Update September 2018: SEO has evolved a lot since I wrote this article, so I decided to update this article with what has happened:

While it can be rather hard (if not impossible) to handle the off-site SEO campaign, on-site search engine optimization is under your control and it will take you no more than a few hours to check the boxes below.

That’s not about adjusting your website to search engines ( as on-site sceptics might say) or about pushing your site to the first page in SERP in a day. That’s an online etiquette which demonstrates your level of competence and also makes the crawlers visit your pages more eagerly.

box I have made a keyword analysis and chosen keywords to optimize for;

box I have researched my site referrals by digging my search analytics and doing thorough website analysis;

box I have made sure my keywords are directly related to my niche;

box I use unique short meta tags based on my keywords;

box I have written unique content using my primary keywords;

box I add quality content at least once a week to ensure search bots have something new to crawl;

box I do keep to CCS styles;

box I keep my javascript in an external file;

box I’ve made sure that my code is clean and is no more than 100 K (the less the better);

box I do have a customized 404 error page;

box I do take advantage of <h1>, <h2> and <h3> to show search pots and user agents what is important;

box I have developed a good clean website structure based on my keyword analysis;

box I use readable  URLs (I do mod-rewrite if needed);

box I don’t use js, drop-downs or images for my navigation menu – just plain text links;

box I don’t overuse images and flash;

box I use alt text for my content-rich images and links;

box I have a site map to make Big Daddy’s life easier;

box I take advantage of rel=”nofollow” attribute to direct the PageRank flow;

box I do 301-redirect non-www version to www version (or vice versa) to show Google what I like more;

box (Optional) I do let SEO experts handle my on-site optimization!

Anything else? Please share in the comments!

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profile

Ann Smarty

I am Ann Smarty, owner of SEOsmarty.com. I've been in the SEO industry for two decades. I am the former Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Journal and a contributor to Mashable. These days I am running Viral Content Bee and writing for Moz, Buzzsumo, Wix and many others!

Related posts: