SEO Checklist: Complete, Practical Steps From a Reddit Thread

Introduction — based on a Reddit discussion

This article synthesizes a detailed seo checklist compiled from an active Reddit thread where practitioners and hobbyists shared what they run through for site audits, migrations, and ongoing maintenance. Below you’ll find the community consensus, points of disagreement, concrete tips people actually use, and expert-level commentary to turn recommendations into an operational plan.

Reddit consensus: The essentials everyone agreed on

Across the thread, most users converged on the same high-level priorities. If you follow nothing else, make sure the following are set:

• Technical health first: crawlability, indexability, sitemap, robots.txt, canonicalization, and redirects.
• Pages must load fast and be mobile-friendly: Core Web Vitals, server response times, and responsive templates.
• Content and intent alignment: pages should match user intent, be useful, and avoid thin content.
• On-page basics: title tags, meta descriptions, header hierarchy, URL structure, and alt text.
• Measurement and iteration: Search Console, analytics, and regular audits to spot regressions.

Where Redditors disagreed

• Backlinks vs content-first: some argued focus should be on technical + content, others said without link-building even great content won’t rank for competitive queries.
• Tools and depth: users recommended a variety of tools (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Semrush, Sitebulb, LogRocket, GTmetrix); debate centered on what justifies a paid tool vs free approaches.
• Frequency of audits: from weekly checks for large sites to quarterly for small blogs — no one-size-fits-all answer.
• Keyword tactics: some still pushed exact-match keywords and aggressive optimization; most favored semantic keyword clusters and intent-focused optimization.

Specific, practical tips pulled from the thread

• Run a site:domain.com search and compare indexed pages in Search Console to your sitemap.
• Use Screaming Frog or Sitebulb for a full crawl to catch broken links, missing meta, duplicate titles, and response codes.
• Check Core Web Vitals in both Lighthouse and Search Console; prioritize LCP, CLS, and FID (or INP).
• Optimize images: compress, serve WebP/AVIF when possible, and lazy-load below-the-fold media.
• Ensure canonical tags are present and consistent; avoid duplicate content across parameterized URLs without canonicalization.
• Prune or noindex thin/low-value pages instead of leaving them to dilute crawl budget.
• Use Search Console’s query data to find pages with high impressions but low CTR — test title/meta updates and structured snippets.
• Log file analysis was repeatedly recommended to understand crawl patterns and bot behaviour.
• Set up schema for FAQs, breadcrumbs, products, articles, or events where applicable to improve SERP real estate.
• For JS-heavy sites, prefer server-side rendering or hybrid rendering and ensure crawlers can see the content.
• When removing content, implement 301 redirects to relevant pages; keep a redirect map and avoid 404 spikes.
• Be conservative with disavows; most said only use it when there’s a clear spammy link profile and manual action risk.

Operational seo checklist (actionable, step-by-step)

Below is a prioritized checklist you can run through. Use this as a baseline playbook you adapt by site size and complexity.

Audit (one-time / quarterly)

• Run site crawl with Screaming Frog / Sitebulb — export issues for triage.
• Review Search Console Coverage and Fix Indexing Issues.
• Analyze organic landing pages: traffic, impressions, CTR, and conversions.
• Check backlink profile for toxic links (use Ahrefs/Majestic/Google Search Console links).

Technical fixes

• Confirm robots.txt, sitemap.xml, and canonical tags are correct.
• Fix redirect chains and broken links; implement a maintained redirect map.
• Address server errors (5xx) and reduce server response times.
• Improve Core Web Vitals: compress images, enable caching, optimize critical CSS/JS.
• Verify mobile-first rendering and viewport configuration.
• Implement structured data and test via Rich Results test / schema.org validators.

On-page & content

• Audit titles and meta descriptions: unique, descriptive, within length limits.
• Structure content with H1/H2/H3 hierarchy; use semantic HTML.
• Optimize images with descriptive alt text and appropriate filenames.
• Cluster content around topics and create pillar pages to capture intent.
• Use internal linking to surface important pages and distribute authority.
• Update old posts with fresh stats, new examples, and internal links to new content.

Link building & outreach

• Identify high-value pages for link acquisition (topical relevance + traffic potential).
• Run campaigns: guest posts, HARO, partnerships, and broken link outreach.
• Monitor new links and their quality; disavow only when there’s a clear risk.

Local & e-commerce specifics

• Set up / verify Google Business Profile and keep NAP consistent across listings.
• Implement product schema and keep product feeds up to date for shopping channels.

Measurement & monitoring (ongoing)

• Track organic traffic, conversions, and keyword movement weekly/monthly.
• Set up alerts for drops in impressions, index coverage issues, or spikes in 404s.
• Run periodic log-file checks to confirm crawler behavior improvements after changes.

Expert Insight #1 — Prioritization framework

Redditors often listed long itemized to-dos but lacked a clear prioritization framework. Use this simple ROI matrix:

• Impact: potential traffic or revenue gain (Low / Medium / High)
• Effort: person-hours or engineering time required (Low / Medium / High)
• Priority = High Impact & Low Effort first, then High Impact & High Effort.

This helps balance quick wins (fix broken pages, update meta for pages with high impressions) versus strategic investments (site architecture overhaul, content hub creation).

Expert Insight #2 — Turn recommendations into repeatable processes

SEOs in the thread highlighted ad-hoc fixes as a common trap. Convert your checklist into Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs):

• Version-controlled redirect map and a change log for any URL or content removals.
• Quarterly content review workflow: identify low-performing posts, update, merge, or remove.
• Automated monitoring: scheduled crawls, automated Lighthouse scoring, and Slack alerts on Search Console anomalies.

These procedural changes reduce firefighting and help your team scale SEO activities consistently.

Common pitfalls to avoid (from Redditors’ war stories)

• Failing to monitor performance after migrations — site-wide drops often stem from missed canonical or robots changes.
• Over-optimizing—keyword stuffing or excessive internal linking with exact-match anchors can harm rather than help.
• Neglecting user intent — traffic looks nice but conversions reveal real value.
• Ignoring mobile or JS rendering issues — many modern sites look fine visually but are invisible to crawlers if not rendered correctly.

Final Takeaway

A practical seo checklist blends technical hygiene, intent-driven content, measurement, and a disciplined process. The Reddit thread makes it clear: lots of tools and opinions exist, but what separates sustained wins from noise is prioritization and repeatable execution. Use the checklist above to triage work, automate monitoring, and create SOPs that scale. Start with technical health and measurement, then focus on content clusters and targeted link acquisition for best ROI.

Read the full Reddit discussion here.