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The Complete Checklist of Common SEO Issues

Checklist
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In SEO few things are certain, but this is: By addressing any issues identified in this checklist, you will improve the SEO performance of your website.

To help you improve lead generation, we have included key items to review for conversion and analytics. Some or all of these issues affect almost every business website.

On-site Issues

Technical

URLs

  • Page URL doesn’t match page headline
  • Page URL is not keyword optimized
  • Page URL has keyword stuffing
  • Page URL is not static
  • Page URL includes unsafe characters requiring encoding
  • Page URL contains capital letters

Redirects

  • Copy of website exists on more than one domain or sub-domain
  • Copy of site exists on both http and https protocols
  • Domain redirect has not been implemented (non-www to www or vice versa)
  • Home page has multiple versions
  • Page redirect has multiple hops
  • Page uses 302 redirect (temporary) instead of 301 (permanent)
  • Page redirects to a missing page triggering a 404 error

Internal Linking

  • Page links to incorrect page
  • Page links to a missing page
  • Page link anchor text is not consistent across site
  • Page has no internal links
  • Page doesn’t have enough internal links
  • Page has link stuffing
  • Page includes hidden links
  • Page link is not crawlable

Site Map

  • Site lacks pages for all services/products
  • Site lacks pages for all targeted keyword groups
  • Site lacks HTML site map page (the site map primarily for users)
  • HTML site map is missing pages
  • Site lacks XML site map file (the site map primarily for Google crawlers)
  • XML site map is missing pages

Indexation

  • Page is not in Google index

404 Errors

  • Site has 404 errors

Site Speed

  • Page load time is too long

Site Uptime

  • Site has uptime issues

Mobile Friendly

  • Site lacks responsive design

HTTPS

  • Site is not running on HTTPS

Structured Data Markup

  • Site lacks structured data markup

Robots.txt

  • File is blocking entire website
  • File is blocking critical resource files
  • File is blocking pages that should be indexed

Tags

Title Tags

  • Page is missing title tag
  • Page lacks unique title tag
  • Page has duplicate title tag
  • Page lacks quality title tag
  • Page lacks keyword optimized title tag
  • Page title tag is too long
  • Page title tag has keyword stuffing
  • Page title tag is being rewritten by Google

Meta Description Tags

  • Page is missing meta description tag
  • Page lacks conversion optimized meta description tag
  • Page lacks unique meta description tag
  • Page has duplicate meta description tag
  • Page lacks quality meta description tag
  • Page lacks keyword optimized meta description tag
  • Page meta description tag is too long
  • Page meta description tag has keyword stuffing
  • Page meta description tag is being rewritten by Google

Meta Keyword Tags

  • Page includes a meta keyword tag
  • Page meta keyword tag has keyword stuffing

Content

Page Headers

  • Page is missing header tag
  • Page lacks unique header tag
  • Page has duplicate header tag
  • Page lacks quality header tag
  • Page lacks keyword optimized header tag

Page Body

  • Page is missing body content
  • Page lacks conversion optimized body content
  • Page lacks unique body content
  • Page has duplicate body content
  • Page lacks quality body content
  • Page lacks keyword optimized body content
  • Page body content has keyword stuffing
  • Page has thin content

Assets

  • Site lacks content assets
  • Site lacks blog
  • Blog lacks author
  • Blog lacks social sharing functionality
  • Blog lacks email subscription form
  • Blog lacks date/time stamp on posts
  • Blog post lacks image(s)
  • Blog posts lack internal links to service/product pages

Off-site Issues

  • Domain has low amount of quality links from unique referral domains
  • Domain lacks a variety of link types
  • Domain lacks a variety of anchor text distribution
  • Domain has a high amount of keyword rich anchor text
  • Domain links use multiple URL versions
  • Domain has unnatural spike in the number of unique referral domains
  • Page has low amount of quality links from unique referral domains
  • Page lacks a variety of different link types
  • Page lacks a variety of anchor text distribution
  • Page has a high amount of keyword rich anchor text
  • Page links use multiple URL versions
  • Page has unnatural spike in the number of unique referral domains

Conversion Issues

  • Page lacks primary CTA (call to action)
  • Page lacks downloadable content
  • Page lacks phone number
  • Page lacks phone number tracking
  • Page lacks instructional text above form
  • Page has a form with too many fields
  • Page has a form with too many required fields
  • Page has a form with poor validation methods
  • Page has a form with poor error messages

Analytics Issues

Lead Tracking

  • Site page(s) include plain text email
  • Page with form lacks confirmation page with unique URL
  • Form confirmation page is not blocked using robots.txt and noindex tag
  • Form submissions are not able to be tied back to a marketing source
  • Phone calls are not able to be tied back to a marketing source

Google Analytics

  • Page lacks Google Analytics code
  • Page has more than one instance of Google Analytics code
  • Page lacks organic traffic
  • Page has high organic bounce rate
  • Google Analytics doesn’t have IP exclusion configured
  • Google AdWords is not linked to Google Analytics
  • Bing PPC is showing as Bing Organic in Google Analytics

Google Search Console

  • Site has 404 errors
  • Site has manual penalty
  • Site has crawling issues
  • Site has indexing issues
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