SEO is an important aspect of blogging and you need to be careful while planning and applying SEO strategies to your blog.
While there is no set method for SEO, there are some factors that inevitably influence good search engine rankings. Getting organic traffic to your blog is essential. Therefore, all bloggers must pay attention to SEO strategies when blogging.
SEO is a huge topic, and if you are doing SEO for a new website or conducting an SEO audit on a website, it is crucial to maintain an SEO checklist so that you can quickly understand how well your website is optimized.
Since maintaining a list can be difficult, I created this list to help you check the SEO requirements of your website.
ShoutMeLoud covers all the practical and simple tips on all the important factors that influence search engine rankings.
We only provide SEO tips that can be used by beginners and professionals alike .
Here’s the SEO checklist for 2025.
1. Set up Google Search Console
Google Search Console ) (GSC) is a very powerful free SEO tool.
Search Console is designed to help you track your site's performance in Google Search.
It has many useful features that allow you to:
- See which keywords are bringing in the most traffic
- Submit your sitemap
- Fix website errors
- View your Core Web Vitals score (more on this later)
In short: if you’re serious about SEO, setting up GSC is a critical first step. See our guide to Google Search Console to learn how.
2. Install Bing Webmaster Tools
Next, set up Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT).
Is Bing as popular as Google? No.
But Bing has over 100 million daily active users, so it's worth optimizing for.
In SEO, data is very important.
If BWT can provide you with more useful data, then it makes sense to use it.
3. Set up Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the best ways to understand how people find (and use) your website.
Google Analytics allows you to:
- See how much traffic you get from Google
- Find the pages on your site that drive the most traffic
- See if your traffic is increasing or decreasing (and by how much)
- Identify other websites and search engines that send you traffic
- Understand your average engagement rate, page views, and time on site
Pro Tip: Link Google Analytics with Google Search Console. Once linked, you’ll see useful SEO information directly in your Google Analytics account.
If you haven’t used the tool before, check out our guide to Google Analytics .
4. Install Yoast SEO (WordPress and Shopify)
Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin on the planet.
There is good reason for this.
Yoast makes it easy to optimize your WordPress site to make it more search engine friendly. You can use it on Shopify, too.
It also helps you with technical SEO stuff like robots.txt and sitemaps . Very feature-rich.
This is ideal for beginners who need an all-in-one SEO solution.
5. Determine the project’s KPIs
In addition to being equipped with the right tools, you also need to understand what you want to achieve with your SEO efforts.
Here are some common key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider:
- Organic Traffic: Attracting more traffic to your website through search results can increase engagement with your brand, which can increase sales for your business.
- Brand Awareness: Enhanced visibility in search results can boost your brand awareness. Build trust with potential customers.
- Backlink Growth: Getting more high-quality backlinks can boost your website’s authority and help you rank higher in search results, driving more traffic to your website.
- Keyword rankings: Monitoring your pages’ rankings for target keywords can help you respond quickly to ranking drops and take advantage of opportunities for improvement.
But you can also get more granular by monitoring elements like bounce rate and page load time.
Of course, tracking sales is also a vital KPI for your business. It helps you align your SEO efforts with direct results for your business.
Knowing what you plan to achieve with SEO makes it easier to track your results.
6. Set up rank tracking
If one of your KPIs for measuring SEO success is keyword ranking (and it probably should be), then you need to set up a rank tracker.
There are a lot of rank tracking tools to choose from. There are even options for local businesses.
Just like Semrush ’s Map Rank Tracker, it allows you to track local business rankings right down to street level.
Tracking your ranking in search results can help you understand whether the rest of your SEO efforts are effective.
7. Get a free Semrush account
One of the first tools you need in your SEO arsenal is Semrush. Even the free version offers tremendous value.
Here are the reasons:
You can spy on your competitors
First, a free Semrush account allows you to understand your competitors’ SEO strategies.
Analyze their top keywords, backlinks, and organic search performance. Find out what works for them and use this information to improve your own strategy.
It can help you troubleshoot issues with your website
Second, you can run a site audit to catch and fix technical SEO issues, such as broken links and slow page speed .
A free account allows you to crawl up to 100 pages, ensuring your site is optimized for search engines and users.
Backlink Analysis Tools
Finally, backlink analysis tools are a game changer.
