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Often, when analyzing sites, I come across trivial errors. It can be seen that the site is being promoted ,
but some obvious points have not been worked out.

Therefore, it’s good to have on hand a pre-prepared checklist with which you can consult, both when
creating a new site, and auditing an existing one. Even better when such a checklist has been compiled
before you and you just have to take and check your site.

Who needs a checklist for website optimization?

SEO-specialists entry-level ;

to house-marketers of the type “both a Swiss, a reaper, and a dude,” who are responsible in the
company not only for website optimization, but also for context, social networks, etc., and who do not
have in-depth knowledge of optimization.

I share with the readers of “Teterra” a checklist for audit, consisting of 9 sections:

Table of contents:
Technical factors

1. Correct robots.txt

2. Correct sitemap.xml

3. No technical duplicate pages

4. Canonical pages set

5. Pagination Pages

6. Among the excluded pages there are no promoted

7. The same number of pages indexed in Yandex and Google

8. There are no broken links on the site

9. Missing circular references

10. There are no unnecessary redirects

11. Last Modified and If-Modified-Since headers configured

12. No mixed content

13. Configured CNC (human-readable URLs)

14. URL does not use capital letters

15. No server errors

16. There are no errors in layout

17. Introduced micro-marking

18. Open Graph Markup Introduced

19. The site loads quickly

20. Responsive design, mobile version or dynamic layout

21. The attribute rel = alternate is used.

22. The site is correctly displayed in different browsers

23. The server can withstand the load.

24. Layout of localized pages

25. No viruses or malicious code on the site

26. There are no copies of the site in the index

27. Documents weigh no more than 10 MB

28. Goals are set in analytics systems

Internal optimization

29. Title tag optimization

30. Description meta tag optimization

31. Filling in the Keywords tag

32. H1 header optimization

33. Distribution of link weight in favor of important pages

34. There are no so-called “hanging nodes”

35. The site implemented "bread crumbs"

36. Internal links

37. Lack of hidden text

38. Formed quick links

39. Image optimization

40. ALT attribute on images

Semantic core

41. Collected requests from all possible sources

42. Tips collected in Yandex and Google

43. Frequency slang expressions, errors, abbreviations or possible variants of names are taken into
account

44. The semantic core is relevant

45. Inappropriate requests excluded

Content

46. Blog / articles

47. Section “Question and Answer”

48. Tagged Pages

49. Examples of work

50. Regular publication of content

51. Formatting content

52. Using photos and infographics in content

53. No grammar or spelling errors

54. Unique texts

55. The ability to bookmark the page and share it

Commercial factors

56. Company Information

57. Description of delivery and payment

58. Customer support

59. Social networks

60. Stocks

61. Credit

62. Warranty and Returns

63. Lack of advertising of extraneous sites

64. Large assortment

65. Product card

66. Usability of the site

67. The ability to go to the basket from any page

68. Legal information and licenses / certificates

69. Registration through social networks

70. Availability of https protocol (signed SSL certificate)

71. Ability to choose a city

72. Email on your own domain

External factors

73. Lack of AGS sites and explicit SEO links

74. Display all links in webmaster tools

75. Indexing referring pages

76. No spam in the anchor list

77. Reference mass is not worse than that of competitors

78. Lack of links from sites of prohibited topics or with suspicious anchors

79. Lack of external links to nonexistent pages

80. Using free ways to get links

81. Social Signaling and Crowdfunding

82. Mentioned brands on the Internet

83. The lack of link washes and hidden links on the site

Regional promotion

84. Binding via Yandex.Webmaster

85. The presence in the directory of Yandex and Google My Business

86. Accessibility of pages for the robot, regardless of its IP

87. Geositemap

88. Availability of regional pages

89. Reviews or cases of your customers with the indication of the settlement

90. Links from regional sites

Behavioral factors

91. Login pages match the request

92. Entry points with a high failure rate for targeted requests are determined

93. The time on the site is not less than that of competitors

94. Attractive snippets

Filters

95. There are no warnings in webmasters

96. No affiliated sites

97. Texts not spammed

98. Missing sneaky forwarding on mobile devices

99. Missing “adult” content

100. There is no advertising or its a little

A couple of words about usability

Check your site for compliance with each of the following points, make a list of works and begin to
implement.

At the end of the article, you can download the checklist, which can be printed out and checked with it,
putting “ticks”.

Out of the list I will make registration in webmasters and install analytics counters on the site.
Webmaster’s tools will help to quickly identify changes in the indexing of the site, errors detected by
search engines, violations, etc. 4 search engines offer such an opportunity - Yandex, Google, Mail and
Bing.

Attendance counters open up a lot of opportunities for analyzing the site, user behavior on it. The most
popular are Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics. In addition, you can put Rambler Top-100, Mail.ru
Rating, Liveinternet or Openstat counters.

If you have recently created a site, and it does not yet bring traffic, see our video checklist for how to
help a young site quickly emerge into the top.

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Technical factors

You can make a website with a cool design and hire a journalist who will produce interesting and
exclusive content, but all efforts will be erased by technical optimization errors that worsen the ranking
of the site or cause rejection by the user (for example, a long site load or incorrect layout in one of the
browsers) .
1. Correct robots.txt

Unnecessary and service sections are closed from indexing (site search results, registration and
authorization pages, filters and sorting, administrative sections, page cache, logs, print versions, etc.).

Separate User-Agents for Yandex and Google robots have been defined.

Yandex and Google file formatting instructions: link 1 and link 2 .

Robots.txt example (it can be anything you like, depending on your site and needs)

Robots.txt example (it can be anything you like, depending on your site and needs)

Tools for checking : visual inspection, bookmarklet robots.txt + meta , checking the prohibition of
indexing pages in webmaster tools ( link 1 and link 2 ).

