Starting a new blog and running it successfully is not that easy in today’s tough competition. But with some simple hacks and tips, you can improve your blog’s growth for sure. If you have just started your blog then learning about technical terms like SEO and SEM would take some time.
So we have created a simplified SEO checklist with more than 25 important factors of overall SEO of your blog. After starting your new blog you can simply follow this checklist to make sure you are not missing out anything regarding SEO.
Complete SEO Checklist to Improve Your Blog Visibility
Let’s get started with the basics of SEO in the checklist to make your blog compatible with every search engine and faster indexing. You can either write it down or just refer to the article while implementing all the portions in the checklist.
1. Google Search Console For Basic SEO
First things first, whenever you start a new site or blog and publish it on the internet submitting it to the google search console is recommended by professional SEO practitioners. As the Google search console is free to use you can link your new blog with google directly and receive in-depth data regarding various factors for your blog.
Simply search for google search console in your browser and log in with your Google account. After that follow the simple steps that are displayed on the platform to add your blog in the search console.
2. Bing Search Console For More Organic Traffic
The bing search console is very similar to the Google search console. Despite not being much popular as google, bing is one of the most used search engines around the globe. So submitting your new blog in bing search console is recommended.
Steps to add your site in the bing search console will get displayed on the platform. Mostly you will be asked to enter an HTML code in your site’s header to make sure that you are the owner of a particular site/blog.
3. On-page SEO Tactics
Usage of proper on-page SEO is very important for anyone who wants to grow their blog. Without on-page SEO you can not expect to receive any organic traffic for your new blog. For accurate on-page SEO, you can use plugins or just learn about how on-page SEO works.
4. Off-page SEO Tactics
Off-page SEO is also important when you want your blog in the top positions of the SERPs. So learning about quality backlink building, Internal linking and proper management of your outbound links are necessary.
Hence, you will have to invest your time in learning about off-page SEO. Or you can choose to hire a freelancer expert who can get this work done for you.
5. Using ATP ( answer the public )
Answerthepublic.com is a great platform where you can find lots of exciting ideas for creating new content on your blog. Because once you have started meaningful content daily you will run out of ideas very soon.
Answerthepublic will help you find the niche and questions that people are looking for. You can create detailed content around these topics for your audience. It will also help you rank for the low competition keywords when used properly.
6. Keyword Keg For Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important parts of any blog SEO. But if you are looking for a powerful keyword research tool while low on budget then Keyword keg is a great tool that is available for free.
You can easily receive detailed metrics for up to 10 keywords daily and decide on which keywords your next article will be. So make sure to use this free source of information for better SEO of your blog.
7. Using KWfinder From Mangools
Another impressive keyword research tool you can find in the market is KWfinder.com from Mangools. With a limited trial period of 14 days, you can try this amazing set of tools bundled together in one place.
Sign up for a free trial account at Mangools.com and you can use many more SEO tools with KWfinder itself. If you find this tool useful and interesting then you can go for paid plans in the future.
8. Optimizing Overall Design And Appearance Of The Site/Blog
If you have chosen a different platform for creating your new blog then optimization is very important for the overall SEO of your blog. As designing and appearance of your new blog play a major role in the SEO you will have to make your site user-friendly.
When someone interacts with your site he/she should find it easy to read the content and navigate through different pages and sections of the blog.
9. Using SEO Plugins Like Yoast SEO ( WordPress Users Only )
The majority of new bloggers choose WordPress for creating their very first blog. So if you are also one of those lucky persons. Your half of the SEO work will get done automatically. With SEO by Yoast or Rank by Math SEO you can optimize your blog’s SEO to the fullest.
On the other hand, these plugins are completely free to use and beginner-friendly at the same time. Just visit the plugins section in your dashboard and click on add new, you can type in Yoast SEO or Rank by math SEO and install the plugin with simple steps.
10. SEO optimization for images
Images are very attractive for any blog as they are used to increase the click-through rate and engagement of your blog posts. You will have to optimize your images for better SEO of your blog.
For optimizing your images you can use plugins like a jetpack or you can manually compress them by using tinypng or iLuv img for faster loading and use alternative tags with them to get more exposure to the search engines.
11. Choosing The Right SEO Template For The Blog
Choosing the right template or theme is also very important because the faster your site loads and is user-friendly it will outrank the competitors easily. So your choice of the theme you want to use on your blog can affect your blog’s SEO negatively or positively according to your choice.
It’s always recommended to go for a light-weight and simple theme that can manage your blog posts and media efficiently. There are tons of such templates available on the internet for free you can choose any of them.
12. Making Your site Mobile-friendly
With recent updates from google if your site is not mobile-friendly enough then forget about outranking your competitors. Because even if you have quality content on your blog, without making your site mobile friendly you won’t receive any mobile traffic for sure.
