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The 48 Point Checklist: Exactly What it Takes to Rank #1 on Google in 2023

  1. On-Site SEO
  • Permalink Structure and Optimization (keep URLs <74 characters)
  • Website Link Structure Optimization
  • Anchor Text
  • Geo and Topical Keyword Relevance of Domain
  • Relevant Page/URL Volume
  • Quality Relevant Content Volume
  1. On-Page SEO
  • Permalinks (URLs should be no longer than 74 characters (DO NOT CHANGE PAST PAGES)
  • Page Content (>500 words of original unique content (not used on any other webpage)
  • Photos < 300 KB (Hero Photos = 1920px x 1080px)
  • APUNCH
  • Attributes Section (e.g. Wheelchair Accessible Parking Lot, LGBTQ+ friendly, Debit Cards, Delivery, etc.)
  • Specials Section
  • Reviews Section
  • Title Tags (Title tags should be 40-60 characters in length)
  • Description Tags (Meta descriptions should be 100-150 characters) (Do not keyword stuff the description tag. Speak directly to searchers.)
  • Heading 1 (The main heading or H1)
  • Headings 2-6 (Subheading or H2 through H6)
  • Subheadings (H2s) should be used throughout the page content.
  • Image Meta Data
  • Duplicate Content (negative factor)
  • Link Volume
  1. Site Performance and Core Web Vitals (FCP, FID, LCP)
  • File Size (Advise and audit)
  • Request Volume (Advise and audit)
  • Load Time (Advise and audit)
  • Mobile Score (Advise and audit)
  • Desktop Score (Advise and audit)
  • First Contentful Paint (FCP) of 1,800 milliseconds or less.
  • First Input Delay (FID) of 100 milliseconds or less.
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) of 2,500 milliseconds or less.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) of .1 or less.
  1. Off-site SEO
  • Domain Authority (Continue/complete migration of acquired domains)
  • Page Authority (Continue/complete redirects from acquisitions, advise/monitor site structure and anchor text)
  • Spam Score (Negative Factor)
  • Anchor Text (Audit and advise on anchor text update of acquired domains)
  • Profile Volume
  • APUNCH Optimization (Continue/complete APUNCH of acquired local profiles, manage APUNCH change of any new canonical dispensary names of Florida stores that are adding ‘dispensary’)
  • Premium Local and Industry Profile Assessment
  1. Google Profile Optimization
  • Business APUNCH Optimization (Lady Lake Name, Florida Canonical Name Change)
  • Service Area Optimization (Service Area Adjustments for Florida markets, advise on same city cannibalization)
  • Ecommerce Optimization (Order links, in-store product integration)
  • Google Business Profile Optimization
  • Verification Management
  • Photo Management
  1. Google Reviews
  • Response Relevance (Advise on keyword use)
  • Response Percent (Follow up on review responses)
  • Response Sentiment (Poor Sentiment = Negative Factor)
  • Review Gating (Negative Factor)
  • Auto Responses (Negative Factor)

Inbound Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized, WordPress

Inbound Marketing Resources

INBOUND MARKETING RESOURCES

A growing and updated list of tools, apps, and other resources.

Pre-Startup

NameCheckr: Check domain and username availability across several networks.

Domains, Hosting and Email

Pagely: Managed WordPress hosting in the Amazon cloud.

Synthesis: Hosting optimized for The Genesis Framework by Rainmaker Digital.

WPengine: Blazing fast managed WordPress hosting.

Pantheon: Developer hosting for WordPress and Drupal.

Flywheel: Managed WordPress hosting with phone support.

WhatsMyDNS.net: Global DNS propagation checker.

DNS History: DNS historical record archive.

nexcess.net: A hosting company built for specific CMS including Expression.

GitHub Pages: Host websites from your GitHub repository.

Firebase Hosting: Host static websites with Alphabet powered hosting.

Website Security

Sucuri: Scan your website for malware, it’s free.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Max CDN: The king of CDN’s.

Website Speed

dotcom-tools: dotcom-tools provides website speed tests from 6 continents and many countries.

img2go.com: a simple app that compresses images without losing any quality of the image.

WordPress

WordPress: The most popular open source CMS.

Is It WordPress: Quickly find out if a site is using WordPress.

Studiopress: Awesome WordPress themes.

Gravatar: Set up your Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar).

NinjaForms: Awesome forms for WordPress sites.

Fantasktic: WordPress migration service (Used by WebSynthesis).

Codeable: WordPress developers.

Other Content Management Systems

ExpressionEngine: A content management system.

Learning Management Systems

Udemy: The learning management system with the largest audience.

Thinkific: Create and sell online courses under your own brand.

Content

The Punctuation Guide: A simple clear guide to punctuation.

BuzzSummo: Analyze what content works best for any topic.

Piktochart: An easy to use infographic creator.

SlideShare: View and upload presentations.

Pablo: Create beautiful images that fit all social networks perfectly.

