Top 5 SEO Tricks from an SEO Expert
Top 5 SEO Tricks
There are a lot of bits and pieces to remember with search engine optimization. I'm just going to say it. There are a lot of things to keep straight.
Whether you're new to blogging or creating content for the web, there's also a bit of anxiety: did I do the right thing to draw people in? How did I try to draw people in? What else can I do to grow my brand's reach?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is consistent in one thing. It is consistent in that it is often changing, and can be a little frustrating if you're trying to keep up with all of that.
There is a way to make SEO simpler to get through and to ensure that you've done all of those little tasks, like making sure your inbound links are inserted if you discuss related relevant content, making sure you've used the appropriate keywords, even making sure your keywords are used in the appropriate places.
I use a checklist of specific actions to take for search engine optimization when I'm writing, well, after I'm done writing, as part of my editing process, actually. In this post, I'm going to share items I keep on that checklist, and why I believe they're important, whether they are reminders or on-page SEO tasks or if off-page SEO techniques.
Five Things to Check for SEO Completeness
1. Did I use all of my keywords?
If you plan ahead like I do, you may have created a list of potential keywords to target as you write up each piece in your content calendar system. Aside from identifying the key terms you'll use to shape your content, a list of those keywords makes it easier to ensure you've hit all the terms your audience might use most often when searching for your content.
2. Am I using the appropriate keywords?
Just using keywords isn't enough. You need to make sure that the keywords you use are relevant, and this section of a checklist is a good reminder. This is when your pre-writing research comes in handy. If your keywords aren't the right ones, you won't gain the traction you're looking for.
3. Did I use long tail keywords and variations of my main keywords?
Long-tail keywords are multi-word phrases that people might use to search for your services or your content. For example, a long-tail keyword for this blog post might be "checklist for search engine optimization."
4. Did I include appropriate inbound links?
If you mention content you've posted before, it's a stellar strategy to add links to those posts. It bumps up your internal linking, and Google loves that. If you mention a specific page on your site that isn't specific to your blog, like your services page or FAQ page, link to it. This kind of link makes your reader's task easier, and you want to do that. Making a reader's job easier is a good way of likely increasing the relevancy of your company in their minds.
5. Did I include a call to action?
A call-to- action (or CTA) tells your reader what you hope they'll do after they read your post. If you want them to subscribe to your newsletter for more tips and tricks, put that request in as your CTA and, here's where it's related to the search engine optimization: did I include a working link to my newsletter? This one isn't directly related to search engine optimization, but it can keep readers looking around your website, which is something that Google sometimes takes into account in its rankings.
Because search engine optimization is ever-changing, it's important to remember to write for people, not for the bots that will crawl your web content looking for information to determine your site's ranking. When you provide useful content and make it easy for people to find, they'll remember that.
