5. Add Internal Links

These are links that are pointing to your older posts and pages.

There's not much to say about them. They're simply just very important.

Here's how Wikipedia does it:

They include 40+ keyword-rich internal links in every page.

But we're not a Wikipedia, are we?

Task:

• Add 2 - 4 internal links per 1000+ words

6. Add External Links

An external (or outbound) link is a link that is pointing to another domain's web page.

Check it out:

As you can see, a good outbound link usually has the brand's or website's name in the anchor text. This will make it look natural.

A good outbound link will also link to pages that are relevant and have authority.

For example:

Let's say you're in the SEO space/niche. You would link to sites like:

• SearchEngineJournal.com
• SearchEngineLand.com
• Moz.com

The SEO expert blogs, right?

You could even include a link to Wikipedia, no matter what niche you're in.

Task:

• Add 2 - 4 links to relevant and authority blogs (or Wikipedia) per 1000+ words

7. SEO Friendly URLs/Permalinks

I recommend having shorter URLs over longer ones.

The first 3 - 5 words in a URL are given the most weight as stated by Google.

So which one do you think is better?

1. yourdomain.com/10-ways-to-avoid-the-stupid-internet-marketing-scams

OR

2. yourdomain.com/avoid-internet-marketing-scams

Number 2, right?

Take a look at this screenshot of Google's first page results for "keyword research:"

They all had short URLs/permalinks with their target keyword in them.

So...

Task:

• Have short and keyword-rich permalinks.

8. Content Length

Look:

Content length is a big factor, especially for if you're targeting highly competitive keywords.

Just take a look at this chart:

These are the numbers from a study by serpIQ. They searched 20,000+ keywords and took note of the word count of each page on Google's top 10.

As you can see, none of them averaged less than 2,000 words.

Task:

• Try to get your word count to 1,000 - 1,500 words for regular blog posts.
• 2,000+ words for competitive keywords

Next page!...