.txt exists and specifies the location of the main XML sitemap.

The Robots.txt is only blocking content we do not want to be crawled.

Mobile SEO Audit

Mobile mark-up is implemented on the site if required.

If dynamic serving is being used, the Vary-HTTP header is being used.

XML Sitemaps Audit

There are XML sitemaps.

XML sitemaps contain all valid URLs on the site.

Sitemaps do not contain functioning URLs that we want to keep out of the index.

All URLs in sitemaps return 200 status codes.

Sitemap are divided into different site sections.

Structured Data

Structured data validates correctly in GSC

Structured data is being used where relevant.

Schema mark-ups implemented across site

International SEO Audit

Hreflang has been implemented across all relevant sites and content.

We are linking to all international content.

The site has set Google Search Console region targeting appropriately.

Google Search Console is not returning errors with the sites hreflang.

The site isn’t using parameters to differentiate content language or targeting.

Site Structure Audit

There are fewer than ~200 – 300 links on important pages.

Important content is ≤ 2 clicks from the homepage. 

Important pages get links from high authority internal pages where appropriate (>1 link per page).

Internal linking reflects the priority of content.

Both vertical and horizontal linking is being used.

There are breadcrumbs on the site.