17 SEO Best Practices To Rank Content Higher

From February to April 2023, Google received in excess of 8.5 billion searches a day.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the complexity of search engine algorithms, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to current SEO best practices, especially to optimize for Google search results.

This means that mastering the art of (SEO) continues to be essential for businesses and individuals who are seeking online visibility in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Backlinko found that, on average, the first result in the search results has a click-through-rate (CTR) of 27.6% compared to 15.8% if you’re in the second position, 11% if you rank third, and 2.4% if you are in the 10th position.

That speaks volumes, right?

Here are 12 best practices for SEO that you should implement today.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of enhancing a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). By employing various techniques and strategies, search engine algorithms aim to improve both the quality and quantity of traffic to a website. The ultimate goal is to rank higher in search engines for specific keywords or phrases, making it easier for potential visitors to find your content. Whether you’re a business or an individual, mastering SEO can significantly boost your online presence and drive more organic traffic to your site.

Why is SEO Important for Search Engines?

SEO is crucial for search engines because it helps them understand the content and relevance of a webpage. When you optimize your website for search engines, you’re essentially making it easier for them to crawl, index, and rank your content. This, in turn, improves your online visibility and drives more traffic to your site.

Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to rank websites based on factors such as relevance, authority, and user experience. By adhering to SEO best practices, you can enhance your website’s ranking and increase your chances of appearing on the first page of organic search results. This is vital because higher rankings lead to more clicks, more visitors, and ultimately, more conversions.

In essence, SEO acts as a bridge between your content and your audience, ensuring that your valuable information reaches those who are searching for it. By optimizing your website, you not only improve your search engine rankings but also provide a better user experience, which is a win-win for both your business and your audience.

Keyword Research and Optimization

Keyword research is the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. It involves identifying and selecting relevant keywords and search volume that your target audience is likely to use when searching for information related to your business. By understanding what keywords are being searched and keyword difficulty, you can tailor your content to meet those needs.

Keyword optimization, on the other hand, is the process of strategically using these keywords throughout your website’s content. This includes placing them in key areas such as the title tag, meta description, headers, and body text. Effective keyword optimization helps search engines understand the context of your content, which can significantly improve your search engine rankings.

By conducting thorough keyword research and optimizing your content accordingly, you can drive more organic traffic to your site. This not only increases your visibility but also enhances your chances of converting visitors into customers. In the competitive world of SEO, mastering keyword research and optimization is essential for achieving long-term success.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

1. Pick keywords with search potential

It’s essential to choose keywords that have sufficient search potential.

The golden rule is to identify low-hanging fruit: keywords and phrases with high search volume and low keyword difficulty.

Going after this can help your content reach a broader audience and rank better in the rankings.

Use a tool like Surfer’s free Chrome extension to find search volume data in your browser.

There’s also the other side of the coin.

Going after highly competitive keywords isn’t easy because you are competing against big brands.

It’s not impossible to rank those terms, but it’s not the easiest and there may be better opportunities to target your ideal audience. You want to identify the right keywords that best represent your services and products and that you can create authoritative content around.  With high-quality content that’s built around strategically selected keywords, you can drive more organic traffic to your website, increase visitor numbers, and potentially boost conversion rates.

Sounds like a win, right?

Pick realistic topics

When you choose keywords with the right search potential, you also need to pick realistic topics that are suitable for your brand.

Start by considering your competition and identifying what they are doing right and where they are missing the mark. Then go back to your business and objectively choose topics that will work for you.

You also need to consider keyword difficulty when evaluating your keyword ideas.

While seed keywords have the highest search volume and attractiveness, it’s best to opt for long-tail keywords suited for your website.

They will cater to a more specific target audience with higher interest.

You can also use the queries report in Google Search Console to identify keywords you are ranking well for. And then pick related keywords to create content for.

2. Use Long-Tail and Medium-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that typically have lower competition and higher conversion rates. These keywords are usually longer and more detailed, making them highly targeted. For example, instead of targeting the broad keyword “shoes,” you might use a long-tail keyword like “best running shoes for flat feet.”

