# 4. SEO

Before publishing, be sure to check that you have maximized your blog's SEO.

### Keyword Research Checklist

- [ ]  Find a Primary Keyword to target
    - 4 Free Keyword Research Tools
        - [ ]  [https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner](https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner) - Easy to use, straight from source, good start
        - [ ]  [http://seo.danzambonini.com/](http://seo.danzambonini.com/) - A generator to combine all keywords
        - [ ]  [https://trends.google.com/](https://trends.google.com/) - The ability to see which keywords get searched together
        - [ ]  [https://soovle.com/](https://soovle.com/) - Like Google's autocomplete feature
- [ ]  Find long-tail keyword variations
    - Techniques to find
        - [ ]  Use Soolve/Google Autocomplete with original keywords to find longer versions
        - [ ]  You can also check the 'People also ask' and 'Searches related to' option
    - More info
        
        ![](Untitled.png)
        
- [ ]  Understand search intent
- [ ]  Delve deeper into the questions people are actually asking
- [ ]  Type in google - look for first pages that are forums or doesn't have the actual title listed

### On Page SEO Checklist

- [ ]  Use short, descriptive URLs
- [ ]  Link to relevant internal and external resources
    - [ ]  Internally, you can quick search Google site:yourdomain.com + “topic”
- [ ]  Optimize your images
    - Checklist
        - [ ]  Name them correctly
            
            e.g. my-new-black-kitten.jpg vs 234987298723.jpg
            
        - [ ]  Appropriate ALT Tags
            
            Google uses alt text along with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand the subject matter of the image. […] When choosing alt text, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and is in context of the content of the page. Avoid filling alt attributes with keywords (keyword stuffing) as it results in a negative user experience and may cause your site to be seen as spam.
            
        - [ ]  Choose correct image type
        
        ![](Untitled%201.png)
        
        - [ ]  Create an Image Sitemap
            
            [https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/178636](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/178636) 
            
        - [ ]  Use vector images where available
        - [ ]  
- [ ]  Add Schema Markup
    - For Example
        
        [https://www.jamesdflynn.com/json-ld-schema-generator/](https://www.jamesdflynn.com/json-ld-schema-generator/)
        
        [https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/?hl=en](https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/?hl=en)
        

### Technical SEO Checklist

- [ ]  Identify and fix any crawl errors
    
    You can find crawl errors in Google Search Console > Coverage.
    
- [ ]  Make sure your site loads fast
    
    [https://gtmetrix.com/](https://gtmetrix.com/)
    
- [ ]  Fix outbound broken links
    
    [https://ahrefs.com/blog/fix-broken-links/](https://ahrefs.com/blog/fix-broken-links/)
    
- [ ]  Make sure the page is mobile friendly
    
    [https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly](https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly)
    

### Link Building Checklist

- [ ]  Replicate your competitor's back links
- [ ]  Monitor and re-claim any lost links
- [ ]  Pursue Unlinked Mentions