2008 Year-End SEO Checklist
Posted: December 22nd, 2008
With 2008 quickly coming to an end, and this being our last post in the “search engine optimization” category for the year, I just thought that it would be a good time to compile a checklist of SEO concepts for you to reconsider and audit against your existing websites.
Keyword Research
Add any foreseeable emerging phrases or trends to your master keyword list. Are there terms (phased-out products) to remove from the list?
Crawling & Indexing
Update your sitemap and ensure there are no errors. Check for a mismatch between the number of URLs submitted and the number of indexed pages. Do you have any duplicate title / meta / content warnings? Redirect any missing pages to relevant existing ones, or put up friendly custom 404 error pages.
Links
Check your outgoing links to see if those web pages still exist, or if they’ve changed to naughty content (don’t link to bad neighbourhoods!). This would also be a good time to check up on your so-called reciprocal link partners to see if they are still linking to you.
Social Interactivity
The new year is fast approaching and there’s no time like the present to jump on the social bandwagon. Add some dimension to your website by adding some social interactivity like a blog, forum, or even a chatroom. Now’s also a good time to consider adding a profile to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social communities.
At the very least, add a contact form or email address to your “About Us” page. 
Good list. Many websites are in great need of conducting either an in-house or outsourced seo audit. A couple of other areas site owners may want to focus on when conducting the site audit includes fresh, unique & authoritative content. A great solution is utilizing a blog, housed on a sub-folder of a domain, to push useful content to users & search engines. With site structure, especially for eTailers, watch out for duplicate content via poorly managed URL strings, URL naming conventions, and the correct header responses/redirects. The convergence of social media with search is opening many channels for marketers to expand their voice, participation and build relevant/quality links.