With a free Semrush account, you can analyze your backlinks to understand your site’s authority and identify bad links that may be hurting your rankings.
Even with its free version, Semrush provides you with the essential tools to get started with SEO. Once you discover its value, you can always upgrade to unlock more features.
Tip: Click this link to get a free 14-day subscription to Semrush Pro and unlock the full power of these powerful tools .
Keyword Research Checklist
Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. In this checklist, we’ll show you how to quickly find relevant keywords that your potential customers are searching for.
8. Identify your target market
Before you can find the right keywords to target, you need to understand the users who are searching for your keywords and what they hope to learn/gain from the content they find (also known as search intent).
consider:
- Who is your ideal customer: What does the persona of a customer who buys your product or service look like? What language do they speak? What kind of content do they consume?
- What are their pain points: What problems do they face and how can you help them solve them?
- What platforms do they hang out on: Are they searching for items related to what you sell, or are they more likely to be active on social media?
- What they search for: If they were actively searching for your product/service/content, what terms would they use?
The next steps will show you how to find these terms.
9. Use Google Suggest to find long-tail keywords
This is one of the easiest ways to discover long-tail keywords.
Here’s how it works:
First, enter a keyword into Google.
But don’t hit enter or the Google Search button. Instead, look at what Google shows you for your keywords:
(These are called "Google Suggest" keywords.)
Because these keywords come directly from Google, you know people (some of whom may be your target audience) are searching for these keywords.
This means they will make valuable keywords to optimize your website.
Tip: Check out SearchResponse.io . This tool scrapes Google for other searches that your users have done, making this process more scalable.
10. Find keywords using Backlinko Keyword Tool
Keyword research tools are another effective way to find keywords to target for your content. Backlinko’s free keyword research tool is a great place to start.
Simply enter a broad term related to your business into the tool, and you’ll get a bunch of related keywords you can use to create content.
Includes metrics like search volume and cost per click.
11. Leverage online communities
Reddit, Quora, forums, and other online communities are great places to find keywords.
These are real people with real problems. Problems that you can solve with your product, service, or content.
How can you leverage these communities to find keywords?
You can browse related subcommunities to get ideas.
But one targeted approach is to use search operators on platforms like Reddit. These are terms added to the search bar to narrow your search.
Focus on search terms related to "problem":
- "how"
- "I hope"
- “Where can I go?”
They can highlight ideas in search results for content you can create to help solve those pain points.
Click Discuss to give you more ideas. People in the comments section may also discuss their own related questions.
12. Use Semrush to Identify Low Competition Keywords
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is a freemium keyword research tool. (Free accounts allow up to 10 searches per day.)
With every search, you get a ton of data about each keyword.
As you can see, when you enter a keyword in Semrush, you get the following information:
- Search volume
- Keyword Difficulty
- CPC
- trend
- SERP Features
- Potential customer traffic estimation
And there's more.
This way, you can choose keywords that have low competition and are easy to rank for. And you can get an idea of which keywords are likely to bring the best results for your website.
13. Find the key words of the question
Question keywords are great for blog posts and articles.
For example: “How do you make cold brew coffee?”
You can find them easily through Answer The Public .
This freemium tool shows you the questions people are searching for online.
This way, you can answer these questions with your content.
You can also use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find question keywords. The tool has filters specifically for questions.
14. Conduct a Topic Authority Analysis
Topic authority measures how authoritative your site is on a specific topic.
In other words: How much should people (and Google) trust that you are a reliable source of information on the topic?
You can use Google’s spreadsheet to quickly analyze your site’s topic authority.
It allows you to analyze your Google Search Console keyword data to see which topics you already rank for, and to identify related topics you haven’t covered yet (i.e., opportunities for you to rank higher and get more traffic).
This can help you identify gaps in your content and find opportunities to expand your authority on the topic.
On-Page SEO Checklist
Now it’s time to optimize your content using some tested on-page SEO techniques.
15. Include keywords in the URL
Your URL helps Google understand what your page is about. Additionally, keyword-rich URLs can increase your organic click-through rate.
That's why you want to include keywords in your URL.
For example, the target keyword for this page is “SEO checklist”.
So we created the URL: sidelineplay.com/seo-checklist .
Simple.
