Adopting good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices in the content of your blog or website is essential to face the competition and appear in the first results of Google and other search engines.
In the digital world, without traffic, there are no customers, no sales, and no branding. The more traffic a website has, the more it is noticed by search engines and consequently, the more it appears.
As we will see below, creating good content is one of the main SEO strategies, but that alone is not enough. You need to make Google’s “robots” find relevant and coherent signals to deliver your content to the user.
There are several important factors to organically rank your blog content in searches, that is, without having to pay Google to make it happen.
In this article, I created a list of 10 SEO Best Practices to Apply Now on your Blog and improve your positioning in Google results. You check below.
1. Create Relevant Content
If there’s one thing that really makes Google happy, it’s content with a beneficial purpose, that is, content that really helps people, that gives users exactly what they’re looking for.
Google’s most important goal is user experience. So, if your content responds in a complete, objective, and fast way to the user’s question, Google will be delighted to the point of wanting to show it in the first results.
Don’t waste your time creating articles just to sell. Try to find out what the main problems of your target audience are and create content that really solves these questions.
2. Choose The Right Keyword
Finding the best keyword for your content should always take into account the context of your target audience and your avatar. Then ask: what is the keyword that will solve my reader’s problem and that has the potential to rank in Google searches?
Another relevant detail is to work with long-tail keywords, that is, that contains the synthesis of your content, but also be more specific.
For example, you can create content with the keyword “ how to make money ”. The volume of searches is huge, but so is the competition. Also, it’s a bit generic.
You can be more specific using, for example, “ how to make money with fit lunchboxes ”. You will cater to a more specific audience. The person wants to earn money, but because they have affinities with gastronomy, they may be looking for a business in this context.
Below are some free online tools that help with keyword analysis:
- Google Trends – analyze search trends by topic or keyword;
- Ubersuggest – a great tool to check the volume of searches and to suggest related keywords;
- Answer the Public – understand the relevance of searches based on questions such as: “why”, “when”, “how” etc.
3. Keyword In Title, Description, Subtitles, And URL
Use the keyword of your content in the title, description, some subtitles, text, and URL, because this shows Google that your article is of great relevance to those who search for your keyword.
For this to have a real effect, your blog needs to have HTML correctly organized in its meta tags.
Titles must be in the title and H1 tag. The article description is in the description tag. Subtitles with H2 tag. Google loves a site where information is organized hierarchically.
The title should not exceed 72 characters, as it is the limit visible in Google results. Don’t take the risk of having your title cut off when a result is displayed.
4. Mobile Optimization
Content consumption on mobiles (mobile platforms) has surpassed desktop devices, so Google now prioritizes indexing mobile-optimized pages.
It’s not just to please Google. If all the pages of your blog are responsive, that is, they adapt to desktops, tablets, and mobiles, it is the guarantee that the user will be able to easily navigate through all the pages and engage with the content.
Prioritize having a mobile-optimized blog. Is yours not yet? To resolve this as soon as possible! For those using the WordPress platform, a quick fix is to choose responsive themes.
5. Use a Friendly URL
The URL must be short and contain only the keyword after the domain. This already guarantees that it is easy to remember, that is, user-friendly.
In this article, for example, the URL is “ domain/SEO-best-practices ”. Notice that it is a timeless URL. This allows you to update the title without having to change the URL. If the URL has already been indexed by Google, it is best not to change it further.
I can use the title “10 Best SEO Practices” and in a while include 2 more topics and change the title to “12 Best SEO Practices”. The title has changed, but the URL has remained.
6. Google Search Console: SEO Best Practices
Google Search Console is a tool developed by Google, a totally free and inseparable friend of SEO professionals.
With it, you can request the quick indexing of a recently published page, so Google will soon know that it exists.
Search Console can also generate a significant amount of information about the quality of pages for SEO improvements.
7. Optimize Loading Speed
Google doesn’t like pages that take a long time to load. This happens because the user will not have the patience to wait for the loading and will possibly give up access.
This is not “guessing”, because research done by Akamai shows that 40% of users will give up on your site if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.
Google knows if your page is constantly being abandoned due to slow loading, so it lowers the page’s score and doesn’t show in the first results.
Check your website speed with Google Page Speed , a free tool from Google that will measure your load time and generate a detailed report of the problems found and how to improve.
8. Use external links
Don’t limit yourself to having links in your articles only to content from your own website or blog.
Direct your content to external links when they are in context. Google is very happy with this practice because it enriches the user experience.
Links to sites that have good authority also improve the authority of your blog or website because new connections are made with other content in your niche.
A detail that is also beneficial for the user is to open external links in a new tab. That way, it doesn’t get “lost” from the initial content.
9. SEO best practices for images
Images can and should be well exploited to add value to content. This is because “pictures are worth a thousand words”.
In addition to making reading more user-friendly, images can be visual examples of what was said in the text and thus positively engage the reader.
Google doesn’t understand the content of an image, so it’s extremely important that you set up the SEO for that file. This allows images to be searchable.
Use the post keyword in the image name. This creates a connection with the theme. In addition, the photo of your post can appear in Google Images search and thus bring traffic to your page.
Another relevant point is to always use the “alt” tag to include the description of the image. This is important because it will help Google know what it is about. In WordPress, you find this field called “Alternative Text”.
10. Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
HTTPS has many benefits such as improving your website’s security and privacy, as well as improving your Google ranking.
With the HTTPS protocol, your website will not be altered by third parties. This makes it possible to filter more secure visitors to your site.
Another benefit is that communications become encrypted, very suitable for businesses and online stores.
Conclusion And Bonus Tip
The tips detailed above are very important to improve your Google ranking and increase traffic to your content.
To complete and complete this super list, I leave here a bonus tip that is just as important or even more important: update the content of your posts.
Don’t let your article become outdated, with information that no longer makes sense, after all, both the physical and virtual worlds are constantly changing.
Finding updated content is all the user needs. He will notice that your blog has this care and will come back to read other articles.
But not just the user. Google “loves” up-to-date content! This directly impacts rankings because he knows his blog is helpful.
So, did you like this article on Best SEO Practices? Leave your comment. Your feedback is very important!