SEO checklist: Tips for boosting page rankings in 2024

Are you starting up an online business, a blogging activity or would you like to optimize the natural referencing of an existing website? This article may be of interest to you! When you're creating content on the Internet, you also need to think about the best SEO strategy for making it visible on Google and getting it to appear in the top results of search engines. SEO is essential to the success of any web project, and it's sustainable, consistent and free of charge.

To make sure you don't forget anything, here's a checklist of essential points to check to give your web project every chance of success. A selection of SEO hacks to follow step by step to improve your Google ranking, an easy-to-apply hack to optimize your page positioning on Google and increase your CTR (Click-Through Rate).

Summary

1. Essential META tags for SEO
2. The META Title tag
3. The META Description tag
4. The META Robots tag
5. Essential HTML tags for SEO
6. The H1 tag (and other Hn tags)
7. The Alt tag
8. Optimizing content for SEO
9. Analyze existing web pages
10. Producing quality content
11. Limit page depth
12. Tips for improving SEO copywriting
13. Technical solutions to improve SEO
14. Optimize page load speed to improve SEO
15. How can I improve page load speed?

The META Title tag

The META Title tag appears as a clickable title on search engine results pages. It gives a concrete idea of the content, and helps Internet users understand what the page is about before they click on it. The META Title tag is therefore a teaser tag which must convince the surfer and invite him to click to find out more. If it's well-written, it helps to maximize the click-through rate (CTR), i.e. the number of page views in relation to the number of impressions on Google.

The following structure is often used: Keywords: number + benefit. Example: " Create a website: 10 steps to a successful project". Adding a date at the end of the expression also helps capture visitors' attention and optimize click-through rates. Example: " Creating a successful website in 2023".

The META Title tag is displayed in an area 600 pixels wide; ideally, it should have a maximum length of around 65 or 70 characters so as not to be truncated. Be careful not to confuse the META Title tag with the H1 title of a page, as these are two different elements.

The META Description tag

The META Description tag makes an indirect contribution to SEO. In fact, its content has no impact on SEO, since Google doesn't take into account the words and phrases entered in this element. However, a captivating META Description tag encourages users to click on a link in search results. If a page is popular, Google will gradually move it up the search results, and that's the subtlety of this indicator.

The following structure is often used: " Discover + keyword + benefit Discover + keyword + benefit". Ideally, the META Description tag should be around 160 characters long.

The META Robots tag

It tells search engines whether or not to index the page. Several possible values:

The H1 tag (and other Hn tags)

The most important of all, the H1 tag designates the main title of an article. It's an essential element of natural referencing (SEO), and every keyword must be carefully selected. Google attaches great importance to the H1 title, which must be clear, concise and contain the main keyword. Ideally, it should be no longer than 70 characters.

A page must contain a single main title. Other titles are identified from H2 to H6 according to their degree of importance. This tagging allows Google to prioritize the ideas developed and better understand the general content of a web page. Ideally, Hn tags should summarize the paragraph content in 5 to 8 words. How to create an effective semantic tree structure for SEO purposes

The Alt tag

The Alt attribute plays an important role in SEO, providing a text description of visual content (image). Keywords should be included, and the length should be around 125 characters.

Analyze existing web pages

Before starting to write an article, it's important to consult pages on the same subject on Google. This is an effective way of finding relevant keywords and orienting your writing to try and outdo the competition.

For example, we recommend using People Also Ask(PAA) in your H2 tags. Google suggests frequently asked questions as you type a query. Including these expressions in the sub-headings of your articles clearly responds to a popular search intention.

Producing quality content

The topic should be comprehensive to offer the maximum number of answers and be positioned as a reference article. A blog post should be at least 800 words. A longer text increases the average session length, an important metric for Google, which interprets this data as a sign of quality: "if readers stay on a page for a long time, the content must be interesting. The page deserves to be valued in the SERP".

At the same time, it's important to make texts easier to read to avoid losing visitors during a session. It's important to air out texts, write short sentences and use simple turns of phrase. Integrating images and visual content (infographics, videos, graphs, maps...) makes for more pleasant reading and further reduces the bounce rate.

How to write a web article and optimize for SEO

Limit page depth

Bearing in mind that crawlers prefer content accessible within 4 clicks of the home page, pages should be limited to 3 levels in depth. To facilitate the work of crawlers, internal links can be added between pages dealing with a common subject.

Optimize page load speed to improve SEO

Web page performance and loading speed are important. They contribute to the user experience (UX) and are metrics taken into account by Google to rank a page in the SERP.