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131 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
131 lines
9.1 KiB
Markdown
# [Search Engine Optimization (SEO)](http://marcobiedermann.github.io/search-engine-optimization/)
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A helpful checklist / collection of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tips and technics.
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## Table of Contents
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* [URL](#url)
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* [Accessibility](#accessibility)
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* [Meta Information](#meta-information)
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* [Keywords](#keywords)
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* [Content](#content)
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* [Images](#images)
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* [Links](#links)
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* [Mobile](#mobile)
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* [Sitemap](#sitemap)
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* [Social Media](#social-media)
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* [Tools & Services](#tools--services)
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## URL
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* **Descriptive URLs:** use a descriptive page url, which should reflect your targeted keyword
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* **[Subdomain or subfolder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk):** subdomains are seen as separate domains
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* **[Hyphens](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQcSFsQyct8):** split words using hyphens
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* **[www or no-www](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231):** provide both domains, but set a prefered version in Google Webmaster Tools
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* **[Localisation](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399):** chookse a country-specific domain, for better local search results
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* **[HTTPS](http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.be/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html):** Security is a top priority for Google
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* **[URL builder](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867):** Use this tool to add custom compaign parameters to your URLs
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* **[File extension](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSG6C33GwsE)**: do not strip out the file extension on URLs
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## Accessibility
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* **403:** provide a 403 - Access denied page
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* **404:** provide a 404 - Page not found page
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* **Robots:** block pages which should not be indexed via the `robots.txt` file or
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`<meta name="robots" content="">`
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* **File not found:** avoid `404 FILE_NOT_FOUND` errors
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* **Redirects:** Avoid redirects if possible. Use 301 redirect instead of 302
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* **[Pagination](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744):** implement the `rel="next"` and `rel="prev"` attributes to links
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* **Moving a website:** redirect all your links to the new location via `.htaccess`
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* **Performance:** performance and loading time is important
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* **Validation:** write valid code ([HTML Validator](http://validator.w3.org/) [CSS Validator](http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/))
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* **[WAI-Aria](http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/):** use WAI-Aria tags to help machines understanding your code
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* **[RichSnippets](http://schema.org/):** markup your code with rich snippets, they show up on the search results page
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* **[Custom Search](https://developers.google.com/structured-data/slsb-overview):** with sitelink Google Sitelink search box, people can reach your content more quickly
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## Meta Information
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* **Title:** each page shound have a unique speaking title (60 - 100 characters)
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`<title>Website Title</title>`
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* **[Description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4gr88oHb-k):** each page should have a unique description (max. 160 characters)
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`<meta name="description" content="">`
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## Keywords
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* **Single:** every page shound have a single unique targeted keyword
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* **Research:** rank for keywords with high traffic and less competition
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* **[URL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAWFv43qubI):** keyword should appear in URL name
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* **Title:** keyword should appear in page title
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* **Heading:** keyword should appear in headings
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* **Content:** keyword should apear in ~3% of article length
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* **[Meta Tag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU):** you can ommit the `<meta name="keywords" content="">`,
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search engines do not use this meta tag
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## Content
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* **Content:** Content matters the most in SEO
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* **Headings:** Clear structure `H1` -` H6` max. 70 characters long
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* **Strong:** use `strong` tag to highlight your targeted keyword
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* **[Uniqueness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZY7EmjbMA):** do not provide duplicated content, use unique content types
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* **Length:** article should be at least 300 words
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* **Freshness:** new content is important. Updating pages or regulary posting is recommended
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## Images
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* **[File name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2SWuUobbr0):** use a short descriptive name
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* **[Alt tag](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016):** add an alt-tag this a description of the image (60 - 70 characters)
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* **Dimentions:** add the `width=""` and `height=""` attributes to the image
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* **[Responsive Images](http://www.w3.org/TR/html-picture-element/):** serve the most optimized image corresponding to the window size
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* **Size:** keep the filesize as low as possible
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* **[Optimization](https://imageoptim.com/):** Optimize images by removing some meta information
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## Links
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* **Title:** add a descriptive title to links
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* **Backlinks:** Only add external links if you got a backlink to your site
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* **[nofollow](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569):** add `rel="nofollow"` attribute to external links only to prevent spam and bad links
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* **Internal links:** add ~3 internal links to your content
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## Mobile
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* **Viewport:** tell browsers how to adjust the page's dimension and scaling to suit the device
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`<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1.0">`
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* **[mobile friendly](http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.be/2014/11/helping-users-find-mobile-friendly-pages.html):** mobile optimized sites are marked in search results. Test for [mobile friendly site](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/)
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* **[AppLinks](http://applinks.org/documentation/):** apps that link to your content can then use this metadata to deep-link into your app
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* **[Tap targets](https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/SizeTapTargetsAppropriately):** clickable links should not be too small
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## Sitemap
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* **[HTML sitemap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hi5DGOu1uA0):** An HTML sitemap allows site visitors to easily navigate a website.
