These are some of the optimization elements (on- and off-page) that I look at:
Design/Construction
Although I am certainly not a web designer or developer, I am very familiar with proper site structure and linking. this is where I check for improper redirects– 301 v. 302 v. 404 error codes, etc. I also check for canonicalization issues (www. or not); and finally, I check for valid code (HTML, CSS).
Navigation
I check for image, drop downs, JavaScript, image maps vs. text navigation issues. I also look at the site’s accessibility; is it W3C compliant?
Analytics and Tracking
I want to make sure your site has some sort of analytics program installed. After all, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. I’ll make sure appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) are established and tracked.
Content
This is where I check code–to–content (text) ratio; check for keyword density in homepage content and check for proper use of heading tags (h1–h6) and bold type. There should be a (xml/physical) sitemap present. I also want to know how search engines (text browser) and visitors will view site with different browsers/versions).
Duplicate Content
I’ll then make sure there is no duplicate content within your site and make sure there is no duplicate content on other domains, as well.
Content Development
I will work with your team to continually develop fresh and unique content for site.
Image/Video/PDF Files
I’m going to make sure that all file types are optimized with titles, keywords, and comments/descriptions/captions. Also I’ll check to see that your site has proper use of ‘ALT’ tags.
Meta Tags
Do your Meta tags reflect the content on the page? Most importantly, I’ll check ‘Title’ tags to see that they are formatted correctly. I’ll then look at ‘Descriptions’ tags for keywords and composition. You’ll notice that I don’t include the ‘Keywords’ tag here. In some instances I might would include this tag but because it has been abused so much in the past, most search engines (especially Google) ignore it; so I will too.
Robots.txt File
Does one exist? Is it properly used? I’ll make sure your site’s robots.txt file is written correctly.
URL Formatting
Next, I’ll check URL formatting. Tip: URLs should contain keywords (if possible) separated by hyphens. Keywords in URLs should match the content contained within the page to which they are leading.
Internal Links
Links should contain proper keywords and titles. I’ll check to make sure anchor text, link keywords, link title, and page being linked to are relevant to one another. Very Important: I’ll check for broken links. You would be surprised how often this happens and you don’t know it.
External Backlinks
Then, I’ll perform a backlink count. Links are crucial to determining your site’s ranking. To Google and the other search engines it’s like a vote of confidence that your site is a good site. I’ll also check the anchor text of backlinks to make sure you’re utilizing as many of your important keywords as possible.
External (Off–Page) Link Building
This is where the real work begins. Above, I mentioned the importance of links to your site. Well, the next step is to continually gain an increasing number of inbound links from credible authoritative sites and resources. This will have a second benefit of increasing the amount of traffic from these external authoritative sites/resources and can be accomplished through external content development (article/PR marketing, Forum/comment marketing, blog post marketing).
Site Indexation
Ultimately, I want to determine your site’s indexation with the major search engines. How many pages of your site are (properly) indexed? Then, I want to increase that number. I will also compare what’s being indexed and what isn’t (and for what keywords).