Using the bookmarklet “robots.txt + meta”, with one click on the bookmarks bar you can check the ban
in robots.txt, as well as the presence of the <meta name = “robots” content = “noindex”> tag in the code

Using the bookmarklet “robots.txt + meta”, with one click on the bookmarks bar you can check the ban
in robots.txt, as well as the presence of a tag in the code

2. Correct sitemap.xml

A link to the xml version of the site map is provided in robots.txt.

Webmaster parsers do not show errors.

The page priorities (priority element) and the dates of the last page refresh (lastmod element) are
correctly set.

Does not contain banned indexing pages.

The address protocol in sitemap corresponds to the real one (it happens that when you move to https in
sitemap, the URL with the http protocol remains).

Tools for verification : visual verification, sections " Analyzing Sitemaps " in "Yandex.Webmaster" and "
Sitemaps " in the Google Search Console.

3. No technical duplicate pages

Popular reasons for the appearance of such takes:

301 redirects from www (or vice versa) are not configured so that the site is accessible only by one
protocol.

The main page is accessible at addresses with index.php, index.html at the end.

Addresses without a slash at the end are not redirected to the same URL with a slash (or vice versa).
Tools for checking : visual verification in the browser (you need to add / remove from the address
“www.” And see if the redirect occurs, the same with the slashes at the end, we also write in the
address of the site “/index.php” and see if redirect).

4. Canonical pages set

T. e. On pages with parameters in the URL is the attribute rel = canonical indicating the preferred
address. So search engines will understand that only the canonical page should be indexed. At the same
time, all links and behavioral factors from non-canonical pages are taken into account for this (Yandex
employee Alexander Smirnov spoke at this at the Sixth Webmaster ).

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider , Xenu , Screaming Frog SEO Spider , ComParser , Wildshark SEO Spider .

5. Pagination Pages

On March 12, 2019, Google published new guidelines for pagination pages . Now all the content should
be placed on one page (single-page content) and the search robot will see its contents using JavaScript.

For Yandex, it’s better to use rel = canonical (if the content of the pages is not very different from each
other). To meet the requirements of both search engines, the best solution would be to design pages.

Testing tools : visual verification, SEO META in 1 CLICK plugin, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Netpeak
Spider.

6. Among the excluded pages there are no promoted

It often happens that pages are excluded from Yandex, as they do not have useful content. The reason
may be inadequate page quality, or simply it will be considered a duplicate of another page. For
example, cards of different goods are recognized as duplicates. Another example - pages from different
sections of the site contain a little content in the body of the page and are not indexed as duplicates of
each other due to the same content in the header and footer.

For example, an information section page crashes out of the index like a duplicate of a catalog page.

For example, an information section page crashes out of the index like a duplicate of a catalog page.

Tools for checking : Section " Pages in search " in Yandex.Webmaster.

7. The same number of pages indexed in Yandex and Google

If the difference is more than 10%, then analyze which pages are in the index of one search and are
missing from another.

Tools for verification : " SiteReport ", ComParser.

8. There are no broken links on the site

There are no internal links to non-existent pages.

A nonexistent page returns a 404 server code.

The counters track visits to 404 pages and set up redirects for external links to non-existent pages on
your site.

Tools for checking : Netpeak Spider, Xenu, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, ComParser, Wildshark SEO Spider
(for checking broken links on the site), the External Links section of Yandex.Webmaster (for searching
broken links from other sites to yours) .

In analytics counters, you can see not only the 404 pages visited, but also the source of the transition.

In analytics counters, you can see not only the 404 pages visited, but also the source of the transition.

9. Missing circular references

That is, the pages do not link to themselves. It is necessary to deactivate such links or close them for
robots via <span data-href>.

Tools for verification : "SiteReport".

We create websites that are optimized for search engines and bring sales. Contact! More details

10. There are no unnecessary redirects

This situation is often encountered - an internal link leads to a page that redirects to another page. But
you can immediately put the right link without forcing robots to go through the "gasket". This will save
the crawling budget, i.e. the number of pages that the robot takes to crawl your site for a certain period.

Test Tools : Netpeak Spider, Wildshark SEO Spider, Screaming Frog SEO Spider.
One of the internal links leads to the 1st URL, which redirects to the 2nd. The same, in turn, redirects to
the 3rd. To save the crawl limit, you can immediately send the robot to the 3rd URL, without
unnecessary redirects

One of the internal links leads to the 1st URL, which redirects to the 2nd. The same, in turn, redirects to
the 3rd. To save the crawl limit, you can immediately send the robot to the 3rd URL, without
unnecessary redirects

11. Last Modified and If-Modified-Since headers configured

Which will let the search robot know if the page has changed since its last visit. If not, the robot will be
advised not to attend. This will improve the indexing of the site in Google, as the crawling budget will be
spent on new or changed pages. In Yandex, this may not work, since its robot perceives the headers as a
recommendation, rather than an instruction for mandatory execution.

Verification Tools : SeoAuditor .

12. No mixed content

If any page of a site with the HTTPS protocol contains content transmitted via the HTTP protocol, then
the page is considered only partially encrypted.

Verification Tools : Report Uri .

An example from practice: after installing the SSL certificate on the site, the mark "Trusted" in Chrome
did not appear. At the same time, it was on technical pages without photo content. The reason is
commonplace - all the photos were stored on a subdomain on which the certificate was not installed -
pages with mixed content appeared.

13. Configured CNC (human-readable URLs)

The URL uses words, not alphanumeric identifiers.

The length of the URL is preferably no more than 110 characters.

Example:

Bad URL - site.ru/index.php?id_catalog=88&page_id=14;

good URL is site.ru/remni-muzhskie.

Testing tools : Xenu, Netpeak Spider, ComParser, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Wildshark SEO Spider.
14. URL does not use capital letters

Due to engine configuration errors or, at the optimizer’s own choice, it happens that the addresses on
the site contain uppercase letters. For example, site.ru/Zaglavnye-Bukvy-v-URL. But the same page will
be available at site.ru/zaglavnye-bukvy-v-url. And the problem is that for search engines these are two
different addresses and duplicates of each other. Therefore, it’s best to stick with lowercase letters in
the URL. In the index, an address with capital letters may still appear (for example, if someone puts a
link to you like this) - in this case, configure a redirect to the main address.

