Organic traffic remains one of the most cost-effective channels for growth. In 2024–25, the average share of website traffic from organic search hovered around 53% to 58%. For many sites, ranking in the top 5 positions captures 69.1% of all clicks. With those stakes, you can’t afford to skip the fundamentals in 2025.
In this article I’ll walk you through a step-by-step SEO checklist that mirrors the structure of the expert video, enhanced with up-to-date data, so you can ramp up traffic in the “people search engine” era. After your link, you’ll also find further reading to deepen your expertise—e.g. guidelines from Google’s Search Quality Rater and topical authority strategies from recognized SEO publishers.
A sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your content efficiently. Many WordPress sites use plugins like Yoast to auto-generate one, but non-WordPress sites can rely on free online sitemap generators.
Use a robots.txt file to block unhelpful or redundant paths (e.g. carts, feeds). Visit yourdomain.com/robots.txt to inspect. If it’s missing, use a robots.txt generator and place it at the root.
Each new page should target exactly one main keyword. Use a keyword research tool to check metrics such as keyword difficulty and search volume, and inspect top 10 pages’ performance.
Look at the top-ranking pages for your primary keyword. Note their content type (blog post, product page, list, tutorial). Your page should match their format and satisfy user expectations.
Use Google Autocomplete, “People Also Ask,” and related searches. Keyword tools (e.g. Ahrefs, SEMrush) can reveal tens of thousands of related queries. That helps you map subtopics.
Many top pages rank for hundreds or even around 1,000 related keywords in the top 10. Use tools to view which subtopics these pages cover (e.g. scroll to “organic keywords” in ranking reports). Incorporate those into your own content.
While keyword difficulty (KD) gives a rough idea, deeper analysis of competitor domain metrics (backlinks, domain rating, content quality) offers a more realistic view of how feasible it is to outrank them.
Short URLs tend to correlate with better rankings. For example: domain.com/seo-checklist is better than a long, verbose URL.
You may include your main keyword if it fits naturally, but avoid keyword stuffing. The goal is to entice clicks, since more clicks help your rankings. Data shows moving from position 2 to 1 yields 74.5% higher CTR.
Start by showing the reader they’re in the right place, promise a solution, and build trust. If your intro fails, readers will bounce quickly.
Visually: Use short sentences and paragraphs, subheadings, bullet lists, and charts/images that reinforce your content.
Comprehension: Many people read at or below an 8th-grade level. Use tools like Hemingway Editor to simplify your writing. Write conversationally, as if speaking.
Your content must fully satisfy both the primary intent and related questions. Provide actionable steps, measurable takeaways, and anticipate follow-up queries. Content that truly solves a searcher’s problem is far more likely to be rewarded by search engines.
Don’t beg for links—offer something useful or shareworthy. A backlink represents someone’s desire to share your content. The focus should be on content worth linking to.
Check who links to your top competitors’ ranking pages. These are proven prospects. View their backlinks and culled referring domains via backlink tools.
Search large content databases (e.g. Ahrefs’ Content Explorer) for pages with your keyword in the title and significant referring domains (e.g. ≥ 20). Then inspect those referring domains for outreach opportunities.
Guest posting on relevant, related sites remains effective, especially if you pick high-quality domains and contribute genuinely helpful content.
Techniques like the Skyscraper Method or Broken Link Building work best when you have a list of outreach targets ready before your content goes live.
Use a crawler tool to scan your site for 100+ known technical SEO issues. The audit report reveals pages with errors, warnings, and recommendations.
Page speed is both a UX factor and a ranking signal. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to identify issues and the estimated time savings by fixing them.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to confirm pages render well on mobile devices. Mobile usability is critical, as mobile accounts for the majority of traffic.
Broken internal or external links harm UX and waste link equity. Use your audit tool to find “links to broken pages,” then fix or redirect them.
Instead of chasing scattered keywords, aim to become a trusted authority in your niche. Topical authority (covering a topic comprehensively) helps domain credibility and increases ranking power.
With the rise of generative search (e.g. Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity), optimization is shifting. Practices like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are gaining importance.
Sites with strong organic traffic benefit further: Google still sends 345× more traffic than AI chat tools combined. (Ahrefs)
Implement this checklist step by step. In many cases, just addressing weak spots—like slow pages or weak internal linking—can yield measurable traffic uplift.
SEO ROI is compelling: SEO conversion rates average ~14.6%, versus ~1.7% for traditional channels.
Keep tracking performance, iterating, and expanding content under your topical umbrella. Over time, your domain will build strength, authority, and organic reach.
For further authority reading, you might explore Google’s Search Quality Rater guidelines and advanced tutorials on topical relevance and domain authority theory from Moz or Search Engine Journal.
If you like, I can format this into a ready-to-publish blog post (with images, internal link suggestions, etc.). Do you want me to do that?