| |
POOR |
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT |
STANDARD |
BEST PRACTICE |
| Website Entrances |
<100 webpages |
<100 topic pages with mission-focused content. Or, little search engine traffic to your 100+ topic pages |
50+ mission-focused, keyphrase-optimized topic pages attract >0.25% of your search engine entrance-traffic |
100+ mission-focused, keyphrase-optimized topic pages attract >0.2% of your search engine entrance-traffic |
| Title Tags |
Title tags are missing, duplicative, too long, or contain unreadable characters |
Title tags are unique, relevant and descriptive, but only occasionally include keyphrases |
Title tags are unique, relevant, descriptive, and frequently include keyphrases |
Title tags are unique, relevant, descriptive, persuasive, and keyphrase-optimized |
| Description Meta Tags |
Description meta tags are missing, duplicative, too long, or contain unreadable characters |
Description meta tags are unique, relevant and descriptive, but not keyphrase-rich. Or, Google frequently replaces your description meta tag with a page snippet, for your primary keyphrase |
Description meta tags are unique, relevant, descriptive, and keyphrase -optimized; rarely substituted with a page snippet, for primary keyphrases |
Description meta tags are unique, relevant, descriptive, persuasive, and keyphrase -optimized; rarely substituted with a page snippet, for primary keyphrases |
| Heading Tags |
<h1> and <h2> tags are missing or used incorrectly |
<h1> tags are unrelated to their accompanying <title> tags. Or, <h1> and <h2> tags are not keyphrase-optimized |
<h1> tags are the same or similar to their accompanying <title> tags. Additionally, <h1> and <h2> tags are keyphrase-optimized |
<h1> tags are the same or similar to their accompanying <title> tags. Additionally, <h1> and <h2> tags are keyphrase-optimized and persuasive. If used, <h3> tags are keyphrase-optimized. |
| SEO Copywriting |
Any keyphrase optimization is accidental or uncoordinated |
On all major topic pages, keyphrases are optimized as well as most of the external websites ranked among the top 10 at Google for those keyphrases |
On all major topic pages, well-targeted keyphrases are optimized to appear:
- in <title>, <h1>, <h2>, and description meta tags
- often in the first paragraph(s)
- with 2-7% density throughout the body copy
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On 100+ topic and sub-topic pages, well-targeted keyphrases are optimized to appear:
- early in <title>, <h1>, <h2>, and description meta tags
- early and often in the first paragraph(s)
- with 3-7% density throughout the body copy
|
| Non-Text Images |
Unique images are rarely accompanied by alt tags |
For some unique images, keyphrases are inserted into alt tags |
For most unique images, keyphrases are inserted into alt tags and image filenames |
For most unique images, keyphrases are inserted into alt tags, image filenames, visible captions, and may be included in "tool tips" |
Outbound
Text Links |
Your webpages rarely link to external websites |
Text links to external websites are not keyphrase-optimized |
Text links to external websites are keyphrase-optimized |
Text links to external websites are keyphrase-optimized and refer your readers to websites included among the top 10 search results at Google for the target keyphrase |
| URLs |
URLs are computer-generated |
Most URLs do not include primary keyphrases |
URLs are memorable and keyphrase-optimized |
URLs are concise, memorable, and keyphrase-optimized |
| Frames, Text Images, Flash, and JavaScript |
User experience and SEO are suboptimal |
SEO is optimized; but user experience is compromised |
User experience is optimized; but SEO is compromised |
User experience and SEO are optimized |
| Dynamically Generated Content |
Important dynamic content is invisible to search engines |
All dynamic content is visible to search engines, including duplicate or unimportant material |
Only important dynamic content is visible to search engines |
Only important dynamic content is visible to search engines. That dynamic content is keyphrase-optimized. |
| Navigation, Site maps, and Robots.txt |
Navigation is not intuitive. Also, search engines are not provided with sufficient instructions to focus their crawling |
Navigation is not intuitive. Or search engines are not provided with sufficient instructions to focus their crawling |
Intuitive, 3-click max navigation; XML site map directs search engines to important content; robots.txt or no-follow commands disallow search engines from duplicate content |
Intuitive, 3-click max navigation; frequently updated XML feed conveys updated content to subscribers; frequently updated XML site map directs search engines to important content; robots.txt or no-follow commands disallow search engines from duplicate and unimportant content |
| 301 Redirects |
Moved or deleted pages lead to an unfriendly 404 error page |
Moved or deleted pages lead to a friendly 404 error page with a navigation menu and/or search box |
Moved pages are redirected using meta-refresh. Deleted pages lead to a friendly 404 error page with a navigation menu and a search box. |
Moved pages are handled using a 301 redirect. Deleted pages lead to a friendly 404 error page with intuitive navigation and a search box. |