Testing tools : Xenu, Netpeak Spider, ComParser, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Wildshark SEO Spider.

15. No server errors

When crawling a site there are no pages with a status of 5 **. Otherwise, there are errors related to
the .htaccess file or server. Possible causes may be hanging scripts or a large number of server calls. In
any case, the presence of 5 ** errors is an occasion to contact the programmer and find a possible
problem.

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, Xenu, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, ComParser.

16. There are no errors in layout

Most sites do not have a perfectly valid layout, but you should check yours for gross errors and the
correct arrangement of the elements. Search engines understand that invalid code is not equal to a bad
site, but it’s easier for them to process documents, the layout on which meets the standards.

Verification Tools : W3C .

If all is well, you will see such a notification after verification. Or a list of errors, if any.

If all is well, you will see such a notification after verification. Or a list of errors, if any.

17. Introduced micro-marking

Special semantic markup makes it easier for search engines to process information, contributes to the
appearance of an attractive snippet in the search, and also in the case of the same type of product cards
will improve their uniqueness. You can mark up:
"Bread crumbs";

Contact details;

Feedback

product cards;

media content and others

Testing tools : SEO META in 1 CLICK plugin , a tool from Google.

See also: How to use Schema.org micro-marking: a guide for dummies

18. Open Graph Markup Introduced

Implementing such markup will allow you to set a title, description, photo and several other parameters
that will be displayed in the page snippet when sharing on social networks. Yandex instructions for
marking - link .

Testing tools : SEO plugin META in 1 CLICK, SeoLik , “ Microdistributor Validator from Yandex ”.

19. The site loads quickly

Not every user, going to your resource from the search, will wait until it loads. To speed up the site, do
the following:

Enable gzip compression.

Take scripts and styles to separate files.

Reduce server response time.

Reduce HTML.

Use browser cache.

Reduce the weight of images (but without loss of quality).

Testing tools : PageSpeed Insights , GTmetrix .

20. Responsive design, mobile version or dynamic layout

The site should correctly display on any device - computer, tablet or phone. Search engines take this into
account.

Bad and good examples of displaying a site on mobile devices

Bad and good examples of displaying a site on mobile devices

Tools for verification : the tool "Check mobile pages" in the Yandex.Webmaster, Google Search Console
validator .

21. The attribute rel = alternate is used.

For sites with a mobile version located on a separate domain or subdomain. For search engines to
understand that these are two versions of the same site, it is necessary that on each page of the desktop
version there is a link tag pointing to the corresponding mobile version of the page.

Для страницы primer.com/razdel-1 это выглядит так: <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and
(max-width: 640px)" target="_blank" href="http://m.primer.com/razdel-1">

Google also recommends that you put the rel = canonical attribute on the mobile page with a similar
desktop page.

22. The site is correctly displayed in different browsers

When changing the browser, the layout of the site should not “fall apart”, and the readability of the
materials should not become worse.

Verification Tools : BrowserShots .

23. The server can withstand the load.

Otherwise, the robots.txt directive is set to Crawl-delay, which recommends the robot the optimal
interval between page loads (in seconds).

For example, for Yandex bots we set the interval to 2.5 seconds, and for the other bots - 5 seconds

For example, for Yandex bots we set the interval to 2.5 seconds, and for the other bots - 5 seconds

Test Tools : Load Impact

24. Layout of localized pages

On pages with different language versions, it is desirable to indicate the addresses of all language
versions with the attribute rel = "alternate" hreflang = "x".

Test tools : visual check, SEO META in 1 CLICK plugin, Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

25. No viruses or malicious code on the site

If your site may endanger the user's safety, it may be relegated to search results.

Tools for verification : Rescan.pro , section " Site Diagnostics " in Yandex.Webmaster.

See also: How to cure an infected site

26. There are no copies of the site in the index

It happens that developers forget to close test domains from indexing, and the site owner receives a full
copy of it in the index. There are no guarantees that the test domain will not occupy the position of the
main domain.

Verification Tools : CopyScape .

27. Documents weigh no more than 10 MB

PDF files or other documents posted on the site are also ranked in the search, but if the file size exceeds
10 MB, Yandex will not be able to index it. Google in its instructions also claims that the large size of a
document can become an obstacle to indexing, but does not name a specific size.

Life hack: search engines perfectly recognize text in PDF documents, so you can optimize them for the
right queries. Using Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can make the necessary changes to the text of the
document.

Verification Tools : Pingdom .

28. Goals are set in analytics systems

Setting goals will help you evaluate site performance. You can track orders, abandoned baskets, visits to
specific pages and other events. With a multi-stage registration or ordering system, you can see at which
step users stop most often and simplify this step. Setting goals is also a good way to show search
engines the benefits of a site. Orders for goods, file downloads or other events that will be recorded in
Yandex and Google analytics systems indicate the interest of users in your business or site.

Verification tools : the "Conversions" report in Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics

TexTerra SMM Specialist

Internal optimization

This includes optimization of tags, meta tags, texts and images, internal links of the site. Internal
optimization is the foundation of a successful resource. And often good optimization is enough to get to
the top (especially in the regions).

29. Title tag optimization

A good page title is 30% success. What we check in Title:

Contains key phrases.

Key words are located closer to the beginning.

Corresponds to the content of the page.

Unique to every page.

It is written attractively, and not just keywords, separated by commas.

The same key is not repeated more than two times.

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, SiteReport, Teger , Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Xenu, ComParser.

30. Description meta tag optimization

A number of SEO specialists do not attach importance to this meta tag. If you are not one of them, then
check:

It is readable and attractive (can be displayed in the snippet on the search).

This is the description of the site on the search. This place may display the contents of the description
tag if it matches the request
This is the description of the site on the search. This place may display the contents of the description
tag if it matches the request

Volume up to 200 characters.

Should not copy the Title tag.

Unique on every page of the site.

