Very useful post as a new site checklist. Actually a very good list even for reviewing existing sites or blogs. One SEO item that you did not include that I see in a lot of "SEO Things To Do Lists" pertains to submitting articles to the one or more of the seemingly thousands of Article sites out there. It seems like opions on the value of these sites for link building and SEO are all over the map, both positive and negative. Any reason you didn't include this on your list? Regardless, this is an excellent list. Thanks.
joshklein
· 6 months ago
Hi Mike. I didn't include article submission because article submission is largely bullshit. Now, I have to provide some context to why I say that: when people refer to article submission, they are usually referring to something very specific that IS bullshit.
Technically, I did mention the submitting of articles in #12 - that is what a guest post is; you submit an "article" to another blog. If you write something for the Huffington Post or pen a nice article for a major newspaper, these are "article submissions" too.
But when SEO people say "article submission", they mean the nonsense that is writing 500 words of complete garbage and submitting it to 50-100 websites that no one actually visits, creating a massive quantity of useless, boring, duplicate content.
Maybe this gets you a few short term links. Maybe this bumps you in the search engines temporarily. But if it does, it won't for long, and whatever time and energy you spend on it is wasted because you're just adding more filth to the internet.
Article submission done the right way is tremendously smart. It involves writing in places other than your own home base, not spamming article directories that have been created specifically to lure SEO people.
Erik Wallace
· 7 months ago
Excellent post, especially helpful since I'm getting ready to launch my new personal site in the next week. Thanks Josh.
joshklein
· 7 months ago
I'm glad, Erik. Let us know how the launch goes?
Erik Wallace
· 7 months ago
Will do, thanks Josh.
Kelvin Lee
· 7 months ago
Excellent work, quite a few cool insights in there (e.g.) RockStar and SOB!
Thanks a lot :)
joshklein
· 7 months ago
Glad you found it insightful. See, the real gold is in having everyone who is a RockStar or SOB put the badge on their site and link back to where you gave it to them. I'd love to give a "worth caring about" badge, but I wouldn't want to deal with having to reject people :)
Matt Daniels
· 7 months ago
Nice post on basic SEO. The social media link-building is definitely something that few people have caught on to.
joshklein
· 7 months ago
Thanks, Matt. I think I first came across the idea because of a smart guy named SML. Wish he was blogging more (but who am I to talk)!
Charles Bohannan
· 7 months ago
Thanks for this--good resource for people who don't focus as much on marketing/SEO but need to. On #6, "(this list)" link doesn't work. It looks interesting and I hope you can fix it, thanks!
Be sure to be diligent with the non-text (only) aspects of your webpage: 1. Make sure every image/video/object file has a sensible filename (not 'm24asd2.jpg'; SeattleSpaceNeedle.jpg). 2. Include alternate titles in the html. 3. If you talk about locations (in pictures as above e.g.), be sure to give the address (if it doesn't get anyone in trouble of course).
Same with all non-basic text content (presentations, spreadsheets, music, videos, pdfs, etc.): include as much ancillary information as you can.
As internet search expands to include pictures, local search, deep searching and other non-traditional searches (traditional from 5 years ago), having everything properly labeled will pull more people to your content from these alternative search techniques.
... I know.. 2 serious comments in a row... something must be wrong........ noah
joshklein
· 7 months ago
Totally - properly formed HTML (meaning comprehensive alt tags, title tags, etc. on all assets) is a big deal. Well said.
Erik Wallace
· 6 months ago
Thanks again for the tips! Launched my site a little over a week ago and I've got most of the things on your list taken care of. If anyone's curious my new site is at: http://www.erikwallace.com. Feel free to send any feedback my way.
joshklein
· 6 months ago
The site looks great, Erik. You've got a great portfolio, too. You do freelance work? ;)
Erik Wallace
· 6 months ago
I do indeed. I'd love to work together if you're ever interested.
John Fewell
· 5 months ago
Hey Josh, great blog! Regarding #6 and #9: All of wikipedia's, facebook's and twitter's outbound links are nofollowed, and therefore not valuable for SEO. The only inbound links that have real value are the ones you really have to dig for, exploit social connections to obtain or get from having great content.
joshklein
· 5 months ago
Thanks John. You make a good point about nofollow, but a human visitor can't tell the difference, so I don't think they're necessarily of no value. I've had 38 visits averaging 3:23 time spent on site from Wikipedia, so I'm glad for the links even if Google doesn't care!
John Fewell
· 5 months ago
But that isn't SEO, that's a way of increasing referrals. Which, if you link to your site from your wikipedia user page, you're likely to get very few of.
See-ming Lee
· 4 months ago
I can't believe that you actually posted this. teehee. I've been meaning to write something like this but was worried that it'd look superficial - but clearly it does not. Give me new hopes. But I see these things visually. It's good that you are able to put them in words.
Good Seo
· 3 months ago
I enjoyed your post.... great tutorial for launch. Thankz.
dripac
· 3 weeks ago
You give some good point here but I would like to see you elaborate a little on each step since there are people who are trying to start their own website and don't really understand half of what you just wrote down. If you wish to see broader version you can visit http://www.bhsource.net
All Comments
Technically, I did mention the submitting of articles in #12 - that is what a guest post is; you submit an "article" to another blog. If you write something for the Huffington Post or pen a nice article for a major newspaper, these are "article submissions" too.
But when SEO people say "article submission", they mean the nonsense that is writing 500 words of complete garbage and submitting it to 50-100 websites that no one actually visits, creating a massive quantity of useless, boring, duplicate content.
Maybe this gets you a few short term links. Maybe this bumps you in the search engines temporarily. But if it does, it won't for long, and whatever time and energy you spend on it is wasted because you're just adding more filth to the internet.
Article submission done the right way is tremendously smart. It involves writing in places other than your own home base, not spamming article directories that have been created specifically to lure SEO people.
Thanks a lot :)
1. Make sure every image/video/object file has a sensible filename (not 'm24asd2.jpg'; SeattleSpaceNeedle.jpg).
2. Include alternate titles in the html.
3. If you talk about locations (in pictures as above e.g.), be sure to give the address (if it doesn't get anyone in trouble of course).
Same with all non-basic text content (presentations, spreadsheets, music, videos, pdfs, etc.): include as much ancillary information as you can.
As internet search expands to include pictures, local search, deep searching and other non-traditional searches (traditional from 5 years ago), having everything properly labeled will pull more people to your content from these alternative search techniques.
... I know.. 2 serious comments in a row... something must be wrong........ noah