Medium-tail keywords, on the other hand, are slightly broader and consist of 2-3 words. They have a higher search volume than long-tail keywords but are still more specific than short-tail keywords. An example of a medium-tail keyword would be “running shoes.”

Using long-tail and medium-tail keywords can help you target specific search queries more effectively. By incorporating these keywords into your content, you can improve your search engine rankings and increase your chances of appearing on the first page of search engine results. This targeted approach not only drives more organic traffic but also attracts visitors who are more likely to convert.

2. Match your content to search intent

Understanding and meeting search intent (also called user intent or keyword intent) is another good practice for SEO.

Matching search intent with the content you create should be a main priority in your SEO strategy, as it directly impacts user experience.

Authority Hacker’s Gael Breton said it best: If you don’t check and align with the user’s intent, you won’t rank. Search intent refers to the searcher’s goal or purpose behind their search query.

What do they want to achieve?

Do they want to learn something, buy something, do something, or go somewhere?

Once you understand the user’s goal, ensure that your content for that specific intent is spot-on so you can rank higher in the search results.

But how can you ensure that you meet search intent? Optimizing for other search engines is also crucial, as it broadens your reach and ensures your content is discoverable across various platforms.

Surfer’s Keyword Research Tool can help you identify search intent for a keyword you’re analyzing. In this example, “pole trekking” is categorized as “customer investigation” and is closer to transactional or commercial intent.

Keep in mind that although there are 4 types of user intents, they are often worded slightly differently.

Informational intent

When a searcher types informational keywords in Google, they want to learn something.

So your blog posts, glossary terms, FAQs, and research papers need to match their search for education and information.

Examples of informational intent queries are:

• What is X?
• Definition of X
• Examples of X

Commercial intent

Once a searcher understands the topic, they may decide to act on the information.

Commercial intent keywords are process-oriented and fall into the “do” category.

Searchers are now ready to decide how they want to move forward, and the content you create needs to fulfill this specific search intent.

In-depth tutorials and guides are examples of content that matches commercial intent.

When you search for “apply for a credit card,” Google and other engines know that you are looking for an application page.

And that’s exactly what it gives you in the search results.

Transactional intent

A searcher who uses transactional keywords is looking to buy.

This person has decided they are ready to commit to a purchase, so during this stage, they’re narrowing their options, seeking validation, and finalizing the “buy.”

Create content, such as broad landing pages, specific product and service pages, testimonials, and pricing pages, to match these types of transactional intent queries:

• best X
• X vs Y comparison
• X reviews

If you are looking for the “best family tents,” Google understands and will give you nine of the best family tents (with the option to load more).

Then you also see reviews to help you narrow down your decision so you can continue on your purchase journey.

Navigational intent

Navigational intent queries indicate that the searcher wants to go somewhere specific: visit an online store, or a specific web page.

Searchers often have a brand in mind when they use navigational keywords, so it’s essential that your brand appear first in the results when they type in your product.

When a navigational search is related to a brand, the searcher is more likely to buy.

3. Use your primary keyword effectively

Incorporating your primary keyword or target keyword effectively is essential for SEO success. This keyword should best represent what your blog post is about in order for your content to rank.

Use your main keyword in these 4 essential areas of your page:

H1 page title: Place the keyword at the front of the page title or title tag. Searchers like to scan, often just reading the first two words of a title, so chances are higher that they’ll click on your site if they can see that your headline matches what they are searching for.

Header tags: The heading or header tags you use in your web pages structure your content. It’s important to include your main keyword and variations in some of your header tags, such as H2 and H3, to help give context to your content for search engines.

Meta descriptions: Your meta description will appear in the search results together with your page and meta title. This tells readers what your content is about and whether it will help them. Make sure that your description includes your primary keywords. 

URLs: Using your main keyword in the web page’s URL tells readers and search engines what your page’s content is about. 

Ensure that your URLs are SEO-friendly.

For example, the primary keyword for our pillar page titled “Keyword Research Ultimate Guide: Step-by-Step Strategies for More Traffic” is “keyword research.” 

