At BrightonSEO last month in San Diego, I gave a talk about how to keep TOFU content alive and its place in your B2B content strategy/funnels, then promised an on-page SEO checklist and 10xing guide for attendees.
I figured I’d make it public since so, so many blogs still forget to check some small-but-impactful boxes.
Skip to the On-Page SEO Checklist
Lots of it is traditional on-page SEO tactics that we’ve all used for years, and still matter for 1. Ranking and 2. AI mentions.
For the PDF, scroll to the bottom.
Here’s a deeper breakdown of the checklist:
On-Page SEO & GEO Must-Haves
Title Tag
Start strong. Your primary keyword should be near the front, ideally within the first few words. Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from top-ranking articles, then come up with your own that strikes a balance between them.
Search engines still lean heavily on title tags to understand relevance, and modeling after top-ranking titles isn’t copying; it’s calibrating. Don’t shy away from formats like “[Keyword]: Process, Examples…” either. They still work.
H1
The H1 is your headline for both users and crawlers. It sets the tone and scope, and doesn’t have to match your meta/title tag. It’s a good place to cast a slightly wider net with a secondary keyword or variant, or include more context for readability.
Meta Description
Your meta description should be between 155–160 characters, include your primary keyword, and clearly tell the reader what they’ll learn.
Meta descriptions don’t directly impact rankings, but they do influence click-through rates. Clarity wins. “Learn how to…” or “Find out…” intros still pull, or you can simply define the keyphrase or topic with a “[Keyword] is…” blurb. Most of feeding bots for SERPs involves lay-up language, or language that clearly signals that you’re defining or explaining something.
Intro
Answer the broader query early in your intro, but don’t overexplain. You’ll get to the real definitions and explanations later in your article. Readers also skim, and bots scan. We’re not so different from our robot friends in that way.
A direct intro helps tend to both. So use your primary keyword early, then preview what’s coming without giving it all away. A quick blurb that covers your query in a slimmed down but effective way, followed by a “Learn more about…” or “Get more details on…” transitional paragraph is a common and winning setup.
Table of Contents
Use it if your post is over 1,000 words. It’s not just UX, but crawlability. A TOC gives search engines a clearer map and quicker understanding of your content structure.
Headers
Headers are your content’s scaffolding. A general rule of thumb is to mirror what’s working, but make it yours.
Question-based H2s serve humans, engines, and LLMs, guide flow, and improve scannability. These are usually drawn from research in Semrush or Ahrefs, the People Also Ask (PPA) section, autofill if you type your keyword into a guest tab, or competitor content.
My process: I always determine a blog’s header structure before any writing and base it off of the top 1-5 ranking articles.
If I’m going for a tougher keyword, I’ll take some inspiration from the top rankers, but more inspiration from 1st page rankers with similar website authority as mine or the website I’m working with.
This starts with the Ahrefs Chrome Extension tool. I’ll open up a few top ranking articles in separate windows, click the extension, take screenshots of all the header structures, and compare and contrast until I have a unique outline that’s:
- SEO-optimized for the primary and secondary/related keywords
- Following a focused, sensical narrative structure (not bouncing around)
- More comprehensive than the top-ranking articles without adding fluff
- Not a copy/paste of any competing articles (has to be original!)
Formatting
Use bullets where they belong and keep semantic cues clean. Lists, bolding, and clear formatting help both readers and machines digest your content faster. Just don’t lean on bulleted lists too much; it can drag down the reading experience and is a blatant signal of AI-written content.
Sure, most of us use AI to some degree when writing content, but that doesn’t mean we WANT people to easily notice it, right?
Content Length
Use as many words as you need and no more to cover a given topic as comprehensively as possible. You’ll find that usually, your article ends up being 1.5K+ words. But the main idea is that depth beats word count.
Pillar pages often land around 2,500–3,000 words, while subblogs may be between 1,000–1,500. But don’t pad — just answer.
Keyword Coverage
Include your primary keyword in key headers and sprinkle related terms across your body copy. But don’t try to stuff keywords unnaturally just to reach a certain keyword density percentage.
