SEO Checklist: 40+ Essentials for a Fully Optimized Website

Nothing beats a solid checklist when it comes to optimizing your website—especially when it helps you avoid missing something important, like clean URL structures or a properly configured robots.txt file.

That’s why we’ve put together a clear, easy-to-follow list that walks you through every key step of SEO—from foundational best practices to smart AI-driven tips that boost your visibility in Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, and beyond.

Want a printable PDF to share with your team? Just drop your email below and we’ll send it right over.

Before we jump into the checklist, here are two quick (but important!) things to get you set up for success:

All set? Let’s get started.

Basic SEO steps

These foundational tasks are the first things every site needs in place—think essential tools, plugins, and quick wins you don’t want to skip.

1. Create a Google Search Console account

Google Search Console is a free, essential platform that gives website owners and SEO professionals direct insight into how their site performs in Google Search.

With it, you can unlock valuable data and optimization tools, such as:

Beyond performance metrics, Search Console is also your direct line to Google for critical site updates, including:

Whether you're managing a small blog or a large-scale e-commerce site, Search Console is non-negotiable. If you want to rank in Google, this is one tool you simply can’t ignore.

2. Set up Google Analytics

If you want to measure how your SEO efforts are really paying off, Google Analytics is the tool you need.

It helps you connect the dots between organic traffic and real business results. Here’s what you can track with it:

Even better, you can link Google Analytics with Google Search Console. This lets you analyze keyword performance and landing pages all in one place, giving you a fuller picture of your SEO ROI.

Here’s how to set up Google Analytics for your website: 

3. Install SEO software and SEO plugins for WordPress

To make real progress with your SEO, you’ll need the right tools—both on your desktop and inside your CMS. These tools help you research keywords, audit your site, monitor rankings, and ensure everything is technically sound.

For full-scale SEO software, we recommend SEO PowerSuite—a powerful desktop toolkit that covers all aspects of SEO. Even the free version of SEO PowerSuite will be incredibly useful as you go through this checklist.

If you're using WordPress, a good SEO plugin is a must. These tools make it easier to optimize meta tags, manage redirects, add schema markup, and more—right from your WordPress dashboard.

Here are the most popular options:

Having both SEO PowerSuite and a solid WordPress plugin gives you full control—from high-level strategy down to page-level tweaks.

Technical SEO checklist

You might be tempted to skip this part and jump straight to keywords, content, and backlinks. But hear me out: before you head off on a long road trip, you need to make sure your car is in good shape. Otherwise, you risk breaking down in the middle of nowhere—and paying for costly repairs you could’ve easily avoided.

It’s the same with technical SEO. Ignore it, and you’re gambling with your traffic and conversions. So before you shift into high gear, let’s make sure search engines can actually find, crawl, and index your site.

4. Fix indexing issues

This step requires WebSite Auditor. You can download it now for free. Download WebSite Auditor

If content cannot be accessed by crawlers, it will not appear in search results. So, find out how search engines see your website.

How to check indexing

Start by opening Google Search Console and going to Indexing > Pages. There, you’ll see why certain pages aren’t indexed, along with examples of the affected URLs.

Next, use an SEO crawler to check your site and find out what’s stopping your pages from being properly indexed by search engines.

If you're using WebSite Auditor, check the Site Audit section. Scroll to the Pages restricted from indexing category and see if there’s any blocked content.

Make sure that important content is not blocked by:

5. Fix technical errors that eat your crawl budget

If a crawler keeps running into broken pages or can’t access certain parts of your site, it might see your website as low quality and visit it less often. That’s why it’s important to fix and avoid these issues:

How to improve crawlability

In WebSite Auditor, go to Site Audit and inspect the Indexing and Crawlability, Redirects, and On-Page sections. Here is what you can do:

6. Detect uncrawlable on-page elements

These days, websites rarely have problems with JavaScript and frames. But you still want to make sure search engines can see these elements so they don't stop the search engine from "reading" your site.

How to check format-related issues

In the Site Audit module in WebSite Auditor, check the Encoding and technical factors category. See if any pages contain Frames and follow the recommendations you see in that section. If you have a lot of content in frames, add text transcripts to the pages.

Besides, WebSite Auditor contains a powerful Advanced crawling feature. Here, you can set the crawler to execute JavaScripts, scan separate pages, and see if there are any format-specific errors.

