Ok…here is a cold hard truth for you: if you aren’t ranking in Google’s top 10 results, you might as well forget it! Your website is invisible!
According to HubSpot, 75% of searchers never go past the first page of search results so this is why it is so important to have the best SEO practices. And luckily, there are several strategies and techniques that can help you with that.
Align your content with search intent
The first of the SEO practices is to understand the concept of search intent and create content that aligns with it. That being said, there are four common types of search intent:
- Informational: the user is looking for specific information with the intent to educate himself.
- Navigational: the user is looking for a specific website or app.
- Commercial: the user is looking for a specific product but hasn’t made the final decision yet. For example: “best smartphones”.
- Transactional: the user has already made a decision to buy a specific product or tool. For example “buy Anastasia Beverly Hills Eye Palette”.
Always keep in mind the search intent of your audience and create content that aligns with it.
Write a captivating Title Tag and Meta Description
According to Google, titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages. For that reason, you need to implement some of SEO practices that will help you write a good title:
- Include your target keywords.
- Write a title that matches the search intent of your audience.
- Avoid creating duplicate title tags.
- Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Write a title that is concise but descriptive.
Meta description, on the other hand, is a pitch that convinces the user that the page is exactly what they’re looking for, Google defends. The meta description is displayed below the title tag and should generally inform and interest users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about.
So it’s too important to implement these SEO practices:
- Provide a concise and eligible description of the page content.
- Include the main keywords into a meaningful sentence.
- Include a call-to-action.
- Create a unique meta description for each page.
- Don’t exceed a length of 160 characters.
Optimize your images
When we’re talking about SEO practices, images are playing an important role in the user experience on your website so you must take the time to optimize them. That means:
- Choosing the best file format. For example, JPEG is a great format for photographs while PNGs are best for images that contain text, line or drawings.
- Compressing the images, given that the larger your image file size, the longer it takes the web page to upload. Tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim or ShortPixel can come to your rescue!
- Providing alt text, so that Google could understand the image.
- Lazy loading images and videos, that reduces initial page load time, weight and system resource usage having a positive impact on performance.
Optimize your page speed
One of the best SEO practices! Let’s face it…how many times have you been frustrated waiting for a website to load? It’s not a good look! So tools like GTMetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help you with the insights on your page speed and give you recommendations on the steps you can take to improve your load time.
Build an Internal Linking structure
Why internal links are so important for your effective SEO practices? Well, they establish an information hierarchy for the website and help Google get a deeper understanding of the content on your page. So a must!
Improve User Experience
User experience is one of the key factors for your SEO practices and for improving your search rankings. Imagine your audience having a long, complex and complicated experience with your website. They will stop and never come back. So it’s important to ensure a good experience. What does that imply? Using these SEO practices:
- Use subheadings, that will make Google understand your content better and make your text more accessible to readers.
- Make the content visually appealing by using relevant images and videos.
- Avoid intrusive pop ups.
- Use white space, a fundamental aspect of good design to make your content more legible and grab user attention.
- Make your website mobile-friendly.
Make URLs SEO-Friendly
According to Google, one of the best SEO practices is having a site’s URL structure as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans
Create Useful Content
One of the most important SEO practices is focusing on the quality of your content by finding the right keywords to target and gathering original data with optimized visuals. Show your audience relevant information that can answer their questions and that matches their interest.
These SEO practices are just what you need to achieve higher search rankings and grow your business online so start applying them now!