My SEO checklist for cracking landing pages
1. Have you got your keyword sorted?
Every landing page needs a keyword (also known as a search term), which helps Google work out what the content is about. It's up to you what the keyword is, but you need to be consistent once you've chosen it.
The keyword should feature strategically in the structure of the copy on each individual landing page:
→ In the URL
→ In the H1
→ In an H2 (at least one)
→ In the first paragraph (ideally the first line)
→ In the body copy (you can use it both too much and too little)
Your keyword is the angle of your content, and depending on your keyword and content strategy (in terms of volume and competition, for example), it can be broad or narrow.
Example
- Rye bread → broad keyword
- Gluten-free rye bread → narrow keyword (longtail)
But how do you actually use the keyword in practice when it needs to be used strategically on a landing page? Let's reuse the gluten-free rye bread example:
→ URL: www.rugbroedsopskrifter.dk/glutenfrit-rugbroed*
→ H1: Recipe for delicious gluten-free rye bread
→ H2: Why gluten-free rye bread is good
→ In the first paragraph: Use the keyword as early as possible in the copy, ideally in the first line.
→ In the body copy: The optimal frequency of the keyword depends on the length of the copy. Use the keyword two or three times per H2, or get help from tools like Yoast.
* Remember not to use æ, ø or å in the URL, it’s frowned upon.
2. Have you remembered your Hs?
Headings and subheadings on your page need to be tagged correctly as H1 and H2 – it's not enough just to style* them. I can't stress this enough.
Each landing page has only one H1, i.e. the main heading. In news media it's called the headline, and Google gets confused about the page's message if there's more than one H1. For obvious reasons, your H1 should also be at the top of the landing page.
H2s are the equivalent of a subheading (or crosshead, if you're familiar with media lingo). A landing page can have several H2s.
On an individual landing page, the H1 and H2 must not be the same, and in fact you should ideally avoid using the same headings and subheadings across the whole site, if possible. Most important, though, is not to duplicate H1s.
* Styling text can mean making it bold, italic, underlined, big or small. When you create a heading, it's not enough to choose font size 38 and make the text bold (visually, that is, not figuratively). A heading M U S T be tagged as an H1, otherwise Google doesn't know it's a heading.
READ ALSO: Our complete SEO guide
3. Have you answered the most common questions?
We search on Google to get answers, but do you know which search combinations people use with your chosen keyword?
That's well worth knowing. You have a better chance of writing comprehensive, relevant copy if you work in the answers to the most obvious questions.
A good (and free) tool I use really often is Answer the Public. Here you can type in your search term (remember to choose your country and language before you search) and get a series of visualised branches of people's longtail searches. It can look like this:
Here you can see that people often search for with/without seeds, yeast or sourdough, so it makes sense to use that in your copy. It could be in the form of recipes, recommendations or experiences with one thing or another.
It's also a good idea to use this insight to ask a question in an H2, which you then answer in the copy.
Example
H2: Is yeast or sourdough best for gluten-free rye bread? → The body copy in the section should answer the question from the H2.
4. Is the copy long enough?
When Google crawls your copy, one of the things it looks at is length: whether it's long enough to offer qualified knowledge about a topic.
A rule of thumb in SEO circles is a minimum of 300 words, and many would consider landing page copy of that length to be very much on the short side.
I'd like to challenge that dogma, though, because it's not only very long, completely exhaustive landing pages that end up at number one in the search engines.
If your copy runs to more than 600-700 words (or more), that's absolutely fine, as long as you stick to one angle.
If you spread yourself across too many topics, it's better to create several different landing pages with a sharper angle – that way there's also a better chance that the right people end up on your page.
5. Is readability top-notch?
How the copy is laid out on a landing page is anything but irrelevant. Readability is what ensures a natural flow and that the copy gets read to the end.
But how do you make digital copy readable?
In short: With space and eye-catchers.
Space is vital, because no one can take in what's known in plain English as a wall of text: a wall of dense, overwhelming information that never ends. You want to avoid that at all costs, because it makes the reader give up.
The eye-catchers should spark the reader's curiosity and give the eye a break from the copy, which can quickly become tedious to look at. As a reader, you should be lured along by tasty breadcrumbs, Hansel and Gretel style, until you reach the bottom of the copy.
“Could you maybe give some examples of what you mean?” you might be thinking. And yes, of course!
Tips for more space and eye-catchers, in no particular order:
→ Double line breaks, so your copy becomes small, bite-sized pieces of information. There's always room for one more bite (both figuratively and when you're enjoying a delicious meal). Nom, nom, nom.