The target keyword appears prominently in the page title, meta tag, meta description, header tags and the article’s URL.

4. Optimize your content with secondary keywords

You also need to use secondary keywords in your content to convey topical depth to search engines. 

Since secondary keywords signal semantic relationships, Google uses these to identify related entities on your page.

Finding these on your page will signal to search engines that you have a well rounded article on your main keyword. 

Instead of spending hours identifying related keywords in Google’s Autocomplete, Related Searches, and People Also Ask, you can use Surfer’s Content Editor. 

The Terms panel shows a list of suggested keywords and their optimal frequency that are relevant to your content.

They’re arranged in order of importance so you can easily find the most popular terms for your target query. 

Those highlighted in green are optimum while yellow and red leave room for improvement. As you include more keywords in the optimal range, Surfer improves your page’s content score.

Content Creation and Quality

High-quality content is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy. It’s what attracts and engages your target audience, keeping them on your site longer and encouraging them to return. Content creation involves producing and publishing valuable, relevant, and comprehensive content that addresses the needs and interests of your audience.

By focusing on creating high-quality content, you can improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site, enhancing user experience. Search engines prioritize content that is useful, informative, and well-structured. Therefore, investing time and effort into content creation is essential for achieving long-term SEO success.

Whether it’s blog posts, articles, videos, or infographics, the key is to provide value to your audience. When your content resonates with your readers, they are more likely to share it, link to it, and engage with it, all of which contribute to better search engine rankings.

5. Write compelling titles and meta descriptions

It’s important to write compelling titles and meta descriptions if you want to improve CTR and make it easy for search engines and users to understand your content.

To maximize CTR, titles should be no longer than 60 characters and meta descriptions should not exceed 150-160 characters.

When crafting titles and meta descriptions, consider accessibility, brevity, and capturing quality. Titles should be capitalized, with every word in upper case.

Meta descriptions are like elevator pitches, and they should persuade the searcher that your page is exactly what they are looking for.

You can get more people to click on your content in engine results pages by giving it a catchy title and a detailed, interesting description.

A well-written title and meta description can help your website get a lot of traffic from search engines.

Here is an example of a good meta title and description.

The whole meta title tag shows clearly, and the meta description tells the reader what they can expect to learn by reading this blog post.

7. Create Useful and Comprehensive Content

Creating useful and comprehensive content is essential for attracting and engaging your target audience. When your content addresses users’ pain points and provides valuable solutions, it not only satisfies their needs but also encourages them to stay on your site longer.

Useful and comprehensive content can take various forms, including blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics. The goal is to provide in-depth information that leaves your audience feeling informed and satisfied. By doing so, you can improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site, enhancing user experience.

Remember, the more value you provide, the more likely your audience is to return to your site and share your content with others. This not only boosts your visibility but also establishes your authority in your niche, leading to long-term SEO success.

8. Use Meaningful Visuals to Enhance Content

Meaningful visuals play a crucial role in enhancing your content and improving the user experience. By incorporating images, videos, and other visual elements, you can break up text and make your content more engaging and shareable.

Visuals help communicate complex information more effectively, making it easier for your audience to understand and retain the information. They also make your content more appealing, encouraging visitors to spend more time on your site.

By using meaningful visuals, you can improve your search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site. Visual content is more likely to be shared on social media, increasing your reach and visibility. In the world of SEO, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

By following these best practices, you can enhance your SEO strategy and achieve better search engine rankings. Remember, the key to successful SEO is to provide value to your audience while adhering to search engine guidelines. With the right approach, you can drive more organic traffic to your site and achieve long-term success.

6. Include internal links

Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page on a website to another on the same domain and are crucial to improving your website’s SEO performance.

Internal and external links aid in offering context to search engines for understanding your content and the relationship between content pieces. 

Internal links also help establish a site hierarchy while improving the flow of PageRank through your website. They can also offer valuable additional resources to readers.

How do internal links influence your search ranking?