Download WebSite Auditor

7. Check site speed and page load time

Page speed is one of the ranking factors used by Google. To improve page load speed, you can:

Pages loading may take different time spans depending on the Internet speed, bandwidth, etc. Therefore, it makes sense for you to look at page size and other relevant factors.

How to check your page load time

First, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to inspect separate URLs. Besides, in Search Console, check the Experience section and see if any issues have been detected for Page Experience and Core Web Vitals.

To have a bulk view of all page view issues sitewide, you can use WebSite Auditor. Its crawler reveals all such issues itself, or you can add the key from PageSpeed API, a free tool that checks the site’s compliance with the Core Web Vitals factors.

Download WebSite Auditor

WebSite Auditor amplifies the tool’s potential, showing all the issues and resources laid out conveniently in a bulk in a single workspace.

You can review all the issues and resources on each page, download a report, and send it to your web developers for fixing.

8. Make your site mobile-friendly

The mobile-friendliness factor is crucial to every website, as more than half of searchers on the web come from mobile devices. So, you must ensure the mobile-friendliness of your URLs, and recheck how well your site performs in mobile search.

Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly

Making sure your website works well on mobile devices is still super important. While Google's dedicated Mobile-Friendly Test and the mobile usability report in Search Console are no longer available as of December 2023, the underlying need for a mobile-friendly site hasn't changed.

Luckily, Google has developed more robust and up-to-date tools over the past decade to help you. A great option is Lighthouse, built right into Chrome. It offers a comprehensive audit of your site's performance, including its mobile-friendliness, and provides actionable recommendations for improvement.

Alternatively, you can use WebSite Auditor’s mobile bot crawler to scan your pages and see how the Google mobile search engine sees your website. By default, the crawler checks if your site’s homepage is mobile-friendly.

And last but not least, think of tracking your desktop and mobile rankings separately, as sometimes the difference can be drastic. You can do it with Rank Tracker: select the geolocation and mobile user-agent and add the visible column for a separate mobile search engine.

Download Rank Tracker

Keyword research checklist

Keyword research isn’t just about chasing high search volume anymore. To rank well today, you need to understand user intent—what people are actually looking for—and create content that answers their questions clearly. Whether someone wants to buy, learn, or compare, matching your content to their goal is what makes SEO work.

It’s also important to think in topics, not just individual keywords. Using topic clusters and related entities helps search engines (and AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini) see your site as an expert on the subject. Combine short-tail keywords (broad topics) with long-tail ones (specific questions) to cover the full picture and attract the right visitors.

You’ll still want to check search volume and keyword difficulty, but don’t get stuck chasing big numbers. A low-volume keyword can be a hidden gem if it’s easy to rank for and matches strong intent. 

Now, let’s walk through the steps to find the best keywords for your site.

9. Identify your top-ranking keywords

This step requires Rank Tracker. You can download it now for free. Download Rank Tracker

By tracking the organic rankings of your target keywords, you can measure your overall progress. To start with, find out which keywords already bring traffic for your site. Based on these terms, you will be able to expand and find more phrases to optimize for.

How to find your top keywords

Launch Rank Tracker and enter the URL of your site to create a project. The tool will discover the main keywords that your site already ranks for. Usually, these are the brand name and a couple of seed terms. They will appear in the Rank Tracking section of the Target Keywords module.

Beyond that, you can dive into the Keyword Research module. Use the Ranking Keywords tool there to check your website's performance. You can specify the local Google version and how deep the SERP check goes. This also lets you see which SERP features your site appears in, like featured snippets, FAQs, or image packs.

Download Rank Tracker

10. Determine your organic competitors

Next, it's crucial to identify your organic competitors. These aren't necessarily the same businesses you compete with offline. Instead, organic competitors are the websites that are ranking for the same keywords and topics as you are. Understanding their SEO strategies can provide valuable insights to enhance your own.

How to identify your online competitors

Use Rank Tracker’s Competitor Research module to discover your main competitors by domain or topic. The tool shows the level of intersection between several competitors’ domains and their common keywords.

You can add the discovered competitors to Rank Tracking and monitor their performance alongside your web pages.

By tracking the positions of your top-traffic keywords, you won’t let others beat you out of the SERP. Additionally, conducting competitive research can provide numerous optimization ideas. And this brings us to the next point on our checklist.

11. Find new keyword ideas

By researching new keywords, you can get ideas for new pages that will attract organic traffic from Google. Beyond content development, it helps businesses plan website growth and better formulate their unique value proposition.