16. Use Short URLs
Keep your URLs as short as possible.
Why?
Our analysis of 11.8 million Google search results found that short URLs rank best in Google.
17. Front-load your title tag with keywords
It’s no secret that you should use keywords in your title tags.
But not many people know that keyword placement is important.
Specifically, you want to place your keywords as early in the title tag as possible.
For example, the main keyword for this article is “Copywriter”:
As you can see, the title tag starts with this keyword:
18. Embed Title Tag Modifiers
Title tag modifiers are words and phrases added to your title tags with the intention of making them more appealing to searchers.
like:
- Best
- top
- List
- Definitive Guide
- [This year]
- Full Review
By adding these, you can stand out in search results and show searchers why your content is the right page for them.
19. Use keywords in the first 150 words
It makes sense to put keywords at the beginning of the article because you want search engines and users to quickly understand the content of the article.
This is helpful from an SEO perspective, but it also reassures users that they are visiting the right site.
That way they’ll keep reading.
For example, for our SEO Tools post, you can see that we use the term “SEO tools” right away:
20. Use your target keyword in your H1, H2 or H3 tags
Make sure to include your keywords in the H1, H2, or H3 tags.
For example:
You may have noticed that we included the term “SEO Checklist” in the first subheading of this page:
Well, this subheading is wrapped in an H2 tag. Adding “SEO Checklist” in the H2 tag can help us improve our ranking for that keyword.
Because it helps Google (and users) understand what our content is about and what search terms it might be relevant to.
21. Optimize your images
The images you use can speak volumes about your content.
Unfortunately, Google still can’t “see” images the same way humans can.
Therefore, to help Google understand your images, you need to optimize your image alt tags and file names.
(Bonus: Optimized images can also help you rank in image searches.)
Here’s how:
First, when you save the image, use a file name that briefly describes the image.
For example, let's say you just took a photo of a spinach omelet with your phone.
So, you want to name this image: spinach_omelette.png
Then, when you add the image to your page, give it a descriptive alt tag:
22. Use synonyms and LSI keywords
Instead of using the same keywords over and over (which could be considered keyword stuffing), use synonyms and LSI keywords .
For example, let’s say you want to rank for “ how to start a blog .”
Well, you should mention this exact keyword multiple times on your page. And similar synonyms, for example:
- How to Create a Blog
- Start a blog
- How to Create a Blog
- How to Set Up a Blog on WordPress
You get the idea.
Next, add some LSI keywords.
LSI keywords are terms related to your primary keyword. These are the words you would use when talking about your target keyword.
like:
- writing
- website
- Content Creation
These contents themselves are unlikely to improve your rankings, but they can help Google understand your content more easily.
23. Use external links
Link to relevant, authoritative sources throughout your content. For example, when you cite statistics.
Or when you use a term that you don’t yet have in your own article, but you want to provide a helpful resource for your readers.
For example, links to trustworthy sites like Wikipedia and Google.com:
These links show Google that our content is well-referenced and trustworthy.
It won’t necessarily improve your rankings, but it can help provide a better user experience.
24. Use internal links
It's pretty simple:
Whenever you publish new content, try to link to 2-5 other (related) pages on your site.
Tip: Use keyword-rich anchor text in your internal links.
For example, notice how we use the anchor text “On-Page SEO” in this internal link:
This tells search engines and users that the page we are linking to is about on-page SEO.
Provides useful context to Google and tells readers where the linked page will take them.
Content List
There’s no denying it: if you want to rank in Google, you need to publish high-quality content.
That’s why content has become an essential part of any modern SEO strategy. In this section, we’ll show you the specific steps to create high-ranking content.
25. Chunk your content to maximize readability
No one likes to read long texts:
That’s why we always divide our content into easy-to-read chunks, like this:
These blocks keep our bounce rate low and keep readers on our pages longer.
That way they can get the most value from our content.
26. Pay attention to the current effective content formats
Trends in the content world (like in any industry) are always changing.
By staying on top of what’s working best right now, you have the best chance of creating content that people actually want to consume.
For example, with the rise of AI writing tools resulting in a flood of low-quality content, it’s clear that people value:
- Content written by experts
- Original research (such as surveys and industry studies)
- Content is more than just repetitive information
- Case studies and real-life examples
- Evergreen content that provides years of value
27. Think about information gain
Simply covering a topic in depth is no longer enough to maintain good rankings on Google. You can’t just throw together H2 links from top-ranking posts and call it good.
