[your logo here] SEO Implementation Master ChecklistClick and enter Document Title [your business name here] Professional SEO Prepared by [your name here] [clients business name here] 1. PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT The purpose of this document is to provide a step by step workflow strategy that can be followed methodically during the lifecycle of any client campaign. This ensures each step is completed accurately, from start to finish without being missed or overlooked. This list may be edited as required to suit your business needs or requirements. This document is comprised of the following parts. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Purpose of document Domain name Keyword related Content development Meta tags Site navigation URL elements Search engine submission Sitemaps Analytics Headers and redirects Imagery RSS feeds Social widgets Directory submissions Article marketing Press releases Multimedia publishing Social bookmarking Web 2.0 sites Comment posting 2. DOMAIN NAME Registered domain has been carefully selected using brand or keywords and resolves correctly to www (or no www) version. Domain checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Keyword rich domain name registered / in use Page 1 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] SEO Implementation Checklist ☐ Domain name does not contain hyphens, numbers or mispellings ☐ Domain is not due to expire 3. KEYWORD RELATED Content has been written with targeted keywords used intelligently throughout the appropriate pages. Keyword checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Comprehensive keyword research performed ☐ Competition / expected traffic assessed ☐ Primary and secondary keywords selected ☐ Keywords documented / approved by client ☐ Keywords grouped per category / site structure determined based upon keywords 4. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT Content has been written with targeted keywords used intelligently throughout the appropriate pages. Content Checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Content type determined / approved by client ☐ Content creation assigned to designated person(s) ☐ Content development commenced based upon keyword research ☐ Content received and approved for use ☐ Content published 5. META TAGS Each page contains its own unique title, meta description, and main heading (H1). Meta tags checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Keyword rich/relevant title tags, keywords close to beginning of title tags ☐ Title tags 10 – 60 characters, no special characters ☐ Keyword rich/relevant description tags ☐ Description tags less than 200 characters. ☐ Keyword rich/relevant keyword tags ☐ Keyword tags less than 10 specific keywords / keywords not stuffed ☐ No keyword meta tag duplicates ☐ Keyword rich/relevant header tags, H1, H2, H3 Page 2 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] SEO Implementation Checklist 6. SITE NAVIGATION Site navigation is clearly marked using plain text links. Flash, JavaScript, or form-based navigation, if used, has a plain text alternative. Site navigation checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Most relevant navigational links most prominent onsite (header, sidemenu etc) ☐ Secondary site navigational links within site footer (privacy, disclaimer etc) ☐ Text based navigation replacing any image or flash based navigation ☐ Site pages or filenames “linked to” contain relevant keywords/phrases ☐ All internal onsite links are valid / no broken links ☐ Site consists of efficient, tree like, category based structure ☐ No more than 2 clicks to any page sitewide ☐ Intra site linking ☐ Implementation of breadcrumb navigation ☐ Keyword relevant mouseover text across all links ☐ Removal of any links pointing to external spam, porn, gambling etc related sites ☐ All external links valid and working 7. URL ELEMENTS URLs contain targeted keywords, are short, contain no query strings or session IDs, and are correctly referenced by the appropriate rel=canonical link element. URL Checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Keyword rich/relevant URLs/pagenames ☐ Removal of non descriptive URLs ☐ Implementation of category based URL structure (www.domain.com/category/page.html) ☐ Implementation of hyphenated URLs ☐ Removal of overly long page names 8. SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION Site has been registered with and submitted to Google and/or Bing webmaster tools with correct settings. Search engine submission checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Submission to Google ☐ Submission to Yahoo Page 3 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] SEO Implementation Checklist ☐ Submission to Bing ☐ Submission to any other desired search engines 9. SITEMAPS Both an HTML and an XML sitemap have been created for the site. The XML sitemap has been correctly submitted to Google and/or Bing webmaster tools. Sitemap checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of HTML sitemap ☐ Creation of XML sitemap ☐ Check and validate XML sitemap ☐ Submission of XML sitemap to Google webmaster tools 10. ANALYTICS Analytics software is correctly implemented on every page and tracking is active. Analytics software checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of Google Analytics (or other tracking software) account ☐ Creation of tracking code ☐ Implementation of analytical code onsite ☐ Confirmation of correctly installed and actively tracking code 11. HEADERS AND REDIRECTS All redirections correctly use a 301 header response. Page not found is correctly set up to return a 404 header response. Redirects and header response checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Update htaccess file with appropriate redirects if required (301) ☐ Create custom 404 error file ☐ Test both 301 redirects and 404 error files 12. IMAGERY Images have been reduced in size to prevent slow loading times which can hamper rankings. Image manipulation checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ All images have descriptive/keyword rich file names ☐ All images have appropriate ALT tag information Page 4 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] ☐ SEO Implementation Checklist Images load quickly without delay 13. RSS FEEDS RSS feeds have been created and published onsite. Feedburner account created, all RSS feeds pinged. RSS feeds checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of RSS feeds (eg feedburner.com) ☐ Implementation of RSS feeds onsite ☐ Submission of RSS feeds to external websites ☐ RSS feeds pinged 14. SOCIAL WIDGETS Implementation of social widgets on all pages site wide. Share this buttons and link to us pages created. Widgets checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Implementation of ‘share this’ social widgets onsite ☐ ‘Link to us’ page created ☐ Testing of social widget functionality 15. DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS Site has been submitted to both free and paid directories, including Yahoo and DMOZ. Descriptive text used throughout submissions. Directory submission checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Submission of site to free directories ☐ Submission of site to paid directories ☐ Submission of site to Yahoo directory ☐ Submission of site to DMOZ 16. ARTICLE MARKETING Content published to various article marketing websites. Resource boxes created using descriptive anchor text. Article submission checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of content for article directories ☐ Article directories sites chosen ☐ Resource box creation/link text Page 5 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] ☐ SEO Implementation Checklist Publication of content to article marketing sites (ezinearticles.com etc) 17. PRESS RELEASES Press release written, received and published on selected press release websites for news syndication. Press release submission checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of content for press releases ☐ Press release websites chosen ☐ Link/anchor text noted ☐ Publication of content to press release sites 18. MULTIMEDIA PUBLISHING Mulitimedia content created. Content proofed, and published across various multimedia sharing sites. Podcasts published onsite, videos posted to youtube etc Multimedia publishing checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of content video, audio etc ☐ Publication of multimedia content onsite (eg podcasts etc) ☐ Publication of content and material to selected multimedia sharing sites (eg.youtube.com) ☐ Descriptive link/anchor text implemented 19. SOCIAL BOOKMARKING Site has been submitted to leading social bookmarking sites. (digg, reddit, delicious etc) Social bookmarking checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Submission to digg.com ☐ Submission to delicious.com ☐ Link sharing with Facebook, Twitter etc ☐ Bookmarking of a collection of most relevant pages 20. WEB 2.0 SITES Creation of numerous web 2.0 (external third party sites) in an effort to provide keyword rich high quality anchor text backlinks. Web 2.0 checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Creation of squidoo pages ☐ Creation of hubpages Page 6 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED” [your business name] SEO Implementation Checklist ☐ Creation of blog ☐ Bookmarking and pinging of external sites 21. COMMENT POSTING Blog commenting and forum posting performed and completed across various topic related websites. Comment posting checklist Mark off each section as performed/completed. ☐ Blog commenting ☐ Forum posting Page 7 of 7 “PRINTED COPIES ARE UNCONTROLLED”
