This document provides an SEO checklist for improving a site's search rankings. It covers 3 areas of focus: planning, building, and promoting content. The planning section includes developing keyword and content plans focused on customers, influencers, and search engines. The building section provides checklists for creating customer-focused, search-optimized content. The promoting section offers tips for claiming social media profiles, automating promotions, engaging communities, and things to avoid like buying links. The overall checklist emphasizes a long-term, white hat approach to SEO success.

1. THE ULTIMATE SEO
CHECKLIST
For Improving Your Site’s Search Rankings

2. My Digital Marketing Story
Developer Marketer Speaker Teacher

3. How I Learn SEO
Read
Test
Fail
Discuss
Improve
Succeed

4. 3 Areas of Focus
Promoting
Building
Planning

5. Ranking Factors – Big Picture
Site
• Trust
• Authority
• Relevance
Page
• Content
• Context
• Optimization
Mentions
• Quantity
• Quality
• Relevance

6. The Game Has Changed

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

8. Developing a Keyword and Content Plan
Customers Influencers Search Engines

9. Customer-Focused Keyword Research
• Know your customer
• Pair customer needs with keyword phrases
• Measure keyword supply and demand

10. 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?

11. 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?

12. 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?

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

14. BUILDING
Stay Focused and Keep Shipping ~ Mark Zuckerberg

15. Building out Your Content
Customers Search Engines

16. 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?

17. 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?

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

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

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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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.

25. Around the Web
Twitter @jeremypalmer
Personal Blog – JeremyPalmer.com