How to expand your keyword list

There are a variety of tools to find new keyword ideas, such as Google Autocomplete, Google Ads Keyword Planner, YouTube Keyword Suggestions (you can also use YouTube Rank Tracker to track the rankings of your videos), Amazon Autocomplete, etc.

Doing keyword research manually takes time, so you can use Rank Tracker with 20+ in-built keyword research methods to find new keywords in a matter of minutes.

Pick the keyword research method you find the most efficient to build up your keyword list. Add your primary keyword, and the tool will pull hundreds of terms from the keyword database, together with their statistics (search volumes, keyword difficulty, organic traffic estimates, CPC, and PPC costs) to estimate their ranking potential.

Download Rank Tracker

Watch a video tutorial: Searching for new keywords

12. Choose keywords that are easier to rank for

After you’ve collected new keyword ideas, you need to pick the most efficient ones. Depending on the competition, some keywords are harder to optimize for while others start bringing traffic immediately once you publish a new blog post. Usually, high-search volume keywords turn out to be more competitive. It means that it will take more effort to get better results for such keywords.

How to prioritize your keywords

Most SEO tools estimate keyword difficulty by measuring the competitiveness of a keyword. Rank Tracker calculates the Keyword Difficulty metric in two ways — by analyzing the difficulty for the top 10 or 50 organic results. For a bulk check, I suggest using the former, as this metric is available in all modules across Rank Tracker – in Keyword Research, Target Keywords, and in the SERP History dashboard (if you record the SERP history for regular tracking).

To check keyword difficulty, select your keywords, hit the Update Keyword Data button, and tick the checkbox with the respective metric.

After the checkup is over, see the scores. Focus on keywords with low and moderate (marked green and yellow) difficulty scores.

13. Identify long-tail keywords

If you’re working on a brand-new website or when you want to improve engagement, long-tail keywords are a great source of inspiration for content ideas and engaged traffic.

Long tails are more definite, so their target audience is more relevant. As a result, such an audience stays longer on the page and is more likely to perform a valuable action on it (conversion, subscription, etc.)

How to find long-tails

After you’ve collected keyword ideas in Rank Tracker, you can apply the filter by the length of key phrases. Although this is not exactly what differentiates long-tail keywords from short-tails, it is somewhat close to that.

Download Rank Tracker

 A good practice is to make sure your keyword list includes 2-4-word phrases.  A single keyword is too generic (e.g., “SEO”); a phrase too long may attract little or no traffic (e.g., “5 simple techniques good page load speed”). You can also use semantic filters: find keywords with words “what is”, “how to”, “top”, etc.

14. Mind keyword intent

Page’s relevance bears ultra-importance for rankings. A user searches a page with a certain intent, and Google tries to rank those pages that better satisfy this intent. 

In general, one can differentiate at least four types of keyword intent, such as:

Your task is to tweak keywords’ search intent and optimize landing pages so that they respond to user questions most effectively.

Based on the intent behind the target keywords, you can decide what type of pages you need to create for them: a blog post or a product page, service pages, white papers, help pages, etc.

How to check search intent

To define keyword intent, you’ve got to examine the SERP and see what types of pages and with what content are responding to the keyword, according to Google.

You can check the SERP manually or using Rank Tracker’s SERP details dashboard when you enable record SERP history (switch to the Full URL display mode).

Download Rank Tracker

Review what URLs are ranking for the query, or click through to view the page’s content. See which types of pages are most numerous in the SERPs. Also, pay attention to SERP features: are there any FAQs, videos, featured snippets? This will give you a clue what kind of content will help you step in.

15. Map keywords to content

Your next step in the SEO checklist is to get all the stuff organized, and we’ll do it with the help of keyword mapping.

A keyword map is a table of keywords distributed on landing pages, which lets SEOs keep track of optimization progress. In the keyword map, you distribute the keywords, the landing pages, and see later if any results were achieved. And it’s easier to start with mapping your best-ranking content.

How to map keywords and landing pages

In Rank Tracker, right-click on the selected keywords and choose from the menu Assign keywords to landing page(es). For the keywords that already have a URL in Google’s top, select Assign currently ranking URL. Or type in the one you want. The assigned landing pages will appear in the Keyword Map module.

Download Rank Tracker

Do not assign too many keywords for a single page. The more focused your landing pages are, the better. Pay attention to the fact that the clustering tool in Rank Tracker has already split your keywords into topic groups which you can regroup your way.

