What's the single highest-priority item on this checklist?

Directly answering "is this a credible, worthwhile source for this specific topic" somewhere prominent — it's the actual starting point for most searches in this category.

How often should this checklist be revisited?

Quarterly at minimum — content goes stale, technical issues creep in, and competitors add new pages, so a one-time pass isn't enough.

Media & Publishing SEO Checklist

Quick answer

The highest-priority items for media and publishing companies: answer "is this a credible, worthwhile source for this specific topic" directly on the site, build out editorial standards pages, and fix the industry's most common gap — no visible editorial standards or author credentials, in a category where trust and credibility are the entire product.

Content checklist

A page that directly answers "is this a credible, worthwhile source for this specific topic"
Complete, non-generic editorial standards pages
Complete, non-generic topic hub pages
Complete, non-generic author credential pages
Complete, non-generic archive/topic index pages

Technical checklist

Fast page load on mobile
Clear navigation — 3 clicks or fewer to any page
Working internal links between related pages
A real, current sitemap.xml

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What not to bother with

Local-pack optimization and location pages — this isn't a location-driven category, so that effort is better spent on content depth.

The one thing to fix first

No visible editorial standards or author credentials, in a category where trust and credibility are the entire product.

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