blender-m
3/8/2019 - 10:17 PM

SEO Dev Checklist

These are the steps which need to be run though to perform the SEO Dev Checklist.

  • Setting up SSL and redirect to https://www
  • Adjust Google Analytics to include https://www
  • Search Console
  • Sitemap creation
  • Index site in search console
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Adjust Meta tags / url variables / canonical + no content hiding

You can test your progress here: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

And here is the original SEO checklist for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1er2moYivqD_eDF3chigB0RNlH0lwJ5Z_HrSsyAMqtiA/edit#gid=0

notes
content_copyfile_download
  • Rendered
  • Source

SEO Dev Checklist steps

SSL & One Version of Site

  1. Contact Carbon60 to get them to create the SSL - ask them for Let's Encrypt SSL and ask them to direct all traffic to https://www.YOURDOMAIN.com
  2. Test the site to make sure there are no console errors, and fix any that you find ** DOUBLE CHECK any photo galleries **

Cloudflare Steps

If the site is using cloudflare then you want to use their SSL, you will need to create an Origin certificate and key in the Cloudflare dashboard following the steps below:

  1. Login to Cloudflare and navigate to the domain you are working on.
  2. Click on SSL/TLS button at top of domain page.
  3. There is 4 tabs under the top buttons, navigate to Origin Server tab and click Create Certificate
  4. Follow this link and follow the Cloudflare documentation on generating the certificate: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000479507-Managing-Cloudflare-Origin-CA-certificates
  5. Once you have completed the steps in the link above, you should have two files, domain.com.pem and domain.com.key, send these to support@carbon60.com and ask them to add to server for the domain you are working on.
  6. Once you receive confirmation from Carbon60 that the Certificate has been added then navigate to the secure (https://) version of site in browser and check for console errors on every page. Make sure everything looks good and is working as expected.
  7. Once everything looks good, navigate back to SSL/TSL > Edge Certifcates within Cloudflare dashboard and enable the 'Always Use HTTPS' radio toggle.
  8. Done.

Update Google Analytics to include https://www. (if your domain is a subdomain do not include www)

Search Console

Sitemap

  • You can create a sitemap here: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
  • Upload the sitemap.xml file to the root of the live site, add it within the Google search console by clicking "sitemaps" in the menu and then going through the add process.

Index URL in Search Console

  • After uploading the sitemap click URL inspection in the left menu and submit the url of the site
  • Once it find the URL you can click "RERQUEST INDEXING" in the result box which is returned from your search

Google Tag Manager

  • Set-up at https://tagmanager.google.com/
  • Login with webstats@blendermedia.com and create an account for the company and site.
  • Then add the supplied code where recommended. After you've added the code you need to publish the changes in Google Tag Manager (if you don't you'll get a console error for the missing tag manager file hosted by google).

Adjust Meta tags / url variables / canonical + no content hiding

Meta Tags

Use these for your titles and descriptions in your meta tags

<!--|if $meta_title != ''|--><!--|$meta_title|--><!--|else|-->Company Name: <!--|$structure|--><!--|/if|-->

<!--|if $meta_description != ''|--><!--|$meta_description|--><!--|else|-->Default description<!--|/if|-->

Canonical tag on the inner pages

Place this code in the head in of your page templates (if it has pages with no content).

<!--|if $structure_directory == "page-with-no-content"|-->
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
<!--|else|-->
<link rel="canonical" href="<!--|$canonical|-->"/>
<!--|/if|-->