This article outlines the steps I take when writing an article to ensure it is search engine friendly and to guarantee better placement in the SERPs (Search engine results pages).  Step two gives a bullet form SEO Checklist for optimizing your posts.  I’ve read a lot of SEO topic articles that give in-post SEO advice, but none which break down in point form practical things one can do to achieve top rankings.

The majority of these steps I gleaned from other articles, through trial and error and some serious expert advice I gained from utilizing a revolutionary SEO plugin which guarantees top results in the SERPs.  Now there is a fine line between writing for the search engines and writing quality content, some people lean more towards search engine friendly posts, meaning they aggressively plant their keywords into their post, and they sacrifice the written quality of an article to please the bots.  On the other hand there is writing purely for the sake of a quality article.  I tend to lean more towards the quality written word versus being SEO friendly.  You will have to find your own balance.  Though the former will perhaps make you more visible in the search engines, the later is more human friendly thus gaining a stronger following and reader base.

Step One: Find a Low Competition Keyword Phrase

Before writing your article you need to do some brief research.  A high ranking in the SERPs will only mean something  if you are successful with keywords that people are actually searching for.  One can spend just a few minutes and identify some good keywords for your title and content.  I generally go with keyword phrases (two to three words) versus single keywords, with each post I focus in on a single keyword phrase as my primary target.  The research  you must conduct will help identify a valuable keyword that people are actually searching for and that has a low amount of competing pages.  There are numerous tools you can use for this, I use Google Adwords Keyword Tool (Many other valuable tools exist, some free, some worth paying for like Keywords Magnet).

Using the Adwords Keyword Tool I’m going to enter in a few ideas I have for a post title (since my post title will always include my keyword phrase).  Google will make additional suggestions.  Write in as many variations and ideas as you can come up with.  Once you settle on a strong keyword phrase you can begin writing your article.  Incorporate your keyword phrase into the title of your article.  Expert tip: Carve your article title in such a way that it is something people are likely to type into a search engine, for example this post could easily have been titled “Moving up in the SERPs guaranteed”, but I changed it to a more personalized “How Can I Move up in the SERPs guaranteed?”.  The second title features a more personalized search engine friendly keyword phrase.

Step Two: SEO Checklist, follow this to rank high in the SERPs.

There are a number of specific things you can do to ensure your post is highly visible to search engines and that the keyword phrase you have chosen ranks high.  Now it is important to realize that successfully utilizing keywords in your post doesn’t guarantee a top spot in the SERPs as google takes a number of other things into consideration (such as domain age, page rank, etc…)  When writing a post the things I make sure I do as often as possible include.

• Including my keyword in H1, H2 and H3 tags.  My title is my H1 tag so I don’t use it anywhere else in the post since it is just too big.
• Make your keyword phrase BOLD and italicize it.  This puts emphasis on your keywords which is noticed by search engines.  An additional emphasis you can include is underlining.
• Include your keywords in the ALT tag of any images used in the post.
• Make sure any external links within the post are no follow. (Add rel=nofollow to the html in the code for the link).
• Measure your keyword density and make sure it sits somewhere between 3.5 and 5% but definitely NO HIGHER than 5%.
• Include your keyword(s) in the first and last sentence of the post.
• Include at least one internal link to other pages on your site.

Step 3: SEOPressor guarantees results in the SERPs.

There are obviously other things one can do to optimize a post.  Including specifying custom meta data for the post title, description and additional keywords.  If you have any tips I didn’t include please share them with our readers in the comments!  Here’s the most amazing part, you don’t have to do any of the tips I mention manually anymore.  Ensuring that you follow the above steps and analyzing your keyword density can be a tedious and time consuming chore.  Time you just don’t have!  Thankfully there is an available and amazing solution.

SEOPressor is an amazing WordPress plugin that incorporates all the advice I’ve given in this post and more into your wordpress editor. Click Here to find out more! I’ve always done my SEO manually, but SEOPressor scans your post and lets you know what you need to do or change in order to optimize your post properly.  Did you forget to put your keyword in the last sentence?  Did you fail to include your keyword in a H1 tag?  SEOPressor will let you know.  This plugin is currently the ONLY plugin I would actually recommend and encourage people to purchase. It will change your ranking in the SEPRs guaranteed.  SEOPressor also analyzes your keyword density in real time so you can see how well you are using your primary keyword (or keyword phrase), and whether you are using it enough or perhaps too much (as I mentioned above do not exceed 5% keyword density in your posts!).

Click the image below to watch a video of SEOPressor in action.

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Did you find this article helpful?  Perhaps you have additonal in post SEO tips you can suggest for our readers.  You’re encouraged to leave a comment and share your tips for moving up in the SERPs.