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* **[XML sitemap](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183668):** Help search engines to index your pages
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* **[Image sitemap](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/178636):** Increase that your images can be found in Image Search results
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* **[Video sitemap](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/80471):** Make sure, search engines know about all the video content on your site
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* **[Mobile sitemap](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6082207):** For feature phones, you can create a mobile sitemap
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## Social Media
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* **Social Shares:** provide sharing options for your site
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* **[Social Profiles](https://developers.google.com/webmasters/structured-data/customize/social-profiles):** add social profiles to your Google search results
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* **[OpenGraph](http://ogp.me/):** The Open Graph protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph.
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* **[Facebook](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices):** Sharing Best Practices for Websites & Mobile Apps
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* **[Twitter](https://dev.twitter.com/cards/getting-started):** with Twitter cards, you can attach photos, videos and media experience to you Tweets
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* Authorship information
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* **[Google+ Authorship](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgFb6Y-UJUI):** add Google+ authorship information to your page
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`<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/[GOOGLE+ ID]">` or
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`<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/[GOOGLE+ ID]" rel=author">Google+ Profile</a>` or
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`<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/[GOOGLE+ ID]" rel=me">Google+ Profile</a>` or
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`<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/[GOOGLE+ ID]" rel=publisher">Google+ Profile</a>`
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## Tools & Services
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### Webmasters
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* **[Google Webmasters](https://www.google.com/webmasters/):** allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility ot their websites
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* **[Bing Webmasters](http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster):** allows webmasters to add their websites to the Bing index crawler.
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### Analytics
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* **[Google Analytics](http://www.google.com/analytics/):** generate detailed statistics about a website's traffic
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* **[Piwik](http://piwik.org/):** is an open analytics platform
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* **[Yahoo Web Analytics](web.analytics.yahoo.com):** is Yahoo!’s alternative to the dominant Google Analytics.
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### Optimization
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* **[PageSpeed Insights](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/):** Page Speed Insights measures the performance of a page for mobile devices and desktop devices.
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* **[feedthebot seo tool](http://www.feedthebot.com/tools/):** displays: domain strength, links, image seo, social counts & mentions, page/technical seo, pagespeed and more.
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### Keywords
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* **[AdWords Keyword Tool](https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner):** plan your Search Network campaigns and learn what your customers are looking for
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* **[Google Trends](http://www.google.com/trends/):** explore Google trending search topics with Google Trends.
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### Structured Data
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* **[Google+ Snippet Creator](https://developers.google.com/+/web/snippet/):** customize the snippet people see when your page is shared.
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* **[Structured Data Testing Tool](https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/):** past in you rich snippets or url to test it
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* **[Twitter card validator](https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator):** Enter the URL of the page with the meta tags to validate
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* **[Facebook Debugger](https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug):** Enter the URL you want to scrape to see how the page's markup appears to Facebook.
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