The Only SEO Checklist You Will Need in 2021

That seems pretty well laid out. Now, who can do all this for my site and for how much ?

I could. The biggest companies in the industry have given us their trust. But it is not cheap.

There's only 3 out of 5 things on that list that are somewhat aplicable to adult sites, since adult and mainstream SEO is basically very different in off-page part.

1. All the adult sites are only about sales (no matter if they are affiliate sites or paysites), so you can't get links for free (very rarely). The whole industry is much more competitive. That makes off-page SEO completely different.
2. Keyword research is not applicable, since you very rarely optimize adult sites for some specific keywords, due to the traffic price (the traffic in adult is cheap). You hardly monetize smaller keywords in adult, and there's just way too much competition for bigger keywords. So, the overall site trust is what matters.
3. Adult sites are not about text content, but about photos/videos, which makes it harder for Google to actually rank sites. In adult, Google has to rely more on user experience metrics (than in mainstream) to be able to figure out how good a website is.

That makes only Basics, Technical and On-page SEO parts aplicable to an adult site, and shouldn't be (too) much different. Anyway, that is a nice checklist in general.

If you need any help with SEO feel free to hit me up on Skype: nettrust

Sounds like way too much work . . .

believe your info is out of date..

It's a handy list, but some of that advice is dubious. For example, the unofficial Google SEO spokesperson (Matthew Cutts) mentioned only the other day that 'duplicate content' as in having the same posts in multiple tags and categories, does not affect SERPS, in fact is more likely to help as Google wants the best user experience. It's also been suggested here many times that the SEO wordpress plugins might not help as Google may see them as artificial search engine optimization.

Plus as the person explained above, adult SEO is different to mainstream.

Thank you for pointing that out! I just updated my contacts.

Good points Marshal,

I've noticed that google (at least with my adult sites) really seems to emphasize user-experience metrics a lot. On my sites with low bounce rates and better engagement I'll rank without many backlinks at all... sometimes a shockingly low amount of backlinks. If the bounce rate and metrics aren't so great then no amount of links seems to work. It's an uphill battle and I'm constantly bouncing out of the rankings all the time... I am seeing this over and over again, between sites with very similar competition levels. The ones with better user experience rank much easier and hold rankings better.

That being said, what user-experience metrics do you believe google is able to look at other then bouncing back to the results? Dwell time? CTR on the search results? What are the main metrics you believe they are looking at?

It makes a lot of sense to me that they take user-experience into account as much as they can, as much as they keep 'perfecting' their algorithm, its still a robot. Human feedback obviously matters.

Also, do you think the "google dance" is essentially google testing your site out for the human feedback? Because again and again I'll watch them give my sites a shot, putting them at the top for a little bit, even if they have barely warranted being there... sites with poor metrics seem to keep bouncing back out a lot. If the site is stronger, sometimes it'll hold with little to no dancing. I find all this stuff really interesting lol.

Based on my experience with so-called "big data", I believe that "Google dance" is just a part of the regular sorting algorithm of huge amounts of information (really huge). So it takes weeks until the results settle down. Google usually re-sort all the results only every few months or so (with every new update). What follows up is that the minor changes after the initial "dance" are just a part of the new sites being added to the list and put in place. But I wouldn't exclude the possibility that dancing is a part of the CTR testing to see what result attracts most clicks.


(If you are interested to know more, don't get discouraged with the amount of information below. )


Let me back that up with some more information: The goal is that you need to sort ALL websites ever indexed for each and every keyword out there (the cut-off is at result #100). To get an idea of how big that operation is, you have the following input:

1. Number of keywords:
To get a better idea about the amount of data mentioned, let's imagine Google works only with the English language. Based on Oxford Dictionary there are 171,146 words currently in use in the English language. Then you need to figure out an amount of potential combination of all those words. There are 2, 3, 4, or even more words for one keyword. Then add (at least semantically) meaningful questions to that list. The number of possible combinations is counted in millions.

2. Number of websites:
There are 1.88 billion websites today (and growing) based on Statista data. Each of those websites has thousands and even millions of pages.

Imagine you have to sort all web pages (not only websites but their every page!) for each and every potential keyword out there. Those familiar with combinatorics already have an idea that the resulting number is insanely big. Even with all the huge computational power that Google has, it is impossible to compute all those results in real-time. It usually takes weeks to get the first result pages populated with meaningful results. It can take months to get results starting from page 2.

Multiply that with a lot of different languages. Then add major updates every few months to the equation (at least twice a year) and you will get an idea that it is impossible NOT to have "dancing" in place since it is simply impossible to get near-real-time results.

Google is probably is not crunching all that data all over again, so they probably use some caching instead, which saves them time. But every now and then they had to regenerate the complete database. Something like that probably happened last year, where they had their database "frozen" from May, since a big "bug" that they had, until late September. There's a high possibility that they either implemented some big (unplanned) change in their algorithms, or they had a major bug, so they most likely had to regenerate the complete database of results.

So, to put that simple: I would say that "dancing" is just a regular part of getting new results generated all over again.

you need a checklist? they have scripts that bulk test that stuff. save you time

I'd do more research on SEO and the adult industry before trying to sell your 'SEO Services' to the adult industry if this is what you believe about SEO in the adult business.

Saying adult sites are not about text content is ridiculous and saying that keyword research isn't applicable, makes you look like a total fool

This doesn't make sense to me entirely. I often research keywords and focus on ranking for specific things. Why would this not be important to other sites as well?

Maybe a laymen's explanation for me?

The only problem with your analysis is that there is a lot of conjecture.

