A Complete On-Page Optimization SEO Checklist

Joe — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:10:32 +0000

On-page optimization lays down the foundation for off-site SEO work. A lot of people focus on building back links to their website, but fail to realize that without a proper on-site optimization, all link building efforts could bring little or no results to your ranking, and it’s also important to have your website fully optimized before you present it to Search Engines. Here’s a checklist of on-page factors that can help you significantly improve your on-page SEO score, check them one by one to see if you forget something, I have tried to list as many as possible, most of them are common practices, few have controversies, more will be updated.

No#	On-page SEO Checklist		Descriptions
1		Use keywords in Title tag	Try to put the keyword at the beginning of the title tag, use same keyword phrase no more than twice, max. 65 characters.
2		Keywords in Meta Description tag	Try starting your site description with the keyword, max.160 characters,and avoid repeating the same keyword phrase more than twice.
3		Use keywords in Meta keywords tag	Google has dismissed this as a ranking factor, but others still do. Make sure that the keywords listed in this tag are being used somewhere in the body text.
4		Catchy Title & Description	You want to catch your audience and make them click through your site! If you fail to do this, all SEO work becomes meaningless.
5		Unique relevant content	This is what makes you stand out from the crowd, quality content will give you additional scores on search engine algorithm.
6		Content rich body text	Google loves rich contents, this is how Wikipedia dominate vast amount of keyword phrases on SERPs. So get as much content as you can, write at least 300 words for a single page, ideally 500+ words.
7		Contain keywords in H1,H2,H3 tags	Put your keywords by ranking priority on H1,H2,H3; H1 to be the most important, use it at the beginning of an article to be perfect. But using same keywords on all three tags will be a big mistake.
8		Format keywords with bold,italics underline.	Emphasizing your keywords with different formats shows Google that you really care about those terms.
9		Use keyword in Image alt text & Image file name	Alt attribute are used to describe the image content as an alternative display of image. Search engines takes this seriously so you don’t want to miss this one.
10		Use keyword in URL	Search Engine friendly URL.
11		Use hyphens in URL	Replace space with hyphens, helps separating keywords and also SEO. Some SEO expert stated it performs better than keywords without hyphens.
12		Use shorter URLs	The shorter the better.
13		No broken links	Make sure all links are updated and accessible. If you have old unused links, simply use a 301 redirect to your new page.
14		Outgoing links with relevant anchor text	Only link to relevant sites, spin your anchor text to make it look nature.
15		Less than 100 outgoing links	You don’t want to pass too much of your link juice to others, make sure you only link to authority websites. And use “NO FOLLOW”tag whenever necessary, especially for your homepage.
16		Keyword stuffing in title,meta description,alt text,body,H1,H2,H3 tags etc.	Again make it look natural, over optimizing your site will also cause trouble…the main purpose of the website is still serving your customers, and they are human not spider:)
17		Use Frames	This will cause problem…certainly NOT search engine friendly.
18		Cloaking or sneaky redirects	Penalties! Please read Google Webmaster guide
19		Hidden text or hidden links	Penalties! Please read Google Webmaster guide
20		Link to bad neighborhoods	Penalties! Please read Google Webmaster guide
21		Duplicate content	Whomever posts early benefits, Google usually pick the oldest content and pushes others down.
22		Poor spelling and grammer	Use high quality content whenever possible for your site content.
No#	On-Site SEO Checklist		Descriptions
23		Smaller page size	Keep your page size below 100KB, ideally below 50KB.
24		SEO friendly site/information structure	A well structured site is more accessible for search engine spiders. Use a flat instead of deep architecture, make any of your webpage accessible within maximum of 3 clicks.
25		Aged domain	Though Google denies this, but many SEO experts stated that Aged domains DO perform better than brand new domains: not only in terms of faster indexing, but also better ranking.
26		Age page & site	As a site get older, it will gain more authority from Search engine. A reminder: SEO should be started as early as possible, cause it pays off in the long run.
27		Domain name extension	(.com extension is the best, secondary choices: .net .gov .org .edu .info and the rest goes to least preferable extensions.)
28		Exact match domain name	If you can find an exact match then perfect, but it is not a MUST.
29		Dedicated hosting & IP address	Google claim they handles virtually hosted domains and their links just the same as domains on unique IP addresses. But if condition allows, choose a dedicated hosting for your website, especially for business purposes, you will know the difference.
30		Create a XML sitemap	Nowadays this is almost a standard for websites. XML sitemap helps crawlers understand your site better, if you haven’t get one, try XML-sitemap Generators.
31		Keywords Cannibalization	It’s recommended only target one or two keywords on one page, avoid using the same keyword phrases across the your webpages, it will confuse search engine as which one to choose as your most important page for that keyword.
32		Moderate amount of inner page links with relevant anchor text	Internal Links also plays a big part on SEO.
33		Robot exclusion “no index” tag	Use “no index” tag for pages you don’t want to show on Search Engines.
34		Well written HTML codes	Use correct HTML code that complies with W3C standard. W3C Validation. Its an option.
35		Avoid using flash page	Flash websites satisfies visual experience, but certainly not good for SEO.
36		Excessive amount of ads and affiliate links	Google hates this, so if you are putting some affiliate links on your website, make sure that you have some unique content.

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A Complete On-Page Optimization SEO Checklist