Technical SEO
- Quick brand keyword overview
Check indexed pages
Review the number of organic landing pages in Google Analytics
Search for brand and branded terms
Check Google's cache for key pages
Perform the same checks for mobile and desktop
On-page optimization
Title tags are optimized
Title tags should be optimized and unique
Brand name should be included in the title tag to improve click-through rates
Title tags are about 55+60 chars (512 px) to be fully displayed in search results pages. Results width's can be reviewed in software such as screaming frog.
Important pages have click-through rate optimized titles and meta descriptions
This will help improve organic traffic independent of rankings
A tool such as SERP Turkey is useful for comparing results http://www.tomanthony.co.uk/tools/serp-turkey/ based on all results returned
Check for pages missing titles and meta descriptions
The on-page content includes the primary keyword phrase multiple times as well as variations and alternate keyword phrases
There is a significant amount of optimized, unique content on key pages
the primary keyword phrase is contained in the H1 tag
Images file names and alt text are optimized to include the primary keyword phrase associated with the page
URLs are descriptive and optimized
Where optimization/change is made, ensure correct applicable 301's are implemented
Clean URLs
No excessive parameters or session IDs
URLs exposed to search engines should be static and canonicalized
Short URLs
115 chars or shorter - this char limit isn't set in stone, but shorter URLs are better for usability
Content
Homepage content is optimized
Does the homepage have at least one paragraph?
There has to be enough content on the page to give search engines an understanding of what a page is about. Based on experience at least 150 words as a static block of SEO optimized content rendered onto the page.
Landing pages are optimized
Do these pages have at least a few paragraphs of content? Is it enough to give search engines an understanding of the context of the page
Ensure that content is unique
Site contains real and substantial content
e.g. the content is 'real' and not just a collection of links
Duplicate content :-(
Accessibility & Indexation
Site architecture & internal linking
Technical issues
Site Speed
Mobile
International
Analytics
Proper use of 301s
Bad redirects are avoided such as 302s, 307s, meta refresh, and JavaScript
Redirects point directly to the final URL and do not leverage redirect chains
Use of iFrames :-(
Content served in Flash
Check for errors in Google WMT
XML Sitemaps
Canonical version of the site established through 301s
Canonical version of site is specified in Google WMT
Canonical link tags implemented across the site
Review page load for key landing pages
Compression enabled - Gzip, minification of scripts
Caching enabled where applicable
Use of CDN
Consider mobile page speed!
Mobile friendliness checking
Consider removing friction from Desktop in if not required on mobile this will remove 'bloat' from responsive sites in addition to good code practice
If site is adaptive, ensure analytics and content are the same across both versions of the adaptive sites, different content/less functionality or unavailability can be punished by Google
If a mobile (m.) exists, does the desktop equivalent URL point to the mobile version with rel="alternate"?
For m. adaptive sites - does mobile canonical point to the desktop URL
Href lang tags correctly set (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en)
For multiple versions of the site which are the same language, ensure content isn't duplicated e.g. a seperate Germany & Austrian distinct websites
Currency & language is correct for the region & any search engines which would crawl the site
ensure URL structure is in native language and uses correct domains
Semantic HTML
Site properly accessible for visually impaired users
Indexation is not blocked where link equity is reduced due to robots.txt entries
Security
Best practices have been used
Site HTTPS complete (latest Google update hinted this will be a consideration going forward where rankings will be affected - not currently though)
Malicious website hijacking where a malicious attacker will create a 'fake' version of your website and attempt to populate it with keywords to drive traffic from your site to capture your customers details/damage your brand by filling the visitors with malware etc...
Become a google certified shop
Ensure there is 'reassurance' messaging across the site such as SSL secure checkout etc... this goes towards the customer becoming aware of how your site should behave. This mitigates some risk .
Ensure URL contains the company brand name, is short, and as simple as possible so that it is obvious to a user by the URL that they are not on the correct site
Reduce the number of external URLs on your site. For e-commerce this is a no brainer as you want to reduce friction to checkout. By reducing the scope of external domains a user will encounter on a journey, it will be more obvious to a user that something is wrong when they are on a malicious website.
UGC (User Generated Content) & Social
UGC such as product reviews which have been micro marked up with correct semantic html will increase organic ranking of a page
HTML should be marked up so that it can be crawled by social media widgets to make sharing content easier thus increasing traffic to the site.
Crawlable and not blocked by robots
Consistant Google sitemap xml exports
Landing pages are contextually accurate (see content)
Ensure that Analytics are in place to establish a baseline
Use tools like Screaming Frog www.screamingfrog.co.uk to crawl the site as a search bot to establish baseline and to revisit to establish if problems have been solved
Semrush is useful for identifying a baseline in terms of traffic (organic/natural) to monitor technical SEO changes https://www.semrush.com - also good for competitor analysis