Before deciding on pages to create or edit for SEO purposes, use this checklist:
- Find any current keyword rankings within Google Search Console or another SEO tool. Rankings within striking distance, or near the bottom of the 1st page of search results, already have potential.
- Determine if search intent is navigational, informational, or transactional. Some keywords represent someone learning a topic instead of wanting to buy something. Google tries to capture the overall intent within their results.
- Know the result features for your keyword. Some will display news stories, another may present 3 local businesses, yet others show a video carousel. Each search query favors different media or ways of organizing content which you must consider.
- Perform competitor research on the top 3 listings. Ask yourself… how can I address these topics even better? Then ask, what unique value can I provide?
- Finally, how can I improve clickthrough rates from the search engines? This means having keyword-rich yet compelling URL breadcrumbs, titles, meta descriptions, and other rich snippets like sitelinks or a publish date.
A good SEO can delve into each of the steps more deeply, yet anyone can begin here to maximize their content’s impact.