From my experience, having your primary keyword in your H1, title tag, metadata, and at least 2 of your H2s/H3s, you’ll be competitive if your content is solid.
Some tools like SurgeGraph will urge you to reach a certain KW density before publishing. But this can end up bringing your content quality down, since it’s often clear to readers when an article is trying too hard to include target keywords.
Internal & External Linking
Link to relevant internal pages and cite external sources for data. Internal links show search engines that you know the topic and have existing content to back up your authority. External links give due credit when you’re shouting out numbers that aren’t yours. Both help search engines understand your content’s place in the ecosystem.
Image Naming
Name your images with keywords and use hyphens. Alt text and filenames matter for visibility because they help with accessibility, image search, and reinforce topical relevance — especially when aligned with H2s.
So for your featured image, just copy/paste your primary keyword (with hyphens between each word) into the file name and alt text.
Then for images in your body copy, name them after the SEO-optimized H2s that they’re under.
Lastly – if you’re not already using WebP formatting for your images, now is a good time to start. They’re smaller in file size versus JPG or PNG which benefits your page load times and site SEO.
FAQs
Add 3–5 based on “People Also Ask” or what readers might wonder next. Why? FAQs capture long-tail traffic and featured snippets. They also fill gaps in understanding and keep your content self-contained.
How to 10x Top-Ranking/Competitor Blog Articles
10xing content isn’t new, but still key for E-E-A-T and signaling to search engines that your content is “better” than the rest.
Along with the above checklist, aligning your blog content with these standards will give you a leg-up on top rankers:
1. Be the Most Comprehensive
Close the gaps your competitors leave open. Why? Top-ranking content often misses pieces. Find them. Fill them. That’s how you 10x.
2. Be the Most Authoritative
Link to an SME author. Use quotes. Embed your own videos. Why? Authority isn’t just about tone—it’s about proof. Show your expertise. Link to it. Speak from it.
3. Be the Easiest to Understand
Say it cleaner. Say it faster. Why? If your competitors take two sentences, take one. Clarity wins. Always.
4. Be the Most Visual
Use custom graphics. Embed a video at the top. Why? Visuals help explain complexity. They also boost engagement and SEO. A video up top? Big win.
5. Have the Best Title
Put your keyword near the front. Describe the content clearly. Why? Ranking beats cleverness. Your title should tell—not tease.
6. Use Your FAQs
FAQs are a great place to cast a wider search net. Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs for question-based keyword research, as well as the PPA section for related questions that weren’t touched on in your body content.
I tend to go for 4-5 FAQs depending on the content depth. And if I need to fill some gaps, I’ll ask Copilot or Claude to come up with a few FAQs “that searchers interested in this topic are likely to search or readers are likely to ask after reading the content in full, and ensure all answers are one brief paragraph, original and plagiarism-free, use direct, clear and simple language with incredible flow, and speak to the reader.”
7. Consider an “At a Glance” Section
Lately, I’ve been dropping a bulleted overview between the H1 and intro. It helps both readers and search engines grasp your scope fast, so it’s a win-win. Think Business Insider-style clarity. Just don’t overdo it; 4-5 quick bullets with moderate detail will do.
8. Review for Approachability
Make it readable. Most importantly, make it human. There isn’t an article I publish that doesn’t get 2, 3, sometimes 4 human review/editing rounds before it’s sent out into the world.
This usually includes:
- Editing copy to use contractions (eases that robotic writing style)
- Trimming or breaking up wordwalls
- Rewriting copy to be less buzzy, bombastic, filler-dependent
- Rewriting copy to use less confusing corporate speak
- Other on-page steps like internal and external linking, adding media (images, graphics, videos), reviewing keyword usage, doing the FAQ section; I do all of these at the end
AI-generated content still needs a heavy human touch to make sure it’s ready to both rank and be worthy of human eyes. Once you re-read it with fresh eyes and can confidently say, “That sounds like me/That sounds like a person,” it’s ready to go.