SEO Checklist

Keeping up with Google's algorithms is a full-time job. In the past year it's cracked down on ad-heavy content (Fred), shaken up local search results (Possum), and completely changed how websites are indexed (mobile-first indexing). If you forgot to tend to your technical SEO while you were busy surviving Google algorithm updates, I could hardly blame you. Fortunately, there's no time like the present to double-check your site health and conduct an SEO audit. This checklist will run you through all the technical SEO fundamentals you need in place in the year ahead.

Install Essential tools

Your ability to improve your SEO hinges on your tools' ability to find and fix technical problems. Here are the absolute essentials you'll need:

• Google Analytics: Track website traffic and gain insight into your visitors.
• Google Search Console: Measure site performance and errors. If you're targeting US markets, you might also want to sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Yoast SEO plugin (if you're using WordPress): Optimize your content, metadata, sitemap, keywords, and more(must have for WordPress sites).
• An SEO auditing tool: I'll be using my tool, WebSite Auditor.

What is Social Media Optimization (SMO) ?

Social media optimization(SMO) is a technique of Internet marketing where the Social Networking is used for promotion of the website, using videos and photo sharing websites.  Social media optimization includes uses of RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social media sites, such as twitter, Google+, facebook, My Space, Digg  and more. You can create fan pages of your website on sites like facebook, Google+ and more.

Social media optimization is considered to be one of the important ways of search engine marketing; the main focus of Social media optimization is to drive traffic from sources other than search engines. However, improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO. Social media optimization is more useful or to be as an integral part of organizations or individuals who concern about their online presence.  Additionally, social media optimization also can be implemented to promote a community of the associated site, allowing for a healthy business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.

There are two categories of SMO/Social SEO:

1. Social media features to be added in the content itself, including: RSS feeds, social news and sharing buttons, user rating and polling tools, and incorporating the community functionalities like images and videos.
2. Promotional activities in social media aside from the content being promoted, including: blogging, commenting on other blogs, participating in discussion groups, and posting status updates on social networking profiles.

 Here's the deal: People who haven't implemented structured data on their website shouldn't feel left out of the entity search revolution. While microformats and Schema.org are great, they are only one of the ways search engines can extract relationships from your content.

In this post we explore 7 ways to strengthen semantic relationships in your content, including;
• Keywords
• HTML elements
• Entities and synonyms
• Anchor text and links
• Google Local
• Structured data highlighter
• CMS plugins