Imagine what your website will look like without SEO? – Yes, that would be like a chocolate-cake without chocolate. Similar is the thing with your website. In order to increase your site ranking on Google in 2020 and drive traffic, you need a good SEO checklist ready for 2020.

If you are wondering how then today’s article will help you understand better.

Why?

Because here I have talked about not one, not two, not five, but a complete library of 20 essential checklist for SEO in 2020 that will help a new website get better results on SERP.

Ahref’s traffic analysis shows that by implementing some of this SEO checklist their organic traffic boosted up significantly.

What are the essential points for this SEO checklist?

Let’s dive into it…

The Complete Beginners Guide On SEO Checklist 2020

1. Find An Opportunity Keyword

Do you know anything about Opportunity keyword’? What are the opportunity keywords?

To put simply: An opportunity keyword is a keyword that gets higher CTR or click-through rate on SERP of search engines like Google.

In other words, opportunity keywords are those words or terms that have higher search volume yet low competition.

This type of keywords does help improve your website ranking and drive TONS of targeted traffic to the website.

How to find opportunity keywords for SEO checklist in 2020

There are a lot of keyword research tools that you can use to find this type of keywords easily. Keywordtool.io is very popular to find out opportunity keywords.

You can also use Google keyword planner or SEMrush as per your need and convenience.

With the first tip let’s move on to the second tip…

2. Examine The Content Competition 

In today’s world, content marketing is too much crowded and congested. And thus doing proper content analysis is one of the most crucial things in the SEO checklist for 2020.

Everyone is writing on a similar topic and wants to grab a particular audience’s attention to them. Especially content creators focus on driving more traffic and ranking in Google.

Are you also doing that? Are you writing almost similar type of content as your competitors did?

If yes, you cannot be able to secure a better position on SERP.

In order to improve ranking on Google, you have to figure out the content competition first.

But this is not all,

Here is a visual from Smart Insight that shows what happens online within just a minute,

This infographic shows that content marketing is very competitive and you have to examine it first before creating your content.

How can you perform your competitors’ content analysis?

Here I am giving you some guides that I myself pursue competitors analysis,

• • Use a tool called SEMrush. It helps you analyze you, competitors, from the root to the top.

You will have a better understanding of what your competitors are doing, what kind of keywords they’re ranking for, a number of social shares, site position on SERP and so on.

Use this special link to access the SEMrush Pro trial for 7-Days.

• • Head over to Google and type your keyword(s). See the top 10 results one by one by opening them.

Understand what type of content it is and what they are missing. It may be a blog post, a podcast, a video content, webinar, visuals, eBooks or a buying guide.

Just go through them carefully. Once you have a good understanding of their content marketing you can now create your owns off your own perspective.

• • Check their SEO strategies. As I said earlier without proper SEO content won’t reach potential people.

When you are analyzing your competitors notice what they are doing differently from you:

• • See their page title
  • URL structure
  • H1, H2, H3, etc. head tags placement
  • Internal & external linking
  • Image alt tag
  • Content quality

Remember that your ultimate motive is to find out what they’re doing different and what they’re lacking that you can do.

• • Check out their social media presence. Companies’ social media platforms are the biggest weapons for their marketing. It helps them get thousands of customers daily to their sites.

Now what you should do is visit their social profiles, see their posts, profile picture, and cover photo, number of followers, etc.

What type of posts they are slamming? Do they post frequently? Are people engaging with posts? Are they sharing?

Check out all these things. Only then sit to write.

Because success is achieved by those who are well-prepared. My BELIEF.

3. Find Long-Tail Keywords and Use Them In Your Blog Post

How many times have you tried to rank for a keyword and failed or did not get the desired results?

Maybe quite often.

That’s because you are working on short-tail keywords instead of long-tail keywords.

Longtail keywords are responsible for 70% of all searches on the web. 

The hard truth is that there are already hundreds of sites ranking for short-tail keywords.

And it is now hard to compete with them. The only solution is to use long-tail keywords.

What is the real story? I am explaining to you.