You can also map keywords in WebSite Auditor for further content optimization, which I’ll touch upon in the next chapter.

Site structure and on-page optimization checklist

Now that the basics are covered, it’s time to focus on how your site is built and how each page is optimized—two areas that play a huge role in how search engines understand and rank your content.

Your site’s structure affects crawlability, indexation, and how easily both users and bots can navigate your content. Think of it as the foundation of a house—if it's messy or unclear, no matter how great the content is, Google may overlook it. A clean, well-organized structure helps distribute authority across your site and ensures your most important pages are easy to reach.

Next comes on-page optimization, where every page on your site gets fine-tuned to perform its best. This includes things like optimized titles and headings, keyword placement, internal links, and structured data. In today’s SEO landscape, these aren’t just technical details—they're key signals that help Google (and AI tools) understand what your content is about and how relevant it is to searchers.

Let’s go through the most important steps to build a strong, search-friendly structure and optimize your pages for maximum visibility.

 16. Check your site structure

This step requires WebSite Auditor. You can download it now for free. Download WebSite Auditor

Revise the site structure at every stage of your website development and plan it meaningfully. What you need to do is keep your website structure clear and clean and make sure that users can easily get to every page on your website.

How to check your site architecture

In WebSite Auditor, switch to the Visualization map to overview all your pages at a glance. Use it to detect broken or orphaned pages (those that are not linked). You can also check which pages get the most pageviews and recalculate the Internal PageRank flow.

As this is an interactive map, you can plan to add new pages and links, remove old ones, and rebuild the project the way you need.

17. Make important pages easily accessible

Make sure that all your most important pages are no more than 2 – 3 clicks away from the homepage.

How to check click depth

Go to the Site Audit > All pages module and check the Click depth column. Filter the results by double-clicking on the column header. There you will see which pages can be reached within a few clicks from the homepage and which are buried too deep.

Download WebSite Auditor

18. Add more internal links to important pages

Internal links are often underestimated, although they influence important engagement factors, such as session time, page views per session, etc. Besides, internal links help crystallize a website’s structure.

To improve your site’s internal linking:

How to check internal links

In the same All pages tab, check the Link to column and find which pages have the most and the least internal links. Selecting a separate URL, you can examine all internal links coming to and from the page. See them in the bottom part of the workspace.

Download WebSite Auditor

Besides, in the Visualization map (see previous step), you can review the Internal PageRank values to spot the most prominent and the least noticeable pages.

The choice of the internal linking technique depends on the type of business and content the website serves. For more information, read our guide on internal linking best practices.

19. Rewrite too long, duplicate, or missing titles

This step requires WebSite Auditor. You can download it now for free. Download WebSite Auditor

Title tags and meta descriptions are the main on-page elements that affect the organic click-through rates of your pages. So, don’t waste a chance to get more organic traffic thanks to an optimized meta snippet. ‘Cause if you don’t do it, Google will, and nobody guarantees it will be great. 

How to improve meta snippets

In the Site Audit module of WebSite Auditor, find the On-page section. Check the Duplicate titles and Empty title tags factors.

To improve your search snippets, first and foremost:

20. Optimize the main content

Content is king, and great content by itself brings much use to a website's SEO. But a well-optimized piece of content can bring much more benefit.

Just like people, search engines try to elicit the main topic and subtopics of your article, which paragraphs answer the searched question, and so forth. So, make sure to:

How to optimize the main content

Go to the Page Audit > Content Audit module in WebSite Auditor, pick the page, and type in your focus keyword. After the tool scans your landing page, it will offer optimization advice based on top-ranking competitors.

Next, switch to the Content Editor module. Here you can optimize your content on the fly, using on-page optimization tips in the right-hand space. You will see the optimization score improve once you add the recommended keywords to your text.

Download WebSite Auditor

21. Diversify text-only content

Use images and video to diversify your page content and get more traffic from Google searches. With some additional multimedia, a page has chances to show up in rich results like Google Images or Google Videos. Besides, visuals serve as an explanatory medium, so most surely they will improve user engagement with your content.

Meantime, mind that images should be optimized for organic search. Make sure that images:

How to check image issues

In WebSite Auditor’s Site Audit report, check out the Images tab, where you will find broken images and empty ALT text fields — these have to be fixed for better rankings in image results.

