Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklist for Google Search and Bing Search

You can hire Chris Abraham right now for SEO consulting and technical work via his freelancer page on Upwork. 

Keyword Research and Content Optimization

• Identify important keywords for your website using tools such as Google's Keyword Planner, SEMRush, or Ahrefs.
• Create high-quality, unique content that uses these keywords naturally. Ensure that your content is written for users, not search engines.
• Consider creating a blog for regular fresh content, as both Google and Bing appreciate websites that are frequently updated.

Technical SEO

• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing.
• Use a clean, SEO-friendly URL structure that includes keywords when appropriate.
• Ensure your website has a logical site structure with a clear hierarchy.
• Improve your site speed. Fast-loading websites are favored by Google and Bing.

On-Page SEO

• Use meta tags like title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags effectively. Make sure they are unique and descriptive, and include your target keywords where appropriate.
• Implement structured data (schema markup) to help search engines understand your content better.
  Ensure that all images have relevant alt text.

Off-Page SEO

• Build high-quality backlinks to your site from reputable websites.
• Consider guest posting or collaborations with influencers to earn high-quality links and exposure.
• Regularly monitor your backlinks and disavow any spammy ones.

Local SEO (if applicable)

• Create a Google My Business and Bing Places for Business profile.
• Ensure that your business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent across all online directories. 

Tracking and Analysis

• Set up Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor your site's traffic, bounce rates, and other key metrics.
• Regularly check for any crawl errors or manual penalties in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Platform-Specific Tips

• Google values the E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) of your site, so be sure to highlight the credentials of your site authors and cite your sources where appropriate.
• Bing tends to value social media signals more than Google, so have an active presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Sitemap and Robots.txt

• Create a sitemap.xml file and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Use a robots.txt file to guide search engines on what pages or sections to crawl or ignore.

Site Security

• Ensure that your site uses HTTPS, as Google has stated that it gives a slight ranking boost to secure websites.

International and Multilingual Sites (if applicable)

• Use hreflang tags if you have multilingual content to help Google and Bing understand the language and geographical targeting of a webpage.
• Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy. It may take months to see significant improvements in your rankings, but the effort is well worth it in the long run.

Here are some additional tips that you may find helpful:

• Use structured data. Structured data is a way of marking up your website's content so that search engines can better understand what your content is about. This can help your website rank higher in search results.
• Optimize your images. Images can be a great way to improve your website's SEO. Make sure your images are high-quality and that they are optimized with relevant keywords.
• Keep your website up-to-date. Search engines prefer websites that are updated regularly. Make sure you are adding new content to your website on a regular basis.
• Be patient. SEO takes time. Don't expect to see results overnight. Just keep working on your website's SEO and you will eventually start to see results.

More things to consider in relationship to both Bing Search and Google Search:

• Choose a good domain name. Your domain name should be relevant to your website's content and easy to remember. It should also be short and easy to type.
• Use a content management system (CMS). A CMS will make it easy to create and manage your website's content. WordPress is a popular and SEO-friendly CMS.
• Optimize your title tags and meta descriptions. Your title tags and meta descriptions are the first things that people will see when your website appears in search results. Make sure they are well-written and include your target keywords.
• Create high-quality content. The content on your website is the most important factor for SEO. Make sure your content is informative, well-written, and engaging.
• Use relevant keywords throughout your content. When you use relevant keywords throughout your content, you are telling search engines what your website is about. Use keywords in your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and throughout your body content.

• Build backlinks to your website. Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. They are a signal to search engines that your website is high-quality. You can build backlinks by guest blogging, submitting your website to directories, and participating in online forums, and use these top link tracking tools to monitor their effectiveness.

• Submit your website to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are free tools that will help you track your website's performance in search results.
• Monitor your website's SEO performance. It is important to monitor your website's SEO performance so that you can make necessary adjustments. You can use tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush to track your website's SEO performance.

You can hire Chris Abraham right now for SEO consulting and technical work via his freelancer page on Upwork.