Short tail keywords are those phrases that contain one or two words at most, example: “SEO“/”Email Marketing”

Long-tail keywords tend to have at least three or more words together. Example: “How to invest in share market/stock market”.

SEO checklist 2020: Find long-tail variations instead of short tails.

How to find long-tail keywords?

There are many longtail keywords tools or longtail keywords finder that can help to do this easily.

You can use these tools, Keyword Tool, Google Auto Suggest, KW Finder, Answer The Public, SEMrush and Long Tail Pro.

Are Long Tail Keywords Better For SEO?

Yes. Long-tail keywords being more specific bring to your website only the targeted audience from across the world.

Although these keywords have low search volume the good news is they are highly convertible.

Means, HIGHER conversion rate.

4. Identify The ‘Search Intent’ Of Users

How many times does it happen to you that you are looking for something on Google and cannot find it?

Hardly ever.

That’s because Google really cares about the search intent of users.

Google is comparably smart and it produces only relevant information right in front of users, so the user won’t return empty-handed.

What Search Intent Is

Simply put: Search intent refers to User intent. Why someone is searching for something. What does he want?

What types of search intent does he prefer?

In common there are three types of searches: Informational, Transactional and Navigational.

Google always prioritizes users’ search intent or simply they stress on the word “WHY”.

So YEAH, search intent is going to be Google’s no #1 priority for SEO checklist 2020.

In fact, Google also says in a recent report titled “How intent is Redefining the Marketing Funnel”

5. Install Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin (only for WordPress users)

A WordPress website without an SEO plugin like Yoast is unimaginable.

Whether you are a personal blogger or an SEO specialist Yoast is a must-have tool for you.

What does Yoast SEO Plugin Do?

Yoast makes it all easy for you to manage meta description, title, keyword stuffing, focus keyword, sitemap generating and so on itself for your site.

Above all, Yoast does perfect SEO of your website so it can emerge out as search engine friendly.

Download Yoast SEO Plugin For WordPress

6. Use Google Analytics For Your Website

Google Analytics is one of the essential tools every website users should use. Google Analytics helps you track your website with detailed information from Google.

So what does Google Analytics do?

Google Analytics uses a JavaScript code that is embedded on your website pages so it can track every behavior of visitors.

When a visitor enters your website Analytics sends a cookie to the user’s browser.

This cookie then collects the user’s all information as well as behavior and sends them to the Google Analytics dashboard.

Indeed, this is completely a free tool from Google for collecting vital information about your website and its visitors.

7. Use Google Search Console To Index Your Website

After creating a complete website the main task then is to index it on Google. So that search bots can crawl them and your website can get LIVE.

For indexing websites, Google provides webmasters a freemium tool called Google Search Console.

What does Search Console do is it helps you make google crawl and index your website, track performance, inspect and check URL status and so on.

8. Create Content That Is Better or Different

In this age of competition, the only way to stand out in the crowd is to deliver better and different content to consumers.

How can you make great content that is different from others? Here I mentioned some tips to help you exactly do that:

• • Avoid copying or duplication. Google strictly made it clear that if someone duplicates content from others it will get badly penalized by Google.

On the other hand, Google will reward high-quality contents as well.

• • Make your blog title compelling. When writing a blog post title simple follow the 80/20 rule.

It is found that 80% of people only read your title while 20% read the whole post.

If you can hold your visitors on your site you’re preparing a solid checklist on SEO for 2020.

Therefore, if you want more people to read your post to make it compelling.

You can also use some power words like ‘Amazing‘, ‘Excellent‘, ‘Mind-Boggling’, etc. for getting more clicks.

• • Provide valuable and authentic information to your readers. Do not ever try to mislead your readers with wrong information.

It impacts the negative impact on your company.

So always give them something valuable every time. Value them, they will value you. Simple!

• • Answer your readers. Your readers are coming to you for help. If you do not know how to help them they will immediately run away from you.

Write some questions with answers. Your answer must be ‘to the point’. So readers can easily get their answer from you.

