Extensive Website Optimization and SEO Check List

By Junaid Tahir Website Optimization is a huge and deep sea of knowledge because of colossal amount of information scattered ...

Website Optimization is a huge and deep sea of knowledge because of colossal amount of information scattered all over the internet. From my Google Search, I found it difficult to get all aspects of Optimization at one station in a summarized way hence I thought of creating this Website Optimization check list / Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for the like-minded people.

As evident, the purpose of this check list to give you exposure about different important aspects in order to optimize your website for better user experience, enhanced traffic, better sales index of your products/services, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Good web ranking, Social Media Integration and so on. For your convenience, I have provided external web links for most of the points and I hope that you would find them useful.

#	Item	Description, Recommendations and Warnings
1	Domain Expiry	A lot of Search Engines give respect (eventually, better ranking) to the websites having Domain Expiry of more than 2 years. Please make sure to purchase your domain for longer durations. Note: Domain expiry for any website can be easily checked.
2	Facebook Likes	A general rule is to have 1000 Facebook likes for your Facebook Page. Avoid fake likes using paid for it is not a professional approach plus it devalues your website/products/services.
3	Google Analytics usage	Google Analytics is a free analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, through analysis of visitor behavior and gives you insights about your website.
4	Site map	A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. Search engines will automatically discover your XML sitemap files via the robots.txt file and you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t have to ping them manually for the new posts. You can make your Site Map HERE
5	Social Media Sharing	Every article should be able to be shared on social media. To ease out this step, you may use Twitterfeed service which connects with the feed of your website and publish your posts on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on automatically.
6	Use WiseStamp	WiseStamp is a powerful way to market your contents. Basically, you use it WiseStamp email signatures with beautiful icons which are web links to your website and social media. Plus you can integrate your feeds for automatic updates which would be inserted in all of your outgoing emails automatically.
7	Yahoo Directory Listing	Yahoo is a large scale directory of the Internet. Lists sites categorized by topic and location. You may register your website with Yahoo Business however please note that ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a paid service on annual basis. Google gives regard to such websites listed on yahoo.
8	Domain Age	Search engines give respect to domains more than one year of age. Here you can't do anything. Just wait for a couple of years and keep updating your website's contents so that it can earn value over the years.
9	Publishing of Articles	Post your articles on your website first, then wait for some time so that Search Engines can crawl and update their records about your post. Then you can post it to multiple forums, social media etc. Note: If someone else posts your article on their website on the same day then there may be a chance that Search Engine would index it earlier than your post. In this case your article may lose its ownership.
10	Consistent Facebook Updates	Ensure your page has consistent posts and it is engaging the audience. For your Facebook page, Facebook provides you the stats/insights about number of likes, audience engagements and so on.
11	RSS Feed	RSS (Rich Site Summary); often called Really Simple Syndication, uses web feed formats to publish frequently updated information: blog entries, news headlines, audio, video to the readers. Here is a list of Top 10 RSS Feed Services which are FREE. Feedburner is also one of the great options.
12	Stories	Articles/Posts starting with stories grab more attention of the readers. Be genuine, be nice and be honest while writing stories.
13	Key Words	Keyword Planner is a free AdWords tool that helps you build Search Network campaigns by finding keyword ideas and estimating how they may perform. Key words to be used in first 50 words of the page. You may read this Google Key Word / Key Planner Guide. Note: Search engines give preference to such pages where bold fonts are used for key words
14	AdSense	AdSense is one of the neat ways to earn money from the ads posted on your website. In case you consider AdSense (or have already implemented AdSense on your website, consider reading this page for DIY tips for increasing AdSense revenue. Note: AdSense in RSS Feed may be considered for more earning.
15	Android app	Make a professional android app and submit to Google Play. Then post google Play link on the main page of your website. You may want to try using free Android app developer or consider hiring a professional developer.
16	Animations	Use light weight (fast loading) animations on main page of your website. You may want to draw attention to a specific article/product/service or share customer's comments on this animation.
17	Bing Registration	A lot of people use Bing to search internet. Submit your website to Bing and get more traffic.