SummoMe: Tools to grow your website’s traffic.

Copyblogger Certified Writers: List of professional writers certified by Copyblogger.

Rainmaker Platform: A content marketing platform starting at $125/month.

Contently: Professional content writing a content marketing agency for brands that don’t want to do it in-house.

Hemingway Editor: Get suggestions that make your writing clear and simple.

VideoScribe: Create your own whiteboard videos.

ScreenFlow: A highly recommended screencasting and video editing software for Mac.

Camtasia: A highly recommended screen recording and editing software for Windows (also available for Mac buy ScreenFlow is recommended for Mac users).

WriterAccess: Hire writers and bloggers.

Hubstaff Content Marketing: Hubstaff’s content marketing service page.

Content Marketing

Triberr: Join a tribe of content writers of the same topic and share each other’s content.

Viral Content Bee: You share other people’s content and they share yours.

Medium: Republish your original content to an audience of 100 million.

Podcasting

Anchor: The easy way to podcast.

MatchMaker: Find podcast hosts or guests.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Marketing (SEM)

Google: Google’s explanation of how search works.

Google: Google’s Scraper Report Tool.

Google Keyword Planner: Use Adwords data (estimates) to plan your keywords.

Google: Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.

Google: Google’s mobile-friendly test tool.

Google: Think with Google’s mobile speed test.

Google AdWords Help Center: Get all your AdWords questions answered.

Google Legal Support: Get help reporting illegal content on Google.

Opteo: Google Ads management.

KWFinder: Find long tail key phrases with low competition.

Rank Tracking

AccuRanker: Rank tracking.

Website Design

Google: The complete list of Google fonts.

GTmetrix: Get site speed recommendations.

ColorZilla: Great Chrome extension and gradient generator.

Dashicons: The official font for the WordPress admin/dashboard.

Ionicons: The font for the Ionic Framework.

Iconfinder: A fantastic selection of premium icons and some free ones too.

Fontello: Build your own icon fonts.

Pixels: Free stock photos.

Code Validators

HTML Validator: An HTML validator by w3.

CSS Validator: A CSS validator.

PHP Checker: A PHP code checker.

Java Lint: A Java linter.

Photos

Stockvault: A place to quickly get free downloadable images.

StockSnap: An even better place to get free photos.

Unsplash: A great place for free great photos.

Gratisography: Weird high-quality free photos you might not ever use.

Negative Space: Some really nice free photos.

Cut My Pic: Quickly make any photo rounded.

Pixabay: My favorite place for skylines and a lot of other great pictures.

E-commerce

Stripe: Start accepting credit cards in 15 minutes.

payhip: Sell digital downloads, courses, coaching and more.

Recurly: Our favorite recurring payment solution.

Rebilly: A real cool freemium subscription payment startup.

Shopify: Easily make an online store.

Eventbrite: Simple event registration and ticket selling.

Square Appointments: Built for businesses that sell time.

SendOwl: Sell digital products with ease.

E-Signatures

HelloSign: E-signatures simplified.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

Insightly: Insightly is a robust CRM worthy of consideration. Insightly is also an incredible value with a starting package price of $0/user/month for up to two users. The starting package provides a very good set of features and allows companies to really use the CRM before upgrading (if they so choose). Pricing goes up to $129/user/month  for the the unlimited plan with a full set of features.

Pipeline Deals: Pipeline Deals is another great CRM. They offer a free trial, after which, there are two packages – $24/user/month and $48/user/month. If you’re the type who appreciates phone support, you’ll want to consider Pipeline Deals, it’s the only CRM on our favorites list that offers phone support.

Base: Base is yet another great CRM. They also offer a free trial and then you’ll choose a package ranging from $25/user/month up to $125/user/month.

Hubspot: Hubspot is another of our favorites. They offer a limited plan at $0/month with unlimited users but the full set of features costs $2,400/month.

Salesforce: Probably the most popular CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics: The CRM built by Microsoft. Starts at $50 per user per month. There is a “gamification” add-on which helps inbound marketing teams stay motivated and improve productivity.

Zoho: Probably the most popular free CRM.

Infusionsoft: A great CRM for inbound marketing and marketing automation.

Social Media Management & Sharing

Mention: This app alerts you when your brand is being talked about online.

Respond: A brand monitoring tool from Buffer (coming soon).

SharedCount: Check or track url shares or likes.

Hootsuite: Social media management.

RecurPost: Freemium social media management with post recycling.

Buffer: Social media management.

MySocialSuite: Social media management.

Everypost: Social media management.

OnlyWire: Yet another social media management app.

dlvr.it: Connect your WordPress feed to social accounts for automatic sharing.

Warfare Plugins: WordPress plugins that increase social shares.

ManageFlitter: Work faster and smarter with Twitter.

Twitter Card Guide: Twitter’s guide to getting started with cards.

Social Media Sites

Facebook: The most popular. A must for every business. Also great for remarketing purposes.

