Those 9 SEO Tips Are All in Google That You Will Need to Rank

Why don’t planes crash more frequently due to mechanical failure? With all of the moving elements inside a plane, it appears that something would break very easily. So, why isn’t it happening? Checklists are one of the key reasons.

Before pilots press the taxi and take-off buttons, they go through a thorough pre-flight checklist to ensure everything is working properly.

That want to improve their SEO (search engine optimization) ranks should take a look at this. They can construct their own checklist to ensure that everything is right for their next online content. No, an SEO checklist will not keep you from going bankrupt. However, it will help ensure that your post has the highest chance of ranking high in Google.

So, before you publish your next piece of web content, go over the 9-point checklist below for the greatest SEO suggestions.

1. Pick a good keyword to focus on.

The first step is to simply select the search term or phrase for which you wish the post to appear. If I’m going to write about the greatest dog toys for little dogs, I’ll want to know what people are looking for.

The simplest method is to use Google Keyword Planner, a free tool that can provide you with an estimate for any search keyword. (Although Keyword Planner is free, you may need to create an AdWords account to access it.)

For example, I discovered that “little dog toys” receive 590 monthly searches, which is more than any other related term combination. However, I’m not quite ready to begin writing on this subject. First, I must conduct some studies.

2. Research the competition.

Now that I’ve decided on a term for which I want to rank, I’m going to go undercover and conduct some research!

Go to Google.com in your web browser’s “private browsing” mode (“Incognito” in Chrome, “Private” in Safari and Firefox, “InPrivate” in Internet Explorer). (We utilize “private mode” at my firm because we don’t want Google to use our previous search history to affect what we see on the search results page.)

Examine all of the material on Google’s page one, ignoring any ad results at the top. Your competitors are the top ten (or so) results! What are they overlooking? Can you outperform me?

3. Write the best content.

Now that you know who your competitors are, it’s time to develop content that will blow them out of the water. This is the most challenging aspect, but it is also the most vital. It has to be spectacular.

I don’t care if you’re working on a blog piece, an eCommerce store website, or a sales landing page. It must be superior to the competition, or neither Google nor your target audience will take notice.

Check out “How to Become a Millionaire: The Ultimate Guide” for an example of an article I recently published with this purpose in mind. My purpose with that piece was to create excellent content on the subject. How did I fare?

4. Put the keyword in your page title.

This should go without saying, but I’ll mention it anyway: Your page title should include your keyword, but it doesn’t have to be exact (though it can be).

Furthermore, the headline must be intriguing enough that people will want to click on it! A fantastic example of this is PT from PTMoney.com, who produced an excellent piece about “earning extra money.” Instead of a dull title like “Make Extra Money,” he titled it “52 Ways to Make Extra Money.” That’s something I’d be interested in reading.

5. Put the keyword in your header.

Most web pages can be organized by placing a huge title at the top, followed by multiple sub-headers around the page (like the sub-headers in this post).

This organization is useful not just for individuals reading blog post articles, but it also helps Google understand exactly what your blog post is about. As a result, throughout your sub-headers, make sure to employ your exact keyword phrase at least once.

6. Put the keyword in the name and alt-tag of your image.

Next, if your blog post includes photos, you may use those images to help Google understand the content of your post. There are two approaches to this:

1. The image’s title
2. The alt tag for a picture

Simply rename the image on your computer before submitting it to modify the name. You can rename the file “2831274.jpg” to something like “little dog toys 1.jpg” instead of “2831274.jpg.”

After you post the photo to your website, you can change the “alt tag.” Without getting too technical, the alt tag is just the text displayed by the web browser if the image cannot be loaded for some reason.

7. Use the keyword in the URL and in the post.

The URL is another technique for Google to figure out what your blog article is about. In other words, we’re talking about the part of your URL that follows after the “.com” (or .net, .org, or whatever you use). For example, which of the following URLs do you believe Google will prefer when selecting whether or not to display a certain page?

• www.ExampleDogToyWebsite.com
• www.ExampleDogToyWebsite.com/small-dog-toys

If you guessed the second one, you are correct. While the former may not entirely destroy your SEO efforts, the latter clearly shows Google what the post is about.

8. Insert internal links.

Why should anyone care if you’re not talking about your finest content? As a result, it is critical that your greatest SEO material is linked to internally by other pages on your website.

Yes, you may need to go back and amend some earlier postings to include links to the new, fantastic stuff.

9. The most-important SEO tip: Get external links.

Finally, we’ve arrived at the big one: external links.

External links are links to websites that are not your own. Google largely relies on external links to judge the quality of content. And doesn’t this make sense? You can talk all day about yourself and your abilities, but no one will believe you. However, when others start raving about you, others pay the note.

While great content will garner you some links, the truth is that you will need to conduct some “link building.” This entails contacting other website owners in the industry and asking for links. I like to read Backlinko.com for some amazing advice on how to earn these links.

The above nine-point checklist may not cover everything there is to know about SEO, but by merely following it, you will be leagues ahead of the competition and will most likely see major SEO traffic to your posts.