18	Blog Cleaning	Always go back and modify, update your old contents. If you do it once every two months then you can maintain your blog in a nice way.
19	Digg	Digg is a news aggregator service/website, aiming to select stories for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues.. Good for inbound links
20	Domain Authority	This is a website metric which means how different website mention your website. How much authoritative work do you have on your website. Read this Article on how you can improve your Domain Authority.
21	Facebook Comments Integration	With ever increasing number of Facebook user density all major websites are integrating Facebook Comments. This provides flexibility to the user to give comments on your website/article without any further signing in and also provides Web-Masters the flexibility to approach the customer, "mention" him in the Facebook reply. Read this page for step by step procedure.
22	Favicon	16 * 16 icon image which helps branding the website. The icon associated with a URL that is variously displayed, as in a browser's address bar or next to the site name in a bookmark list. Blogger gives an easy way to upload your image as a Favicon as long as it is 16*16 size. You can use any free online tool to make Favicon for your website or simply make it in PowerPoint.
23	H1 Title Tag	When you develop online content, your HTML coding behind the scenes plays a big role in your search engine rankings, making Title Tags and H1 Headers all-important for SEO. Used correctly, they can increase your position in search engines. Used incorrectly, however, these tags can negatively impact rankings and even lead to penalties. Check out another good resource: Title Tags and H1 Headers
24	In bound links	Earn repute for your website on internet so that other websites can start recommending your website on theirs. Spend some time on weekly basis giving comments on other websites for inbound links. This is a little sluggish process but constitutes towards pulling adequate number of visitors to your website.
25	Meta Description	A meta description is an HTML and XHTML element that describes your page to search engines. While the perceived (and real) importance of meta data has depreciated, the attribute still plays a significant role in SEO rankings. Should be less than 160 Characters.
26	Recommended Post	Recommended Post Slide out integration is another nice way of keeping your readers engaged on your website. There are several free widgets available for post slide out.
27	Email List	Offer some benefits to your visitors if they sign up on your website. Develop a list of 10,000 subscribers so that you can send new marketing offers, monthly newsletter, updates about your products/services or simply sharing new posts/articles.
28	eBook	Write an eBook and offer it Free of Cost to the visitors who sign up on your website. Promote Your eBook once ready.
29	Use Hashtags	Hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media sites such as Twitter to identify messages on a specific topic. "spammers often broadcast tweets with popular hashtags even if the tweet has nothing to do with them" Use relevant hashtags so that your website is found easily when someone searches for a specific hashtag.
30	Wikipedia Entry	Register your company on wiki as it improves your credibility. Please note that Wikipedia is a non-political, non-commercial free online directory. You should use it only for the genuine reasons. Your information should be free from political/marketing stuff.
31	app.net	App.net is an ad-free online social networking service and microblogging service which enables its users to write messages of up to 256 characters. App.net provides their own web interface to the service, Alpha, which is used by some users.
32	Accounts on Major Social Media Platforms	Off course each social media platform has its unique importance depending upon the types of contents on your website, your niche and marketing approach. Make sure you have your relevant accounts on all major social media platforms. See this 21 Most Important Social Media Platforms including StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest
33	AddThis	This one is my favorite. AddThis is a fantastic and one of the easiest way to enrich your website with social media sharing, social media Liking, recommended slide posts, email directory building tools, floating plug-ins and several other features. Some of AddThis tools are being used on www.DailyTenMinutes.com
34	Screaming Frog	The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a small desktop program you can install locally on your PC, Mac or Linux machine. The Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows you to quickly crawl, analyze and audit a site from an onsite SEO perspective. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s particularly good for analyzing medium to large sites, where manually checking every page would be extremely labor intensive (or impossible!) and where you can easily miss a redirect, meta refresh or duplicate page issue.
35	Mobile Friendly Website	Make sure your website is mobile friendly. These days mobility is inevitable hence millions of people are browsing the internet on their mobile phones.
36	Duplicate Contents Checker	Check if your website contains duplicate contents
37	Link Management	Use this tool to enhance the health of Links and let "Ã¢â‚¬Â Advanced Link Manager" help you better manage your link building campaigns.