Cheatography
https://cheatography.com
For web designers, developers and SEOs that want to check if a website is search engine friendly.
Meta Tag / Head Area ChecklistTitle | Required | Meta Description | Required | Rel Canonical Tag | Recommended | Meta Content Type | Required | Meta Keywords | Optional - Not used by Google | Meta Robots | Optional | Meta Googlebot | Optional | Meta Google | Optional | Meta Google Site Verification | Optional | Rel Next/Prev | Optional | Rel DNS Prefetch | Optional | Rel Shortlink | Optional | Facebook Open Graph Tags | Recommended | Twitter Card Tags | Optional | Rel Alternate (RSS Feed) | Optional | Rel Shortcut Icon/Icon (Favicon) | Recommended | Meta Refresh | Not recommended | Google + Authorship | No longer used by Google | Google + Publisher | Recommended |
BodyHeading tags (H1, H2, H3, H4...) | Recommended | Paragraph tags | Optional | Page Anchors | Optional | Links | Required | Navigation | Required | Unique Content | Required | Address Info | Recommended | Rich snippets (microdata, microformats, RDFa) | Recommended | Strong | Optional | Em | Optional | Breadcrumbs | Recommended | Cookie Policy Page | Recommended | Contact Page | Recommended | Privacy Page | Recommended | Social Media Buttons | Recommended |
ContentCheck for duplicate/scraped content | Do not mix languages on a page | Check for spelling and grammar | Avoid hidden content | Do not over-use keywords/phrases | Do not over-use bold tags | Nofollow all untrusted/UGC links |
Image OptimisationAlt | Required | Search engine friendly file name | Recommended | Title | Recommended | Compress Images (Smush.it etc) | Recommended | Convert Images to WebP | Optional (Google Chrome & Opera only) | Store on cookieless sub-domains | Recommended | Store on cloud hosting / CDN | Recommended |
URLSearch engine friendly URL | Recommended | No Session ID in URL | Required | Homepage URL is root ( '/' ) | Required | URLs match Canonical Tags | Required | URLs match FB OG Site Tag | Required | All lowercase letters | Recommended | Consistent closing slash | Required | No spaces | Required | No non-permitted characters | Required | No duplicate URLs for same page | Required |
| | SitemapsXML Sitemap | Recommended | Static Sitemap | Recommended | Compressed Sitemap | Recommended | Video Sitemap | Optional | Google News Sitemap | Optional | RSS Feed | Recommended | Sitemap Index File | Optional | Sitemap reference in Robots.txt | Recommended |
Robots.txtRobots.txt | Recommended | Robots.txt sitemap link | Optional | Robots.txt disallow rules | Optional - be careful | Robots.txt allow rules | Optional | Check in Webmaster Tools | Recommended |
Broken Links / RedirectsCheck for broken links/error pages (4xx,5xx) | Required | Check for redirects (3xx) | Required | All website pages sending 200 success code | Required | Homepage should not redirect | Required | Homepage should send 200 success code | Required |
LinksTitle | Recommended | Rel Nofollow | Optional - Use with care | Rel Alternate Hreflang x | For Multi Language Sites | Rel Next/Previous | Optional | Rel Tag | Optional | Rel Author / Me | Optional | Rel Bookmark | Optional |
404 Error PageCheck 404 page exists | Required | Check 404 page returns 404 status code | Required | Custom 404 error page | Optional | Add useful links, sitemap or search box to 404 page | Optional |
HTML ValidationW3C Markup Validation Service |
3rd Party Software: Flash/Silverlight/Java/PDF etc3rd Party Software Navigation Menu | Avoid | 3rd Party Software Intro page | Avoid | 3rd Party Software Text Content | Avoid | Entire Site Using Third Party Software | Avoid | Small Features | Allowed | Videos | Allowed | Audio elements | Allowed | Animations | Allowed | Tools | Allowed |
Over OptimisationIs the site user friendly? | Could a user class the page as spammy? | Do not over-use keywords/phrases in text, headings or meta data | Do not create more internal links than necesssary | Too many keyword rich links | Poor content/too many repeated phrases | Too many ads (eg Adsense) above the fold | Too many ads, such that content is hard to access |
SSL/HTTPSSSL/HTTPS | Recommended | Correct Redirects in Place | Recommended | Add HTTPS Domain to GWT | Recommended |
| | Google Webmaster ToolsFetch as Googlebot | Required | Submit .xml Sitemap | Required | Submit Compressed Sitemap | Recommended | Submit RSS Feed | Recommended | Set Geographic target | Recommended | Set Preferred domain | Recommended | HTML Improvements | Optional | Rich Snippets Testing Tool | Optional |
Bing Webmaster ToolsFetch as Bingbot | Recommended | Submit Sitemap | Recommended | Submit RSS Feed | Optional | Submit URLs | Optional |
Website Speed Tools (Online)Google PageSpeed Insights | Webpagetest.org | GTmetrix | Pingdom Tools Full Page Test | Yahoo! YSlow | Whichloadsfaster.com | Site-Perf.com | loadImpact.com |
Google Webmaster GuidelinesRead, understand and follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines | Do not place a link exchange section on your website | Avoid automatically generated / scraped content | Avoid cloaking | Avoid 'sneaky redirects' | Avoid hidden text or links | Avoid doorway pages | Do not abuse rich snippets |
FacebookFacebook Debugger Tool | Google Structured Data Testing Tool |
Keyword ResearchGoogle Adwords Keyword Tool | Google Suggest | UberSuggest | Bing Keyword Tool |
WordPressAll in One SEO | WordPress SEO by Yoast | W3 Total Cache |
CreditsCheat Sheet created by Colin McDermott. | | | Big Thanks to Dave @ Added Bytes. |
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www.searchcandy.uk
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Comments
Thank you. This is a great check list!
Thanks Cardoza! You are welcome. Let me know how you use it.
found it extremely helpful, but I have a question that why do you perferr CDN network, i guess you i doesn't allow cache copies of pages which can be helpful when it comes to mobile optimization...
Hi Gaurav,
There are many reasons. Helps speed for one. Try this article: http://www.searchcandy.uk/content-delivery-networks/is-using-a-cdn-content-delivery-network-good-for-seo/
Thanks
Colin
This is still excellent!
Thanks Josh!
Amazing! Thanks for this! I really needed it.
Well done. I hope you will keep it up to date. Thanks again!
Awesome!
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