Of course, there are many other things you can do to help your website achieve better rankings, but the SEO tips presented below will give you a solid and reliable framework that is 100% safe (i.e. without taking any risks of getting a Google Penalty) and above all, it works.<\/p>\n
In addition\u00a0to the tips, I have added real examples from two web sites that I’ve\u00a0been doing SEO work, to help you understand how to apply the guidelines on your own website or blog.<\/p>\n
1. Page Titles and description<\/h2>\n
Page titles<\/strong><\/p>\n Page titles<\/strong><\/a> are a very important aspect of SEO and this is why it is the first item on my\u00a0list.<\/p>\n My findings for the last couple of months showed that page titles are more important than ever especially for Google SEO.<\/p>\n The most important characteristics of an optimized page title are:<\/p>\n Home page title:<\/span> The title for your homepage can include\u00a0the name of your website\/business and other bits of important information like the physical location of your\u00a0business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings.<\/p>\n For example:<\/p>\n Post\/other pages title:<\/span><\/p>\n The titles of other posts\/pages of your website should accurately describe what the page is about and be attractive to\u00a0the searcher.<\/p>\n Description<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0page description meta<\/em> tag is also very important. It gives users, Google, and other search engines<\/strong><\/a> a summary of what the page is about.<\/p>\n Google may choose to show what you type in the description as a snippet for your page or may decide to use a part of your page’s content.<\/p>\n In other words, it does not mean that what you write in the description will show in the snippet.<\/p>\n The guidelines for writing a good meta description<\/strong><\/a> are:<\/p>\n You can see the example below on\u00a0how I use the description tag on\u00a0my SEO Course<\/strong><\/a> page.<\/p>\n The permanent link structure is a term used to describe the format of URLS for pages (categories\/tags) or individual posts of a web site.<\/p>\n It is shown in the browser address bar and in the search results (below the page title).<\/p>\n Guidelines for SEO Friendly URLs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Examples of BAD URL structures<\/strong><\/p>\n Examples of GOOD URL structures<\/strong><\/p>\n Make sure that you have a breadcrumb trail<\/strong> <\/a>on all your internal pages. A breadcrumb is a set of links at the top of the page that aid navigation.\u00a0 If you are using WordPress there are many free plugins to create a breadcrumb.<\/p>\n When we talk about internal links we mean links in a page that point to other pages within the website i.e. not external links.<\/p>\n In the example below, when you click on the link with anchor \u201cincrease the intensity\u201d you will be redirected to a page with-in the website to find out more information on how to increase the intensity of an exercise.<\/p>\n Internal linking<\/strong><\/a> is a very important factor for website SEO but still many web site owners are not using it correctly. The rules to follow for internal links are simple:<\/p>\n Pro Hint:<\/strong> Don\u2019t always link old posts from new posts but every couple of weeks go back and link newer posts from older posts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s not an easy task to do especially if you have a lot of posts but it\u2019s a very valuable tool for on-site SEO<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t just publish pieces of text on your website without first doing some basic formatting. This is not good for the user experience and works against your SEO efforts.<\/p>\n General guidelines for formatting a post or page on your website:<\/p>\n When formatting your posts always have in mind the user experience. Can the user identify the main sections of your post (H2 tags) just by looking at the page? Is the text easy to read on all devices (smartphones, Apple Ipads, Android tablets, etc)?<\/p>\n SEO is about improving the user experience and a proper 404 page contributes to that goal.<\/p>\n The 404 page is the page shown when a user is looking for a page on your site that doesn\u2019t exist or mistypes a URL or follows a broken link. When the 404 page is not configured, it looks like this:<\/p>\n This is not useful for the user and negatively impacts the user experience.<\/p>\n A properly configured 404 page should:<\/p>\n This is how my 404 page looks like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Images are necessary to enhance the user experience but care should be taken not to create other side effects like problems with page load speed or slow response.<\/p>\n If you decide to use images, mind the following:<\/p>\n Further Reading: Image SEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Google mentioned many times that page speed is a ranking factor and yet many webmasters don\u2019t optimize their web sites for speed. Their aim (Google\u2019s) is to provide the searcher with the most accurate results in the fastest possible way.