Your Checklist to Start SEO

Introduction

If you’re just getting started with SEO, it can feel a little overwhelming — but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re setting up a new website or optimizing an existing one, having a clear checklist can save your time and help you stay on track. In this guide, we’ve broken down everything you need into four SEO checklists: one for getting started, one for advanced techniques, one for WordPress users, and one for off-page SEO. Use these as a step-by-step reference to improve your site’s visibility and performance in search engines.

Your Checklist to Start SEO

1. Set up Google Search Console
2. Set up Bing Webmaster Tools
3. Set up Google Analytics
4. Connect Google Analytics
5. Connect Google Search Console
6. Generate an XML sitemap
7. Submit a sitemap
8. Create a robots.txt file
9. Check Search Console for manual actions
10. Make sure that Google can actually index your website

Your Checklist for Advanced SEO

1. Make sure the site is on HTTPS
2. Duplicate versions of site in Google’s Index
3. Find crawl errors
4. Explore the cause of excluded URLs
5. Improve site speed
6. Fix broken internal links
7. Fix broken outbound links
8. Find and fix HTTP links on HTTPS pages
9. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
10. Check SEO-friendly URL structure
11. Make sure data is structured
12. Check the page depth of site — 3 clicks deep
13. Check temporary 302 redirects
14. Find and fix redirect chains and loops

Your Checklist for WordPress SEO

1. Choose a reliable hosting provider
2. Install an SEO-friendly WordPress theme
3. Install a free WordPress SEO plugin
4. Set your preferred domain
5. Check your site’s visibility settings
6. Enable SEO-friendly permalinks
7. Verify your site with Google Search Console and submit your XML sitemap
8. Carry out keyword research
9. Install the SEO Writing Assistant by Semrush plugin and create great content
10. Optimize images
11. Set custom URLs for pages and posts
12. Use optimized page headings
13. Craft unique optimized title tags & meta descriptions
14. Use internal linking
15. Use optimized file names for images
16. Add alt text to images
17. Install a cache plugin to improve site speed
18. Noindex tag pages and other low-value content
19. Mark up your pages with schema
20. Use ‘Last Updated’ dates

Your Checklist for On-Page SEO

1. Find and fix duplicate, missing and truncated title tags
2. Find and fix duplicate and missing meta descriptions
3. Find and fix multiple H1 tags
4. Improve title tags, meta tags and page content
5. Improve browser tag
6. Ensure images use ALT tags
7. Improve title tag on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
8. Improve title tag on external websites
9. Run a content audit and prune content
10. Improve internal linking
11. Find and fix orphaned site pages
12. Update your site’s content

Your Checklist for Off-Page SEO

1. Analyze your competitor’s link profile
2. Conduct a link intersect analysis
3. Turn unlinked mentions into links
4. Find new link building opportunities
5. Set up and optimize Google Business Profile (Google My Business)
6. Claim a Google Maps listing
7. Claim a Google Business Profile (Google My Business)
8. Check the quality of your link building through the authority score
9. Check the quality of your link building through the number of unique domains
10. Check the quality of your link building through the topical relevance
11. Check the quality of your brand building through brand searches
12. Check the quality of your content marketing
13. Check the quality of your PR
14. Check all citations of your business

Conclusion

SEO takes time, but having a clear checklist makes the process easier to manage. Start with the basics to make sure your site is set up properly, then move on to more advanced steps as you go. If you’re using WordPress, there are specific things you can do to get the most out of it. And don’t forget about off-page SEO — building links and managing your online presence matter too. Use these checklists as a reference whenever you’re working on your site, and update them as things change.