Step 20 : Look back from Step 1 to 19

Today we have the 20th lesson of our journey together, and I think it is time to look back.  I want to use this time to share a checklist of everything discussed in this course. How much of this list have you completed?

 
              1. Brainstorm what potential customers search for
              2. Use Google Adwords to refine list
              3. Localize those terms
              4. Change title tags
              5. Change description tags
              6. Change image names
              7. Add a privacy policy
              8. Add Google Analytics
              9. Add Google Webmaster tools
              10. Add an XML sitemap and submit it to Google
              11. Activate your business listing on Google Local
              12. Add a blog to your website
              13. Add a blog post for each of your keywords (titled with the keyword)
              14. Read general overview of backlinks
              15. Approach your friends and ask for backlinks
              16. Submit your website to web directories.  Start with DMOZ.
              17. Create high quality Profile links at the websites we suggested
              18. Submit an article that includes your back link at Ezine Articles
              19. Join and use the Five suggested Social Networking websites
 
If you have already done all of these steps, then your website has a great chance of being near the top of Google for your local search terms. Now it will depend on the size of the area you are targeting. For example, Toronto, NY and Chicago are tough local areas to crack of course. But if you are in a small or medium sized town you will be seeing results already.
 
The key to this list is to repeatedly do any steps that make sense. You do NOT want to change title and description tags repeatedly, but anything after Step 13 is best done through repetition.
 
The two major keys to remember is to produce web content and anchor text rich backlinks as often as possible. 

Keep this checklist handy and set a goal to check off every step!

Action Item:

• Can you place a tick next to each of the action items above? If you can, well done!!!
• If you still need to do a few things or are yet to start then a good idea may be outsourcing, which we will discuss in our final chapter of the course.