• • Add images, visuals, infographics, and videos where necessary and where possible. The human brain easily analyzes pictures or visuals compared to long text contents.

• • Offer steps that are actionable. If you are teaching your readers about how to, make sure the learning process is ACTIONABLE.

Making the learning process actionable helps readers apply them practically as well as get outcomes on hand.

• • Tell stories. Storytelling is great art. Very few can achieve it.

When you tell a story you are actually connecting yourself with your readers. It helps them understand your perspective easily.

Stories also keep the audience hooked with the teller.

9. Write Contents That Are Over 2,200 Words Long

SEO analysists found that Google uses around 200 algorithms for ranking webpages and websites on its SERP.

Writing long in-depth content is among one of them.

According to Quick Sprout, the average content length that is ranking on the top 10 of SERP on any keyword has at least 2000 words in it.

According to HubSpot, contents having 2,225 words to 2,500 words earn more organic traffic. 

HubSpot also shows that articles having over 2,500-word counts get the most social shares.

And articles with over 2,500 words receive the most backlinks.

According to serpIQ, contents that consist of more than 2300 words rank higher than those with less than 2000 words.

As you can see long-form contents are always in demand.

The reason why longer articles get more shares, backlinks and ranking are that they are more helpful, comprehensive and informative.

That’s what Google loves.

And that’s the reason Wikipedia ranks on the topmost position on SERP.

Have you noticed that ever?

10. Optimize Your Website On-Page SEO Checklist

On-page SEO techniques play a significant role in ranking your website on Google. So doing on-page SEO of your site is very important.

It helps you drive more organic traffic.

Here are some important steps to be done for on-page SEO:

A) Keep the URL of your page short.

In the year 2016, Ahrefs conducted a study of 2 million keywords.

What did they get?

They came to the conclusion that short URLs comparably rank higher than longer ones.

So keeping URL short preferably within three words is among the most important basic on-page SEO checklist.

B) Keep H1 Tag As Your Post Title and Include Main Keyword In It

By default, WordPress keeps the blog title as its H1 tag. H1 tag also helps in ranking your website on Google.

Therefore, it is very important to include your main keyphrase in your title tag.

Including the main keyword in your title or <h1> tag helps both search engines and web visitors understand what the content is all about.

You can also include your keyword in <h2>, <h3>, <h4> tags. By doing this you help your website achieve higher rank fast.

C) Do Not Forget To Include Image “alt” Tag

ALT tags are alternative texts that represent what images are representing. It is a very good and effective place to include your main keyword.

Why are ALT Tags Important For SEO

ALT tags work as a powerful signal for search engines.

When you include an ALT text with the main keyword in your blog’s image you ultimately help search bots in ranking your page.

So NEVER forget to attach an ALT text before hitting the ‘publish’ button of your blog post.

D) Sprinkle LSI Keywords Across Your Blog Posts

Do you know anything about LSI keywords?

Initially, I did not know about it, as I started reading other blogs I learned how important it is.

What are the LSI keywords in SEO?

LSI is the acronym for Latent Semantic Indexing. Putting simply, LSI keywords are the keywords that have a similar connection or correlation with the focus keywords.

You must be thinking what is the use of LSI keywords…

Well, when you include some LSI keywords in your blog post it works as a strong signal for search engines to realize what your contents are all about.

LSI Graph is a great tool I use for finding correlative keywords for my blog posts. It is the newest SEO method I included in this checklist for 2020.

E) Keep Paragraphs and Sentences Short And Sweet For Good Readability

Keeping content paragraphs short or within 40 words helps improve the readability of the content as well as contributes to the SEO ranking.

Both search engines and readers can easily skim out the topic they are looking for.

I normally keep my paragraphs two sentences long at best and having less than 20 words in a sentence.

Remember, keep SHORT and SWEET paragraphs for your readers.

11. Apply Skyscraper Technique To Help Improve Your Website SEO

Skyscraper Technique is quite an unusual term.

It was coined by Brian Dean in 2015. He is the founder of Backlinko.

So What is Skyscraper Technique?

