Many people think of SEO as a one-time project. You optimize your website, and then you’re done. But in reality, a successful SEO strategy is a long-term process that requires constant maintenance. Search algorithms change, your competitors adapt, and your website grows. Without a maintenance plan, your rankings can easily slip.
This guide provides a simple, monthly checklist for maintaining your website’s SEO. By dedicating a few hours each month to these tasks, you can keep your rankings strong and your traffic growing.
Monthly SEO Checklist: The Three Key Areas
1. Technical SEO Check-up
Your website’s technical health is the foundation of your SEO. If there are any problems, they can prevent a search engine from crawling and indexing your site correctly.
- Check for crawl errors: Use your search console to check for crawl errors and broken links. A broken link can lead to a bad user experience and waste a search engine’s crawl budget.
- Monitor pagespeed: A slow website can frustrate users and cause them to leave. You should use a pagespeed tool to check your website’s speed on both mobile and desktop.
- Check for indexing issues: You should ensure that all of your most important pages are still indexed.
2. Content and Keyword Review
Your content is the voice of your brand. You should regularly review your content to ensure it is fresh, relevant, and still aligned with your keywords.
- Update your content: A search engine loves content that is fresh and up-to-date. You should regularly update your old content with new information, statistics, and insights.
- Check your keywords: The keywords you are ranking for might be changing. You should use a keyword research tool to check for fluctuations in search volume and to find new keywords to target.
- Optimize your meta tags: Your page’s title and meta description are the first thing a user sees. They should be compelling and include your target keywords.
3. Authority and Backlink Maintenance
Backlinks are a signal of trust and authority. You should regularly monitor your backlinks to ensure that your profile is healthy.
- Check for new and lost backlinks: You should use a backlink analysis tool to check for new backlinks and to see if you have lost any.
- Monitor your brand mentions: You should monitor your brand mentions on social media and in the press. This is a great way to find new backlink opportunities.
- Check for broken links: If a website has a broken link pointing to your site, you can reach out to them and ask them to fix it. This is a great way to build a strong backlink profile.