Besides, you can review all your multimedia resources in WebSite Auditor’s module Site Structure > All resources.

Download WebSite Auditor

22. Add structured data

Structured data boosts your chances of getting rich snippets and a couple of other SERP features that make a page stand out on the search results page. 

One way to implement structured data is to use Schema markup, which represents standardized tags added to HTML code. It helps search engines identify that the page contains some type of information, e.g. about the author, the product, business, FAQ, etc.

How to check your structured data

There are plenty of free tools for implementing schema, for example, Google Structured Data Markup Helper. Bear in mind that incorrect implementation may lead to ranking penalties and loss of traffic. So, to make sure you do it right, refer to our definitive schema markup guide.

Link building & digital PR checklist

You can have the fastest site and the best content—but without backlinks, it’s tough to compete in search. That’s because links from other websites act as “votes of trust” in the eyes of Google. The more high-quality, relevant sites that link to yours, the more authority your pages gain—and the better your chances of ranking.

But not all links are created equal. In 2025, successful link building is less about spammy outreach and more about earning links through valuable content, smart promotion, and genuine relationships. Whether you're doing guest posting, digital PR, or passive link attraction, the goal is the same: get trusted sites talking about—and linking to—your brand. Let’s explore the most effective strategies step by step.

23. Reach out to friends and colleagues

Do you know anyone with a website—friends, family, former clients, coworkers, or even that acquaintance from your old job?

If their site is relevant (or at least not completely unrelated), don’t be shy—reach out and ask for a backlink. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help if you just ask.

A lot of SEOs overlook this out of fear of rejection or sounding “unprofessional,” but this is genuinely one of the lowest-effort, highest-success-rate link opportunities out there. You already have the relationship—now all you need to do is connect the dots.

24. Turn unlinked mentions into backlinks

Once your brand starts gaining some visibility—whether through content, product launches, or online discussions—people will naturally start mentioning you. The problem? Many of those mentions don’t include a link.

That’s your cue to politely reach out and request one. A simple email saying “Thanks for the mention—would you mind linking to our site for context?” often does the trick.

Here's how to find your mentions in a quick and effcient way:

• Use Awario to track your brand name, product names, or team members across blogs, news sites, social media, and forums

• Reach out to the authors with a friendly note asking them to turn the mention into a clickable reference

To stay ahead of new mentions, set up real-time alerts in Awario, so you can catch and act on these opportunities as soon as they happen.

25. Fix broken inbound links

If your site’s been live for more than a few months, chances are good that someone has linked to a page that no longer works. Maybe you deleted a page, changed a URL structure, or had a tech hiccup—whatever the reason, broken backlinks = lost SEO value.

It’s critical to identify and fix these as soon as possible.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Open SEO PowerSuite’s SEO SpyGlass

• Go to the Backlinks section, right-click the header of any column and add the Linked Page Status Code metric. Then filter for backlinks pointing to pages that return 404 or 5xx errors

  

• Investigate the cause: was the content deleted, moved, or just mislinked?

Once you know what’s broken:

• Redirect the old URL to a live one with relevant content

• Republish the missing content if it’s valuable and still relevant

• Fix any server-side or CMS-related technical issues

Fixing broken inbound links is not just about salvaging lost SEO equity—it also improves user experience and signals trustworthiness to search engines.

26. Find relevant link-building prospects to cooperate with

This step requires LinkAssistant. You can download it now for free. Download LinkAssistant

Generally, the more backlinks you have, the better. For a high-quality website, employ white-hat link-building techniques that get you natural links. 

How to find link-building prospects

Credible links are those coming from relevant resources in a niche similar to yours. LinkAssistant is just the right tool to find many relevant link sources. Launch the tool, create your project, and press the Search for prospects button. You will be suggested to choose the search method and type in your target keywords.

There is an abundance of tried-and-trusted ways to find places to build natural links from, the main ones are:

LinkAssistant is flexible to search whatever exists on earth, so use filters and parameters to sort out irrelevant and keep only high-quality websites on your prospects list. You can specify filter phrases such as “submit a guest post,” “add a comment,” or “forum”, modify the search type, and discover resources by locations and by topics.

27. Use the backlink gap technique

Usually, competitors’ backlink profile analysis helps you easily find new great link sources for your site. Find websites to link to several of your competitors but not to your pages – most likely, they operate in the same niche and will link to your content as well.