Contains a key phrase.

You can also add emoji smiles to attract attention to the issue.

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, SiteReport, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Teger, Xenu, ComParser.

Description size 1438 characters! “What have you achieved?” There is no practical benefit in such a
description; stick to a threshold of 160-200 characters

Description size 1438 characters! “What have you achieved?” There is no practical benefit in such a
description; stick to a threshold of 160-200 characters

31. Filling in the Keywords tag

Contradictory moment. A good half of optimizers do not fill this tag. Some other small part is just full of
keywords. I am for the golden mean - one key corresponding to the content of the page.

It should not contain 100500 characters of occurrences of keywords.

Unique to every page.

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, SiteReport, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Xenu.

32. H1 header optimization

It is desirable that it be attractive to the user and contain a key phrase. Check the following:

There is on every page and in the singular.

Enclosed in a clean <h1> </h1> tag without classes or other markup.

It is located at the top of the page, and not somewhere in the middle after the H2-H3 tags (as it
sometimes happens).

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, SEO META in 1 CLICK plugin, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Wildshark SEO
Spider, ComParser.
33. Distribution of link weight in favor of important pages

Increasing page weight directly affects the result. Make sure the maximum weight is on the homepage
and promotion pages. Make sure there are no important pages under static weight. If the number of
leading pages by weight includes an inextendable page (for example, “Contacts”), then close the internal
links to it with a script.

Verification Tools : PageWeight , Netpeak Spider.

For example, the calculation of the static weight showed that among the leading pages are the sections
"News", "Jobs" and "Articles", and for us, in this case, the sections of the catalog are important. Then we
hide from the robots links to less important sections and see how the weights are redistributed.

Screenshots from PageWeight - initial weight calculation and calculation after closing links to less
important pages

Screenshots from PageWeight - initial weight calculation and calculation after closing links to less
important pages

Please note that by doing so we increased the weight of the catalog and main pages.

34. There are no so-called “hanging nodes”

links due to which static weight leaks out:

Lead generation buttons.

Active buttons for communication (phone, skype, e-mail).

Links to non-sellable documents and pdf files.

The weight is transferred from the page depending on the number of links on it.

A simple example. There are only 10 outgoing links on the page, each of which transfers 0.1 of the
weight of this page. Eight links lead to other pages on the site, one to a pdf file and one to a pop-up
form of lead generation. The last two links - this is the hanging nodes, the weight goes away anywhere,
since it does not return back to the pages of the site. And if you close these two links with a script, then
for each of the remaining eight, 0.125 of the weight of the original page will be transmitted. By closing
such nodes, we transfer more weight to the important pages of the site.

35. The site implemented "bread crumbs"

Which affect the formation of the navigation chain in the snippet and the distribution of the reference
weight, and also make navigation on the site more convenient for the user. We also check that the last
element of the "breadcrumbs" is inactive (otherwise - a circular link).

36. Internal links

On the site should be implemented blocks "Related Products / Related Articles", "Popular" and the like,
relevant hyperlinks in the texts. To take a look at an example, go to one of the articles on the Texterra
blog, for example this one . There are many hyperlinks to supporting materials in the text, plus the
“Read also” block before comments. At a minimum, the implementation of this paragraph increases the
value of the article and contributes to the improvement of behavioral factors on the site. Another plus
of hyperlinks is that you can transfer weight to promoted pages and set the necessary anchors. As you
know, the anchor text is as it were added to the text of the page, therefore, if it was not possible to
enter some important key in the document, then you can register it in a hyperlink to this document. You
can analyze the internal anchors on your site in this service or in "SiteReport".

37. Lack of hidden text

There should not be text that is not visible to visitors, but accessible to search robots. For example, it
can be a list of key phrases in white font on a white background, text hidden under a scroll, or displayed
off-screen using CSS. In Yandex.Webmaster there will be an indication of the problem, if it is on your site.

Tools for verification : visual verification in the browser - pressing Ctrl + A will highlight all the text; Site
inspection via Lynx text browser .

38. Formed quick links

at Yandex.Webmaster. Yandex may display sitelinks for the first three search results.

Quick links appear between the title and description of the site.

Quick links appear between the title and description of the site.

You cannot manually set them (Yandex creates them yourself), but you can edit them. For example,
remove a section from these links or choose a different name for the link. And it’s worth checking them
because if quick links for your site are not formed, this may indicate inconvenient navigation on the site
or incomprehensible content of pages for the search engine. Read instructions from Yandex . Google
also shows quick links, but you can’t influence them. We can only assume that their formation also
requires a clear and convenient site structure.

Test tool : Quick Links section.

39. Image optimization

To improve the ranking of images on the site, sign them or place them as close as possible to the text
fragment that they illustrate. In addition, the file name should be meaningful and consistent with the
content of the image. For example, “buket-roz.jpg” and not “2.jpg”.

And do not forget to make sure that the photos of the site are indexed by each of the search engines. A
common mistake - indexing photos is blocked in robots.txt.

40. ALT attribute on images

For all images, the alt attribute must be filled. Among the dividends is not only the ranking in the image
search, but also the ability to enter a relevant keyword phrase on the image placement page.

Testing tools : Netpeak Spider, Wildshark SEO Spider, Screaming FROG SEO Spider, ComParser.

The experiment of Vasily Tkachev. The document is ranked by request, the occurrence of which is only
in the ALT image

The experiment of Vasily Tkachev. The document is ranked by request, the occurrence of which is only in
the ALT image

Semantic core

Well-chosen key phrases are the key to success. An incorrect semantic core can cause a lack of traffic on
the project. It should cover the maximum possible number of user requests and their problems.

41. Collected requests from all possible sources

A popular mistake made by novice optimizers is to limit themselves to collecting from the left column of
Yandex Wordstat. Where else to look for queries:

Right column in Wordstat.

The Search Queries section in Yandex.Webmaster and the Search Phrases report in Yandex.Metrica.

Databases with SERP.

Competitors sites.

