This document provides a checklist of tasks for setting up and managing search engine optimization (SEO) for a website. It includes both on-page and off-page SEO tasks such as structuring site content for users, ensuring mobile friendliness, completing keyword research, optimizing pages and content with target keywords, adding fresh content regularly, and increasing relevant inbound links. It also includes tasks for setting up analytics in Google Analytics and Search Console like submitting the site, fixing crawl errors, and reviewing search performance and links to the site. The goal is to properly set up and optimize all aspects of the site to improve search engine rankings and drive relevant traffic.

1. 1
Search Engine Optimisation Starter Checklist
This list is the basics of what you need to do to set up and manage your website search engine
optimisation. Before you start it is important that you use one google account for all your google
products and tools https://accounts.google.com/signup
On-Page & Off-Page SEO
Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)
Structure your site according to how your customers need to
navigate your content
Make your website responsive / mobile friendly (test here
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ )
Are you using AMP on mobile pages?
https://www.ampproject.org/
Is your domain.com redirected to www.domain.com (or vice
versa)
Keep important pages top level
Include breadcrumb navigation (and markup – see GSC section)
Include html sitemap (normally link in footer)
Include cookie notice
Complete keyword research
- Online research using Google Search Console GCS (search
analytics data) and other tools like keyword planner,
Google auto complete, Google trends etc
- Offline research – talk and listen to customers, brainstorm
with colleagues, existing marketing collateral
- Validate – choose the most relevant from the lists you
have collated above
- Prioritise – choose the ones that will bring you the best,
most relevant traffic
Include your target keywords / search phrases in the following
areas (if possible – remember user impact)
- Page names (especially if they are generating breadcrumb
navigation and page titles)
- Page url’s (do not change an existing url without putting a
301 redirect in place)
- Page / article headings (h1)
- First line of copy if possible and bold if possible also
- Secondary headings (h2-h6) use headings to structure
your content primarily)
- Body of content – amount will depend on amount of text
but at least a 2-3 times. You do not need to use the exact
phrase many times - use synonyms and acronyms
- Image alt text
- Link anchor text (the text that is clickable)

2. 2
- Meta html page title – keep to 70 characters and front
load
- Meta content description – keep to 160 characters
- Link anchor text on links coming from external sites
Is fresh RELEVANT content being added on a regular basis e.g.
blog, articles, case studies etc. This is extremely important as it
keeps your site fresh, keeps people coming back for more and
provides credibility and shows your expertise.
Inbound links – are you increasing the amount and quality of links
from external websites
Add social share buttons to key content e.g. blog articles, case
studies etc. (Google does not directly use social signals but they
do look at traffic and bounce rate etc)
Local SEO –
- Include your NAP details (Name, Address and Phone
Number) in the footer on all pages, location and contact
page
- Ensure NAP details are the same across all online listings
- Set up your Google local listing (see below)
Google Analytics
www.google.com/analytics
Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)
Set up GA and installed code on website
Set up e-commerce tracking (if selling online)
Set up goals e.g. forms filled in, time on site etc
Set up event tracking e.g. videos viewed, documents downloaded
etc
Set up monthly report and set it to be emailed to you monthly
Activate demographic data
Connect with Google Search Console
Google Search Console GSC (previously Google Webmaster Tools)
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
Task / Action Point Completed Yes/No (add notes)
Submit site and verify (submit domain.com and
www.domain.com)
Generate and submit XML sitemap

3. 3
Review pages submitted vs indexed (ensure correct number
submitted and most are indexed)
Review crawl errors and fix (normally 404 errors so 301 redirects
will be needed)
Review structured data and implement if none present (as a basic
you should mark up the following)
- Products
- Breadcrumb
- Logo
- Local business
- Search box
- Corporate contacts e.g. CEO
- Social media profile links
- Articles
- Events
- Courses
- Music
- TV & Movies
- Recipes
- Reviews
- Videos
- Social media profile links
Info available here: https://developers.google.com/structured-
data/
Set preferred domain (in settings)
Set geo target (if relevant to do so)
Info here:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ie/2010/03/working-
with-multi-regional-websites.html
Review search analytics to ensure your chosen keywords are
getting a good ranking and generating traffic
(use this data for keyword research also on existing sites)
Review HTML improvements report for duplicate meta data and
canonical issues (fix issues that arise)
Review links to your site and ensure this number is growing all the
time from relevant high ranking sites (alternative tool to monitor
and manage this is Open Site Explorer)
Review server response time and website overall speed using
Google Page Speed Insights – aim for 80/100 or over
Server response time below 200ms
Ensure all relevant pages can be indexed (Robot Txt file in GSC or
review meta in code – handy Chrome Ad-On
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/noindexnofollow-
meta-tag/aijcgkcgldkomeddnlpbhdelcpfamklm ).
This means that you have not blocked search engines form
indexing relevant pages.

4. 4