Linking acts as a vote of trust in the eyes of a search engine. While external links to your pages are the strongest indicators, internal linking can also help search engines understand which pages to prioritize.

Search crawlers use links to discover content on your website.

When you link to a page on your website, you’re essentially telling search engines that this is an important page for you.

Here are a few tips to optimize your internal linking strategy:

• Link within related pages in a topic cluster to signal a content hub on your website. This will ensure that your links are semantically related and aid topical authority.
• Older content tends to have more authority than newer ones on your site, so ensure that you always link to new pages from old ones. 
• Use variations in your anchor text.
• Don’t link to every page. If you are a relatively new site, link to pages within your topic. Authority sites can get away with linking to pages outside the topic cluster. 
• Ensure all the web pages on your site are linked so you don’t have any pages without internal links to them. Without pages linking to them, it will be harder for Google to find, crawl, and index content on your website.

Don’t forget to include external links. They can help you associate with credible websites, which can help your standing. 

7. Build backlinks 

We know that backlinks are a confirmed ranking factor that need to be part of your SEO strategy. 

A website with fewer or no backlinks is like an isolated island in the vast ocean of the internet.

It’s harder for search engines to discover and index such websites, which can lead to lower visibility in engine results pages.

This lack of visibility can result in fewer visitors, less brand exposure, and ultimately, lower revenue.

When a website links to your site, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and relevant. This can significantly improve your website’s SEO ranking.

Moreover, backlinks can also drive direct traffic to your site, increasing your audience and potential customer base.

Here are several ways to acquire backlinks to :  

• creating high-quality, shareable content
• guest blogging on reputable sites
• building relationships with influencers and other relevant websites in your industry
• digital PR tactics such as press releases and HARO style outreach to journalists.

You can also conduct a backlink audit of your competitors to identify potential link-building opportunities with tools like Surfer Audit.

Instead of entering several of your competitor’s URLs, you can enter your competing page, and Surfer will extract the most common websites linking to the top ranking pages for that target keyword. 

For my article on submitting your website to search engines, I found 207 websites that I could approach for link building opportunities. 

8. Engage your readers

There is no point in creating content that your audience will not enjoy or find helpful because they’ll leave your website quickly.

You can only captivate your audience and encourage them to spend time on your website and improve user experience when you create helpful, valuable, and original content and share unique perspectives.

You also boost your search rankings when you write compelling, optimized content that meets Google’s search quality rating guidelines for E-E-A-T. Your content also needs to resonate with your target audience, and you can only do this when you understand their needs, preferences, and search intent.  Here are some best practices when writing SEO content.

Make your content skimmable: Most readers skim content to find what they are looking for, so you want to utilize white space, make your content skimmable with short paragraphs, and include formatting to attract their attention.

Use headers and subheaders: Headers and subheaders categorize your content, and they improve skimmability too. Choose clear and concise headers and subheads that accurately summarize the following content sections to help your readers stay on your page.

Communicate with images: The saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” remains true. Include images, infographics, videos, GIFs, and screenshots in your content where possible to make it more attractive, and optimize images to be SEO-friendly.

Optimize for mobile: Mobile searches are more popular than desktop searches at more than 55% of searches going to mobile devices compared to roughly 43% of desktop searches. It’s critical to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile search queries.

• Content should be legible on the smaller screen
• There should be space to tap on buttons and links
• And don’t have walls of text.

By crafting content that is informative, visually appealing, commercially viable, and user-friendly, you can provide an enjoyable experience for your readers while also satisfying search engines and achieving your on-page SEO objectives.

9. Practice E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

E-E-A-T is closely tied to content quality, which is essential for building trust with both search engines and users, and enhancing user experience.

E-E-A-T originates from Google’s Search Quality Rating Guidelines and is used to differentiate between high and low-quality websites, especially in YMYL niches (Your money your life) like finance and healthcare.

But we know that expertise, trust and authority are important to Google, so it’s a good idea to practice E-E-A-T in every industry. 

As AI content becomes more prevalent, E-E-A-T will be considered even more important. 