Google Keywordplanner and the “Search Query Analysis” section of the Google Search Console.
Collection tools : KeyCollector , Rush Analytics , Semrush , Bookvarix , JustMagic , MegaIndex , the above
Yandex and Google tools.

For the current site, you can conduct a random check. View requests from a webmaster with a small
number of impressions (are they in the kernel). Or find frequency landing queries for landing pages and
check for presence in the kernel. For example, in the assortment of the site there are small bags the size
of a tablet. Then, relatively frequent phrases with specific models, for example, “ipad bags,” may
become possible targeted queries. If there are none in the kernel, then it may be worth collecting it
again.

42. Tips collected in Yandex and Google

Search hints are a good way to expand the semantic core. They are formed in two ways - from real user
requests and automatic completion. For example, the prompt “with beer” for the request “order pizza”
is formed on the basis of real requests. But it happens that a hint is issued by an autocomplete.

Such a request clearly does not exist in nature. This is autocomplete

Such a request clearly does not exist in nature. This is autocomplete

When collecting hints, it is important to separate the real possible user requests from automatically
generated hints.

Tools for parsing hints : KeyCollector, Rush Analytics, PixelTools , SerpStat , " Topvisor ", for filtering
garbage JustMagic.

43. Frequency slang expressions, errors, abbreviations or possible variants of names are taken into
account

Mikhail Slivinsky, in 2014, showed a good example with the search for a SNSV laptop (this is how the
ASUS logo is read upside down). The base frequency of the query "snsv laptop" is more than a hundred.

For example, this block can be searched for as “heat block”, “heat-efficient block”, “heat wall”, “three-
layer block”, “multilayer block”, “silicon granite block”, “poly block”. Make sure your kernel covers all
possible options.

For example, this block can be searched for as “heat block”, “heat-efficient block”, “heat wall”, “three-
layer block”, “multilayer block”, “silicon granite block”, “poly block”. Make sure your kernel covers all
possible options.

44. The semantic core is relevant

Rechecking the relevance of semantics does not interfere if it has been collected for a long time, and it is
advisable to do this with a certain frequency. Also check back within a month after the end of the
seasonal peak.

Verification Tools : KeyCollector, Rush Analytics

45. Inappropriate requests excluded

These can be phrases with irrelevant place names, with inappropriate words (free, abstract, download,
independently, etc.) or related to other demand. For example, at the query "Ural" they can search for a
truck, motorcycle, mountains or region.

Verification Tools : Manual Verification, JustMagic

If you have an order with all this - identify requests from the kernel whose entries are neither on the
pages of the site, nor in the anchor list. Perhaps a new front of work will appear here.

Content

Approach correctly not only to the formation of content, but also to its design.

46. Blog / articles

Information traffic can also be converted. Articles are not only additional traffic, but also a solution to a
user's problem, a demonstration of expertise and, as a result, increased confidence in a company. If this
is expensive for you, see the next paragraph.

47. Section “Question and Answer”

This is a quick and inexpensive way to catch traffic. To do this, prepare answers to requests from the
series “How, Why, How much, Why,” and create a separate page for each so that you can set a title and
description. Most often these will be low-frequency queries, which will quickly get to the top.

Collection Tool : Search Issues at Serpstat .

An example from practice: after implementing separate pages on a site for each question-answer pair,
the site received a new round of traffic growth. Today it is the third section of the site by search hits,
bringing in at least 15% of visitors.

48. Tagged Pages

These are sections-lists of goods / articles / announcements, united by a common feature. For example,
on an information resource on construction, this could be a section with all the articles related to the
construction of the bathhouse. In the online store of bags, this can be a section containing bags only in
black.

Firstly, it is convenient for the user - he is looking for a black bag, there is no need to show him brown
ones.

Secondly, it will increase the number of entry points and flexibility in the distribution of requests from
the semantic core to the pages of the site.

An example implementation of tagged pages. If the user knows for sure that he is looking for a
MacBook with a 13-inch Retina screen, then he can go to the section with only such models

An example implementation of tagged pages. If the user knows for sure that he is looking for a MacBook
with a 13-inch Retina screen, then he can go to the section with only such models

What to check:

The presence of tagged sections in principle.

The SEO attributes of these sections are the ability to set unique title and H1, meta tags, text, if
necessary, the CNC address of the page.

The presence of internal links to these sections.

49. Examples of work

The section with examples of the implementation of your products or services is an opportunity to show
your best side and increase trust, provide answers to possible user questions, and increase the number
of potential entry points to the site. For a site with construction services, this may be a demonstration of
the construction of a particular house. For a site that offers measuring instruments for quality control - a
case for the introduction of equipment in a specific plant.

A potential client sees that the company has successful experience in implementing what it needs

A potential client sees that the company has successful experience in implementing what it needs
50. Regular publication of content

New publications on the site are both the creation of additional entry points, and a signal to search
engines that the site is not abandoned, and increased user confidence. Agree, when you visit the site in
December, and the last material is a congratulation on May 9, doubts arise whether the company is still
functioning.

An example from practice: I used to regularly visit the Texterra blog during the lunch break because I
knew that every weekday at 13:00 a new article would appear there. Bookmarking traffic is a signal to
search engines that the site is interesting to users, since they return to it bypassing the search.

51. Formatting content

Maximize user experience. To do this, you need:

Lists and markers where appropriate.

Highlight quotes or important points with a different color background or frame.

Highlight in bold and italics important fragments, not keywords.

Semantic headings and subheadings.

Headings are different in font and size from the main text.

Indent between paragraphs.

Integration of posts from social networks, rather than similar screenshots.

See also: Creating text from “A” to “Z”: how to write, optimize and make up an article

52. Using photos and infographics in content

Until now, there are optimizers who do not understand the advantages of having pictures on the pages.
It:

The ability to prescribe ALT with the entry of a key phrase.

Visual improvement in content and, as a result, behavioral factors.

If there is a picture on the page, then it can be picked up in a snippet in the mobile issuance of Yandex.

