Every business owner should understand what is SEO, how it works, and the traffic potential it can generate to improve the overall user experience. SEO is Google’s way of determining which sites deserve the top spot for each search query entered into its search engine. Users trust search engines and ranking higher in the search engines signals the searchers that your site is a credible source. So in this article, we will deliver SEO best practices that will benefit the experienced SEO, and at the same time, will also provide actionable data to help those interested in SEO.
Search For Relevant Keywords
Keywords must be well-researched, carefully chosen, and thoughtfully used in your post so it will be easier for prospects to find you when they search for something you have to offer. Furthermore, it’s no secret that using a handful of relevant keywords throughout your post is helpful, but not a lot of people know that the location of your keyword also matters. This is because Google puts more emphasis on terms that appear at the top of a post. Another notable SEO practice is to understand what keywords and phrases your competitors are trying to rank for. This opens you to more opportunities to discover the intent and needs of your customers.
Compelling Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
It is advisable to write your title tag as PRIMARY KEYWORD – SECONDARY KEYWORD | BRAND NAME to increase the visibility and click-through rate of your website when users search for those terms. As for the meta descriptions, keep the length within 150 to 160 characters and make sure to include a compelling description of your website and why users would want to click on it. Both of these SEO elements give users a glance at what your webpage is about and how it might be relevant to their search query.
Write Unique Content
Avoiding duplicate content is one of the most important SEO rules that apply to every piece of content on your website as pages created with duplicate content can result in several search engine ramifications and even penalties. Content duplication or having near-duplicate versions of your content can have the greatest impact on how your site appears in search results as the search engines may get confused after finding the same text on many other pages.
Link Relevant Content
Content links are a strong signal to both the search engine and the content you’re linking to, as long as the user sees it truly matches the context of your website. When you link in your content, you’re telling the search engines that the target of your link is so relevant and has a strong connection to the source context. It is also important to use a reasonable number of internal links depending on the length of your post. So for instance, if you write a 2,000-word article, you may want to include a couple of internal links if you think it will benefit the reader and you perceive the need to.
Mobile-Friendly Webpage
As the search market has been growing rapidly, the standards for website development requires us to have a responsive design that can adapt to different devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. In fact, according to a recent report published by Google [https://www.blog.google/products/marketingplatform/analytics/mobile-challenge-and-how-measure-it/], people spend 70% of their Internet time on mobile so it makes perfect sense to ensure that they have a positive experience on your site. Google has also shifted to a “mobile-first index,” which means Google’s crawlers will read your mobile site first since more and more people use their phones to search the web. An easy way to know whether your website is responsive to different devices is to go directly to your website or to utilize mobile page testing tools online.
Optimize Website Speed
Site speed is a ranking factor that affects the user experience and bounce rate of your website. Another study conducted by Google [https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/mobile-site-load-time-statistics/] shows that 53% of users leave the site after 3 seconds. In other words, a well-optimized page can increase your conversion and lower your bounce rate, as fewer people will leave your website out of impatience. Some ways to optimize the speed of your website, including moving your website to a better host, optimizing the size of the images on your website, reducing the number of plugins, utilization of website caching, and minimizing the number of CSS and Javascript files.
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