Includes: Building an SEO- friendly Website: A Comprehensive Checklist

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1 Building an SEO- friendly Website: A Comprehensive Checklist Includes: v Pre- Planning Stage v Planning Stage v Development Stage v Pre- Launch v On- Site SEO v Launch v Post- Launch Data Collection v Ongoing Maintenance

2 Pre- Planning Stage Before the website can be actively planned, a few aspects need to be determined: v What is the goal and nature of the website going to be: e- commerce, blog, lead generation, social network, or informative? v Who is your target audience? v What are your branding colors and logo? v What is your brand message? Planning Stage 1. Domain Name/URL: Needs to be easy to remember and spell, and should reflect the nature and/or name of the brand. Avoid dashes, hyphens, and numbers. Should the URL be keyword driven? It depends. In our opinion, a high quality site is more important for SEO than a keyword- stuffed URL, and you can rank any website high in search engines even if the URL does not include a keyword. 2. Hosting: Find a good web hosting company that aligns with the company/website goals. CSMG recommends DreamHost, BlueHost, or HostGator. GoDaddy is not recommended, as it does not seem to work well with sites built on Wordpress. 3. IP Address: Make sure the website has a unique Class C IP (as opposed to a shared IP). Confirm this with web host prior to securing/purchasing the domain. 4. Web Design Platform: We recommend using Wordpress for SEO/content management purposes. Very easy to use & manage, and very SEO friendly. 5. Competitor Research: Analyze the websites of the most successful (i.e. highest ranking) competitors in regards to:

3 v Overall Layout and Design v Colors used v Content and Keywords v Graphics and Images v Site Architecture v Navigation and Usability v Page load times v Target Audience Ø Pick the top 3 competitor websites to use for research throughout web design process. Analyze the sites based on what works, and what can be done better. This is useful information when you start building your own site. 6. Wordpress Template: If applicable, choose a fitting Wordpress template for the website. Keep in mind the goal of the website (e- commerce/blog/lead generation/etc.). 7. Initial Keyword Research: Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner for preliminary keyword research (to be used for content ideas, page names, etc). v Chosen keywords should be high quality and/or high- traffic. v Research keywords used by competitors and their performance in search engines. v Make a list of the top keywords for all of the different pages/product- and service offerings of the website. v Make sure to research long- tail keywords with the buyer personas in mind. 8. Site Map: Design a visual and/or written flowchart of all the pages that you want/need to have included on the website. Functions as a guide throughout the development process. Make page names keyword- driven, if possible. 9. Wireframe/Architecture: Design a website wireframe (skeletal framework) of the homepage. This provides a visual of the overall look and feel desired for the website. Keep in mind the goal of the site, the target audience, and competitor research. Keep the architecture as flat as possible, which means that visitors can access all your pages with as few clicks as possible (1-4).

4 Wireframe Example: 10. Content, Homepage: Design/choose/ effective and engaging content for the homepage that evokes an emotional reaction in the visitor. To start: v Choose several effective images. v Design banner(s). v Keep SEO in mind by incorporating valuable keywords. Development Stage 11. Code the Design and/or customize the template. 12. Write/Refine the content for all pages: Make sure your content brings the brand message across and is of value to the visitor. Write the content for the visitor, not for search engines, and make sure it is high quality and resourceful. Keep the different buyer personas and searcher personalities in mind. Focus on one topic/keyword per page. Beware of keyword stuffing the keywords should be used naturally within the website text. Write at least per page to avoid thin content.

5 13. Meta tags: Formulate meta tags FOR EACH PAGE designed to drive search engine traffic. v URL String: Make sure the URLs for the pages for a search- engine- friendly. Try to avoid numbers and symbols. Should be descriptive of- and relevant to the page/folder/sub- folder (e.g. accident- lawyer/los- angeles). v Title Tag: Include highly valuable keyword and possibly a variation plus location. Should be descriptive in nature (keyword stuffed title tags are a thing of the past and can hurt your ranking). v Description Tag: Include keywords from title tags in different phrasing and/or use related keywords. Research the highest- ranking competitors for title tag keywords (for ideas/keyword placement) and rewrite content. v Alt (image) Tags: Include title tag keywords in image tag. Separate keywords with dashes (e.g. personal- injury- attorney- jpg.). o Don t save images with names that are not relevant or useful. o Make sure image is embedded within highly focused content. v H1 Tag: Main Keyword, same as page title. v H2 Tag: Descriptive sub- heading, can use variation/related keyword, but should read natural. 14. Graphics/Images: Come up with at least one image for EACH page. Do Alt Tags for each image. 15. Internal Linking: Have 3-4 effective hyperlinks per page that link to another page on the website. Each page should be linked to and from. Keywords should vary between being exact (use sparsely) and variations of the anchor page, in addition to non- keyword links such as click here. 16. Privacy Policy/Disclaimer/Terms of Use: Needs to be added depending on the nature of the website. 17. Call to Actions: Make sure each page has a prominent call to action. 18. Add Contact Details: Make it easy for people to contact you. Set up contact form(s) and/or contact details throughout site and customize them based on the products/services offered.