You need to add value beyond what is currently included in the search results.
otherwise:
Why should Google rank your content? Why should readers trust your content over someone else’s?
This is the concept of information gain.
28. Use multimedia
You may notice that this post contains a lot of pictures.
We do this for two main reasons:
First , it makes the content more exciting. Visuals can enhance your writing.
Second , images and other forms of multimedia can help content rank better.
Therefore, we recommend using these forms of multimedia in your content:
- picture
- chart
- Infographics
- Visual content
- video
- Interactive polls and quizzes
Technical SEO Checklist
Technical SEO can make or break your rankings. Luckily, fixing technical SEO issues isn’t hard. Especially if you follow the steps on this checklist.
29. Identify crawling and indexing errors
Crawl errors mean that Google and its search engine robots were unable to view the pages on your website.
If it can’t see your page, it won’t rank anything.
Index errors mean that Google can find your content, but for some reason, it is not indexing it.
This still means no ranking.
You can easily find these errors in the Index report in Google Search Console.
If you find that Google is having trouble accessing one of your important pages (for example, robots.txt is blocking search engine crawlers), you need to fix the problem as soon as possible.
30. Understand how Google sees your pages
Sometimes users can see everything on your page...
…but Google can’t.
again:
If Google can’t fully access your page, it won’t rank.
That’s why we recommend using the “Inspect URLs” feature of Google Search Console.
Simply enter your site's pages at the top of GSC.
Once you're done, you'll see your page from Google's perspective:
If you see issues like indexing not allowed or different canonical URLs, you have some issues to resolve.
31. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Google officially adopts mobile-first indexing.
This means:
If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, then it will not rank well.
Here are a few ways to make sure your website is mobile-friendly:
- Use responsive design practices: Make sure everything from buttons to menus works properly on mobile devices
- Use short sentences and paragraphs: These are generally good for readability, especially on mobile devices
- Avoid Intrusive Pop-ups: Don’t Use Them
32. Fix Broken Links
Broken links are bad for your SEO and bad for your user experience.
So you definitely want to find all the broken links on your site and fix them.
The easiest way? Visit DrLinkCheck.com .
Here is a free tool that will scan your site for broken links:
33. Secure your website with HTTPS
HTTPS has long been a confirmed ranking signal by Google .
So if you haven’t done so already, now is the time to migrate your website to HTTPS.
(Or, if you've just launched a new site, set it up with HTTPS on day one.)
That's it for this inspection. It's that simple.
34. Check your site’s loading speed (Core Web Metrics)
Does your website load quickly?
As it should be, page speed is a factor that influences Google rankings .
To check how fast your site loads, go to PageSpeed Insights .
This free tool lets you see how fast your site loads on desktop and mobile, and whether it meets the following Core Web Indexes :
It will even give you ideas on what you can do to speed things up.
35. Use Schema markup
Schema markup (or structured data) helps search engines better understand your content. It also helps you get rich snippets in search results . For example, here are the star ratings and recipe times:
That said, implementing the pattern can be tricky.
That’s why we recommend using a structured data testing tool .
It makes using the pattern a lot easier than trying to do it all manually.
Link Building Checklist
When it comes to SEO, link building is key. Links have long been used by Google’s ranking system to understand website quality and measure authority.
Unfortunately, building links isn’t easy. But if you want to rank high in Google, links are essential. In this section, we’ll show you how to do it.
36. Contribute expert quotes to the media
Media outlets (from newspapers to blogs) are always looking for sources for the stories they publish.
If you are an expert on a topic, you can become a source for these stories. In return, you can get a link back to your website.
There are various platforms, such as Connectively (formerly HARO) and Help a B2B Writer , that aim to connect writers with sources.
But you can also run searches like “#journorequest” on social media with your niche to find potential opportunities.
37. Create linkable assets for journalists (digital PR)
Similar to being a source for journalists’ articles, you can also create content directly for journalists, or hope that they can use it in their own reporting.
This is often referred to as digital PR, and one way to do this is by creating linkable assets (or link bait).
