SEO is a complex beast. It involves many moving parts that aren’t simple to navigate without specialized certifications or years of on-the-job training. If you’re a growing brand or one whose SEO just hasn’t yet been fruitful, this simple checklist can get you off to a good start!

SEO is ever-changing and so are the algorithms that determine how we do our jobs. This guide gives you the basics and the technical work that you’ll need to complete to get your site where you want it to be. The pressure might be on to create content constantly, but the site that hosts that content must be high quality so your amazing content can be effective. Before you can create the content, the site must be optimized and ready to roll. In order to ensure your site is getting the sort of convertible clicks that you want; you’ve got to first make sure you’re covered in the SEO department.

The Content

The content itself is really what users are coming to your site for, and that means the content has to be good and SEO-friendly. That can be a challenge, but the steps below will make it a little easier.

Make sure to use subheadings

Subheadings help to break up the text on a page so your users can more easily navigate the page. This gives them a break between information dumps, so they stay involved and don’t click away from the site. It’s also another great place to use keywords to make your content more SEO-friendly.

Break up your text with images

You don’t want a big cluster of images anywhere in your on-page content. Your images should be well dispersed throughout the content and should be relevant to the content at hand. Don’t throw images in just to have them.

Ensure your sentences aren’t too long

Sentences, ideally, should be no longer than 20 words. It makes it easier and quicker for the user to read.

Use active voice

Active voice keeps your users engaged and interested throughout your content. This is especially important for content that may not be the most engaging on its own.

For longer posts, create a table of contents

A table of contents helps your users understand how to navigate the content and will keep them on the page for longer. They won’t have to scroll and hunt for one thing in particular, and they’re more likely to engage with the content again.

The Off-Page

It’s not all about the content, and there is some work to be done off-page.

Work to link build

Link building means getting your site linked on other sites and mentioned in different locations across the internet. This drives traffic to you and helps you rank higher in search engines because they see you mentioned more often.

Fix broken inbound links

Any links you have that are linking back to your site should be working perfectly. Typically, a site auditing tool can alert you to any broken links and it’s crucial to fix them as soon as you can.

Check for unlinked mentions of your site

If you see a mention of your site somewhere that’s unlinked, reach out to the content creator and have them link to you! Mentions are traffic and without a link, that traffic has nowhere to go.

Publish guest-written posts

Publishing posts that are written or created by guests helps everyone involved. It brings more traffic to you and to them and is another great opportunity to increase your ranking.

If this seems like a lot of work; it is!

SEO isn’t simple, even though we all wish it could be, and at some point, it could become more than you can handle alone. One of our clients came to us after getting through “The Content” and the “The Off-Page” was a little more than they could do on their own. Overwhelming SEO is part of the business, and no one is more aware of that than us!