A good way to stand out in search results

A good way to stand out in search results

53. No grammar or spelling errors

Errors in the texts reduce the loyalty of not only visitors, but also the "trust" of search engines.

Tools for checking : "SiteReport", Spelling .

54. Unique texts

Check the content for theft and take measures (I personally met only one hosting service that refused to
help with the removal of stolen content). Also help search engines identify the source using the tool
“Original Texts” and posting on social networks after the publication of the material.

Testing tools: Text.ru , ETXT , Advego .

55. The ability to bookmark the page and share it

Give the visitor the option to bookmark the page so that he can return to it when he is comfortable. Add
sharing buttons to social networks and call / request to share with friends. Tangible advantages:

Increase bookmark traffic and site returns.

Additional traffic from the profile of the visitor sharing the material.

A signal to search engines about the interest in your site, its benefits.

Commercial factors

First of all, factors characterizing the reliability of a company or a store are considered commercial. The
effect of their development will be not only improved ranking, but also increased confidence in the
organization. The checklist includes both those declared by Yandex and other additional “features”
inherent in commercial sites. If any of the following points is implemented on the sites of your
competitors, as well as on the niche leaders, do the same. Better, do more than them.

56. Company Information

This is not a section starting with the words "we are a dynamically developing company." Check that the
following information is on the contact page:

Full postal address of the office.

Interactive map with office mark. How to add it to the site, see the video:
Company business hours.

Photos of the building and office from the inside.

Photos of employees.

Screenshots of sites found on the Internet. Moreover, they are not the only ones where these
"employees" are indicated. The very moment when you want to close the commercial factor, and the
management is shy about taking pictures. It’s better not to post employees photos than to do so

Screenshots of sites found on the Internet. Moreover, they are not the only ones where these
"employees" are indicated. The very moment when you want to close the commercial factor, and the
management is shy about taking pictures. It’s better not to post employees photos than to do so

57. Description of delivery and payment

The more delivery options and payment methods, the better. Check if there is a page reserved for this
information and how fully the available options are described.

58. Customer support

Is it easy for the user to contact you with questions? It is advisable to give the maximum number of
communication methods. Let a potential buyer contact you in a convenient way.

The phone in the header of the site (or in the first screen).

The phone number is indicated with a city code (8-800 for regions).

Callback order form.

All kinds of communication methods (Skype, Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber).

Online consultant.

Reviews and the ability to add them.

Answers to frequently asked questions.

Description of the order procedure.

Calculators of cost, delivery.

59. Social networks

The presence of active (just such, and not abandoned a couple of months ago) accounts on social
networks is not only a commercial ranking factor, but also an increase in potential points of contact with
customers.
An example from practice: a manufacturer of building materials, despite the not-so-social theme of the
site, maintained activity in social networks and the share of leads came from Vkontakte and Instagram.
Not everyone wants to fill out an application on the site and leave their data, for someone it is easier to
contact for the first time through social networks. Do not deprive them of this opportunity.

60. Stocks

If possible, open a page with promotions or sales, make discounts on products, offer a loyalty program.

61. Credit

Tell buyers about the opportunity to purchase goods on credit or by installments.

62. Warranty and Returns

Describe the possibility of returning goods and warranty periods on a separate page, tell us about after-
sales service.

63. Lack of advertising of extraneous sites

In particular, business owners who have fully trusted the promotion to third parties should pay
attention to this. Monitor all changes on the site. Sometimes you can find not just ads, but links to
competitors.

A real screenshot of the footer of the online plumbing store from Cheboksary - advertising of extraneous
sites plus an offer to buy plumbing in another place

A real screenshot of the footer of the online plumbing store from Cheboksary - advertising of extraneous
sites plus an offer to buy plumbing in another place

64. Large assortment

Catalog pages that offer more products are considered to be of higher quality and may receive priority
in search results.

65. Product card

Check how the product card is framed and compare with the sites in the top. Why do you need to
compare your site with the top? For example, to understand the big picture. If 80% of sites in product
cards have the opportunity to buy in 1 click, then your card without it will lose in this component, i.e. be
considered less quality.
By the way, there are still stores that do not even have a photograph of the goods. Not to mention the
following:

Price.

Text description.

Video (a good opportunity to unify a product card if there are no unique descriptions).

Information about the status of the goods.

Specifications.

Reviews and ratings.

A variety of options for applications (basket + quick order).

Information about delivery, payment and guarantees (in the form of links to the relevant pages, but
rather directly in the card).

Information about the brand / manufacturer.

Question-answer about the product.

The ability to add goods to “desires” or share them on social networks.

66. Usability of the site

Is the design clear, is the structure logical? Are there any difficulties in the interaction of the buyer with
the site?

Convenient navigation, tips.

An opportunity to filter the range.

Comparison of goods.

Site search.

67. The ability to go to the basket from any page

Give visitors the opportunity to peek into the basket at any time while surfing the site.

Also make sure that the basket is visible so that the user does not inadvertently forget to place an order,
reading out the excellent review in the blog of your store

Also make sure that the basket is visible so that the user does not inadvertently forget to place an order,
reading out the excellent review in the blog of your store

68. Legal information and licenses / certificates

Post them, show the client that he is dealing with a serious organization that can be verified at the
Unified State Register of Legal Entities, and not with a schoolboy who has whipped up the site. By the
way, the legal details on the website require legislation, and not just common sense.

69. Registration through social networks

Simplify your ordering process. Make it possible to issue it without registering on the site or provide for
authorization through social networks.

70. Availability of https protocol (signed SSL certificate)

When accepting payments through the site. Let customers be sure of the security of entering their
payment details. Yes, and the mark "Reliable" in the address bar will add confidence to the site.

71. Ability to choose a city

For multi-regional sites.

72. Email on your own domain

Well, in conclusion, a memo for business leaders, since this factor does not really depend on the SEO
specialist. It's about the efficiency of order processing and the quality of service. If someone thinks that
Yandex will not find out about your "sins", then go to the Yandex.Tolok service . The most profitable task
there is a test purchase of goods on Yandex.Market with its subsequent return.

