SEO can seem like a daunting task, but if you take steps to insure that you are covering some key components when building your website, you can easily and significantly improve your search engine page rankings.

Here is a list to follow when making a website which how to easily rank high on Google.

It is important to divide this list into things that will improve your SEO in the content of your pages, things that will improve your SEO in the background code of your website, and things that can be done outside the site itself.

Let’s start with the content since it is key to page ranking.

Improving SEO through content:

• Content is king. It needs to be good, meaning good enough to repost and share. Make it relevant and up-to-date.
• Do the research to find good keywords. (Use Google’s Keyword helper: link to https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2999770)
• Choose only 1-2 keywords for any single page; this is definitely a quality over quantity scenario. 
• Titles should be relevant phrases that someone would potentially type into a search engine and must incorporate a keyword. (Optimized search phrases)
• Have a minimum of 250 words worth of content on every page.
• Use synonyms of keywords within content often.
• Have relevant Imagery.
• Caption imagery and graphics with optimized search phrase when appropriate.

Now that the site has a strong SEO content to cultivate high-ranking pages the next thing to focus on is helping page ranking in the background.

Improving your SEO through code / background:

• Use the h1 tag one time and make it your optimized search phrase.
• Use h2, h3, h4, etc. tags after the h1 tag and in order.
• Include keyword or optimized search phrase in URL
• Keep all title tags below 65 characters and include keywords or optimized search phrase.
• Use dashes (-) not underscores (_)
• Add alt tags to all imagery and graphics on page. (Should contain the keywords or optimized search phrase for that page.)
• Name images with relevant descriptions that include keywords, but keep them short and sweet.
• Make your site responsive / mobile-friendly

Finally once the site is up and running with the above checklist completed it is also important to think about the future. Keeping the following things in mind after the sites launch can also help boost page rankings greatly.

Improving SEO after launch (off-page):

• Get as many inbound links as possible (links from .edu and .org sites increase your rankings even more.) This can take time, but that’s okay as you want these inbound links spread out over time.
• Set up social media pages (Yelp, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.) and link to your site through them. These sites may differ based on the type of business.
• Fuel “likes” and “shares” on all social media outlets. (Do not let these social media outlets sit un-updated for too long.)
• Encourage patrons / customers to positively review your business on sites like Yelp, Google+, etc.

Remember, search engines don’t update overnight; this can take time. However, following this guide will put you well on your way to a first page ranking!

Thanks for reading my checklist, hope it was helpful. For more tips be sure to subscribe to our blog and mailing list!