This is the ultimate SEO checklist for 2020! If you are looking for a comprehensive checklist to follow and optimize your website for Google, then this is for you.

Our SEO checklist includes:

-SEO Basics
-Competitor Analysis
-Keyword Research
-Technical SEO
-On-page SEO
-Off-Page SEO
-Local SEO
-Mobile SEO

In this blog post, I am going to show you EXACTLY how to get higher rankings in Google.

This is the same process I’ve used to rank #1 in Google for so many of my client’s keywords.

Download your FREE SEO Checklist below!

The Complete SEO Checklist for 2020

      Set Up

  1. Add and verify your website with Google Search Console
  2. Add and verify your website with Bing Webmaster tools
  3. Setup Google Analytics
  4. Run a Broken Link Report
  5. Run a Screaming Frog report
  6. Get login info to website
  7. Conduct onboarding audit / run basic SEO reports

    INITIAL RESEARCH  / COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
  8. Check for your brand name on Google
  9. Run a Backlink report on Competitors
  10. Run a Screaming Frog Report
  11. Add Competitors to your keyword ranking tracking system (Advanced Web Ranking)
  12. Enable breadcrumb menus on all your posts and pages
  13. Check your permalink structure and make your URLs are SEO Friendly
  14. Make sure that your website has an SSL certificate (https)
  15. Optimize your robots.txt file
  16. Check WordPress visibility settings
  17. Optimize your menu and site structureGOOGLE CONSOLE
  18. Find ad fix any crawl errors
  19. Upload your XML sitemap
  20. Check the ‘Coverage Report’ in Google search console for errors
  21. Create a separate image and video sitemap and submit to Google ConsoleGOOGLE ANALYTICS
  22. Run Basic Reports (Year-Over-Year Website Traffic, Organic Search, Top Pages, Top Referrals, Top Exit Pages, Bounce Rateetc.) See blog post: “How to Use Google Analytics data to Drive Your Digital Marketing Efforts”)
  23. Reduce Bounce Rate (Make pages stickier)CONTENT MARKETING
  24. Publish amazing, helpful content frequentlysSTRUCTURED DATA
  25. Optimize your blog posts for Google featured snippets using lists
  26. Add structured data markup data to your website
  27. Test your structured data markup implementationStructure / Navigation (Developer)TECHNICAL SEO
  28. Optimize your 404 Page (See creative 404 pages)
  29. Check and improve the loading speed of your website (Use free tool GTMetrix)
  30. Add schema markup (If already added, check that it’s added correctly using the Structured Data Testing Tool)
  31. Optimize your videos with proper schema
  32.  Make sure all your pages define a canonical URLON PAGE OPTIMIZATION
  33. Use Tiny PNG to compress images and videos
  34. Add your favicon logo
  35. Optimize your page titles
  36. Optimize your meta descriptions
  37. Optimize your headers
  38. Add keyword rich alt tags to all images
  39. Using a linked table of contents can help Google better understand your page’s content. It can also result in sitelinks:
    BLOGGINGIdentify questions that are being asked. Create content that answers them
  40. Use BuzzSumo to find content that has gone viral – & Put Together a List of IdeasKEYWORD RESEARCH
  41. Perform keyword research (Favorite SEO Tools: Google search, Google suggest, SpyFu, Advanced Web Ranking, Google Keyword Tool)
  42. Make a list of short tail and long tail keywords, and locations (if local business)
  43. Make a list of LSI Keywords and add them to your content
  44. Use the results of your keyword research to optimize your contentON PAGE OPTIMIZATION
  45. Optimize your website for Google sitelinks
  46. Optimize your posts for Google sitelinks
  47.  Optimize all headers
  48. Frontload Keywords  (Make sure that your target keyword is included in your opening paragraph and in the beginning of Headers/Metadata)
  49. Add text content to your non-text content (Ex: Add a caption to image)
  50. Optimize your content for E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness)
  51. Beautify your content to make it easy to read (formatting and style flow easily)
  52. Optimize your category pages (titles/description/content)
  53. Add strategic internal links
  54. Add new optimized landing pages (for new locations or kw’s yet to target)
  55. Link out to other high-quality websitesBACKLINKING (See 1o Ways to Earn Backlinks)
  56. Run a backlink report
  57. Analyze your competitors link profile (Open Site Explorer)
  58. Add visual assets (infographics, images, charts, etc.)
  59. Do an “Article Swap” (Do a collab with a business – you write and they write one)
  60. Get links from high authority websites (11 methods)
  61. Reach out to journalists and popular bloggers to see if you can do a featureLOCAL SEO
  62. Add NAP information (Name, Address, Phone Number) on ALL your pages
  63. Make sure that NAP information is consistent across all channels
  64. Add a Google map to your Contact page
  65. Add in depth “Ultimate Guides” (like this one! Give massive value.)
  66. Register your website with relevant directoriesGOOGLE MY BUSINESS
  67. Create a Google My Business page
  68. Add Q&A’s (Pull from customers FAQ’s)
  69. Encourage reviews and reply to every single one
  70. Get a backlink from the local press (newspapers/media)MOBILE SEO
  71. Check your mobile speed
  72. Run a Google mobile friendly test
  73. Test your mobile website on different browsers
  74. Check that your CTA’s on mobile are visible and easy to access

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    -1 hour PowerPoint Presentation
    -Helpful checklists
    -“My SEO Plan” PDF
    -Includes FREE 30 min. consult to pick my brain on anything you’d like

    There you go, a 100 step SEO checklist that both beginners and more advanced SEOs can follow. I hope you found at least a few ways to improve your site’s SEO and optimization.

    If you have any other SEO Checklist ideas, we’d love to know what they are in the comments below.

    Download the SEO Checklist Template – coming soon!

SEO Checklist

SEO Checklist via SEM Rush