What are SEO best practices
SEO best practices consist of a series of guidelines that can enhance a website’s organic rankings on search engines like Google, which typically result in increased website traffic.
Why is it important to rephrase the text below step by step while preserving the same meaning?
If your page has a higher rank, there is a greater chance that the searcher will click on your content. The graph provided below clearly illustrates the significant disparity in click-through rates (CTR) between the first ranking and other positions.
1. Align your content with search intent
Google’s ultimate priority is understanding and satisfying search intent, also known as “user intent.” Pages that appear on the first page of search results have successfully met Google’s requirements for search intent.
If you want to achieve a page 1 ranking on Google, it is crucial to comprehend search intent and generate content that aligns with it. Four prevalent categories of search intent exist.
- Informational: when someone is trying to learn more about something
- Navigational: when someone is searching for a specific page or website
- Commercial: when someone is looking to learn more before making a purchase
- Transactional: when someone is intending to complete an action or purchase
2. Leverage primary keywords
A primary keyword, also known as a “target keyword,” is the keyword that most accurately signifies the subject of a webpage. For each webpage on your site, it is essential to choose one primary keyword to focus on if you desire to achieve a high ranking on Google. The placement of your primary keyword is also crucial as it aids in optimizing the webpage.
Therefore, if it is possible, try to include your target keyword in elements such as:
- The title tag
- The main headers (especially the H1)
- The introduction
- The page’s URL
3. Write compelling title tags and meta descriptions
Your page title and meta description hold significant importance as meta tags when it comes to your webpage.
Title tags
Title tags are clickable headlines that show up in search engine results pages (SERPs), informing Google about the page’s topic. They are crucial for SEO purposes. It is generally recommended to limit the length of title tags to 50-60 characters to prevent truncation on both desktop and mobile SERPs.
Here are a few more best practices for title tags to consider:
- Include your target keyword
- Match search intent
- Avoid duplicate title tags
- Avoid keyword stuffing
- Keep them descriptive but concise
Meta descriptions
A meta description is a meta tag that provides a description of a page’s content. It is commonly shown below the title and URL of the page in the SERP.
Meta descriptions serve as a concise and engaging summary to inform users about the content of a webpage. Their purpose is similar to a persuasive pitch that convinces searchers that the webpage precisely matches their search query.
When thinking sequentially, rephrase the text while preserving the original meaning. Avoid adding new information and do not eliminate any information. Ensure the accuracy and conciseness of your summary because Google generally shortens meta descriptions on desktop to 155-160 characters. Here are some recommended best practices for meta descriptions to adhere to.
- Write a unique meta description for every page
- Use action-oriented copy
- Include your primary keyword
- Match search intent
Although meta descriptions do not directly impact SEO rankings, having well-crafted and optimized meta descriptions can provide other benefits for your SEO strategy. You can find more information about meta descriptions in our comprehensive guide.
4. Optimize your images
Optimizing your images is a crucial step in enhancing a visitor’s user experience. When utilized correctly, images have the potential to enhance your site’s overall SEO and increase organic traffic. The following are some methods for optimizing your images:
Choose the best file format
The first step in considering page speed and user experience involves selecting the appropriate file format, as images typically have the greatest impact on overall page size and loading time. JPEG and PNG are the commonly utilized image formats on the internet.
The reason why the file sizes between both formats can vary greatly is because they utilize different compression techniques. JPEGs are ideal for photographs, whereas PNGs are more suitable for images that include text, line drawings, and similar elements.
WebP, which is another popular choice, is a contemporary image format that offers enhanced compression for web images, both in lossless and lossy forms.
According to Google, WebP lossless images are 26% smaller than PNGs and 34% smaller than comparable JPEGs in size.
Compress your images
The process of image compression reduces the size of images without sacrificing quality. When the file size of an image is larger, it takes more time for a page to load. Therefore, it is essential to compress your images before uploading them to your website.
There are a number of tools available free of charge that can assist with this task.
- TinyPNG: uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of your PNG and JPEG files
- ImageOptim: by far the best tool for compressing images on a Mac
- ShortPixel: a great WordPress plugin for automatically compressing images
Provide Alt text for images
Alt text, which stands for alternative text, is a type of text that is inserted into the HTML code to provide a description of an image found on a webpage. Its purpose is to offer additional information to search engine crawlers and individuals using a screen reader to access the content of the page. Despite improvements in Google’s image comprehension capabilities, incorporating alt text remains essential.
To maintain the same meaning, here are a few recommended guidelines for writing alternative text (alt text).
- Keep it under 125 characters
- Include one main keyword for context
- Don’t include “image of” or “picture of”
Lazy-load your images
Lazy loading is a method employed in app and web development that postpones the loading of non-essential resources such as images and videos until the user requires them, rather than at the time of page loading.
Google explains how lazy loading is linked to site performance in the following way.
Lazy loading images and video results in a decrease in initial page load time, initial page weight, and system resource usage, thereby positively impacting performance.
The focus of user experience (UX) is on the usability of your website and how visitors interact with it, as well as their overall experience. It is important for SEO because if your website is not user-friendly, visitors will exit. If users consistently do this starting from your homepage, it will lead to a high bounce rate.
To prevent users from quickly leaving your website and enhance your UX, consider conducting tests for the following improvements.
- Visual appeal – Can your website’s visual appeal be improved?
- Easy to navigate – Is the website’s structure well designed and easy to navigate?
- Intrusive pop-ups – Are there any intrusive pop-ups that may harm the user experience?
- Too many ads – Are the ads distracting from the main content?
- Mobile friendly – Is your website easy to use on a mobile device?
In order to enhance your UX, it is crucial to concentrate on the expectations of your visitors. Ask yourself about the expectations they have for your website.
According to Google, URLs have a significant role in providing information to both users and search engines regarding a webpage’s content and structure. Google recommends avoiding the use of lengthy URLs as they can be intimidating to searchers.
Hence, it is not always advisable to use the exact target query as the URL. Consider a scenario where your target keyword is “how to get rid of a tooth abscess without going to the dentist.” Not only is this a lengthy phrase, but it will also be shortened in the search results.
By carefully considering each step, you can rephrase the following text while keeping the same meaning. Avoid adding new information and omitting any details. Rewording the text by excluding unnecessary words and phrases will result in a shorter and more concise version, while retaining the key words. However, feel free to provide a more concise description of your page whenever necessary.
If your CMS has a predefined and unattractive URL structure, it is not a significant issue. It is also not worth going to great lengths to fix it, as Google is displaying the complete URL for fewer search results nowadays.
Internal links are utilized for internal navigation within a website, enabling visitors to transition from one page to another.
PageRank is dependent on the number of links a page has from both external and internal sources, making links essential for SEO. These links play a crucial role in Google’s ranking algorithm and continue to hold significance.
Thankfully, most CMSes automatically include internal links to new webpages from at least one other page by default, such as on the menu bar, blog homepage, or elsewhere. Internal links also aid Google in understanding the content and purpose of a page.
When you publish something new, it is a good practice to add internal links from other relevant pages.
