If you're new to SEO and want some quick tips to get you started, this guide covers everything from keywords to internal linking.

3. ● To create a Google My Business Account, go to this
URL and fill out your business information. It will ask
your for your business location, website URL,
business name, phone number and category.
● Once set up, you’ll be able to upload images, edit
your business hours, display the outside of your
building, include directions to your location and add
posts. These posts are time-sensitive, so use them to
promote events, sales and open positions within
your company.

5. ● By adding your information to local directories, you
earn powerful backlinks and ensure people are
directed to your site and storefront when they’re
searching for you.
● These directories may specific to your niche industry
or location. Yelp and the Yellow Pages are always
good places to start.
● If your directory listings aren’t in order, Google will
drop your ranking. Some programs (like Yext)
coordinate business listing information for you.

7. ● Where LinkedIn and Twitter are great for those in
B2B marketing, Instagram is a great resource for
sharing company photos and showcasing
products.
● Facebook is the most widely-used social media
platform, and you can create Events and reply to
messages through your account. It’s the best
platform for appealing to the older generations.
● With video marketing on the rise, YouTube should
be on your list as well.
● By sharing content on these platforms, you
increase your traffic and opportunities for link
backs.

9. ● A blog gives you content to share with your social
media followers, proof of your expertise, added
website traffic and opportunities to insert keywords
into your website.
● Blogs are easy to start on a WordPress site. Simply
click on ‘posts’ on the left menu and hit the ‘add
post’ button at top of the page.

11. ● Alt-tags are descriptions of images. They can be
added when you upload a media file.
● If you include keywords within your alt-tags, you
improve your ranking in Google Search Results.
● Alt-tags are necessary to comply with ADA
regulations. Blind people use screen readers to
translate your site. If you don’t have alt-tags on
your images, that content is wasted on these
users. You can also face lawsuits for
non-compliance.

13. ● An H1 tag lets Google know that the phrase is a
header. They also improve readability. With
structured content, you rank higher. H1 tags can
be added in WordPress by highlighting your
header, dropping down the paragraph bar, and
choosing ‘Heading 1’.
● These are not the same as titles!
● You should maintain hierarchy while using the
heading tags. Use them in numerical order.

15. ● It’s necessary to have 300 words, because this
tells Google that your content is detailed and
will answer the user’s query.
● Since every site is different, some can get
away with just 50 words. They compensate
with a good link profile (the makeup of links
directing to your site) and strong domain.
● For blog posts, we recommend making your
content even longer (1,500 words), since most
articles ranking on the first page are this
length.

17. ● Don’t sacrifice natural sounding writing for
keyword-stuffing. You’ll be penalized if Google
can tell that you’re writing for SEO purposes
rather than trying to provide valuable
information to your readers.
● On the flip side,including the keyword
throughout your article (perhaps not ‘exact
match’) as well as within the URL, headers and
alt-tags ensures Google knows exactly what
your post is about.
● We shoot for 3-4% keyword density.

19. ● Meta-descriptions provide quick summaries of
web pages. They appear underneath the blue
clickable links in a search engine result page.
Sometimes (like in the case below) they are
edited to take from the first paragraph as well.
● Your keyword should be included in your
meta-description. You are limited to 160
characters, so make the most of it!

21. ● Even though it may be tempting to target broad
keywords like ‘tennis shoes’, you should try to
narrow do the specificity to reduce the number of
people you’re competing with. You can use
location-based targeting (ie: ‘tennis shoes in
Kansas City’) or a descriptor (ie: ‘Blue Nike tennis
shoes’).
● Using tools like SEMrush, you can look up how
many times a keyword gets searched each month
and how difficult it would be to rank for that word.

23. ● Keywords are the most important part of SEO,
since they determine what search queries will bring
up your site. You’ll want to include these terms
wherever possible to let the search engines know
what your web page is all about.
● In the example below, this was the first organic
result for ‘online marketing’. The phrase is in the
title, meta-description and URL (even if the two two
words aren’t right next to each other).

25. ● Interlinking your pages helps reinforce your site
structure, keeps users on your site and
distributes page authority/ranking power
throughout your site. Use anchor text that’s
relevant to the page topic (keywords).
● You’ll want these links to open in a new tab so the
reader doesn’t lose their place in the page they
were looking at.
● Too many outgoing links can reduce the ‘ranking
power’ of the pages you’re linking to. However,
these external links tell Google that you’re more
concerned about user experience (boosts SEO).

27. ● Backlinks are links from other sites that go to your
website. They are one of the most difficult SEO
tasks to achieve, but they carry a lot of weight.
● ‘No-follow’ links are links that do not contribute to
SEO. They can be found in comments sections
and in some forums.
● You can gain ‘follow’ links by writing guest blog
posts for sites with a higher domain authority
than your own, having content featured in media
coverage, posting in some forums, reaching out
to influencers in your industry and creating
share-worthy infographics.

29. ● Schema markups tell the search engines what
your data means, making it easier for them to
crawl your website. These labels identify the
page type (ie: article, recipe, etc.), date, author,
and topic content.
● You can test your structured data using this tool
and add in structured data with this tool. It tells
you where schema markups need to be added in
the code. Adding schema markups helps your
site stand out in the SERP.

31. ● Certain tools allow you to run site audits. These
audits can check for broken links, toxic backlinks,
duplicate content, ADA compliance, and page
load time. A free tool (Google Search Console)
can give you a rundown on anything from broken
links to indexed web pages to HTML markup.
● Many of these issues are easy fixes, but you can
contact a web development company if you
think you’ll need extra help.