People often ask us to write SEO checklists for them.  But SEO encompasses such varied efforts – from blog writing to technical site review – that squeezing it into a checklist can be difficult.  However, we always try to work with our clients’ processes, because we think that’s the most effective way to get SEO results.  Here, we share a basic robot-friendliness checklist.

ROBOT ACCESS

• All content on the site should be accessible by clicking on standard HTML links.
• Whenever possible, use a shallow site architecture that allows all pages on the site to be reached by under 5 clicks from the home page.
• It should not be expected that robots will perform searches or fill out forms on the site.  We recommend that you provide a robot-navigable path that does not require these actions.
• If there is content hidden behind a login or registration, search engine robots will not be able to see it.  We recommend that you create a “logged out” version of each page that shows teaser content that can be indexed by search engines.
• Use extreme caution with deindexing pages using the robots.txt file or the <robots> meta tag.

ROBOT READABILITY

• Search engine robots can be considered a special case of accessibility.   As a rule of thumb, how a page looks to a screen reader for the visually impaired is similar to how the page will look to a search engine robot.
• Ask: How does this page look to search engines?  Is the search engine view of the page an accurate representation of the human view of the page? You can use the tool at www.seo-browser.com to approximate the search engine robot view, or use “Fetch as Googlebot” in Google Webmaster Tools, or view the cached version of the page in Google by typing <cache:www.yoursite.com/url-of-page.html> into the search box.
• For interactive sites, search engine robots may not be able to replicate the human experience.  Is there a simplified version that can be shown to a search engine robot? For example, if an interactive experience requires that a person click through a series of steps before seeing text, consider presenting the text in robot readable format.
• Content in video and Flash are not easily indexable and require special SEO management.

This checklist would need to be used in conjunction with other SEO checklists, including editorial, social media,  technical,  video, and Flash specifications.

Readers, do you have anything to add to this simple robot-friendliness checklist?

Use these search shortcuts to turn your favorite search engine into a high-powered SEO research tool!

Google

Search for sites linking to a URL: [note: Google does not list all linking sites. For a more fun list, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools and view links to your site within the tool.]

link:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their HTML Page Title:

allintitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Search for related sites:

related:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for all pages indexed within a website:

site:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for all pages with a certain word in their URL:

inurl:search try it now

See more Google Search Shortcuts on Cyberwyre.

Yahoo!

Search for sites linking to a URL: [note: this search and the site: search below will be redirected out of standard Yahoo! search results and into Yahoo!'s Site Explorer]

link:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their HTML Page Title:

allintitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Search for all pages indexed within a website:

site:www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Or you can do this the “old-fashioned” way and stay within standard Yahoo! search results rather than going to Yahoo! Site Explorer: go to Yahoo! advanced search, enter your domain as yourdomain.com in the box next to “only search in this domain/site:” and enter a word that you know you have on every page of your site into the search query box (we use “SEO”). try it now

See more Yahoo! Search Shortcuts on Yahoo

Bing

Search for pages linking to a URL:

site:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for outbound links from an entire domain:

linkfromdomain:http://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with certain words in their HTML Page Title:

intitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Ask

Although Ask has a relatively robust menu of advanced searches, it has some restrictions that make it slightly less handy for the average SEO trying to learn more about their own site. Notably, there are no search options for linking sites, and you have to include a term along with the advanced search query. So, for example, you can’t just search for all the indexed pages on your website — you have to search for all the indexed pages on your website that contain a specific term . (Here, we use the word “seo” because we know that every page has that word on it.) Here is an example:

Search for pages indexed within a site:

site:www.yourseoplan.com seo try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their URL:

inurl:”yourseoplan” try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their title:

intitle:”your seo plan ” try it now

Search for pages containing a certain phrase that have been updated within the last week (the “last updated” searches available on the other big search engines start at 3 months):

“seo” last:week try it now