the ultimate seo checklist

THE ULTIMATE SEO CHECKLISTFor Improving Your Site’s Search Rankings

My Digital Marketing Story

Developer Marketer Speaker Teacher

How I Learn SEO

Read

Test

Fail

Discuss

Improve

Succeed

3 Areas of Focus

Promoting

Building

Planning

Ranking Factors – Big Picture

Site

• Trust• Authority• Relevance

Page

• Content• Context• Optimization

Mentions

• Quantity• Quality• Relevance

The Game Has Changed

PLANNING“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

Developing a Keyword and Content Plan

Customers Influencers Search Engines

Customer-Focused Keyword Research

• Know your customer• Pair customer needs with keyword phrases• Measure keyword supply and demand

Keyword Research Checklist Is it relevant to your product/service offerings? Can you create interesting content around it? Is there sufficient demand to justify your time and costs? Do the existing results add sufficient value? Would ranking guide for it guide a customer to your

conversion funnel?

Customer Content Planning Checklist Does it answer a question? Does it solve a problem? Does it make their life easier? Is it interesting? Is it entertaining?

Influencer Content Planning Checklist Is it useful to their audience? Is there educational value for their audience? Is there entertainment value for their audience? Does it make them look good?

Search Content Planning Checklist Does it fit within the content theme of my website? Is it unique? Is it substantial?

BUILDINGStay Focused and Keep Shipping ~ Mark Zuckerberg

Building out Your ContentCustomers Search Engines

Customer Publishing Checklist Does it pass the quick scan test? Does it have good multimedia? Is it accessible? Is it easy to find through search or navigation? Is it easy to share? Is there a call to action or next step? Is it readable on mobile devices? Does the page load fast?

Search Publishing Checklist Is your most important keyword phrase in the <title> tag? Is your most important keyword phrase in the <h1> tag? Do you use your keywords in the <img alt=“keyword”>

attribute? Does your keyword phrase appear in the first 1-2

paragraphs? Do you have an enticing <meta> description? Is the page linked to from important and relevant pages? Have you connected your G+ author profile?

PROMOTINGIn the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. ~ David Ogilvy

Claim Your Brand Use KnowEm to research/secure social media profiles Use Yext to reserve local listings/directories

Make Promotion Automatic Use Buffer or Hootsuite to syndicate new content Use MailChimp or Aweber to email new content

Be in the Know Set Google Alerts for relevant brands, companies, people Subscribe to hash tags and keywords on G+ and Twitter Subscribe to community newsletters

Connect with Your Community Tweet/like/+1/share/engage daily Participate in community forums/blogs daily Write weekly about products/services/people/companies

Make sure they know about it! Connect in person monthly

Bonus – Important to Avoid Buying links through a link broker Over-linking to your content from your other sites Low quality PR submissions/links Any link jobs on Fiverr, eBay, etc. Low quality links (comments, forums, directories) Over optimization of links and content Duplicate/syndicated content

Last Bit of Advice Don’t mess with Google – they’re a lot smarter than you Once a site has been penalized it’s game over SEO success is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself.

Around the WebTwitter @jeremypalmerPersonal Blog – JeremyPalmer.com