SEO Basics: How to Optimize Your Writing for Search Engines with Guaranteed Results

• Research audience keywords. What questions are they typing in?
• Research competitor keywords. What questions are they answering?
• Choose and target only 1 primary keyword, an associated long-tail keyword phrase (LTK), and a few “silo” keywords on each page/post. (For example, in this article, “permaculture” is the KW, “what is permaculture?” is the LTK, and “organic,” “sustainable,” and “ecological” are the silos.)
• Include primary keyword in the URL.
• Add ranking modifiers to the title. For example, “Top 10 Easy to Grow Vegetables” will typically rank higher than “Easy to Grow Vegetables”
• Include one and only one H1 title, and start it with the LTK.
• Put LTK and silos in the first 100 words of your article.
• Use the LTK and silos in H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 subheadings throughout the article.
• Use LTK and silos in image alt text and descriptions.
• Make the LTK and silos bold in a few places in the text.
• Include multiple types of media in the post (text, images, PDFs, videos, all related to your KW).
• Write at least 800 words of original content that cannot be found anywhere else on the internet.
• Include at least 1 unique image and/or video that cannot be found anywhere else on the internet.
• Use the keyword and silos in an infographic.
• Optimize images for speed (this is officially a “technical” SEO thing but you need to learn it no matter what.
• Use mobile-responsive design (also technical but absolutely essential).
• Keep ad ratio to <10% of the page. 
• Use internal links, to other places on your own site.
• Use outbound links, to relevant writing on other websites.
• Ask and answer questions that contain your KW and silos.
• Give visitors a way to comment (this keeps them on the page longer and their comments will likely contain your KW and silos as well).
• Use social share buttons.
• Check grammar and spelling, as bad syntax may be seen as AI-generated and ignored by search engines.
• Create quality backlinks from relevant sources (connect with related websites and ask them to link to your article).
• Avoid low-quality backlinks from ad-heavy sources (don’t ever buy backlinks).
• Don’t overstuff the keywords! If you’ve followed the whole checklist this part might be tricky but go back through and double check that your article doesn’t read like a broken record, as this will have a negative effect on your SEO.

By Heather Jo Flores, successful author of the book “Food Not Lawns, How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community”