→ Keep it short and precise. The longer a sentence is, the harder it is to read. So watch out for parenthetical clauses and convoluted explanations. A rule of thumb is that a sentence should ideally be under 20 words.
→ Never skimp on H2s! Use your subheadings to ask questions or make a point that's expanded on in the section. When you skim a text, you use the highlighted text and headings to find the relevant information.
→ Keep sections on a short leash. A section is the text that belongs to an H2. Keep it to the point and give the reader answers or knowledge. A section shouldn't be more than 150 words.
→ Fire up video, images and graphics, as they create engagement and break up the copy visually. They're also an opportunity for an extra layer of information that can be convoluted or boring to explain in writing. Images and video are also a factor Google takes into account in its rankings, so in every way it's low-hanging fruit.
→ Lists (!!!) are a brilliant trick. They're a clearer way of presenting information, and they catch the eye. And search engines like lists too. Win-win-win.
→ Highlight points with styling. As I mentioned further up, you must never use styling to create headings (because Google's robots can't read it – they look for H1 and H2 instead). But go all out in your body copy, because styling is eye-catching and emphasises important information.
→ Remember to check the mobile view before you publish. Text is much easier to take in on a computer screen than on a mobile. So don't commit deadly sin #1 by forgetting to check how your copy is laid out on mobile. Preview it and check that your landing page is easy to digest on small screens too.
TIP ↓
Of course, you shouldn't count the words in sentences and sections manually. Work smarter, not harder, and get help keeping track of the copy with tools.
I use Yoast, for example. It checks the copy and makes recommendations for improvements (or gives you the green light when everything's in order).
6. Have you written for people or robots?
There was a time when you could hardly use your keyword enough, but fortunately Google is smarter now. Today, you need to remember to use synonyms and related words in your copy. This is also known as semantic SEO.
The latest BERT update means the search engine better understands the language behind a search, so those odd staccato headings are fortunately on their way out.
If you had a driving school in Copenhagen, in the “old days” you'd give it a heading identical to the keyword phrase, such as “driving school Copenhagen”.
But that's a strange heading! You wouldn't shout that out of the window at passers-by to draw attention to your business, either.
A better heading for your landing page could be: “Copenhagen's best driving school”. It's a proper sentence, and even though people will be confused that you're shouting it out of the window, they won't be in any doubt about the message.
In short: Write proper sentences and don't overexploit your keyword. Your copy is for people, and the robots understand it just fine.
7) Have you remembered the details?
As everyone knows, the devil is in the detail, and it can affect your organic ranking if you forget to fill in the meta description and meta title, or to do internal link building.
Your meta title and meta description are what's shown in Google when your landing page appears in a search.
This is also called a SERP snippet (SERP stands for Search Engine Result Page), and if you don't fill it in yourself, Google does it by pulling text from the landing page.
The auto-generated text doesn't always give the best overview (or hook the reader).
If you fill it in yourself, you can give your meta title and description a sharp angle by using active verbs, the imperative and a CTA. I use Storybase to help me make sure I write engaging, clickable copy.
The tool scores the copy on how good it is. I used it for this blog post myself (and of course I didn't stop until I had a catchy SERP snippet and a score of 100).
Internal link building is most often done with anchor text or as references outside the body copy.
Anchor text is a link embedded “invisibly” in a word or sentence. That way, you don't see the long, boring URL. Usually the text gets a different colour or styling from the rest, so the reader knows there's a link.
Internal link building helps users stay on your website, and it also shows Google how much relevant and related content you have on the site. It's both good service and good SEO.
Don't lose heart – just dive in!
As you can see, there are really (rigtig in Danish, pronounced “ræddi” on Funen, where I'm from) a lot of things to consider when you write SEO-friendly, readable copy.
If your head is spinning and you're thinking it's completely overwhelming to get started with SEO now, keep this in mind:
- Rules are made to be broken. No one knows with one hundred per cent certainty what Google ranks landing pages on. There are hundreds of factors we know it measures, but never trust anyone who claims to have found the holy grail.
- The great thing about SEO is that your work is never finished and can always be optimised. You can experiment and tweak the copy, headings, styling and layout until you hit the nail on the head.
- If copywriting and search engine optimisation don't come naturally to you, your time and money are in most cases better spent letting someone else handle it (people like me, who do it professionally).
I hope you can use this checklist to write better, more SEO-friendly landing pages.