According to Brian Dean, Skyscraper Technique is the way of transforming content into high-quality backlinks.

Brian increased his organic traffic by 110% in just 14-days with this super link-building strategy.

Here is the proof:

And he boosted up his page views by 300000. (source)

How can you implement Skyscraper Link Building Strategy For Yourself

In order to implement this strategy, Brian advises to follow a 3-step process which are,

• • Finding linkable contents
  • Making something even better
  • Reaching out to the right people

Watch this short, sweet video by Brian. Here he explained these three processes in short:

The best part?

You can also use this proven method for increasing your organic traffic significantly.

12. Add Your Hook

This is one of the advanced SEO techniques. If you are a beginner you might skip this out.

You all know that contents with enormous external backlinks rank higher on Google.

However, the fact is how can you prompt people to give you a link?

Here come the link building strategies…

In order to make people link to your site, you need to implement some methods.

• • First, figure out why people should link to your site (a.k.a Hook)
  • Second, add that hook to your content

One of the most effective methods for getting hook is to write data-driven content.

For example, I found a post from Backlinko titled “Voice Search: The Definitive Guide” which is packed with lots of stats with links from different sites.

The best part?

This guide got over thousands of links from other sites. And the reason is it contains lots of data.

People often tend to link to sources when they mention some kind of stats in their posts.

The second method is to apply some UNIQUE TECHNIQUES.

People always love to give backlinks to content-packed with great and unique things.

For example, I mentioned above one method called the Skyscraper Technique which is coined by Brian Dean. And he is the first man to invent these words.

Another great word in GUESTOGRAPHY that Brian loves to use for getting quality links. It was also created by him.

Pretty cool, isn’t it? You can do it also if you are a creative writer!

Look at his post on guestographic:

In this definitive guide, Brian elaborated on how to get backlinks by GUESTOGRAPHY.

In my opinion, it is one of the easiest ways of getting linked out to other sites.

And another great method for getting backlinks is to publish massive articles packed with lots of images, infographics, data, and videos.

This is also known as THE ULTIMATE GUIDE.

You can write a post on something like, ‘The Ultimate Guide On How To Start A Podcast’ or maybe ‘The Ultimate Guide To Making Money From Blogging‘ and so on.

When you do so you are making your post itself a hook, which is EASY for people to link to you.

13. Give Importance To Your Content Design

Who doesn’t love to make designs? I too love it.

And when it comes to my blog posts I endeavor to make every image, screenshot, charts, etc looks elegant.

Here is the deal:

Content design helps your readers read your content easily. If the design is neat and clean with proper information and charts they are going to love your post.

Nobody likes a blog post that is not consistent.

So what makes a content design looks GREAT?

When I sit for writing contents I try to keep my paragraphs short and sweet normally within  40 words or less.

I also try to include testimonials, charts, pictures where necessary so that my audience can understand my point easily.

Besides, including charts, infographics, etc not only makes your content design looks GREAT but also helps people understand complex stuff EASILY.

14. Take Care Of Technical SEO Checklist To Rank Better in 2020

When it comes to ranking higher on Google technical SEO plays a telling role.

So what is Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the process of doing good SEO for the infrastructure of a website.

How Can You Improve Your Technical SEO

Keep reading these points to know-how,

15. Find Out And Fix Crawl Errors and Indexing

You might have written great content with lots of data in it, but if your site suffers from technical SEO issues like site crawl and index error it might severely impact your search ranking.

Use your Search Console Tool to check your site’s crawl errors. You can do it every week or every month.

If any problem occurs resolve it right away.

Also, check your robots.txt file to see it is not blocking the pages which should not be actually blocked.

16. Improve Your Website Speed

Google recently said that page speed is also an important factor they are prioritizing for ranking. 

In order to check your website loading speed, you can use tools like

• Page Speed Insight
• Pingdom
• GTmetrix
• LightHouse

Nobody likes a slow internet as well as a slow website that keeps loading for several minutes.

Improving site speed thus can significantly impact your website ranking positively.

17. Implement HTTPS In Your Website

Security is a top priority for Google. 

