Your WordPress
Website Checklist
Courtney Engle Robertson
http://courtneyengle.com

Logins, Passwords, and Sharing
Gmail with clients
All accounts created are tied to that shared
account

WordPress Tools
http://wordpress.com
http://gravatar.com
http://akismet.com

Accessibility

Basic User Interface
Identity
Company logo is prominently placed
Tagline makes company's purpose clear
Home-page is digestible in 5 seconds
Clear path to company information
Clear path to contact information
Custom Favicon
Site has custom not-found/404 page
Social media and email opt-in prominently displayed
Navigation
Main navigation is easily identifiable
Navigation labels are clear & concise
Number of buttons/links is reasonable
Company logo is linked to home-page
Links are consistent & easy to identify
Site search is easy to access
Sitemap
Breadcrumbs
Content
Major headings are clear &
descriptive
Critical content is above the "fold"
Styles & colors are consistent
Emphasis (bold, etc.) is used
sparingly
Ads & pop-ups are unobtrusive
Main copy is concise &
explanatory
URLs are meaningful & user-
friendly
HTML page titles are explanatory
Spelling & grammar
Capitalization consistency
Tense/style of writing
Check how pages print

Check Browsers
http://browsershots.org
https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html

Accessibility Checker
http://wave.webaim.org/

Link Titles
JAWS and other screen
readers
no “CLICK HERE”
http://www.w3.org/TR/ht
ml401/struct/links.html#
h-12.1

Image Alt Tags
<img alt="YOUR IMAGE ALT TEXT"
src="image source link”/>
Matters for SEO as well
search engines see the ALT
Applies for other media as well
Default text for Pinterest captions.
Use hashtags.

Post Categories & Tags
Helpful when providing navigation to posts of same topic
http://yoursite.com/category/category-name/ or http://mysite.com/category/social-
media

Post Categories & Tags
Not exactly meta keywords
(but can be done via Yoast WP SEO)
Helpful when users search your site
More specific
http://yoursite.com/tag/word
http://mysite.com/tag/facebook

Excerpts
Displays on your site

Featured Image
Displays on your site and social
media sharing
http://wordpress.org/plugins/default
-thumbnail-plus/
http://wordpress.org/plugins/requir
e-featured-image/

Featured Image
Displays on your site and social
media sharing
http://wordpress.org/plugins/default
-thumbnail-plus/
http://wordpress.org/plugins/requir
e-featured-image/

Yoast SEO

Mobile

What Do You Need?
Responsive: full site scales for thumb browsing
Mobile stand alone site: m.yoursite.com. Might be full
site or only a few key pages
Mobile Landing Page: like any other landing page but
optimized for mobile. Distraction free, limited
navigation
App - do something beyond the scope of loading your
website in a mobile browser

Mobile Solutions
Look for mobile responsive theme frameworks (some
Genesis themes are, I like Headway).
http://headwaythemes.com
WP Touch Pro - finally and highly customizable
http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/
Jetpack - ok for free and basic needs http://jetpack.me
Apps: http://apppresser.com/

Test Your Website
http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/

Image Compression
https://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/ - compress image data
Enable Photon in Jetpack
Save as jpg maximum progressive
Also use SVG

Click to Call/SMS
<a href=“tel:[PHONE-NUMBER]">[PHONE-
NUMBER]</a>
Use International Code ALWAYS
<a href=“tel:+1-555-867-5309“>555-867-5309</a>
SMS: <a href="sms:[PHONE-
NUMBER]?body=[MESSAGE]">[PHONE-
NUMBER]</a>

Click to Navigate
Make your address link to
Google Maps

Social Sharing
• https://www.addthis.com/get/smart-layers

Measuring
Traffic

Google Analytics
• http://google.com/analytics
• How people are moving around on your website

Google Analytics
Admin, Property, Tracking Info, Tracking Code
UA-XXXXX-XX

Tracking via Plugin or Theme?
Keep amount of plugins low vs.
when themes change loosing
settings.
Your choice, just know where it is.
http://wordpress.org/plugins/goo
gle-analyticator/

Google Webmaster Tools
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dashboard

Google Webmaster Tools
Meta value to claim
Theme scripts area OR
WordPress SEO by Yoast OR
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpr
ess-seo/
Google Publisher
http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-
publisher/

Google Webmaster Tools
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231?hl=en

Setting Your Address
Settings —> General

Bing Webmaster Tools
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

Google Structured Data
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/?rd=1
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets (must compare with
anything but top level domain)

Google Publisher

Google & Bing Places
http://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/
https://www.bingplaces.com/

Facebook Insights
https://www.facebook.com/insights/

Pinterest Analytics
http://www.pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com/analytics/

AddThis
https://www.addthis.com/get
/smart-layers

WordPress (Jetpack) Site
Stats
http://jetpack.me/support/wordpress-
com-stats/
Uses your WordPress.com account

Markup & Snippets

Schema
Lots of types:
http://schema.org/docs/f
ull.html
https://support.google.
com/webmasters/answe
r/1211158?hl=en

Schema
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/structured-
data?hl=en&siteUrl=http://courtneyengle.com/

Schema
https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/
(also works for emails —> events, reservations, etc.)

Schema Plugins
http://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-
one-schemaorg-rich-snippets/
http://wordpress.org/plugins/the-
events-calendar/ and http://tri.be
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-
customer-reviews/
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/

Ecommerce
http://www.woothemes.com/wooco
mmerce/ or
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wooco
mmerce/
http://www.google.com/merchants/

Facebook OG
https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debu
g/

Pinterest Rich Pins
http://wordpress.org/plugins/abg-rich-pins/
https://developers.pinterest.com/rich_pins/
validator/

Social Media Optimization
http://smo.knowem.com/

Yoast SEO on Posts
Always fill it out
Review your score

Performance,
Backups,
& Security

Site Speed
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
(mobile)

Other Performance Issues
http://freelancewp.com/wordpress-site-scanner/

Broken Link Checker
http://validator.w3.org/checklink

Domain Rank
https://moz.com/researchtools/
ose/

Duplicate Content
http://www.siteliner.com/

Scan for Viruses
http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/

Backups
Content
Full site (including media, themes, etc)
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-
backup-to-dropbox
http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/

Database
Clean up post revisions,
spam/unapproved native comments,
unused plugins or themes, empty
trash
http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-
optimize/

Cache
http://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-
total-cache/

CDN
http://www.maxcdn.com/solutions/c
ms/wordpress-cdn/
http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginn
ers-guide/why-you-need-a-cdn-for-
your-wordpress-blog-
infographic/?display=wide

http://courtneyengle.com
http://simplelocalbusiness.com