Web Dev full-stack [LAMP] since 2005, but much heavier on the JS stuff these days.
Jack of all Stacks, Master of some.
Always looking to learn new things. Always glad to help out, just ask.
Location
Atlanta, GA
Education
B.S. in Biochemistry 2004, M.S. in Computer Information Systems 2007
That's a very nice list. Gotta check out some of those links. Thanks!
A few items I would like to add:
Every page should have a proper H1 tag
The H1 and the Title tag should contain the keywords the page elaborates on
The content should contain the longtail versions of the keywords in phrases with links to additional subcontent pages that further elaborate on the content if needed or if you have products, various links with various keywords that link to the same product across your site, increases the appearance of that product on google for the various keywords.
Make sure you do not have duplicate H1s and Title tags on the site [this happens a lot on dynamic sites when a dev just forgets to update a template file]
Make sure you have 301s for any 404s coming from google.That way google knows to index the new page if the old page is gone. Also old urls may appear on google for a while, especially if other sites still use those links so 301s can definitely save you from a dip in traffic when you push up a new version of the site where the urls change.
You linked to a structured data example. I'd like to add that you need to determine what type of structured data is needed for the various types of pages on your site.
Test performance. Your site gets penalized heavily for speed especially on mobile. developers.google.com/speed/pagesp... sucks, but it's the stick google measures with [it's also the audit tool in chrome's dev tools], so you need to try to increase that score. Additionally i use gtmetrix.com/ and webpagetest.org/
Use multiple tests because sometimes one will highlight something the others don't. This, I believe, is by far the most important metric to help your site rank after Titles and H1 tags, but I could be wrong.
Wow, this is a great resource. I've seen a lot of hosting/site migrations where the company could have benefited enormously from taking a pass through this and turning it into a todo list.
Anyway, this is kind of a long shot since you're helping with managed Wordpress, but do you happen to know if any of the Yoast alternatives/SEO plugins offer any kind of non-Wordpress way to analyze text? A lot of our authors like to compose in Markdown editors or Google docs, so they can't get readability/on-page SEO feedback until they paste the finished product into Wordpress. So if you happen to know of an SEO plugin that also has some kind of Google Docs plugin or works in a markdown editor, I'd be very interested to know.
Thanks for your feedback! Sort of like a Grammarly for SEO? I'll look around. In the meantime maybe dig a little into these 4 and see if any of them have non-wp functionality: pagely.com/blog/yoast-seo-alternat...
Erik, you can use textoptimizer.com/ for analyse your content before publication. But the tool is expensive if you do not use it often (60$ / month). I use their Google Chrome extension and is perfect for me.
🇫🇷 iOS Crafter depuis 2010, maniaque de la livraison continue. Zelda fan, papa d’un p’ti gars, cuisto à mes heures perdues (batch cooking le samedi matin !).
🇫🇷 iOS Crafter depuis 2010, maniaque de la livraison continue. Zelda fan, papa d’un p’ti gars, cuisto à mes heures perdues (batch cooking le samedi matin !).
🇫🇷 iOS Crafter depuis 2010, maniaque de la livraison continue. Zelda fan, papa d’un p’ti gars, cuisto à mes heures perdues (batch cooking le samedi matin !).
I build software and work with software teams to improve workflows, communication, and best practices. If you'd like to work together, please get in touch!
This is great! I have a bunch of clients and have to look this stuff up every time I dive into SEO. I'll be coming back to this post often :)
Do you have any thoughts or recommendations for websites that are "single page apps" that add their Meta info on the client-side, once the app has rendered? I know it's not "best practice" to do this, and that some crawlers won't render the app - but prerendering or server-side-rendering adds a lot of complexity.
Co-founder of Screpy. Building tools that make SEO and website monitoring easier. Interested in SaaS, web performance, automation, and turning complex problems into simple products.
Nice article. It is very detailed post for a small company to promote. I have a Chocolate website I will follow your instructions to improve my SEO. Request to visit my website ChocolateMantra.com
This is the perfect resource for web developers who aren't SEO experts but need to be sure they are crossing all of the T's and dotting all of their i's for their clients.
Experienced Microsoft 365 pro and Microsoft MVP. Skilled in pre-sales, team management, and global projects. Passionate about innovative solutions. Newsletter author.
Location
Spain
Work
Digital Workplace Architect (EMEA) — IT Consultant
This one article contains more useful information than the last dozen other articles I've read on SEO. It's to the point, actionable, and avoids fluff. Thank you, @lizziekardon
!
How’s it going, I'm a Adam, a Full-Stack Engineer, actively searching for work. I'm all about JavaScript. And Frontend but don't let that fool you - I've also got some serious Backend skills.
Location
City of Bath, UK 🇬🇧
Education
11 plus years* active enterprise development experience and a Fine art degree 🎨
Humanist living the Colorado life, w/ a modicum of scripting experience. My background is across multiple industries (mostly contract work). Emotional intelligence > Artificial Intelligence
Reinventing the way digital marketing is done using the latest strategies in optimisations, data-analysis and reporting to grow clients rankings quicker, and more effectively than anyone else.
Should definitely be more information on schema markup and the values it offers. However, great read, insightful and I'm sure it's helped a lot of people.
W3care Technologies PVT LTD is a pioneer leading full-cycle custom mobile application development company in the USA. We are one of the creative website design development solutions providers. in USA
Google always remain at the top as there is No competetor in the market, and its Algorithms are also now designed and developed to follow the Artificial Intelligence.