In my other life, I work in the SEO & Digital Marketing space and specialize in technical SEO. I also am an affiliate marketer. So let me give you a little perspective.

Your first point on keywords is bare, there's a reason for it.

The Google system doesn't need to "figure out" anything. It already has the largest crowd-sourced "figure outers" in the world - namely its searchers. They are the ones who search for these word combinations.

Now, G is a meticulous tracker. It tracks everything. And thanks to its other "Free" products viz. Google Analytics and Chrome - it can continue tracking.

So among the thousands of metrics, it tracks, let's analyze the base metrics first.

1. Volume - The number of times a particular keyword was searched.
2. CTR - Which links are clicked more.
3. Speed - Which site served the content the fastest, using the least amount of data.
4. Conversion - Which keywords are paying keywords and resulted in action on the end website (Forms filled, Add to Carts, Purchases)
5. Time Spent on Site, Pages Visited.

And finally, another keyword it tracks is "Intent".

The most common intents are

- Information
These are people looking for information on a subject

Example - "Symptoms of ED", "When to travel to Amsterdam?", "Best Porn Sites".

- Navigational

These are people who look for login pages of websites.

Example - "Sign up for ABN Credit Card", "US Visa Application Form" etc.

- Transactional

For affiliate marketers, e-commerce entities and SaaS companies - this is where the magic happens. These are people looking to buy stuff.

Example - "Cheapest Tube Script"

Beyond the above 3 main, there are more -

Specific Page Ones -

"German Wife Ravaged on Christmas Eve"

This is a tube site keyword. For a video someone likes. And wishes to access it.

This could come under Navigational. But for the sake of clarity, let's keep it as an outlier.

Google also harnesses NLP (Natural Language Processing) -

This is what tells it the difference between the use of the word "suspect" in

"The police found that the suspect had two penises" and "I suspect I may have two penises".

--------

Beyond this, Google has a product called "Adwords". The above metrics help Google decide the base price for a keyword (which is then inflated through a bidding war).

Now Google's tracking metrics far exceed beyond this. But for the sake of brevity, let's keep them limited till here.

Based on this, Google's paramount goal is to stay the "most relevant search engine".

A - It doesn't want to be gamed.
B - It doesn't want to serve low-quality pages. Because if people start finding crap on Google, they'll move to other search engines.
C - Because of its ulterior motive of taking over the world.

Since you mentioned "Big Data" - I'd like to point out that in Data Analytics - things happen through "Priority Buckets". A grouping mechanism of sorts.

What does that mean?

Google assimilates a set of keywords based on the above metrics and more. And then puts them in certain buckets.

This allows it to run controlled experiments on these particular buckets.

It also helps it to see the upheaval going on, place a cost on ranking, estimate traffic etc. for these buckets.

One keyword can be in several buckets.

So say -

Bucket A - High Traffic Keywords

Mesothelioma Lawyers
Viagra Cialis
Online Pharmacy No Prescription

Bucket B - Shady Websites

Viagra Cialis
Online Pharmacy No Prescription
Buy Fullz

(This is just an estimate. The buckets contain thousands, if not million keywords).

Now based on these, Google uses their proprietary algorithm and sometimes human intervention to rank websites. It sees what's going on, then readjusts the rankings, it keeps on doing it until the rankings stick with the winners.

It is the most complicated A/B Split testing ever.

Also, Buckets are not "Niche specific" or at the very least, they are "partly niche specific".

So for example, if you rank for "Lawyers in Baltimore" - you may see a change in rankings during an update.

But if you rank for "Property Dispute Baltimore Lawyer" - you may continue to rank.

-----

When you see a "Google Volatility Tracker" - their data is partially biased.

Example - https://cognitiveseo.com/signals/ or https://www.semrush.com/sensor/

Because these trackers cost a lot per month and the keywords being tracked here are mostly money keywords by agencies.

-----

And finally, to touch your mention of "real time". There is a "certain" realtime element to Google results. Meaning that Google indexes and ranks content within minutes of it being posted in some niches (Not talking about Google News).

Google has a LOT OF PROCESSING POWER. So much so that they are selling it through Google Cloud.

But think of Google as several small search engines, broken down in buckets. And not one big one. Every bucket behaves differently. Based on their internal risk markers.

The bucket you hit depends on your keyword search.

I hate to jump in here I really do - but after 28 years in this industry to depend on one site for all the answers isn't the best thing. There is more to SEO than just SEMRush believe me. Signing up and paying the monthly fee does not make you a SEO guru or whatever. There are so many other factors beyond this despite what the promotional material says.

really great ways , but truly its hard work and need a lot time ...

thanks for the breakdown here

SEMRush is a largely dog shit tool, but I pay for it for the write off.

OMG best advertising gimmick they could use for their software... and agree.

So many times I see clients when I first chat with them show me SEMRush and all the data - I smile - try not to humiliate them but congratulate them on caring for SEO when most don't then do my own overview. I've seen guys charge close to 6k just to do an overview that has been done with SEM - sad and a rip off.

^^^^^^^^^ This.

I have been there doing it since 1996—way too many changes and basic strategies that people never consider. A lot depends on your age, life experiences, and background for success. That said, learning the basics is just that, learning the basics.

since they change things you have to test.

Says a 6 months old nickname who charges $3 / 100 words for writing erotic stories. Sounds credible yeah...

Riiight... and the time of my account on this forum matters why exactly?

If you're willing to refute the information I presented, by all means, go ahead.

I'd love a good debate.

But a "6-month-old nickname who charges $3/100 words for writing erotic stories" isn't such a tough rebuttal. Try harder.

Yeah, that's why the good ones constantly do A/B testing