Top 10 Critical SEO Checklist in 2019

Talk about websites and plethora of options in multiple disciplines are available. With the ever-increasing neck to neck competition and with Google algorithms being continually updated, Web developers slog to keep websites up to date and recognizable to the search engines, apart from the usual designing and marketing concerns. Let’s have a look at the critical SEO checklist to stay well versed with the trending strategies and improve the rankings and traffic to our website.

1. Never miss on the SEO basics

Your website might be seemingly capturing the market, but its essential to focus on the foundation to not let it collapse. Never miss on alt tags and title tags which are crucial in increasing strength of your content and makes it more accessible to the search engines and even screen readers. Always make sure to attach tags to the anchor text and the images along with a detailed description.

Also focus on creating metadata manually to make it more precise and site specific. It significantly improves the CTR (Click through rate) and underpins information organization.

2. Mobile Responsive Site- A must

It is imperative to include mobile concerns while developing a web development strategy. People rely more on mobile devices than desktops to access web. Several websites which later modified to mobile compatibility lag as compared to the mobile- first websites. Undoubtedly the page views start with the mobile website. According a recent data, half of the mobile users will abandon the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

3. Content rules

Despite all the points mentioned in this critical SEO checklist, the quality of your content tops it all. Web developers can brain storm for implementing the right SEO strategy but if the content is poor and irrelevant, all strategies can go waste. It is mandatory to create fresh, unique and intriguing content as Google prefers only such content to rank high in the SERPs.

4. Include long tail Keywords

Intriguing and unique content which lacks appropriate keywords can fail to fetch the desired audience and the deserved attention to your website. Instead of normal keywords opt for the long tail keywords which are highly specific and focused on the audience needs. Use Google keyword planner or any other tool to implement the long tail keywords for improved visibility during the online searches and high website rankings.

5. Maintain proper structure

It is one of the underrated critical SEO checklists. A proper structure not just improves the user experience but also enhances SEO. Google recognizes the websites with proper structure and awards them sitelinks. Sitelinks outline the featured pages every time your website appears during the search. Sitelinks highlight the important points thus making it easier for the visitor to navigate through the website

6. Link Internally

Google isn’t God to never miss out on your important content. To improve crawling and indexing, always link internally through your content. This practice is one among the critical SEO checklist that improves the Google ranking and also maximizes the importance of your topmost pages. Web developers need to remember that while creating new content, tagging it to already existing steady content helps Google to recognize it as relevant.

7. Validate codes against W3C (Replace with Setup Sitemap)

Validating all your code against W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) without a doubt belongs to the critical SEO checklist. The process of validation follows the broadly accepted formatting rules and ensures that your code is seen appropriately by search. If the validation part is skipped, coding errors can cause search to oversee or terminate the crucial aspects of your website.

8. Create and add a robots.txt file to your site

Robots.txt file, also known ad the robot exclusion protocol can be implemented in your website just by knowing the source code. Robots.txt file is a super critical SEO checklist that can direct the search engines or the web robots which pages on your site to crawl and which ones to leave as the Google bot has a crawl budget.

9.  Page Loading speed

Speed Update announcement in 2016 is a big reason to mark Page loading speed among the critical SEO checklist. It is important to make sure that your website loads fast not just on the mobile but even on the desktop. The website developer needs to take into account progressive JPEGs, using appropriate PNGs and optimizing all files during page load. Files can be easily compressed by using any of the photo management software.

 10.Fix duplicate content issues

A website page with exclusive content is the one with a unique website address i.e. URL. So duplicate content is that content which appears on more than one web address Most important SEO Checklist. Duplicate content can drastically cause traffic losses and depreciate the website rankings, as the search engines are forced to choose a single version which gives best results and omit the rest which possess the duplicate content. So, don’t forget to check for plagiarized content!