20 Best SEO Strategies for 2017

November 12, 2016 Blogging Guide,SEO,Web traffic

As a new website owner, you needto know best SEO Strategies for 2017. We have created a checklist of 20 separate optimization strategies to consider when preparing your site to rank well on the search engines. These strategies will go a long way in helping you to be able to do basic updates on your website to optimize your success on the search engines.

Additionally, an SEO checklist will act as a useful reminder of the things you should check during and after your project is complete.  There are 3 sections within this checklist which includes mobile, on-page & sitewide checks and balances to have in place.

Mobile SEO Checklist for Beginner’s

I. Mobile Optimization

Seeing as how the use of mobile internet has gone up, it is imperative that your website has been optimized for mobile search which includes such points as:

1. Mobile Usability

Search engines are looking to provide users with the best mobile experience. Check your website to ensure that this is exactly what it does.

2. Voice and Mobile Related Keywords

Try a voice search for your keywords. Then, get your website optimized for the voice and mobile-related words that make the most sense for your project.

3. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP’s are an open source project that will enable your pages to load immediately after getting clicked on by a mobile user.

On-Page SEO Checklist for Beginner’s

II. On Page Optimization

Check all your vital pages – from the high priority product pages down to the home page – for the following:

1. Head Section Order

Make sure that your Meta tags are rightly ordered – including your descriptions, keywords, and titles.

2. Title Tag

Title tags should be around 9 words long, and include top keywords while offering diversity within each title tag.

3. Description Tag

The tag should cover your most important keywords and information. It should be around 156 characters (including spaces) or 24 words long.

4. Keywords Tag

SEO’s use keyword tags for basic optimization tracking and guidance. Use it to list your keywords from the longest to the shortest, separated with commas.

5. Heading Tags

These tags will allow readers to see the main points and sections of the page.

6. Word Count

Word count varies by competition, user internet, keyword, and topic.  It is best to have a variance from 500 to over 1500 within different pages of your content.

7. Call to Action

Your CTA should be included on all key pages. For product pages, have call, get a quote, or buy calls to action.

8. Video and Image Optimization

Videos and images are engagement objects that will increase interest from multimedia outreach.  Primary ones within this category include videos and graphics.  The best blog sites today find a way to feature these multimedia properties because they know the associated power that is available.  Optimize your multimedia for search engines and when the attention of organic traffic from search results in a variety of ways rather than just the textual listing.

9. Structured Data Markup

Structured data will clarify what the content on the page is about, of course for search engines. Include phone numbers and locations.

10. Social Markup

Social Meta tags refer to the code you will use to enhance the content on your Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media accounts for your website.

11. URL Optimization

Always use dashes (instead of underscores) in your URLs. You should also use descriptive URLs, containing the keywords but without looking spammy.

12. Fully Qualified Links

Making your internal links qualified will ensure it is easier for search engine browsers and spiders to locate the linked-to files.

13. Content Freshness

As far as possible, ensure that you review your content periodically to confirm that it is completely up to date.

14. External CSS and JavaScript

You should ensure that search engine bots can crawl your most important code. Get rid of unnecessary code lined above your body text by externalizing CSS and JavaScript code.

Sitewide SEO Checklist for Beginner’s

Sitewide Optimization

Always focus on trust, authority, and expertise to ensure that your SEO game is on top while conveying relevance to the subject you are discussing.

15. Contact Information

Search engines expect you to visibly and clearly include such contact details as addresses and phone numbers especially if you are running a locally oriented business project.

16. Testimonials

Include testimonials in your website.

20. Privacy Statement

A privacy statement is a trust signal that search engines use to rank your results higher.

So, there you have it – the top 20 SEO checklist items to work with as of 2016 and into 2017. Always work with it to ensure that your search engine optimization strategies have been done perfectly and that nothing has been left to chance.

About Author:  Trey Donaldson is a social media wizard who specializes in Twitter, SEO and Digital Marketing. He would love to showcase his expertise to help others learn and grow.