SEO Checklist to Help You Rank Higher in Google

Have you ever sat down and written content for your site and felt overwhelmed on what to write and how to write it? You want to make sure your content is helping drive traffic to your site, but maybe you don’t know some of the tips that can help make that happen. With all the competition out there to show up on the first page of search engine results, we thought it would be helpful to know some tips that can make a world of difference in your rankings.

Here is a short SEO checklist that you can filter each post you create through to ensure the chances are stronger that you will rank higher in Google searches for that keyword or phrase.

1. Do you have a strong keyword or search term? You want to be thinking of what phrase or search terms people will be typing in Google to look for what you are offering. But how do you know which ones are the best? There is a free tool called Google Keyword Planner that will show you the popularity on any phrase you could possibly think of. This is a super helpful resource because it will help you determine which keywords are the most searched, and you can use that information to build your post. But before you get started writing your content, you’ll want to do a little bit of research on that term first.
2. Research the top sites on your search term or keyword. The best way to do this is to open an “incognito” window so that any previous searches you have done do not impact the content that shows up when you put the search term or keyword in Google. You can do this by holding down Control+Shift+N. It opens up a private browser. Now put your keyword or search term in Google the websites you see listed there (ignore sponsored listings) are your competition. Spend some time going to their websites and reading their content. Think of ways you might be able to improve on what they have written.
3. Write mind-blowing content. You’ve taken a look at your competition and you’ve studied what they are doing. Now you want to focus on writing content that will be highly valuable to your audience. This takes time and dedication, but it is an extremely crucial step. You want your audience to see that what you offer is better quality, more valuable, more informative and helpful than your competitions. This will help establish you the credible and trustworthy resource to go to when they need what you have to offer.
4. Put the keyword in your blog title. You don’t have to put it exactly in that order, although you can. What’s also important, though, is that you try to make your title something catchy that will pique people’s interest. People like lists and like numbers, so it could be something like 6 SEO Tips to Rank #1 on Google.
5. Use your keyword in the header of your blog. Usually there is a larger header followed by smaller sub-headings. Make sure to put the exact keyword or phrase in at least one of the sub-headings.  
6. Keywords in images and alt-tags. Does your blog have any images? If so, this is a great way to re-enforce to Google the theme of your post or site. You can do this by
   1. Changing the name of the image BEFORE you upload it to your site to include your keyword or phrase.
   2. Editing the alt-tag. This is something you would do AFTER you have uploaded the image to your site. Simply put, this is the text that would show up if your image will not load for some reason. So even if your image doesn’t load, having your phrase or keyword there can help you rank higher on search engines.
7. Put your keyword or phrase in your post URL. Google will rank posts higher that have the keyword in the URL, where your keyword shows up after the “.com” (or whatever extention your website uses). For example, a post with a URL such as www.seotips.com/5seotipstorankhigher will be favored by Google more than a post URL like this: www.seotips.com/185739274957.
8. Make sure you are linking to your content internally. Since you are writing exceptional content, be sure you are going through other posts you have written and finding a way to link to old content to the new content you are writing.
9. External links make all the difference! This tip is HUGELY important. Google relies heavily on what other sites are linked to your website to determine how high it should rank. Which means you may have to reach out to some other websites to do some link building. That is a topic that requires some additional training and research, but it is well worth your time to focus on, as this (along with the other tips above) will heavily determine how you rank for the terms and keywords you have decided on.

We realize this can be an overwhelming process, and while it is possible to do on your own, many find it much more reliable and cost-effective to hire a company that is highly skilled in this area and knows how to get results. If you would like some guidance with this, we would be happy to help you out. Request a free quote today!