These are great for linking to your site because they reveal interesting data, contain original insights and reporting, or are simply interesting in their own right.
They are a great way to get backlinks.
38. Reverse Engineer Your Competitors’ Backlinks
Why reinvent the wheel when you can copy your competitor’s link source?
For this, you need a link analysis tool.
Like Semrush’s Backlink Analysis.
All you need to do is:
- Grab your competitor's URL
- Put it in the tool
- Get as many links from them as possible
For example, here’s a link report for our site from Semrush:
Now:
Some of these links are nearly impossible to replicate.
(For example, links from websites with which we have a relationship.)
But many are easy to copy (or at least draw inspiration from).
Like links from your competitors in roundup articles, or links from podcasts.
On that note…
39. Become a podcast guest
It’s a bit like guest posting on a podcast, but instead of contributing, you’re participating as a guest on a podcast.
As you can see, we gained one backlink (and a handful of targeted visitors).
So think about which podcasts in your industry you could appear on as a guest on. And maybe get some backlinks along the way.
40. Mention influencers in your blog posts
The process couldn’t be simpler:
First, mention influential bloggers in your content.
Then, let them know you mentioned them.
(To be honest, that’s it.)
For example, when we publish a list of SEO tools, we let the founders of each tool know that we recommend them.
And, as you can see, they are happy to share our content on social media.
It’s not always easy to connect directly with influential people in your field.
But it can be a great way to get them to share your content with their audience. And hopefully, they’ll link to you.
41. Optimize your website for user experience signals
There has been controversy over whether Google uses click-through rate, dwell time, and other user experience signals in its ranking algorithm.
But there’s no doubt about it: optimizing your website for a higher CTR can bring you more traffic and generate more conversions.
Getting people to spend more time on your website is never a bad thing either.
If people don’t click through to your website, they won’t read your content or buy your products.
The longer you keep people around, the better your chances of getting them to convert.
Simple.
Optimize your click-through rate by:
- Use relevant and catchy headlines
- Adding hooks in meta descriptions
- Use Schema markup to target rich snippets
- Optimize your content for featured snippets
Optimize to increase time on page/dwell time by:
- Create high-quality content that matches search intent
- Use short sentences and paragraphs to improve readability
- Include helpful visuals to make your content more engaging
- Add CTAs, internal links, and navigation menus to make your website easier to navigate
42. Delete "useless" pages
Google has said that large websites with lots of pages can be bad for SEO.
To quote a Google representative (Gary Illyes):
Try to keep it as narrow as possible. Don't create low-quality pages that don't add value. It's not worth it because on the one hand we don't necessarily want to index these pages. We consider it a waste of resources. On the other hand, you won't get high-quality traffic at all. If you can't get high-quality traffic, then why would you waste resources?
That's why we make sure every page on this website is of ultra-high quality.
While this “quality over quantity” approach is clearly effective, we’ve seen many sites struggle with “useless” pages.
Similar pages:
- Clear WordPress Category and Tag Pages
- Outdated blog posts
- Duplicate content
- Low-quality blog posts
- E-commerce product pages that generate zero sales
- Archive Pages
- Thin content/boilerplate content
- Old Services Page
As you just saw, Google says these “useless” pages will hurt your SEO efforts. So we recommend removing them.
43. Update and republish outdated content
Do you have some old posts gathering dust on your blog?
If yes, please check:
We then republish it as if it were a new post.
This simple two-pronged approach increased the page’s search engine traffic by 402.43%:
Do this with underperforming posts to get some quick wins.
The above are a few items in the SEO checklist that all bloggers and content creators must follow.
There are many other factors you can find online, but I have learned about the factors that are important for SEO and they can be very useful for bloggers if done properly.
There are no shortcuts to good search engine rankings like hidden text or keyword stuffing, so I would recommend avoiding unethical ways to get good rankings.
Please share your SEO checklist to help your blog get good search engine rankings.
Also read:
The above are a few items in the SEO checklist that all bloggers and content creators must follow.
There are many other factors you can find online as well, but I have covered the ones that are important for SEO and if done properly, they can be very useful for bloggers.
There are no shortcuts like hidden text or keyword stuffing to get good search engine rankings, so I would recommend avoiding unethical ways to get good rankings.
Please share your SEO checklist to help your blog get good search engine rankings.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
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