External factors

Sometimes good internal optimization is enough to get to the top. If the site does not grow, then work
to build the link mass can give the desired result. Well, of course, when auditing the site, in any case,
check the link profile of your domain.

73. Lack of AGS sites and explicit SEO links

It is unlikely for search engines to be a good signal that a filtered site is linking to you (especially if the
filter is for selling links). Google has a special tool for rejecting links. Yandex will have to agree on the
removal of the link directly with the owners of the sites, and most likely it will not be free. Also study
donors for obvious differences in topics - maybe there are SEO links.

Maybe search engines do not yet understand that the link is not at all relevant, but someday they’ll
definitely learn
Maybe search engines do not yet understand that the link is not at all relevant, but someday they’ll
definitely learn

Tools for verification : CheckTrust , FastTrust , the " Links to your site " section in the Google Search
Console, the "External links" section in the Yandex.Webmaster.

74. Display all links in webmaster tools

Upload the list of donor pages to Ahrefs and LinkPad, as well as external inbound links from webmasters.
Do all search engines see all the links? If not, try to find the reason and fix it if possible.

Tools for checking : Ahrefs , LinkPad , the "External links" section in "Yandex.Webmaster", the "Links to
your site" section in the Google Searh Console.

75. Indexing referring pages

Check if the pages that link to your resource are indexed.

Verification Tools : Seolib .

76. No spam in the anchor list

It is difficult to call a link profile natural, 90% of the anchor list of which consists of the phrase "buy a
purse" and the phrases arising from it.

Key phrases in anchors are diverse, there is no obvious predominance of one key.

Among the links there are unanchored.

Tools for checking : "SiteReport", PixelTools.

This may look like an unsamplified anchor list

This may look like an unsamplified anchor list

77. Reference mass is not worse than that of competitors

Analyze the link profile of sites from the top of your subject. If they have common donors, analyze them.
Perhaps this is some popular resource of your subject and you should get a link there.
Verification Tools : Ahrefs, LinkPad.

78. Lack of links from sites of prohibited topics or with suspicious anchors

There should be no links from porn sites, casinos, etc., anchors with occurrences of phrases of forbidden
subjects.

Tools for checking : "SiteReport", PixelTools.

A very strange story in the report “External links” in “Yandex.Webmaster” - a link with the casino anchor
to the site of the store of men's accessories

A very strange story in the report “External links” in “Yandex.Webmaster” - a link with the casino anchor
to the site of the store of men's accessories

79. Lack of external links to nonexistent pages

Check that there are no 404 pages among the acceptors on your site. If there are any, configure
redirects to valid addresses.

80. Using free ways to get links

Do not neglect the links, which can be easily obtained and will not take much time. It:

Q & A services.

Non-spammed directories.

Links from Wikipedia.

Job sites and the like.

Links from video descriptions on YouTube, photos on Pinterest and Yandex.Collections, etc.

Links from the company’s pages on thematic resources (for example, auto-technology companies can
create a page on the drive2.ru portal).

Case study: the site uses its own photos, which are successfully engaged not only by competitors, but
also by thematic information sites. Finding the stolen photo, I turned to the site owner with a request to
post a back link or delete the picture. From one of the links thus obtained, transitions take place daily
for several years.

81. Social Signaling and Crowdfunding

Motivate visitors to share your materials on social networks, get links to thematic forums. Ways to get
links from forums:

Use the services of special services (poor quality of work).

Hire a dedicated staff member (best option).

Ask loyal customers who are probably sitting on the forums of your subject, put in a word and leave a
link in a suitable topic.

82. Mentioned brands on the Internet

Even without a link, Google appreciates it.

Ask customers to write about you on various aggregators reviews.

Track brand mentions on the Internet and try to get the link where you were mentioned.

In forums with strict moderation, organically write about your company without affixing a link.

Guest posts with an active link to the author.

Tracking Tools : TalkwalkerAlerts , IQbuzz .

83. The lack of link washes and hidden links on the site

Check that outbound links are only relevant and useful to the visitor. It happens that sites hack and
quietly place a document containing 100,500 external links. Such "trash" is easy to find and remove.

Test Tools : Netpeak Spider, Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

Regional promotion

With "monoregional" sites, everything is clear, but if a company needs to be promoted in many regions,
then for promotion in Yandex it is better to create additional regional sites or subdomains (at least you
can attach a region to a webmaster). The project budget does not always allow you to do this, but within
the same site you can successfully work with geo-dependent requests.

How does regional ranking work in Yandex?

How does regional ranking work in Yandex?

84. Binding via Yandex.Webmaster

Two popular mistakes made by regional sites are the expansion of the region (for example, the
indication “Moscow and the region” instead of “Moscow”) and the lack of binding to any region at all.
For multi-regional sites, you just can not do the binding or indicate the most priority city.

85. The presence in the directory of Yandex and Google My Business

Check the presence of the main office and all branches in the specified services. This will improve your
position in the regions, as well as allow you to receive additional traffic from the cards.

An example of optimizing a multi-regional site

An example of optimizing a multi-regional site

86. Accessibility of pages for the robot, regardless of its IP

If the site is configured for geolocation, then different versions of the content are displayed depending
on the user's region. If the robot visited the site from the Moscow IP address, then it may not index the
content for Novosibirsk. It is necessary to make all content available to search robots. Read the help on
recognition of Yandex and Google robots .

87. Geositemap

For Google, you can generate a special file in KML format that will indicate the exact location of your
branches. The finished file must be placed in the root folder of the site, and in sitemap.xml specify a link
to it.

Creation Tool : Geo Sitemap & KML generator .

88. Availability of regional pages

A page with a description of activities, basic services / products and contacts should be created for each
region. We reinforce the occurrences of a toponym (the name of a geographical object) in meta tags and
URLs.