Content that meets Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines can help you build trust with the search engine and your audience.

Here are some tips to show E-E-A-T in your content:

Hire industry professionals: Using industry professionals and subject matter experts (SMEs) to write, edit, and review your website pages is good practice to ensure credibility and accuracy. Your audience is more likely to trust content written by someone they know than by someone who doesn’t have a license.

Showcase author bios: Name the industry professionals and SMEs that are involved in the content creation process. Prominent author bio pages can show your readers that the blog posts are written by real experts. You can also showcase links to your author’s social pages and LinkedIn.

Display credibility: Content that’s credible cites statistics, research, and case studies. All facts are verified, and there’s a clear distinction between fact and opinion. 

Sites in the YMYL space like VeryWellMind, are great at building credibility and authority.

A medical expert reviews their articles, and you can see who they are by hovering over the reviewer’s name.

It’s a mini author bio, and clicking on the links takes you to a more detailed biography and the person’s social accounts.

The site also explicitly mentions that the article has been medically reviewed, with information about what this means exactly, for transparency purposes, which helps them abide by E-E-A-T guidelines.

To showcase E-E-A-T in your content, ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date, reference reliable sources, and utilize language that is suitable for your audience.

10. Build topical clusters

You can demonstrate topical expertise to search engines by building several pages that cover a topic in sufficient depth.

These pages can be linked together with anchor text so that they form a cluster of information about the topic, commonly known as topical clusters or content hubs. 

Topical authority is crucial because it signals to search engines that your website is a trusted source of information on a specific topic.

This can significantly improve your website’s SEO ranking for keywords. 

You can find several topic clusters for your website using Surfer’s Keyword Research Tool. In this example, I searched for “home appliances” and found 43 keyword clusters that are related to my topic.

 Keep in mind that you can also search for more specific topics like kitchen appliances, food appliances, etc to find even more related subtopics for your website. 

By establishing topical authority, your website becomes a recognized expert in a specific field.

This clarity helps search engines understand what your site is about, making it easier for them to rank your site for keywords. 

11. Optimize page speed

Your readers are busy and don’t want to wait around for your page to load. Slow loading pages result in higher bounce rates and lower engagement, negatively affecting your SEO rankings.

In fact, Unbounce compiled a page speed report that indicates that most internet users leave if your page hasn’t loaded after 3 seconds.  70% of online shoppers say that the speed at which a page loads affects their decision to buy. Be aware that slow load times mean fewer sales and conversions.

Page speed optimization involves techniques such as compressing images, minimizing code, and leveraging browser caching to improve loading times.

Since page speed is a confirmed ranking factor, it’s essential to pay attention to your website’s page speed.

To improve your website’s page speed, consider incorporating lighter elements into your website design and utilizing image compression software to compress images prior to their use.

Tools to check page speed

Using page speed tools can help you identify potential performance issues and uncover opportunities to optimize your site’s loading speed.

Here are 3 tools you can use to check your page speed:

Google PageSpeed Insights

This tool lets you see how fast your website’s pages load on mobile and desktop browsers. Simply enter your site’s URL and look at the diagnostics to determine what you need to fix.

Pingdom

Pingdom has a free version to check your website’s loading speed. The paid plan lets you dive deeper to identify and fix performance bottlenecks.

GTMetrix 

Another popular tool, GTMetrixis a website performance monitoring and testing tool that you can use for free but need to pay to access more features. Enter your site’s URL and view your page speed grade with recommendations to improve your page speed. 

Monitor your site’s loading speed on a regular basis and implement the suggested optimizations in these tools to ensure that your website remains fast and user-friendly for your visitors.

Besides checking for pagespeed, ensure there are no broken links or server issues and that your pages provide an all-around user-friendly experience.