6 19. Create a favicon: Create an icon that appears next to the URL in the browser that uses the brand logo. 20. Add reviews/testimonials: Establishes trust in the new website visitor. Pre- Launch Stage 21. Check details: Make sure phone numbers, address, contact forms and links work and go to the right destination. 22. Spelling, Grammar, and Content Consistency: Check capitalization, tense/style of writing, and recurring/common phrases, and keyword density. 23. Browser Compatibility: Check website s functionality on common browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer), version (6,7,3.1, etc.) and platforms (Windows, OSX, etc.). 24. Test Content: Ensure there is no test content on the site (no xxx for phone numbers etc.) 25. Hidden Copy: Check that all the ALT text is descriptive. 26. Accessibility: Make sure page is accessible to disabled people (which is also vital for SEO). 27. Social Media: Make sure the website has prominent links to all of the major social media sites as well as an RSS feed. Establish a Google+ profile and make sure it is linked with the website. Link the blog to the author s Google+ page to establish Google Authorship 28. Site Security: Ensure that all sensitive user information (submitted via the contact form etc.) is protected. 29. Page load times/site Speed: Ensure that all pages load as quickly as possible. 30. Validation/WC3 Compliance: Check that the site s HTML, CSS, Accessibility and Javascript have been validated.

7 31. Usability: Double- check that the website is user- friendly and self- explanatory (user doesn t have to think while navigating the site). Possibly do a usability test with somebody who has never seen the site to uncover potential issues. On- Site SEO (continued) 32. XML Sitemap: Create an XML Sitemap and submit to major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing). 33. HTML Sitemap: Create HTML site map, outlining every page on the website. Place link to site map in the footer. Can also use anchor text. 34. Meta tags: Double- check that each page has descriptive and effective meta tags, containing valuable keywords. 35. Keyword Density: Check for keyword stuffing that might result in website being penalized. Make sure keyword density is about 1% (1 keyword out of 100). 36. Robots.txt file: Check that the website has a proper robots.txt file that tells the search engine spider which pages on the site should be indexed and/or ignored (if any). 37. URL Structure/301 redirects: Make sure the website always goes to either www or non- www no matter what is entered into the search bar (to avoid duplicate content by the same page being indexed twice). Search engines penalize sites for duplicate content. 38. Set up Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Feedburner, etc. to gain insights to be used for further optimization. 39. Frequent new content: Regularly add new content to the site (through the blog etc). 40. Navigation: Make sure navigation is as easy as possible. User- friendly for people = search engine friendly page: Create a custom 404 page that contains links to main categories and maybe a search box.

8 42. Blog Ping: Customize the Wordpress ping list to extend blog reach to major search engines. Launch 43. Sign up for Google Webmaster Tools: Will show whether Google is indexing the website and which search terms were used to discover the website. 44. Install Analytics Program (Google Analytics, Feedburner, etc). Provides tracking of visitors. Shows who is visiting the website, when, and how. 45. Register the website with search engines: Register with Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Ensure that XML site map is correct and submit it to Google. 46. Back up the website: Configure a backup schedule and test whether recovery works. 47. Google Places/Local Search: Submit site to local search to drive geographically targeted traffic. Post- Launch Data Collection 48. User Data: Effectively manage sensitive customer data collected by the website. 49. Web Analytics: Use Google Analytics on a weekly (or if needed, daily) basis to check/track performance of website and individual pages. 50. Testing and Optimization: Test performance of the website and landing pages. The test results should be compared against certain benchmarks (monthly, weekly, time of day, location, etc.). v Overall number of visitors. v Geo location of visitors. v Click- through- rates. v Conversion Rates.

9 v How do visitors land on the site (organic search, paid search, inbound links)? v How do they behave on the site? v Bounce Rate (what percentage of visitors leaves without interacting with the site)? v Exit and Entry Pages. Where do they enter and leave the site? v How many pages do they visit before they convert? Ongoing Site Maintenance 51. Security Testing: Run tests to make sure the site s sensitive areas (customer data) can t be penetrated. 52. Performance Testing: Track the website s performance and do A/B testing regarding color, content, call to actions, etc. Make sure there are no broken links. 53. Update Content/Content Schedule: Frequently update content with blog posts and news. Devise schedule/frequency for publishing content. 54. Link Building: Continuously work to acquire inbound links or backlinks, i.e. links on other relevant websites pointing to your site. Ideally, these links include text- based anchor links, using high- quality keywords. 55. Changes to Google s Algorithm: Keep track of changes to Google s algorithm and make changes to the site accordingly, in order to remain ahead of competing websites.