How to spot valuable competitors’ backlinks

The Backlink Gap tool is also available in LinkAssistant, but I would like to draw your attention to SEO SpyGlass, as this app is better cut for analyzing backlinks.

Once you’re in SEO SpyGlass, try the Link Intersection tool in the Domain Comparison module. See which resources link to all of your competitors but not to your website. Most likely, these sites are relevant to your industry and will link to your pages more willingly. The tool marks them as Prospective domains.

There are a bunch of other fascinating link-building techniques that deliver the best results with less effort. Have a look at our guide to the best link-building techniques that still work in 2025.

Download SEO SpyGlass

28. Run a link outreach campaign

After you’ve found sites for link building, it’s high time to connect with their owners or webmasters.

How to run a link-building campaign

First of all, let LinkAssistant’s email scraper find the contact details for the selected websites. 

Then, select the prospects and click the Email button, and you’ll get to the built-in email client (set-up required first). Here you can manage all your link-building correspondence. The tool has prepared templates for link builders and allows you to send personalized outreach campaigns.

Well, link-building is not as simple as ABC. For a complete link-building workflow, I suggest jumping to our guide to email outreach campaigns.

29. Work on your social media strategy

Social networks are the driving force of the web. It helps to draw more visitors to your website regularly and build a positive brand image. 

To start with, identify what pages have got the most social media activity and why. Next, take steps to ensure better social media services:

How to know your top social media pages

To see which of your social media posts perform best, head to your Google Analytics. Go to Traffic > By channel > Social media to see which landing pages brought in the most social traffic. This will show you exactly what content resonates most with your social audience.

Local SEO checklist

Location makes a great difference in search optimization, which is why I suggest considering it as a separate topic. This is a brief round-up of must-do tactics for companies that rely on local customers, such as shops, e-commerce stores, local services, etc.

30. Track organic search rankings in specific locations

This step requires Rank Tracker. You can download it now for free. Download Rank Tracker

It’s no secret that search results differ from one country or even city to another. So, when researching keywords or checking ranks, you’ve got to know how Google or other relevant search engines see your site in a particular area.

Rank Tracker supports search engines in any country and location possible, up to a specific street address. And unlike in many other rank-checking tools, there are no limits on the number of locations or projects to create.

Download Rank Tracker

31. Fill out your Google Business Profile

Complete your Google Profile to enhance visibility in local search results and on Google Maps. The tool provides truly helpful features for businesses with a physical location. What is more, it’s free of charge.

Reviews, location on maps, information about working hours, product availability, and even crowdedness – you can manage all these thanks to Google’s business tools. Read more about the benefits and how to set it up in our guide to Google Business Profile.

32. Serve the right language version of your site

If you run a global website aimed at multiple locations, make sure you serve the right language version to users. One way of implementing multi-language websites is with the help of hreflang tags.

How to audit hreflang tags on your site

Use in-built website tools in WebSite Auditor to implement hreflang tags automatically with no fuss. The tool checks which pages have these tags, as well as lets you generate an hreflang sitemap with proper localization.

33. Build local citations

To be successful commercially, you’ve got to be present in the most powerful media channels of your place or community. Local links are often the most relevant and easy to get, and even more so they will bring you real clients.

How to find local citations

LinkAssistant will help you find relevant business directories, forums, local media, public channels, and communities with whom to partner. And just like in any other tool by SEO PowerSuite, you can run your search for prospects tailored to your specific search engine and location.

LinkAssistant provides you with truly relevant results suitable to your niche, topic, and quality criteria.

34.  Optimize for relevant e-commerce and sales platforms

Analytics tools and approaches to content handling can be different on various e-commerce platforms. However, the basic principles are all the same as in general SEO.

Take a look at some optimization techniques for Wix or Shopify. And here is a story about how to outrank Amazon even if your site is not a big fish yet. It only proves that local SEO bears huge potential for local businesses.

SEO KPI tracking checklist

And last but not least, define your benchmarks for measuring the efficiency of your SEO strategy. You can set the KPIs that you are individually interested in. Perhaps, for your project, it would be important not only to know the traffic but also user engagement. It all depends on the type of niche and website.

Below are the most common key performance indicators in SEO, but of course, they all may differ from one company to another.

35. Track your keywords rankings and visibility

This step requires Rank Tracker. You can download it now for free. Download Rank Tracker

Make sure you track your search engine rankings for keywords in Rank Tracker. You will be able to see your current rankings and compare your rankings to competitors. And the rankings’ history will let you fix urgent drops and revise your SEO strategy from time to time.

