Checklist

SEO content
To rank high in the search engines, you need compelling SEO content on your
website. Powerful SEO copy drives more traffic to your site and improves your
conversion rate by turning more visitors into customers.

Use this checklist to create perfectly SEO optimized content for your site!

1 One keyword or group of related keywords per web

If you optimize multiple web pages for the same keyword, you are competing with
yourself. This is called “keyword cannibalization”.

Use only one keyword or group of related keywords per web page.

2 Use one or more keywords in your SEO optimized article

The following points help you determine the number of keywords to use for your
article:

➢ The longer your article, the more keywords you can optimize it for.

➢ Only optimize for multiple keywords in one article if they are similar and have
the same search intent.

3 How long should your article be?

SEO content generally has around 350+ words.

Look at your niche and website to figure out how long your article should be:
 ➢ Traffic source: lots of visitors from social media? Short content tends to do
quite well.

➢ Niche: is your niche super competitive? Then you typically need longer content
to rank well.

➢ Target audience: a younger target audience will appreciate short content

➢ Authority: does your website have a high Domain Authority? In that case, you
can often rank well also with shorter content.

➢ Characteristics of the keywords: what do users want to know? A simple search

➢ Check the search results! If you want to rank for keyword X, take a look at the
top 10 search results. How many words do the top ranking web pages have?
This is a good indication of how long your article should be.

4 Write for your visitors

Search engines don’t buy your products or services, but visitors do. So: always write
for your visitors!

Use keywords in your copy in a natural way and don’t overdo it.

5 Use LSI keywords

LSI keywords are words that are related to the keyword you’re writing about
(synonyms, related words). LSI keywords increase relevancy and give the right
context to your content.

6 Put keywords in your SEO title tag

The SEO title looks like this in HTML code: <title>This is my title</title>.

➢ Put your keywords in the SEO title tag.

➢ Put your keywords at the beginning – if possible and where it makes sense.
 ➢ Don’t use the same title over and over. Preferably give each page on your
website a unique SEO title!

➢ Make your titles powerful and attention grabbing. Google often displays your
SEO title in the search results. A powerful title gets more clicks.

➢ Maximum of 512 pixels (60 characters).

7 Keywords in the meta description

The meta description looks like this in HTML code <meta name="description"
content=”This is my meta description.”/>

➢ Put your keywords in the meta description.

➢ Make your meta description to the point and attention grabbing.

➢ Max 920 pixels (155 characters).

➢
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Useful tools to check the maximum length of your SEO title and meta description
are Yoast SEO (if you use WordPress) and SEOmofo snippet optimizer.

8 Keywords in the URL

Create a short, concise, and clear URL with your keywords in it.

Use hyphens instead of underscores: /my-keyword instead of /my_keyword.

9 Keywords in H1 heading

This is the visible heading, usually at the top of the page. It looks like this in HTML
code: <h1>This is my heading</h1>.

Include your keywords, preferably and if possible at the beginning.

➢ Your H1 heading will usually be the same as your SEO title tag, but this is not
obligatory. You can create a different H1 heading if you like. Do make sure
 they are similar, so as not to confuse a user who clicks through from the
search results to your website.

➢ It is best practice to use only one H1 per web page.

10 Keywords in the sub headings (H2 - H6)

11 Keywords in the body copy

➢ Include your keywords in the beginning, middle, and end of the text.

➢ Use bold and italics to emphasize important points in your text.

➢ Use keywords naturally and don’t over optimize your article. If you put your
keywords in the text too often, users and search engines will not like it.

➢ Yoast SEO for WordPress advises an optimal keyword density between 0.5 and
3%. Remember: this is just a guideline! The most important thing is to write a
text that reads naturally and looks good for both users and search engines.

12 Keywords in images

Does your text include images? Then also use your keywords in:

➢ File name (my-keyword.jpg)

➢ Alt text

➢ Don’t spam > keep it natural!

13 Links (internal and external)

If you link to related web pages on your own site (internal links) or other websites
(external links), you increase the relevancy of your webpage. Include internal and
external links if this is useful to your readers.
14 Good usability

People “scan” articles when reading online. This is how you make sure your content
has good usability:

➢ Inverted pyramid (most important information at the beginning)

➢ Use lots of headings/sub headings (every 2 to 5 paragraphs)

➢ KISS (keep it short and simple)

➢ Short paragraphs (50 to 75 words) with lots of white space in between

➢ Use bullet points/tables

➢ Use bold/italics for important pieces of text

15 Write compelling content

Visitors and search engines love high quality SEO content:

➢ Compelling content and good writing style

➢ Correct spelling and grammar

➢ Use multimedia, like images, screenshots, videos, and infographics

➢ Nice looking design and layout > this will lead to more social shares and
backlinks

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Using WordPress?

A useful plugin to create great looking posts and (sales) pages is Thrive Architect
(aff.).