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Want to Build a Real Website? Here's Our Website Checklist.

Post by Dan Kaplan    •   May 27th, 2010   •   No Comments   
Buffer

New Website Checklist

If you’re looking to have a new website built, here’s a checklist of all the things you should consider, to make sure it’s well optimized for search engines:

1. SEO Planning
  • Research & identify keywords with the most opportunity for ROI
  • Create site-map with target keywords (to guide content development) for each page
  • Competitive analysis
  • Provide guidance to your writer for drafting SEO friendly content
2. Development
  • Optimize content (for search engines and for people)
  • Optimize internal links
  • No images as headers or navigation. (Try Cufon or TextKit)
  • Microformats for address
  • Phone number at top and address in footer
  • Technology should meet SEO best practices, including:
  • Robots.txt file
    • W3C compliant
    • No indexing errors
    • Redirect Canonical URLs from old website
    • Search engine friendly URLs
    • Customized 404 page
    • Dynamic XML and/or HTML site map
3. Submit Site to Search Engines
  • Ensure the 3 major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) are properly indexing your site and stay up to date with any changes made on your site.
  • Create webmaster accounts with 3 major search engines and submit XML site map
  • Submit sites to 3 major search engines and 5 relevant directories
  • Create local listings accounts on Google, Yahoo! and Bing
  • Verify or claim listings on review sites such as Yelp!, Insider Pages, Kudzu, etc
4. Statistics
  • Baseline current Search Engine Rank Positions (SERPs)
  • Install Google Analytics and configure for goal tracking
  • Setup SERP tracking software
  • Provide follow up report on SERPs, traffic, and other KPI 2-4 weeks after launch