In this post you’ll learn about the 10 most important SEO practices that will keep both Google and your users happy. Find out how what you need to do to gain the respect and attention of the World’s biggest search engine.
Google SEO Best Practices
So, what is the secret formula that can get you millions of visits from Google and how can you make sure that your website adheres to google SEO standards?
Follow these 10 rules:
1. Original and Unique content
I don’t know how many times I have read this phrase ‘original and unique content’ and to be honest, I am not sure how many times I have said it myself.
It’s becoming a cliché but if you want to have any chances to rank high on Google you need to have high quality, original and unique content published on your website.
If any of the above is not true then instead of wasting your time on SEO, do something else because it just won’t going to happen.
You can also read 10 content marketing tips for more information on how to create content that satisfies the above rules but as a general rule of thumb content creation usually takes most of the time you spend on your website.
I would say that 70% of your time is devoted to content and 30% to other tasks.
2. Engaging Content
Publishing original and unique content is the first step but it’s not enough. Your content needs to stand out and the only way to do this, is through user engagement.
By user engagement I mean on-site comments, likes, tweets etc.
Why is this important?
It is more than clear that social signals (comments are a social signal as well) have started to play a more important role when it comes to Google rankings.
Consider the following example:
Two web pages on different websites, compete for one of the top positions in Google SERPS for a specific keyword / topic.
One of the pages has 30 comments, 100 likes and 42 tweets and the other page has no comments or social media mentions.
Other things being equal, which of the pages deserves a better ranking?
I think the answer is more than obvious and the reasoning behind it is that user engagement is a ranking signal that tells Google that the particular page is important for users.
Since search engines want to show in their results pages that help users, most likely they will select the page that is proven (through user engagement) to be more important.
3. Good titles and descriptions
If there is one thing that Google mentions every time they talk about SEO, is the importance of having good tiles and descriptions.
I have more details and examples in my SEO Tips article but the general guidelines are:
- Titles should be less than 70 characters in length
- Descriptions should be less than 160 characters
- Titles and descriptions should be unique for each and every page in your website
- No need to keyword stuff titles or descriptions
- If you want to get local customers then optimize both your titles and descriptions for local SEO
Recommended Reading:
4. Demonstrate your expertise
This is again related with the quality of the content but if you are an expert about a topic make sure that you show that in your website.
Google is looking for trusted sources and if your professional background or experience makes you an ‘expert’ about a topic, you need to demonstrate that in your website.
Also, you need to understand that the web is no longer anonymous so you need to show who you are, what you do and why your readers / customers / followers should trust you.
If you can convince people to trust you, Google (and other search engines) will trust you as well.
5. Score 100% when it comes to on-page SEO
On page SEO is a term that describes everything that needs to be done on the website itself so that it is optimized for search engines.
It is not difficult to have an SEO optimized website and it is the first check you need to do when evaluating your overall internet presence.
You can compare your website against my on-page SEO check list to get a better idea on what you need to change for on-page SEO.
I consider on-page SEO to be more important than ever and that’s why I suggested that you need to be 100% compliant.
What I always tell my clients as an example is the following:
When building a skyscraper, you need to make sure that you have good and strong foundations before start building the floors. Proper on-page SEO will make sure that your website’s foundations are in good shape before doing any kind of promotion.
6. Never violate Google webmaster guidelines
Although Google is trying to give webmasters feedback when their guidelines are violated (through the Google Search Console) so that you can take corrective actions, it is better not to violate their guidelines in the first place.
From my experience, violation of webmaster guidelines occurs when you are not familiar with the guidelines so you do something that violates them without knowing it and second you know that you are violating the guidelines but you are doing it believing that this way will get your more traffic and faster results.
To stay away from unwanted troubles you can spend some time reading the google webmaster guidelines and avoid trying shortcuts or ‘too good to be true’ tricks you may read on the Web.
Be patient and do things according to their rules and the good results will come.
7. Keep your website fresh
From all search engines, Google loves fresh content and up-to date websites. Give Google one more reason to differentiate your website from the competition by providing high quality content on a regular basis.
Content freshness is a Google SEO factor and this is not something I assume or predict but it is included in all Google guidelines.
How often you should update your website depends on the niche, competition and type of content.
If for example you are running a laptop reviews website, you need to have reviews about the latest models as well to show Google that you are in synch with the latest updates in your niche.
8. Forget about Spammy Link building
Whenever I talk about Google SEO to clients and explain all the factors above, the question that I always get is: ‘When do we start link building?’ My answer is always the same: ‘Forget about link building, we are not going to do any link building in our campaign’.
To say it with some simple words, link building is a think of the past and not only it cannot help your website achieve better rankings in Google but it can do more damage than good.
Does that mean that Google is not using links as a ranking factor? Absolutely not, Incoming links are still important and play a very important role in Google SEO but what you want is natural links and not artificially created links.
The best way to distinguish between the two is the following: A natural link is placed by a webmaster or blogger to help their readers find out more about a subject or add value to their existing content.
An artificially created link is anything else that does not fall in the definition of a natural link.
So, if you guest post on a low-quality website for the purpose of getting a link in your author bio, that’s a bad link. If you pay or exchange links with other webmasters that’s also a bad link.
Read these 2 articles for more information on the new way to do link building (without violating any guidelines)
9. Promote on social media
Although officially Google does not say at which extend social media networks influence rankings, they have many times suggested that one of the best ways to promote a website is through social media networks.
If you follow their google webmaster videos you will notice that the mentions to social media as one of the most appropriate ways to promote a website, are becoming more and more frequent.
Do not forget that social media promotion will also increase user engagement with the content, promotes brand awareness and generally is a great way to let other webmasters know about your content and get more natural links.
10. Stay in synch with latest trends
One of the ways to take full advantage of Google SEO is to stay in-synch with the latest developments. Their quality team is making thousands of changes per year in their algorithm and you have to follow their steps to avoid unpleasant surprises.
If you want to make sure that your website is up-to date try our SEO audit service or have a look on how to perform your own SEO audit.
Key Learnings
If you want to master Google SEO and keep the search giant happy so that you get visitors from their search results, you have to play by the book.
Forget about easy tricks or non-white hat practices, close your eyes and ears to those who want you to believe that there is a magic way to bypass Google algorithm and start thinking how you can create a website that has something to offer to visitors.
When you manage to create a website that stands out, you can be certain that traffic from Google will start flowing in, with or without SEO.
Excellent blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring
writers? I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost
on everything. Would you recommend starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for
a paid option? There are so many choices out there thhat I’m completely confused ..
Any suggestions? Kudos!
Good Article … helped a lot
Google changes a lot of things on us, we have to admit, especially when it comes to SEO. And as both marketers and consumers, we understand that it’s all for the benefit of the user.
what if i will put uncopyable content on my site? will it effect my site’s google rank?