2023 Ultimate SEO Checklist

ONBOARDING

Onboarding tasks ensure the most foundational first steps of your client’s local SEO campaign are addressed as prioirty. These tasks aid in conversion tracking and basic setup of technical requirements onsite that will apply as you move through optimization.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
HTML Sitemap
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Setup Google Analytics
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
Setup Google Search Console
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
Robots.txt Optimization
TECHNICAL
HARD
SETUP
ONCE
Click to Call Setup Onpage
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE

XML Sitemap Submitted

TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE

Conversion Tracking (Goal Setup in GA) per goal

TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
Audit Schema & Setup
TECHNICAL
HARD
SETUP
ONCE
Reporting System Setup
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
NAP – Home, Contact, About
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Technical Audit (Full Site)
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
Site Speed Evaluation
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Keyword Research

CONTENT

MODERATE

SETUP

QUARTERLY

Install RankMath Plugin
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Include Google Map on Contact Page or Footer
ONPAGE
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE

LOCAL SEO

Local SEO is primarily focused on Google My Business. Think of this as a second point of offsite conversion and a powerful tool when it comes to local SEO. It can drive traffic to the site or be utilized on its own. The following tasks are should be revisted often and be used to build local visibility.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Citation Submission, Optimization & Clean (Bright Local)
LOCAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Google My Business Optimization
LOCAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Google Post Add + Optimization (1 Post per week)
LOCAL
EASY
LOW
MONTHLY
Hyper Local Citations
LOCAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Local Keyword Matrix
LOCAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
QUARTERLY
Add Google Map to Page
LOCAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE

Claim your Google My Business Listing
LOCAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Claim Your Yelp Listing
LOCAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Claim your Bing Places for Business Listing
LOCAL
EASY
SETUP
ONCE
Reply to Reviews
LOCAL
EASY
HIGH
MONTHLY

TECHNICAL SEO

Technical SEO is a mixture of creating a solid foundation with keywords then building upon that by way of schema markup or asset optimization which appeals to the spiders that crawl the site.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Review Schema (per page)
TECHNICAL
HARD
HIGH
ONCE
Video Schema (per video)
TECHNICAL
HARD

HIGH

ONCE
All title tags contain target keyword(s)
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ANNUALLY
All title tags are unique (no duplicates)
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
All title tags have less than 65 characters
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ANNUALLY
All description tags include target keyword(s)
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ANNUALLY
All description tags are unique (no duplicates)
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
ONCE
All description tags have less than 155 characters
TECHNICAL
EASY
SETUP
ANNUALLY
GA Audit
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
MONTHLY
Backlink Audit
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
SETUP
MONTHLY
H Tag Optimization (per page)
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE
Alt Tag Optimization (per image)
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE
Advanced Schema Markup (per page)
TECHNICAL
HARD
HIGH
ONCE
Keyword Cannibalization Audit
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
QUARTERLY
Check for https
TECHNICAL
EASY
HIGH
ONCE
Check for non-www vs www – 1 version
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
ONCE
Broken Links Audit
TECHNICAL
EASY
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Review site architecure for concise URLs
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ANNUALLY
Check that URLs have redirects to / or the canonical is set to /
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
QUARTERLY
Check Redirect Chains
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
QUARTERLY
Check for coverage issues in Google Search Console
TECHNICAL
EASY
HIGH
MONTHLY
Check for manual penalties in Google Search Console
TECHNICAL
EASY
HIGH
MONTHLY
Local Business Markup
TECHNICAL
HARD
HIGH
ONCE
Build backlinks to relevant pages
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY

Disavow Spammy Backlinks
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY

CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION

Conversion Rate Optimization is an ongoing audit, test, and measurement strategy that is in place to ensure more users make their way deeper in the funnel to convert.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Exit Popup CTA
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE
Add/Optimize CTAs
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY

Mobile Friendliness Check & Fix
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
QUARTERLY
Internal links
ONPAGE
EASY
MEDIUM
MONTHLY

Create 404 Page
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
ONCE

Analyze heatmap or behavior flow for page engagement
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
A/B test page triggers
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Conversion-oriented assets (trust signals, social proof, case studies)
ONPAGE
MODERATE
HIGH

QUARTERLY

Testimonials (video or Google/FB/Yelp Reviews)

ONPAGE
MODERATE

HIGH

ONCE

CONTENT

Content is one of the most important factors when it comes to how well a page is going to rank and engage the audience. Below are vairous best practices and audit tasks that will ensure you’re effectively building content with a purpose.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Content Audit
CONTENT
MODERATE
HIGH
QUARTERLY
Authoritative Content Strategy w/ Local Topics
CONTENT
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY

Supportive Keyword Research
CONTENT
EASY
MEDIUM
QUARTERLY
Long Form Content Optimization (1500-2000 Words)
CONTENT
EXPERT
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Blog Creation (1000 words)
CONTENT
EXPERT
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Check for Duplicate Content
CONTENT
MODERATE
MEDIUM
QUARTERLY
Create Pillar Content
CONTENT
EXPERT
MEDIUM
MONTHLY

Create Supportive (cluster) Content
CONTENT

EXPERT

MEDIUM
MONTHLY

Content Formatting (per page)
CONTENT
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Check content optimization score (per page)
CONTENT
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Content Reading Level – Basic vs Intermediate vs Advanced
CONTENT
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE

Keyword in 1st 100 Words (per page)
CONTENT
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE

Create Local City Pages
CONTENT
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY

ONPAGE (MONTHLY)

Onpage optimization is essential in improving engagement on a specific page as well as increasing UX and the conversion funnel. Additionally, some of these tasks will allow the site to reach a wider audience by appealing to Google’s best practices for copy.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Link Placement & Copy Audit (per page)
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE
Great Onpage Structure (per page)
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE

Product Page Optimization (per page)
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE

Check for About, Contact, Privacy Policy and TOS Pages
ONPAGE
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE

Use Video (per page)
ONPAGE
MODERATE
MEDIUM
ONCE

Have the target keyword in URL, Title (at the beginning) and Heading
ONPAGE
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Use Focus Keyword in 1st Paragraph
ONPAGE
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Use a Single H1 on Each Page
ONPAGE
EASY

HIGH

ONCE

HOSTING

Having a fast performing website that follows all the latest best practices is important to not only rank higher and have a high conversion rate, it’s also important to give your users a fast and enjoyable user experience. Some of the items on this list are easy to do within WordPress and some would need some more technical skills but these would pave the foundation towards making sure your website follows the key best practices and is optimized for your customers and Google.

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NAME OF TASK
BUCKET
DIFFICULTY
PRIORITY
FREQUENCY
HELPFUL TOOLS
TRAINING
Use a Top-Performing Web Host
TECHNICAL
EASY
HIGH
ONCE
Check the location is close to your service area
TECHNICAL
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Check and Use GZIP Compression
TECHNICAL
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Check for HTTP/2
TECHNICAL
EASY
MEDIUM
ONCE
Use a Caching Solution
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY
Minify JS/CSS Files
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY
Serve Scaled Images
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY
Compress and Optimize Images
TECHNICAL
MODERATE

HIGH

MONTHLY
Lazy Load Images & Iframes
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Youtube embeds
TECHNICAL
HARD
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Update Core/Theme/Plugins
TECHNICAL
EASY
MEDIUM
MONTHLY
Web files Sercurity Scanning
TECHNICAL
MODERATE
HIGH
MONTHLY