Checklist of Best Practices in Website

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1 Checklist of Best Practices in Website An educational guide for anyone responsible for website performance and search engine optimization. Specialists in Direct & Digital Marketing

2 Checklist of Best Practices in Website SEO Search Engine Optimization: It s a complicated but known process. Getting found on the Internet requires understanding how search engines search in their quest to serve up the most relevant results in a heartbeat. Search rankings depend on a long list of factors and they change over time. But, the fundamental process search engines follow is known. The primary factors have been identified. What follows is a checklist for marketing and Web managers to work through in order to stand the best chance for optimum search performance. We hope you find it useful. As always, CORE Communications stands ready to provide whatever help you need to succeed, including affordable and professional SEO services. 2

3 4 Technical Site Audit Quick Overview Check indexed pages Site: Search in Google Home page is the first result (or near the top) Review number of organic landing pages in Google analytics This is often the best measure of how many pages are indexed AND which Google finds valuable Search for brand and branded terms Is the home page showing up at the top, or are correct pages showing up? Check Google s cache for key pages Content shows up Navigation links are present Check for hidden content/links Do a mobile search for your brand and key landing pages Your listing has the mobile friendly label Landing pages are mobile friendly On page Optimization Title tags are optimized Optimized Unique characters (512 pixels) Important pages have click through rates optimized via page titles and meta descriptions Pages are not missing page titles and meta descriptions The on page content includes the primary keyword phrase multiple times as well as variations and alternate keyword phrases Image file names and alt text are optimized to include the primary keyword phrase associated with the page. URLs are descriptive and optimized URLs are clean No excessive parameters URLs are static URLs are short (115 characters or shorter) There is a significant amount of optimized, unique content on key pages The primary keyword phrase is contained in the H1 tag 1

4 Checklist of Best Practices in Website SEO Content Home page is optimized At least one paragraph of text Enough content to give search engines an understanding of what the page is about (typically at least 150 words) Content is unique Landing pages are optimized At least a couple paragraphs of content enough to help search engines understand what the page is about Is the text templated or completely unique? Site contains real and substantial content Is there real content on the site, or is the content simply a list of links? Proper keyword targeting The intent behind the keywords matches the intent of the landing page Pages exist to target head terms, mid tail terms, and long tail keywords Content exists to help users convert and is easily accessible to users Content to help educate users about the product or service Content formatting Content is formatted well and is easy to read H tags are used Images are used Text is broken down into easy-to-read paragraphs Good headlines on blog posts Headlines are well written and draw users in Amount of content versus ads There is significant unique content above the fold There are not an excessive amount of ads above the fold Keyword cannibalization S ite:search in Google for important keyword phrases does not reveal a significant amount of pages competing for the same term There are no duplicate page titles or duplicate content Duplicate Content There should be one URL for each piece of content URL parameters are not used, or are otherwise dealt with The same content doesn t exist on different URLs (often product/category related) Do an in-quotes search to check for duplicate content Content does not show up elsewhere on the domain Content has not been scraped If scraped, file a content-removal request with Google The same content is not replicated on other domains owned by the company Printer-friendly pages are not causing duplicate content The same content does not exist on different sub domains The same content does not exist on a secure version of the site 2

5 4 Accessibility & Indexation Entire site, or key pages, have not been blocked in the robots.txt file Content displays correctly when JavaScript, cookies and CSS are turned off Navigation and Internal links display correctly when JavaScript, cookies and CSS are turned off Content is the same when you set the user agent to Googlebot Important pages do not contain the meta robots noindex tag (Moz, Screaming Frog, etc.) Duplicate/thin content has the noindex command or is disallowed in robots.txt Goal pages are prevented from receiving organic visits There are not excessive 4xx or 5xx errors in a crawl report (Moz, Screaming Frog, etc.) XML sitemaps are listed in the robots.txt file XML sitemaps are submitted to Google/Bing Webmaster Tools Site Architecture & Internal Linking Number of links on a page is reasonable ( typically) Vertical linking structures are in place Homepage links to category pages Category pages link to sub category and product pages as appropriate Product pages link to relevant category pages. Horizontal linking structures are in place Category pages link to other relevant category pages Footer does not use a block of links instead of proper navigation Footer does not link to landing pages with optimized anchors Internal anchor text is used appropriately No/minimal broken links Product pages link to other relevant product pages. Links are in content Does not utilize massive blocks of links placed in the content to create internal links 3

6 Checklist of Best Practices in Website SEO Technical Issues 301 redirects are being used for all redirects 302, 307, meta refresh, and JavaScript redirects are not used as they pass little to no value. Redirect chains are not used Content is not served using JavaScript Links are not served in JavaScript (unless intentionally done so) Content is not pulled in via iframes Flash is not used to deliver content No errors in Google Webmaster Tools XML sitemaps follow proper XML protocols Canonical version of the site established through 301s Canonical version of site is specified in Google Webmaster Tools Rel canonical link tag is properly implemented across the site Uses absolute URLs instead of relative URLs XML sitemaps are in place XML sitemaps are not band aids for poor site architecture XML sitemaps are structured to show indexation problems Site Speed Pages load in a reasonable amount of time Compression is enabled Caching is enabled Images are optimized for the web CSS/JS/HTML is minified There are not an excessive number of HTTP requests Site is hosted on a fast server 4

