On-page SEO checklist template

We use an SEO checklist to finalize all written content. This includes new material as well as older, published pieces that need a refresh.

Now we’re sharing that same checklist with you. 

Check out the checklist and make a copy for yourself.

What’s in this SEO checklist

The checklist addresses the core areas for optimization:

• Meta tags
• H-tags and subheadings
• Linking
• Images
• Calls To Action
• Copy

We’ll dive into the importance of each one farther down in this post.

What this SEO checklist can do for your content team

It prepares every piece of content for better performance in organic search. The tasks in the checklist will prepare your content to be…

• More visible to search engines
• More accessible to readers
• More targeted for the keywords that matter to your brand

It helps on the production end too. This checklist will routinize your optimization process in a few different ways…

• It’s comprehensive. All core SEO areas are covered in this one checklist.
• It’s focused. This is not an audit checklist for an entire site. (If that’s what you want, you can use our site audit guide.) Instead, this is a list of the details for publishing written content.
• It’s teachable. The directions are clear enough for you to hand off the task to people with less experience or context, like junior staff or freelancers.

Check out the checklist and make a copy for yourself.

How the checklist approaches these SEO elements

When we use this checklist, we start at the top and make our way down to the bottom, item by item.

Here’s a quick look at how each area covered here is useful for optimizing search performance.

• Metadata. This includes the bits of data that search engines need to identify your page and understand what it’s about.
• Subheadings. H2 and H3 tags need to be in service of the reader, supporting the structure of the argument while also aligning with target keywords.
• Linking. Internal and external linking has a huge influence on conversion rate optimization. Linking strategically to different pages in the sales funnel. Choosing external links sparingly, only for the most relevant (and evergreen) pages.
• Images. Images can be tricky in terms of file size, relevance, and accessibility. A useful image is an accessible image that helps clarify the written content – and doesn’t slow down your page speed.
• Calls To Action. CTAs can have an outsized effect on your conversion rate. The success of CTAs is affected by three components: language, placement, linking.
• Copy. Eliminating fluff, clarifying vagaries, cutting dated references, with the goal of creating the most clear, useful, evergreen content possible.

Ercule’s approach to content optimization and SEO

Our goal with optimization is to systemize and simplify the technical side of content performance so that marketers can spend more energy on the creative and strategic sides of marketing.

For generating new content… 
This means a topic strategy that’s backed up by search data. It ends with the kind of detail-oriented optimization covered by the checklist.

For revising material that’s already published… 
This means identifying the posts that show the most potential for improvement and ROI. 

We built the Ottimo app for that purpose, so marketers can easily identify the pages that are performing well, those that could boost performance, and those that will probably never improve.

Want to talk about the possibilities for your content library? Drop us a line