Check both regular organic results and Universal Search results (Images, Videos, Places). Rank Tracker will also show the multiple positions a ranking page has.

The tool allows you to set up automated rankings checks and delivers SEO reports customized and detailed up to every keyword’s position difference.

36. Track traffic and user behavior with Google Analytics

Set up SEO-focused goals in Google Analytics, for example, completed conversions on your landing pages. You can also link Search Console with Google Analytics and have more data about the most profitable keywords.

The tools will let you identify keywords with the most traffic and landing pages with the most conversions. But overall, different companies define different KPIs. So, here is my list of key SEO metrics to track.

LLM optimization checklist

Search is changing fast. Google isn’t the only place people look for answers anymore. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are becoming new discovery engines—summarizing content, citing sources, and even recommending products and services directly in AI-generated answers.

But here’s the twist: These tools don’t use a traditional ranking algorithm. Instead, they pull from trusted, well-structured, clearly written sources—especially those that show authority on a topic or are frequently mentioned around the web.

If you want your content (and brand) to appear in these AI responses, this LLM optimization checklist will help.

37. Build topical authority

AI tools favor websites that show real depth and subject expertise. It’s not enough to casually mention a topic—you need to cover it comprehensively. For example, someone looking to learn how to bake bread will trust a site that offers a full set of articles on kneading techniques, yeast types, and common mistakes, rather than a single generic post.

To build topical authority, start by choosing a core topic—say, “home composting”—and create a series of supporting articles around it. This could include posts like how to start composting, the best compost bins, what not to compost, composting for kids, and a comparison of worm composting vs traditional methods.

Make sure you're addressing different angles and intents, such as "what is composting," "how to get started," "why it matters," and "which method is best." Then, link all these related articles together to create a strong internal network. This signals to both users and AI that your site is a reliable, in-depth resource on the subject.

38. Optimize for named entity recognition (NER)

LLMs look for recognized names—brands, people, tools, and organizations. The clearer and more consistent your presence is online, the easier it is for AI to confidently include you in responses.

If your name is “JennyFit” on your website, “Jenny’s Gym” on Twitter, and “Jenny W.” on guest posts, AI might not know it’s all you. Consistency matters.

How to do it:

39. Use clear, fact-based writing

LLMs prefer content that’s easy to scan, easy to quote, and written with clarity and purpose. Fluffy writing with vague claims rarely gets cited.

You’re not writing a novel—you’re writing a recipe or guide someone can follow without guessing.

How to do it:

40. Attract brand mentions

AI doesn’t just rely on links—it looks at how often your brand is mentioned across the web. Every time someone talks about your product, site, or content, that’s a signal.

It’s like word-of-mouth marketing—but online. The more your name shows up in conversations, the more credible you appear—even if there’s no direct link.

How to do it:

Even without backlinks, consistent mentions help train LLMs to associate your brand with relevant topics—and increase your chances of showing up in AI answers.

41. Publish first-party insights

Original content—like case studies, survey data, tutorials, and visual breakdowns—gives AI something unique to quote or summarize. That’s gold.

LLMs can’t invent original data. So if you’re the only source publishing it, they have to reference you.

How to do it:

42. Create content that mirrors AI prompts

AI tools often respond to prompts like “What’s the best tool for X?” or “Top 10 alternatives to Y.” If your content matches the format, your chances of being cited increase.

Write your content like you’re answering a common AI query—because you probably are.

How to do it:

43. Strengthen your digital footprint

AI tools cross-reference multiple sources to confirm credibility. If you’re only active in one place, your authority looks limited.

If someone Googles your brand and only finds your homepage, that’s a red flag. But if they see consistent info across 5–10 trusted sites? Instant credibility boost.

How to do it:

That’s a wrap

If you’ve made it through the full checklist—congrats! You now have the core structure, tools, and strategies in place to build a fully optimized website that’s ready to grow.

From technical setup and keyword research to content structure, link building, and visibility in AI search—every step you’ve taken helps search engines better understand, rank, and trust your content. SEO isn’t a one-time task, but a system you build and improve over time. And with this foundation, you’re not just keeping up—you’re putting yourself ahead of the competition.

Bookmark this guide, revisit it regularly, and don’t be afraid to iterate. SEO success doesn’t happen overnight—but with consistency and the right tools, it does happen.