Enhance your SEO strategy with checklists, templates, and automated insights—ideal for maximizing efficiency and ROI in 2024.
Over the last 18 months, artificial intelligence has taken center stage in SEO discussions, reshaping both workflows and user journeys. As we head into 2024, SEO strategies are a blend of tried-and-true methods and cutting-edge innovations, offering actionable insights to boost your rankings today.
To help you keep up with the latest SEO best practices, here’s a range of valuable tools:
Why Use SEO Checklists?
Managing SEO is a bit like conducting an orchestra: many small and large tasks must be harmonized to achieve your website’s success. Checklists, templates, and other project management tools allow SEO teams and agencies to keep all tasks—whether on-page or technical—on track.
Over the years, SEO checklists have evolved from simple, handwritten lists to robust, dynamically generated systems within CMS platforms, often powered by AI. These versatile checklists can be customized to fit various needs.
Here are three main types of SEO checklists that can help elevate your brand’s website:
1. SEO Checklists on Shared Documents
SEO professionals often use spreadsheets to monitor progress, but today, these documents can be shared and adapted in real time. Shared checklists enable teams to track SEO tasks efficiently, whether the tasks are complex or straightforward.
2. Dynamic, Real-Time SEO Checklists
The next-gen SEO checklist responds dynamically to content updates. When changes are made on your website, a real-time checklist provides the necessary steps to optimize your content.
For example, a Site-level SEO Assistant checklist integrates directly with your CMS, allowing you to complete SEO tasks, like connecting to Google Search Console, all within the checklist itself. This built-in functionality saves time and helps you maximize your CMS.
3. AI-Powered SEO Checklists
AI-powered SEO checklists generate tasks based on your specific workload, making them a powerful tool for staying on top of SEO. For example, the Wix SEO Assistant can generate AI-based meta descriptions and title tags based on keyword prompts. You can then check off completed tasks directly within your CMS, streamlining your workflow.
How to Use an SEO Checklist Effectively
If you haven’t incorporated an SEO checklist into your workflow, now is a great time to start. Here are a few ways these checklists can boost productivity and quality.
Increase Agency Profitability
For agency owners and account managers, checklists are invaluable. They can be adapted for each client, reducing time spent on research and development. SEO checklists also assist in client onboarding, making it easy to manage new projects and deliver results efficiently.
With tools like the Wix Studio Client Kit, account managers can upload client checklists, templates, and even video tutorials directly into the CMS, making key resources accessible to everyone on the team.
SEO consultant Joshua George of Clickslice Agency improved his client success rate by using a standardized SEO project proposal template, and freelance SEO Nick LeRoy uses a client retention checklist to strengthen client relationships. For agencies and freelancers, checklists contribute to efficiency and profitability.
Enhance Knowledge Sharing Across Teams
Checklists and templates provide an accessible way to transfer knowledge among team members, whether they’re junior or senior SEOs. As Adriana Stein of AS Marketing points out, structured templates increase the chance of ranking content effectively, and live collaborative documents can adapt to changing requirements over time.
Ensure Quality Assurance
Contrary to popular belief, experienced SEOs also benefit from checklists, as these tools help maintain quality across projects and teams. For example, Ashwin Balakrishnan from Optmyzr uses templated documents to streamline tasks like backlink tracking, ensuring that best practices are consistently applied across the board.
Checklists not only provide junior SEOs with guidance but also enable senior team members to review work efficiently, creating a smoother handoff process and allowing more time for advanced SEO tasks.
The Future of SEO Checklists
With the rapid growth of AI tools and data-driven insights, SEO checklists are only getting smarter. In addition to generating content suggestions, future checklists will likely provide actionable guidance based on real-time data.
Whether you’re using Google Sheets, MS Excel, or a CMS platform, the integration of AI-powered enhancements is transforming task completion and scaling SEO capabilities. The SEO checklist remains an indispensable tool in 2024.