You can choose responsive themes that are easily available on the internet. With these responsive templates, your blog will get automatically adjusted to the screen size of the device on which it’s being used.
13. Using Accelerated Mobile Page System
AMP ( accelerated mobile pages ) are very popular for a long time in the market. As they convert your blog into blazing fast web pages that are easy to access even from a 2G connection.
You can do so by installing AMP service on your blog, It will help you get higher rankings and beat your competitors that have more loading time compared to your blog. By using the AMP system your blog’s overall design will be adjusted according to the requirements.
14. Backlinks Builder Tools
If you are serious about outranking your competitors then quality backlink building is a necessity for any new blog. But without enough practical knowledge, you don’t stand a chance against those professionals.
So you can simply use automated backlink building tools that are easy to afford with amazing results for your blog’s rankings. You can choose any of them you find useful for you. There are lots of backlink generator tools.
15. Usage Of Proper LinkAuditing Tools
Once you have created enough backlinks for your blog, not all of them need to be affecting your blog positively. There are lots of bad backlinks that will decrease your rankings if you don’t find them instantly.
Using proper link auditing tools will help you find and remove those dead links from your blog. You can go for popular link auditing tools like SemRush.com
16. Optimizing All Social Media Platforms
Almost every professional blogger uses all the social media platforms to promote blogs and content for free. You can do the same by creating an account on every social media platform that you can use to promote your content or ideas in exchange for free traffic.
17. Even Distribution Of Social Media Content On Various Platforms
After you have completed creating accounts on all social media platforms its time to utilize your content and evenly distribute it among all the platforms. Because if you only focus on a single source of traffic your other accounts will not grow much faster compared to others.
18. Using SSL Certificate For Better Security
HTTPS ( hypertext transfer protocol secure ) is an internet protocol that is used to make your blog/site more secure. If you have been using an HTTP for your blog then change it instantly, as hackers and crackers can easily exploit it for stealing your information or getting unauthorized access to the blog/site. Also now Google has updated its algos and SSL is now a ranking factor. Ask your hosting provider to enable SSL for you. Letsencrypt.org provides free SSL.
19. Creating And Submitting Robots.txt File
Robots.txt is very important when it comes to SEO. Almost every professional uses robots.txt file for their blogs. As it improves the indexing rate of your blogposts and makes your site easy to navigate for crawlers creating and submitting a Robots.txt file is very important.
20. Guest Posting On Quality Sites
When it comes to performing off-page SEO for any blog, Guest posting on quality sites plays an important role in building positive link juice for your new blog with the initial traffic you may require when starting out.
You can look for blogs that are similar to your niche or just search in google about blogs/sites that allow guest posting. By doing so you can obtain many do-follow backlinks from quality sites and receive some traffic at the same time.
21. Submitting Sitemap In Various Search Consoles
If you have successfully added your site/blog in search consoles like google and bing then creating and submitting a complete sitemap of your site can be very useful. With a proper sitemap submitted in the search console, your blog posts will get indexed much faster and start ranking up in the SERPs.
22. Choosing A Powerful Hosting Service
Powerful hosting is very important if you want to grow your blog and start receiving quality traffic consistently. So make sure to choose an affordable and reliable hosting service that can easily manage your site’s media and the traffic it receives.
Because if your site is crashed due to weak hosting service then google may decrease the ranking of your site/blog because of the performance issue it has.
23. Decreasing The Downtime For Your Site
No hosting in the world provides 100% uptime, as they have to manage their resources between so many users 100% uptime for any site seems to be impossible for most of the hosting services out there.
The only better option you have to go for a fast and reliable hosting service with at least 99.99% uptime. So your site/blog will not get any penalty from Google to decrease the rankings.
24. Removing Deadlinks And Pages
Deadlinks and pages with errors like 404 are a huge threat to your blog’s overall SEO. Because of these deadlinks and pages, google can charge your blog with a penalty that will affect your blog’s SEO negatively.
So it’s better to find and remove any deadlinks or pages from your blog that can affect your blog’s SEO in the future. You can use SEO tools such as Semrush.com, Ahrefs.com, etc to find such pages and links from your blog.
25. Updating Outdated Content
Outdated content creates a negative impression of your blog. The people who visit your blog require the best and fresh content on the internet so if you are not dedicated to providing useful and updated content the bounce rate of your blog will increase day by day.
And if your bounce rate keeps increasing over the time google will decrease the ranking for any of the keywords you have ranked till now. So make sure to update your content often and make it more effective for your audience.
Conclusion
Without proper SEO of any blog, it will not grow as fast as other blogs in the competition. But some simple tactics and checklists of SEO you can make sure that your blog’s SEO is completely healthy and ready to increase the rankings.
If you found any useful information in this article then please share it with your friends. And don’t forget to mention any queries or suggestions in the comments section below.