<\/p>\n It is certain that page speed (as a ranking factor) will gain more importance in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n Fast web sites improve the user experience and it is a factor to encourage the visitor to come again. In addition, a website that loads in less than 4\u00a0seconds<\/strong> is more likely to:<\/p>\n How to tackle the page speed problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n I know that tackling issues related to performance is a technical issue and sometimes it\u2019s not easy for the average user to identify and solve the problems.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, it is a very important factor for SEO and should not be neglected.<\/p>\n There is no way to avoid mentioning link building when we talk about SEO. The reason is simple: Off-Page SEO<\/strong><\/a> factors play a very critical role in the Google ranking algorithm.<\/p>\n I know that for beginners to SEO this is a concept difficult to understand, so let’s take it from the beginning.<\/p>\n What is link building and why it is very important for SEO?<\/strong><\/p>\n When Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google Founders), created the initial Google ranking algorithm, they were looking for a way to compare websites so that the best were shown first in the search engine results pages (SERPS).<\/p>\n Besides taking into account the on-page SEO factors of a page, they decided that websites that have incoming links from other websites are probably more important and popular than others, so they deserved a better ranking.<\/p>\n In other words, incoming links counted as ‘votes of trust’ and this had a positive effect on a website’s ranking position. The more incoming links pointing to a website the better was the ranking position.<\/p>\n Further reading: What are backlinks<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the beginning, this was something that could easily be manipulated. Webmasters who understood this concept started building thousands of links pointing to their websites and increased their rankings.<\/p>\n The problem was that some of those websites were not good quality websites and they did not actually deserve to be on the first page of Google. Over time this created a huge problem for Google that impacted the quality of their search results.<\/p>\n To protect their reputation and keep spam websites away, Google started adding more strict rules to their ranking algorithm and they were able to differentiate between natural and artificially created links.<\/p>\n The result was a success for Google. Spam and low-quality websites did not only lost their rankings but in many cases, they were removed from the Google index.<\/p>\n This was the time that Google penalties<\/strong><\/a> became more popular and words like Panda<\/em> and Penguin<\/em> (that’s the name given to Google ranking algorithm changes) became a nightmare for many webmasters.<\/p>\n To sum up this introduction to link building, you should understand 3 things:<\/p>\n 1st -> Links are still a very important aspect of SEO.<\/p>\n 2nd -> It’s no longer a matter of quantity (how many links are pointing to your website) but of quality (from where these links are coming).<\/p>\n 3rd ->Natural links<\/strong><\/a> are good for your rankings, artificially generated\u00a0links can get you into trouble.<\/p>\n How to approach link building (the safe way)<\/strong><\/p>\n So, it should be clear by now that links are important, but how do you get them?<\/p>\n Link building is a huge topic, but I will outline below the most important elements:<\/p>\n Link building mistakes to avoid:<\/strong><\/p>\n A significant number of searches performed each day are through mobile devices. Many studies over the last 6 months identified that the number of searches using smartphones is steadily increasing especially when it comes to making online purchases.<\/p>\n I am sure that if you take\u00a0a look at your analytics data you will see a good percentage of your daily visits coming from mobile.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not in the scope of this post to go in detail into mobile SEO but there some simple steps to follow to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.<\/p>\n Update:\u00a0<\/strong>The best way to approach Mobile SEO is to adopt a responsive website design<\/strong><\/a>. There are many advantages both in terms of SEO and usability.<\/p>\n A sitemap is a list of all posts\/pages of your website.\u00a0 You need 2 types of sitemaps. First, an XML sitemap to submit to Google<\/strong><\/a>, Bing and other search engines and second an HTML sitemap to help visitors find your content easier.<\/p>\n It is recommended to place a link to your user sitemap from the main menu.<\/p>\n XML Sitemap (for search engines)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Depending on your blogging platform you can use plugins to create and update your web site\u2019s sitemap. When viewed in the browser it looks like this:<\/p>\n HTML Sitemap (for Users)<\/strong><\/p>\n The user sitemap should provide links to all (or to the most important pages of your site). It can also group posts by author, date, category, etc. Its purpose is to help the user find information on your site easier and quicker. My user sitemap looks like this:<\/p>\n In order for the above tips to work you need first and foremost to have good content on your web site.<\/p>\n Content is still king and a web site with good, original, quality content can do better in the long run (with or without SEO) than a web site optimized in SEO but with not \u00a0so good content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What is good content?