Do you have problems positioning yourself among the first search results? Have you thought about making a checklist to diagnose the SEO of your website?
In this article, we will explain the basic aspects that you should consider when doing so and thus, know where your website is failing and what the causes are.
Once you manage to audit your website, you will have the necessary optimization measures to increase its traffic and positioning. Let’s get started!
SEO diagnosis
General programming aspects
- Google Analytics code implemented in the <head>. ✅
- Google Search Console configured. ✅
- URL sitemaps correctly. ✅
Accessibility and URLs
- 404 error-free page. ✅
- Page without 302 redirects. ✅
- Page free of duplicate content. ✅
- URLs have hyphens. ✅
- Descriptive URLs of the content. ✅
- Fast loading speed. ✅
- Responsive design for mobiles. ✅
Content and keywords
- Each page has a central keyword. ✅
- Main keyword in the URL. ✅
- Main keyword in the Title. ✅
- Main keyword in the Meta Description. ✅
- Main keyword in H1. ✅
- Main keyword within the content. ✅
- There are no repeated main keywords. ✅
Meta description
- The title is unique for each page. ✅
- Title up to 70 characters. ✅
- Descriptive title related to the content of the page. ✅
- Unique meta-description information for each page. ✅
- Meta description up to 156 characters. ✅
- Meta description related to the content of the page. ✅
SEO content optimization aspects
- Yoast SEO plugin installed. ✅
- Original content without plagiarism. ✅
- H1 and H2 header tags on all pages. ✅
- Internal and external link on each page. ✅
- Blog articles with at least 300 words and 2 subtitles. ✅
- Images with optimized <alt> attribute. ✅
- Content readability (no spelling and grammatical errors) ✅
Next, we will delve into elements of the checklist that are important to consider:
Google Search Console configured
In order for your website to be indexed by Google and appear in search results, you must register with Google Search Console and insert the code it provides into your website.
This tool is important to constantly analyze your SEO because it shows you which pages require improvements in their metadata by looking at their HTML code and gives you alerts when the links on your website do not meet the necessary parameters to be indexed.
Additionally, through this platform you can see which web pages and keywords are optimized. Another reason to have Google Search Console configured is that it tells you the flaws present in your content that could affect its display on other devices.
Use of keywords
Keywords are those keywords or phrases that users place in the search engine to find the information they need. For example “online shoe sales in Medellín”.
If your web pages do not have keywords, Google will not be able to show them to users when they perform searches that are related to your content, products and services.
Therefore, it is important that you carry out keyword research according to the different stages of the buyer’s journey to create specific content for each of them.
Content Readability
Content readability plays a key role in how your website ranks in search results.
By this, we mean that the information you place on your page must be perfectly understood and preferably written in an active voice.
For example: the phrase “The children climbed the trees” (active voice) is better understood than “The trees were climbed by the children” (passive voice).
Such readability is also achieved through the appropriate use of grammatical and spelling rules. Avoid making errors in accentuation, using complex terms and misusing punctuation marks.
It is not the same to say: “Let’s eat, children” as “Let’s eat, children.” As you can see, misuse of commas can completely change the meaning of the phrase and make the message you want to convey less understandable.
Yoast SEO installed
WordPress plugins allow you to improve the functionality of your website by adding tools, functionalities and features that are not directly integrated into the system.
One of the most used plugins is Yoast SEO. This offers you functionalities for:
- View and configure the snippet or description of the web page before being published.
- Implement tags and categories.
- Count the times your keywords appear in the text.
- Know when text is not readable or confusing.
- Detect duplicate posts.
- Receive suggestions for internal and external links.
Loading speed
For a successful user experience, all pages on your website must load fast. To check its speed, we recommend using Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Google’s Test My Site tools, which allow you to know which pages are optimized for all formats and devices based on loading time.
In short, search engine positioning (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing.
After all, the success of a website and its ability to receive large volumes of qualified traffic will depend on its visibility on Google and other search engines.
To achieve this, it is important that you make sure that your page meets each of the requirements present in this checklist to diagnose the SEO of your website.
