About 51% of all traffic is organic, but without these SEO best practices, you don’t stand a chance of ranking above the first page. It’s absolutely vital to rank on top. Otherwise, you’ll lose to your competitors.
However, it’s easier said than done. The competition is stiff. You need to put your best foot forward in order to attain and maintain your position.
Here are five SEO best practices to follow if you wish to rank well on SERP.
1. Research Keywords First
Keywords are the heart and soul of SEO, but it can be tricky understanding how or where to use keywords.
The best option is to study your competitors and know which keywords they’re targeting. You can choose similar keywords or run a keyword search to find phrases or keywords that are easier to target.
Next, use them sparingly throughout the content including title, subheadings, and body. You need to pay special attention to the density. It should be about 1.5%.
Other than this, use variations of your keywords, and make sure to ensure the content flows smoothly and no keywords appear forced. Other tips include:
- Use long-tail keywords
- Include location
- Be specific and add a CTA
2. Optimize for Mobile Devices
With more people now using mobile devices to browse the web, it is essential to optimize your site for mobile devices. This is one of the more recent SEO best practices. Google is updating and emphasizing its mobile-first index. Your website must be responsive to rank well on Google.
Check here to ensure your site is mobile friendly. If not, consider using a different theme or site builder to upgrade your site.
3. Include Internal and External Links
Link building is one of the most important parts of SEO. It happens in two ways:
- Internal: This includes linking to pages of the same site. You can select an anchor text and link to a relevant page to ensure readers stay on your site and crawlers can index more pages.
- External: These links have no direct impact on SEO but can add authenticity to your site and bring more readers, which can help you generate more backlinks.
Note: Make sure to reclaim lost links by using tools like Ahrefs and Monitor Backlinks. This is important if you removed a page or updated the URL.
4. Pay Attention to META and Tags
Most people will choose to click on a search result based on the title and description only. This is a n essential part of on-page SEO best practices and can be taken care of by tools like Yoast SEO if you have WordPress. A few things to take care of include:
- The title of the page
- The description of the page
- The URL slug
- Headings
They should all contain keywords and be within the desired length. For example, the page title should not be longer than 60 characters.
5. Add Images and Videos with Proper Names
This is an often-overlooked SEO best practice. With more and more people now searching for videos and images, it’s important to optimize them.
The formula is simple: include keywords in the title and add optimized descriptions.
Graphics not only improve bounce rates but can also help pages rank well. The same goes for videos, especially if they’re hosted on your own website. And well-ranked YouTube videos can also bring you more traffic, eventually helping your search engine ranking.
These SEO best practices are only a few of many to follow. After these, the next most important considerations are making sure your website loads fast and that it has no errors.
We understand it can get very overwhelming to handle everything on your own. It’s often best to discuss your unique situation with a digital marketing agency that handles SEO to improve your search rankings. But beware of SEO firms that use questionable methods – only trust an agency that uses “white hat” SEO best practices.
To schedule your free SEO consultation, contact us today!