89. Reviews or cases of your customers with the indication of the settlement

Separate pages with reviews or success stories of your customers will help in ranking by queries with a
toponym.

Due to the recall, the site is shown in the first places for queries with a toponym
Due to the recall, the site is shown in the first places for queries with a toponym

90. Links from regional sites

If there are none, then at least it’s worth adding the addresses of offices to regional directories (2gis,
zoon, spravker and others).

Behavioral factors

The ranking of the site is also influenced by the behavior of users on it, as well as click factors on the
issuance page. Behavioral factors include:

failure rate;

number of pages visited by the user per session;

time spent on the site;

Search CTR

search returns and search site returns;

Sharing on social networks.

91. Login pages match the request

It happens that for certain queries, not exactly the pages that we optimized for them are ranked. Check
if there are any on your site.

Tools for verification : position collection services AllPositions , Topvisor , SE Ranking , Rush Analytics.

92. Entry points with a high failure rate for targeted requests are determined

If the site has pages with frequent crashes when clicking on targeted requests, then obviously -
something is wrong here. Evaluate the content through the eyes of the user, whether he receives all the
necessary information, whether the site’s loading speed is high enough .

Tools for verification : Yandex.Metrica, Google Analytics.

The “Login Pages” report in Yandex.Metrica, grouped by search phrases. Set a filter by bounce rate and
look for pages with frequent bounce
The “Login Pages” report in Yandex.Metrica, grouped by search phrases. Set a filter by bounce rate and
look for pages with frequent bounce

Failures in Yandex.Metrica and Google Analytics are treated differently. If for the first one it is viewing
one page and staying on the site for less than 15 seconds, then for GA any visit with a visit to only one
page will be considered a refusal.

To reduce your bounce rate in Google Analytics, you can set up event tracking, such as watching a video.
And if the visitor interacted with the video on the page, and after leaving the site, this will not be
considered a failure.

93. The time on the site is not less than that of competitors

If the time you visit your competitors' sites is much longer than yours, this is a bad sign that should be
improved. The same goes for the pageview / session ratio. Think about how to keep the user:

Detailed menu.

Contextual linking.

Banners and links to relevant materials in the side columns;

The visual appeal of the page.

Video materials.

Navigation chains.

Gamification and polls.

Verification Tools : SimilarWeb, find competing sites with open counters.

See also: Gamification - upgrade your business!

94. Attractive snippets

Will a user notice your site in search results? Would she like to click on it? First of all, make sure the title
and description are attractive. In addition, snippets can be expanded using special markup or uploading
a YML file to the site (in Yandex).

An example of improving the snippet in the search - the price and delivery information are displayed

An example of improving the snippet in the search - the price and delivery information are displayed

How you can stand out in the search:

Page Rating.

Publication date.

Price and shipping or pickup information.

Noticeable favicon.

Navigation chain.

Emoji in title and description.

See also: How to make an advanced snippet: a detailed guide for dummies

Report "Search Queries" in the Yandex.Webmaster. Impressions in the first places, but no clicks? Try to
play with snippet

Report "Search Queries" in the Yandex.Webmaster. Impressions in the first places, but no clicks? Try to
play with snippet

Filters

A sharp drop in traffic / positions, a lack of growth with active and regular work on the site may indicate
(though not always) pessimization on the part of search engines.

They can be punished for the general low quality of the resource, a large number of outgoing SEO links,
active buying links, wrapping up behavioral factors, adult content, the dominance of keywords in texts,
aggressive advertising on the site.

See also: What are the filters of search engines: a checklist for diagnosing sanctions by Yandex and
Google

95. There are no warnings in webmasters

The first thing to check is alerts in services for webmasters. In severe cases, you will see a note there.

Example warning in Yandex.Webmaster

Example warning in Yandex.Webmaster

96. No affiliated sites

If two sites belong to the same company, then Yandex will not display them on one request. But it
happens that sites of different owners are recognized as affiliates .

Test tool : arsenkin.ru , PixelTools.

97. Texts not spammed

Check for a glut of keywords, nausea texts. Also, in special services you can assess the likelihood of re-
optimization for specific requests.

Testing tools : PixelTools, arsenkin.ru .

An example of nauseous SEO text

An example of nauseous SEO text

98. Missing sneaky forwarding on mobile devices

For example, the same address appears in search results on a computer and on a mobile device. In the
first case, the user gets on it, and in the second - is redirected to an extraneous site. This can happen if
the site is hacked or because of the element or script responsible for displaying ads and provided by a
third-party advertiser. Google’s instructions on detecting and eliminating covert redirects .

99. Missing “adult” content

Sites with adult content will not be ranked by "non-adult" requests. It happens that on quite harmless
sites photographs of the female breast are posted (yes, at least as an illustration to an article about
health). However, the instructions for assessors say that nude nipples should be classified as porn.

A fragment of the instruction for Yandex assessors

A fragment of the instruction for Yandex assessors

100. There is no advertising or its a little

Assessors, among other things, evaluate the advertised sites, and Yandex punishes the filter with excess
advertising. Judging by the instructions, advertising should not occupy more than a third of the first
screen and more than two-thirds of the rest of the site.

Excess advertising threatens to lower positions in the search

Excess advertising threatens to lower positions in the search

A couple of words about usability

During the audit, I try to pay attention to usability . But only at the simplest level - the convenience and
simplicity of filling out forms, font size, etc. I believe that usability should be evaluated by the
appropriate experts. Or another good option is to check the site’s convenience on real users from CA
( AskUsers service ).

To make it more convenient to check the checklist, you can download and print it - we have provided a
place for a “tick” opposite each item.

Of course, not all of the items listed can have a decisive influence on the ranking, but I specifically did
not begin to separate the possible optimization errors by importance. Work on the site comprehensively.
At a minimum, keep up with your competitors. And it is better to overtake them, without dividing the
factors into important and not so. There are 200 ranking factors in Google, more than a thousand in
Yandex, and the value of each of them can always change. Our experts from the SEO-promotion
department are always ready to help you in your routine work and show the result.