Twitter: Another must.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is important to every business. Can be used to post employment opportunities and to do a basic background check on applicants.

Pinterest: If your target audience is women this is a good place to be.

Google+: Strongly recommended.

Instagram: Brand profiles projected to be available sometime third quarter 2016.

Foursquare: Can add value, but mostly for food, entertainment, or retail businesses.

GitHub: A place for developers.

YouTube: Your videos should be on here.

Alignable: A local networking app.

Meetup: Get together with others in your community that share your interest.

PR

BitesizePR: Get access to journalists who want to quote and cite you.

H/A/R/O: Help A Reporter Out by getting quoted and cited.

PR Underground: Low-cost press release distribution.

Email Marketing

MailChimp: Email marketing management.

Marketing Automation

Hatchbuck: Simple marketing automation for small business.

Leadsius: Marketing automation for SMB’s.

Jumplead: Nurture website traffic to leads and customers.

Online Courses

The Perfect Promo Video: Udemy’s guide to creating the perfect promo video.

Reviews and Review Management

Google: Google’s instructions on how to give a Google Maps review (from a desktop).

Google: Google’s policy on reviews.

Zurvia: Freemium review management software.

Dashboards

Dasheroo: An affordable dashboard builder.

Databox: Dashboards with 60+ integrations.

Segment: Dashboards with hundreds of integrations.

Klipfolio: Dashboards with hundreds of integrations.

Supermetrics: Application that allows data to connect to Google Studios.

Funnel: Application that connects 300+ sources to Google Studios.

Data Studio: Google’s dashboard application.

Tableau: Popular dashboard builder acquired by salesforce.

Power BI: Microsoft’s data visualization app.

Data Connectors

Supermetrics: Connect the data of your apps.

Adverity: Another data connector.

alightanalytics:  Yet another data connector.

Datorama: A data connector acquired by Salesforce.

Rapid Application Development

Bubble.io: Build apps visually and quickly without any code.

Google App Maker: Google’s low code app builder.

NoCode.tech: The RAD that was used to build internal.io’s onboarding app.

Client Onboarding

Internal.io: Internals tool to help teams manage onboarding clients simply.

Uncategorized

Development & Design: Migration to Genesis Child Theme Checklist

WordPress Theme Migration Checklist

Among the best business choices I’ve made are:

#1 Migrating to WordPress

#2 Migrating to The Genesis Framework

If you haven’t done so already I recommend migrating your brand’s website/s to a Genesis Child Theme. For more on that, check out why ultra optimized themes are the best. Now, if you’re ready for a migration, here’s a good checklist (with a few conversion rate tips):

  1. Create/Access the staging environment
  2. Confirm that the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” option is enabled for the staged URL
  3. Delete as many plugins as possible (Ninja Forms, Genesis Enews Extended and Genesis Simple Share are permitted)
  4. Update WordPress
  5. Install the latest version of the Genesis Framework
  6. Install and activate selected Genesis Child Theme
  7. Delete unnecessary themes
  8. Review and/or fix WordPress Settings
    • Reveal Images and Activate Media Files via ‘Settings’ then ‘Media’
    • Set/Adjust Comment Settings (and delete any spammy comments)
  9. Check/Adjust Genesis Theme Settings
  10. Define the purpose of the website (what a conversion is)
  11. Build/Optimize header
    • Use optimized logo
    • Use don’t make me think menu with buttons for pricing and sign-up/schedule pages
    • Display phone number for local businesses
    • Double check header function on small and large desktop, tablet and mobile
  12. Build/Optimize footer
    • Stick to simple imageless design (including using text rather than icons to link to social profiles)
    • Add Solid Stratagems signature (Site By Solid Stratagems)
  13. Build/Optimize sidebar
    • Stick to simple imageless design
  14. Build/Optimize Homepage
    • Setup the Child Theme Custom Widgetized homepage
    • Awesome background image with good contrast on every sized device
    • Single H1 as the main heading of above the fold / top section
    • Single tagline below the main heading
    • Button with call to action text (e.g. ‘view pricing’, ‘schedule free inspection’ etc.)
    • Use correct use of headings and heading hierarchy throughout homepage
  15. Build/Optimize Pricing Page
    • Flexible
    • Simple
    • Transparent
    • Call to action buttons
  16. Build/Optimize Sign-Up Page
    • Less is best
    • Don’t make me type
    • No credit card required (not always the needed solution)
  17. Build/Optimize Success Page
    • Another chance to give an awesome first impression
  18. Build/Optimize Blog Page
    • Include featured images
    • Include post title
    • Include some text?
  19. Optimize Contact Page
  20. Fix/Optimize Posts and Pages
    • Do not edit/change permalinks
    • Build/optimize after content widget area if applicable
    • Remove irrelevant shortcodes
    • Correct hierarchy (single h1, paragraphs follow headings, correct heading hierarchy)
    • Use best practices for meta tags
  21. Get approval for recommended CSS additions/edits
  22. Make this list better