<\/strong><\/p>\n When people search on Google, Yahoo or Bing they are essentially looking for an answer to a question. Good content is a post or page that answers this question.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n How do I know if my content is good?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are two simple ways to understand if your content is useful.<\/p>\n First, you can check your analytics and especially the time users spent on a page. A reader will stay longer on the page if the content is good and second the number of social media shares (Facebook likes, tweets, etc.).<\/p>\n This is actually a very good way to understand what users want and what type of content to provide on your website or blog.<\/p>\n How to write good content?<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no simple answer to this question, but the following guidelines can put you in the right\u00a0direction:<\/p>\n Quantity VS Quality<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Many people often ask me \u201cHow long (in words) should I make my posts?\u201d You should understand that there is no single answer that fits all purposes. It greatly depends on the type of post and topic.<\/p>\n For example, the post you are reading now is more than 4000 words because it is a vast topic. In order to explain to someone the basic rules of SEO, I had to make the post that long.<\/p>\n If for example, you are writing about the benefits of black chocolate then surely you won\u2019t have to write that much.<\/p>\n This is exactly where quantity vs. quality comes into place. It\u2019s better to write a quality post without counting words rather than a long unfriendly post for the sake of providing more word count.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s official view about content length is very clear: Short content can be useful and rank well<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n What does Google consider good content?<\/strong><\/p>\n A couple of weeks after the release of Penguin, Google published a set of criteria<\/a><\/strong> for accessing the quality of a web site. Among the suggested guidelines they included some questions to ask after you finish a post, to help you determine the quality of your work.<\/p>\n Having fresh content is an incentive for visitors to come back and for search engine bots to visit and crawl your website more often.<\/p>\n This is true when you really have something new to say about the niche or topic your covering. Avoid publishing pages with similar content just for the sake of updating your web site or blog.<\/p>\n Further reading: How often should I update my website<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n External links (links in your web site pointing to other sites) are important for SEO. In general ensure that:<\/p>\n Google and Bing have what is called \n
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/homepage-titles-example-1024x177.png\")
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/page-title-example-1024x177.png\")
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![\"Meta](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/meta-description-example.png\")
2. Permanent link structure<\/h2>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/seo-friendly-urls.png\")
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3. Breadcrumb<\/h2>\n
![\"Breadcrumb](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/breadcrumb-menus.png\")
4. Internal links<\/h2>\n
![\"Example](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/internal-links.png\")
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5. Text formatting and the use of H1, H2, and H3<\/h2>\n
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![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heading1-tag-visually.png\")
6. The 404 Page<\/h2>\n
![\"Default](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/default-404-page.jpg\")
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![\"Custom](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/custom-404-page.png\")
7. Image Optimization<\/h2>\n
![\"Role](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/importance-of-images-for-seo.png\")
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8. Page Speed<\/h2>\n
![\"Bounce](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/bounce-rate-and-page-speed.jpg\")
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9. Get Links from Other Websites<\/h2>\n
![\"backlinks](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/backlinks-and-pagerank.png\")
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![\"Link](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/link-building-google.png\")
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10. Mobile-friendly web sites<\/h2>\n
![\"Mobile](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/mobile-vs-desktop-stats.jpg\")
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11. User Sitemap<\/h2>\n
![\"XML](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/xml-sitemap.png\")
![\"User](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/user-sitemap-example.png\")
\u00a012. Content is still king<\/h2>\n
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13. Fresh Content<\/h2>\n
14. Check your external links<\/h2>\n
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15. Webmaster tools and Analytics<\/h2>\n