Ask HN: SEO checklists and what to do next?

[oldmanstan]

I just finished reading the SEOmoz beginner guide. And it seems to me that everything I read could be summarized in a tidy checklist.

Are there SEO "to-do" checklists (starting from the lowest hanging fruit and increasing in complexity) online?

As well: I'm interesting in expanding my knowledge of SEO. What should I read and do next?

[patio11]

I think a checklist gets you to C+ SEO at best. It will work for baseline on page optimization, but after you have title tags and headers you have to start asking information architecture, keyword selection, and strategy questions. Those get tricky!

Checklist item: implement scalable method of link generation... sounds less than actionable to me.

[staunch → patio11]

Scalable method of link generation that 99% of SEO-focused people never implement: have a remarkable product.

[patio11 → staunch]

Is that your PR strategy, too? It could use improvement. (And, regardless, it isn't a checklist level item either way.)

[joshklein → staunch]

Unfortunately, no matter how many anecdotal examples (suffering from survivor bias) new media authors give to support "just make it remarkable," the graveyard of failed companies is littered with those that had distribution problems for incredibly good products.

[byoung2 → patio11]

implement scalable method of link generation

One example of a scalable method of link generation I've seen is Tjoos.com's badge system. Tjoos.com is a coupon/deal site, and merchants who place a Tjoos badge on their site get more prominent placement on the site (e.g. homepage placement, higher in the search results, etc.).

[hoop]

Did you see the SEOmoz beginner's-guide checklist?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-beginners-checklist-for-small...

[RealGeek]

SEO keeps on evolving, the best way to learn is to keep a track on SEO trends.

There are two main aspects of SEO, on-site optimization and link building.

Read at about on-site optimization at:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-p...

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/12-basic-on-site-seo-tact...

After you have an optimized website ready, you should go and get some links. There are countless ways of building links. Let your imagination run wild and be creative with the link building.

Some resources to get started with link building:

http://www.linkbuildingwiki.com

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-building-from-a-to-z

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/6

http://searchenginewatch.com/2160301

[rbeale]

Start a Blog that resides on your website (either blog.YOURCOMPANY.com or www.YOURCOMPANY.com/BLOG). Blogging is the easiest way to 1) add pages that will be indexed by Google and the other engines and 2) act as "link bait" where other bloggers will read your content, share it with friends and colleagues and create content of their own and link back to your site.

on page seo is approx 25% or less of SEO - identifying keywords (search queries) that you want to rank for, then using those words in the Title, Permalinks, Headers, content. off page seo is appro 75% or more of ranking - attracting QUALITY inbound links from other quality and relevant websites.

Simple way to start attacking on page and off page is to blog. :)

[derefr → rbeale]

> either blog.YOURCOMPANY.com or www.YOURCOMPANY.com/BLOG

Most definitely the latter, actually. PageRank "juice" doesn't cross subdomain boundaries.

[mattgratt]

So, what you should do now, is run linkscape (http://www.seomoz.org/linkscape) or another link intelligence tool of your choice on a competitive website.

See those links to your competition? Figure out how to get them to link to your site.

(This is where the glib, generic advice ends and the work starts. As you have probably figured out, SEO is relatively simple to understand in theory, and relatively difficult to actually do.)

If you share your site w/ us, I'll give you some suggestions.

[annajohnson]

You'll benefit from familiarizing yourself with - and using - certain tools. Here is a list of keyword tools:

http://www.kikabink.com/news/7-top-keyword-research-tools-fo...

And here is a list of competitive analysis tools:

http://www.kikabink.com/news/top-16-free-web-analytics-tools...

[bherms]

If you use Firefox, I highly recommend the SenSEO plugin (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9403/). This comes in handy big time for me almost every day in addition to this SEO cheat sheet from SEOmoz (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-shee...).

[pwatsonwailes]

If you want, I'll give your site a once over Tuesday evening. I've got some time to kill. Send me a URL and I'll email you a report.

[ryankelly]

Yes! Try http://www.pearanalytics.com - the easiest tool you'll find.

[AjJi]

I'm not sure if you can call it a checklist, but I find that the basics are well covered (a bit old though) http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimiza...

[mikebridgman]

Something you might like: WooRank.com will dynamically generate a (basic) SEO checklist based on your site, including suggestions on how to improve certain areas.