7 4 Mobile Site renders properly for mobile and tablet visitors A mobile experience is set up (responsive design, dynamic serving and dedicated mobile site) Analytics are set up properly if separate mobile content exists Mobile configuration is specified Responsive: The viewport meta tag is used Buttons are not too close together for mobile visitors The mobile experience matches up with the intent of mobile visitors Ensure faulty mobile redirects do not exist Dynamic serving: The Vary HTTP header is used Mobile site: Mobile content uses the canonical tag to point to the desktop version Mobile site: Desktop content uses the rel alternate tag to point to the mobile version International International version of content is indicated in the URL Subdomain cctld Directory Country-based targeting is enabled in webmaster tools Make sure the currency reflects the country targeted URL structure is in the native language Hreflang/rel alternate is properly implemented if relevant If there are multiple versions of a site in the same language (such as /us/ and /uk/, both in English), the copy has been updated so that they are unique 5

8 Checklist of Best Practices in Website SEO Analytics Analytics tracking code is on every page There is only one instance of a GA property on a page Analytics are properly tracking and capturing internal searches Demographics tracking is set up Adwords and Adsense are properly linked, if you are using these platforms UTM Campaign Parameters are used for other marketing efforts Meta refresh and JavaScript redirects are avoided Event tracking is set up for key user interactions Internal IP addresses are excluded 6

9 4 Website Development Terms and Definitions Browser Computer program to view and interact with Internet Web pages. Common examples include Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Content Management System (CMS) A website platform that allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as maintenance from within an administration panel. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) A programming language for the Web to define the style (look and feel) of a Web page. Cascading Style Sheets can define: fonts, colors, layouts and more. DNS If you purchase a domain name, DNS servers are given the IP address of your Web server and the corresponding domain name. Then, when someone comes to your domain, the DNS server translates that to an IP so it knows where to send the request. DNS Propagation The reason it takes so long for your website to be visible to everyone once you launch is that each Internet provider has an automated process that updates and caches DNS records every few days. Until their cache is reset, it will not display your launched website. There is nothing that you, CORE Communications or anyone else can do to reduce DNS propagation time. It is simply a case of waiting for this automated process to complete. Domain Registrar Where the domain was purchased. Examples include Network Solutions, GoDaddy, and MediaTemple. Hosting Provider Where the website is being hosted. Examples include Network Solutions, GoDaddy and MediaTemple. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) - HTML code usually means the markup language HTML that allows Web browsers to render Web content. Many people refer to the language that builds Web pages as HTML code. HTML is the language that is used to write Web pages. JavaScript An object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within Web browsers. Linux Web Hosting Allows a developer to build a website on the Linux Operating System, which is an open-source variation of the Unix Operating System. Using this particular platform for Web development allows the developer to leverage the best and most popular in open-source technologies such as MySQL and PHP. Meta Tag Meta tags are most often used for search engine optimization (SEO). The two most critical meta tags used in SEO are description and keywords. These are sometimes used by search engines to place the pages in the search directory, and they are used to provide a short description of the Web page in the search results. MySQL A relational database management system (RDBMS), it allows website developers to administer MySQL databases or manage data contained within the databases. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) A programming language model organized around objects rather than actions and data rather than logic. Historically, a program has been viewed as a logical procedure that takes input data, processes it, and produces output data. PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) PHP is found on most Web servers and is used by developers to create dynamic and database-driven websites. It is a server-side scripting language that is typically embedded into HTML pages to add features that HTML can t do by itself. In order to run PHP, you need to have a Web server with it installed. Responsive Web Design (RWD) Formats the website design in a way that it most optimal for viewing and navigation across a wide range of devices, including traditional PCs, smartphones and tablet devices. 7

10 Checklist of Best Practices in Website SEO Website Development Terms and Definitions (continued) Sitemap A list of pages of a website accessible to search engines or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for website design, or a Web page that lists the pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. SSL Certificate After a browser connects to a Web server, a secure connection is made a session key (with SSL (https) and is used to encrypt all transmitted data. SSL Certificates are necessary for websites collecting or passing data to third parties such as credit cards, socialsecurity numbers or other personal information. Wireframe A wireframe is a visual representation of a website. It allows designers and developers to present proposed functions, graphic elements, structure and content of a website with simple line drawings. WordPress WordPress is an Open Source software system used by millions of people around the world to create websites and blogs. It is completely customizable by the use of themes and plugins. WHO-IS The WHO-IS database is a searchable list of every single domain currently registered in the world. You can check your WHO-IS status by going to who.godaddy.com/ and type your domain in the box. 8

11 4 For SEO And Other Services, A Marketing Partner You Can Count On. As the search engine optimization checklist illustrates, keeping up with what works and what doesn t in today s complex marketplace can require advisors with decades of experience and a small army of specialists in traditional and new marketing channels. But who can afford to hire a marketing services firm with all those resources and talent? At long last, you can. Welcome to CORE. All of our services are executed on a pay-as-you-go basis by CORE Marketing Central our award-winning team of planners, writers, designers, Web specialists and direct marketing experts. Neither of us pays for this resource until we use it. And pricing is well below that of even small marketing agencies. The CORE result? Professional, effective and costefficient essential marketing services for companies and organizations with modest resources. To get started today with SEO or any other marketing initiative large or small, give us a call. Dave Hofelich General Manager CORE Communications of Clawson 1302 Anderson Road Clawson, MI Cell: daveh@corecommunications.net Fax: Specialists in Direct & Digital Marketing 9

12 CORE Communications - Plymouth Specialists in Direct and Digital Marketing plymouth