That's a very nice list. Gotta check out some of those links. Thanks!
A few items I would like to add:
Nice additions!!
Wow, this is a great resource. I've seen a lot of hosting/site migrations where the company could have benefited enormously from taking a pass through this and turning it into a todo list.
Anyway, this is kind of a long shot since you're helping with managed Wordpress, but do you happen to know if any of the Yoast alternatives/SEO plugins offer any kind of non-Wordpress way to analyze text? A lot of our authors like to compose in Markdown editors or Google docs, so they can't get readability/on-page SEO feedback until they paste the finished product into Wordpress. So if you happen to know of an SEO plugin that also has some kind of Google Docs plugin or works in a markdown editor, I'd be very interested to know.
Thanks for your feedback! Sort of like a Grammarly for SEO? I'll look around. In the meantime maybe dig a little into these 4 and see if any of them have non-wp functionality:
pagely.com/blog/yoast-seo-alternat...
Also there's this for gdocs but I haven't used it personally, sounds like what you're looking for thought: gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/...
"Grammarly for SEO" is actually the perfect way to describe it, I'd say :)
Thanks for the links. Will do some research.
Let me know if you find something good!
Great post Lizzie.
Erik, you can use textoptimizer.com/ for analyse your content before publication. But the tool is expensive if you do not use it often (60$ / month). I use their Google Chrome extension and is perfect for me.
Regards
nice. looks like you can get 3 months free if you sign up for the yearly -- might be worth it if you're using it a lot.
For privacy sake, do not install Google Analytics. Prefer an ethical alternative : ethical.net/resources/?resource-ca...
Why ? Because every site using Google Analytics acts as a tracker for Google !
Google analyticis is still a good alternative, I don't see why look for other options if it's free after all...
If it’s free your visitors are the product. That is why you should think about other options.
definitely totally agree with you on this
it's free + trusted why we will spend for a pro with marketing scheme
Thanks for sharing -- which one on that list do you like best?
Keep it concise (around 50-60 characters).
Include relevant keywords.
Ensure it accurately reflects the content.
Meta Description:
Write a compelling description (around 150-160 characters).
Include keywords naturally.
Encourage click-through SEO Audit Checklist.
URL Structure:
Use clean and descriptive URLs.
Include target keywords.
Avoid special characters and ID numbers when possible.
This is great! I have a bunch of clients and have to look this stuff up every time I dive into SEO. I'll be coming back to this post often :)
Do you have any thoughts or recommendations for websites that are "single page apps" that add their Meta info on the client-side, once the app has rendered? I know it's not "best practice" to do this, and that some crawlers won't render the app - but prerendering or server-side-rendering adds a lot of complexity.
Keep it concise (around 50-60 characters).
Include relevant keywords.
Ensure it accurately reflects the content.
Meta Description:
Write a compelling description (around 150-160 characters).
Include keywords naturally.
Encourage click-through SEO Audit Checklist.
URL Structure:
Use clean and descriptive URLs.
Include target keywords.
Avoid special characters and ID numbers when possible.
You can monitor your SEO with Screpy. It creates tasks that you should do and motivates you. So you can increase your SEO score easily.
screpy.com
Nice article. It is very detailed post for a small company to promote. I have a Chocolate website I will follow your instructions to improve my SEO. Request to visit my website ChocolateMantra.com
This is the perfect resource for web developers who aren't SEO experts but need to be sure they are crossing all of the T's and dotting all of their i's for their clients.
Thanks!
Glad I could help!
Amazing article!!!
great to hear, glad I could help!
Wow! I didn't know how much I needed this till I read it. Thank you so much.
Glad it's useful!
Thanks for the list - as a dev, I often just focus on the technical bits, and forget about the stuff that actually lets people find my stuff!
Totally -- keep this on hand, just going down the list will set you up MUCH better than not. Most are easy, quick wins.
This one article contains more useful information than the last dozen other articles I've read on SEO. It's to the point, actionable, and avoids fluff. Thank you, @lizziekardon !
Thanks for saying so @momander !
Superb article, great resource, this is pure gold, just what I need for my next little client project where I'll have to optimize SEO !
Great to hear and truly glad I could help! Let me know how it works out.
Sure I'll let you know!
Great article!
I would love to see some in-depth posts and some practical examples!
Nice info for a new and small website launchers to understand the SEO.
Thank you for sharing.
Srikanth from Chocolate Mantra
ChocolateMantra.com
schema.org ?
What a brilliant list! I am definitely going to be using this for an upcoming client site 👍 Thanks Lizzie!
You bet! Thanks for the comment and best of luck with it!
I understood some of those words ;)
Thanks Lizzie
ha! hope it's helpful, Chris!
Hello
You have a great article here!
Can you give recommendations for my website at codeseek.com/ ?
Thanks for Share Best SEO Techniques 2020. Its very helpful for beginners and professionals.
Should definitely be more information on schema markup and the values it offers. However, great read, insightful and I'm sure it's helped a lot of people.
Google always remain at the top as there is No competetor in the market, and its Algorithms are also now designed and developed to follow the Artificial Intelligence.
Hi @lizziekardon
If we build website based on headless wordpress, is it possible to fetch any related SEO tags (from Yoast) into header? thank you
Woooow! Great SEO article, thank you Lizzie!
Awesome article
Deep Learn What is SEO?
Cool, that's a very good list.