Despite the continually complex nature of search engines, there are still technical stumbling blocks that can confuse their ability to crawl a site and understand the nature of its content. There are also technical measurements — such as load time — which search engines use to make judgements regarding user experiences. Most SEO efforts require months of dedicated campaigning in order to achieve appreciable results, but tackling a few technical issues can provide some easily obtainable goals for making your SEO campaigns pay off.
Tackling a few technical issues can provide some easily obtainable goals for making your SEO campaigns pay off.
We understand it can be tough to run your business and keep up with your SEO at the same time. As a small business owner, you might be doing everything yourself. So when you look at all the SEO work that needs to be done, it can be difficult not to feel overwhelmed.
But don’t worry! We’ve made some suggested timelines and an SEO checklist so you can make sure you’re spending time in the right areas. Spilt your work into bite-sized pieces and then schedule some time each week to work on it. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so don’t worry if you can’t get to everything in the first couple of weeks.
Suggested SEO Schedule: 2 Hours Per Week
One Hour: Optimize One Page
30 Minutes: Social Media
- Create & schedule 3 posts across channels
- Interact with your fans
30 Minutes: Reach Out
- Interact with people in your industry
- Check out sites you might want a link from
Suggested SEO Schedule: 5 Hours Per Week
Two Hours: Optimize two pages
- Title tag
- Meta description
- On page content
One Hour: Social Media
- Create & schedule 5 posts across channels
- Interact with your fans
- Start conversations on different platforms
- Follow people who follow your competitors
Thirty Minutes: Reach Out
- Interact with people in your industry
- Check out sites you might want a link from
- Establish yourself as the expert
Thirty Minutes: Read Up
- Keep up to date with SEO developments
- Things are always changing
One Hour: Additional Content Creation
- Blog posts
- Videos
- Pictures
- Social media contests
SEO Checklist: On-Page SEO
Analytical Tools
- Sign up for & install Google Analytics
- Sign up for & install Google Search Console
- Check for page errors
- Submit a sitemap
- Check 404s
- Set up 301 redirects where applicable
- Sign up for & install Bing Webmaster Tools
- Check for page errors
- Submit a sitemap
Keyword Research
- Check out competitor keywords
- Plug your keyword ideas into Google
- What results come up?
- What can you learn from those results?
- Use Google’s Keyword Planner for ideas
On-Site Optimization
- Title tags
- Home page
- Landing pages
- All other pages
- Meta Descriptions
- Home page
- Landing pages
- All other pages
- H1 tags
- Home Page
- Landing pages
- All other pages
- Ensure only one H1 tag on each page
- On page Content
- Home page
- Landing pages
- All other pages
- Ensure content isn't stuffed with keywords
- Ensure content is not duplicated from other websites or pages
- URLs
- Landing Pages
- All other pages
- Page load times
- All pages load in less than 10 seconds
- Images are compressed
- Images are .jpg or .gif
- Frequently check load times using Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- Reviews
- Enable reviews on your website
- Develop an email campaign to solicit reviews from customers
- Ensure site is mobile friendly
SEO Checklist: Off Page SEO
Social Media: cross out any that do not apply
- Fill out bio section
- Ensure there is a link back to your website
- Upload profile photo (logo)
- Upload cover photo
- Fill out all bio sections using keywords
- Check out competitors for post ideas
- Fill out bio section
- Ensure there is a link back to your website
- Upload profile photo (logo)
- Upload cover photo
- Follow influencers & potential customers
- Make a list of popular hashtags that relate to your business
- Fill out bio section
- Ensure there is a link back to your website
- Enable Pinterest Analytics
- Upload profile photo (logo)
- Create 5 boards
- Start repining to your new boards
- Add pins from your own website
- Fill out bio section
- Ensure there is a link back to your website
- Identify popular and relevant hashtags (3 to 5)
- Fill out bio section
- Upload profile photo (logo)
- Ensure there is a link back to your website
- Add your coworkers & employees
Local (for brick & mortars): set up local profiles
- Google My Business
- Upload profile photo
- Upload photos of your business
- Yelp
- Upload profile photo
- Upload photos of your business
- Bing Places
- Upload profile photo
- Upload photos of your business
- FourSquare
- Upload profile photo
- Upload photos of your business
- Identify linking opportunities
- Competitor research
- Check for broken backlinks
- Find sites related to your industry
- Network with other sites
- Identify possible spammy links
- Reach out to webmasters of spam websites & ask them to remove the link
- If no response, submit to disavow
- Do my top level categories make sense?
- Can my site visitors get where they want to go in 3 or less clicks?
- Are my pages organized and easily found?
- Choose blogging platform (blogger, WordPress, etc)
- Ensure blog is properly optimized
- Write down ideas for social media, blogging, creating videos, etc
- Develop a plan for marketing this content
- Write ideas in a calendar format
SEO Checklist: Link Building
Download backlinks from Google Search Console
SEO Checklist: Other
Site architecture
Blog
Content Calendar
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, check out our online marketing services or call us to learn more.
Got questions? Feel free to reach out in the comments below!