And it should be kept in mind when you are looking for an SEO checklist for the year 2020.

They’re are investing and working just to ensure 100% encryption of web traffic through HTTPS.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. It is the secure version of HTTP.

The ‘S’ at the end of HTTPS suggests a secure connection between the browser and the website.

According to data by Google Chrome usage, it is shown that more than 70% of users prefer HTTPS sites over HTTP.

Here is a short video from Google Chrome Developers on the importance of HTTPS/SSL:

NOTE: If you are on the WordPress website you can install a plugin called Really Simple SSL. This plugin will help you shift your site from HTTP to HTTPS.

18. Find Out Broken Links That Are Harming Your Site

What is a broken link?

A broken link is a link that is defunct or dead and does not add any value to customers. It always displays a “404 error” when a user visits these links.

Broken links can severely damage your site’s ranking if the number of dead links is havoc.

Besides, it taints user experience that might cause you to lose customers from your site in the end.

What’s the solution?

SIMPLE: Fix those broken links.

I use an online tool named Broken Link Checker that will crawl your whole website and bring to you the harmful links.

The most EASIEST WAY.

You can either visit those pages one by one and fix them or if your site is on WordPress install and activate the Broken Link Checker plugin.

This plugin automatically finds out all the broken links from your website and brings them to its dashboard where you can easily fix them from one place.

19. Make Your Site Mobile Responsive/Mobile Friendly

According to a report by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC), more than 72% of internet users will use mobile to access the web by 2025.

That’s equal to nearly 3.7 billion users.

HUGE!

In this situation, more people will read or watch content from their smartphones.

In 2018, 52.2% of worldwide web traffic was born from mobile devices. 

76% of all US citizens use mobile to check their emails. (Source)

Now, why am I saying all these stats?

I am saying all these stats to show you how smartphones will dominate the future and why it is important to make your site MOBILE friendly.

If your site is on Blogger you can check out these top 10 beautiful looking blog themes specifically designed for mobiles.

If you are using WordPress you can get lots of mobile-ready themes that you can get totally FREE of cost.

20. Build Backlinks As Much As Possible

Backlinks play a major role in site ranking on Google.

The above stats show that high-quality content and link building have been quite important for site ranking.

How Can You Get Backlinks

There are lots of methods you can implement for gaining links from other sites. I have blogged on this topic before. Check it out here.

One of the great ways for getting link juice is too great AWESOME INFOGRAPHICS. Infographics receive 62% more backlinks than other types of content.

It is another important thing in SEO checklist 2020. This method can severely rank your site for the upcoming year.

Recently I was going through some of Backlinko’s blog posts. Do you know what I noticed?

Those blog posts got thousands of social shares. And the reason is that Brian works on LIST building.

NOW I hope you have understood what I meant to say…work on LIST-based posts.

Bonus Tip

Encourage Comments And Community Engagement

Last but not the least on this SEO checklist for 2020 is blog commenting and community engagements.

If you are serious about your site ranking you need to be systematic as well as pragmatic about blog comments.

I saw many people ignore these points when it comes to website ranking.

But that’s not the case.

Here are some small tips I can give you to encourage people to comment on your blog:

• • End each blog post with a question mark or ask readers to disclose their thoughts.
  • Ask readers to add to your list. For example, if you have blogged an article on “19 Ways For Proposing A Girl” you can close your article on asking for the #20 way from your readers.
  • Create posts that are in-depth and thought-provoking.
  • Do reply to every comment. This helps keep the conversation going on.
  • Also, comment on other blogs for nurturing the relationship.

Conclusion

Blogging is really BEAUTIFUL.

If you are determined to make blogging your profession you have to focus on SEO checklist, link building and ranking factors.

These are the oxygen for your blog. They help your blog stay alive. They supply your organic traffic.

If you have done a good SEO for your blog you need not worry about traffic.

Take some time, apply all these ways I said here and it is sure your blog will automatically start taking off the ground in 2020.

I would love to hear your thoughts. What would you like to suggest for 2020?

Thank you.