On-Page SEO Best Practices

12. Make Your URLs SEO-Friendly

Creating SEO-friendly URLs is a fundamental aspect of search engine optimization. A well-structured URL not only helps search engines understand the content of your page but also improves your search engine rankings. Here are some tips to make your URLs SEO-friendly:

• Use Descriptive and Concise URLs: Ensure your URLs accurately reflect the content of your page. For example, a URL like example.com/best-coffee-beans is much more descriptive and helpful for both users and search engines than example.com/page123.
• Include Target Keywords: Incorporate your main keywords naturally within the URL. This not only boosts relevance in search engines but also signals to users what the page is about. Avoid keyword stuffing; keep it natural and readable, like example.com/seo-best-practices.
• Avoid Special Characters and Numbers: Stick to words separated by hyphens and avoid special characters, numbers, or symbols that can make URLs difficult to read and remember. Clean URLs are more user-friendly and can improve your click-through rates, e.g., example.com/how-to-start-a-blog instead of example.com/how_to_start_blog_2024!.

13. Optimize Your Images

Optimizing your images is a crucial but often overlooked aspect of SEO that can significantly impact your site’s performance and user experience. Properly optimized images not only improve page load speeds, which is a key ranking factor, but they also enhance accessibility and help your content appear in image search results. Start by using descriptive, keyword-rich file names and adding alt text to each image, which helps search engines understand the context of the image while also making your content accessible to visually impaired users. Compress images without sacrificing quality to reduce file sizes and improve loading times. Use appropriate image formats, such as JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics with transparent backgrounds, to ensure the best balance between quality and size. Implement lazy loading to defer offscreen images until they’re needed, further speeding up your pages. By optimizing your images, you not only make your website faster but also provide a better overall experience for your visitors, boosting your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Technical SEO Best Practices

Technical SEO focuses on the backend aspects of your website that affect its visibility and performance in search engines. These practices ensure that search engines can easily crawl, index, and understand your site. From optimizing your site’s structure and speed to implementing advanced tactics like schema markup, technical SEO forms the foundation of a successful SEO strategy. By addressing these behind-the-scenes elements, you enhance your site’s overall functionality, providing a seamless experience for users and search engines alike.

14. Use Schema Markup and Rank for Featured Snippets

Schema markup, or structured data, is a powerful tool that helps search engines understand your content more effectively, often leading to enhanced visibility in search results. By adding schema markup to your site, you can provide additional information about your content, such as ratings, FAQs, or event details, which can appear as rich snippets in search results. This not only makes your listings more attractive but also increases your chances of ranking for featured snippets, which often appear at the top of Google’s search results. Featured snippets provide concise answers to user queries, driving more traffic to your site and boosting your brand’s authority. Implementing schema markup can set you apart from competitors, making your content more engaging and clickable.

15. Create an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a roadmap of your website that helps search engines find, crawl, and index your pages more efficiently. It lists all the important URLs on your site and provides metadata about each page, such as when it was last updated and how often it changes. By creating and submitting an XML sitemap to search engines like Google and Bing, you ensure that your site’s most important pages are discovered and indexed faster, especially new or updated content. This is particularly crucial for large websites or those with complex structures. A well-maintained sitemap improves the overall crawlability of your site, helps you rank better in search results, and ensures that no important content is overlooked by search engines.

16. Revisit old content

In the fast-paced world of the internet, content can quickly become outdated or irrelevant.

If you don’t revisit and update your old content, it can lose its value and relevance, both to your audience and to search engines.  Updating old content is important because it keeps your content fresh, relevant, and valuable to your audience. It also signals to search engines that your content is up-to-date and reliable, which can improve your SEO rankings.

Moreover, updating old content is often more cost-effective and less time-consuming than creating new content from scratch, making it an efficient way to maintain and improve your SEO performance through a content audit.

Updating your content can include:

• Revisiting facts and statistics
• Adding new information or sections
• Improving the content’s SEO (such as optimizing keywords, meta descriptions, and title tags)
• Improving the content’s readability and structure.
• You should also check and update any broken links, and consider adding new internal and external links where relevant.

For example, we have a bunch of blog posts that were written in 2020. As we’re now in 2023, this content is outdated and may no longer be relevant or accurate.

This can lead to a drop in our content’s rankings, resulting in less organic traffic, lower engagement, and fewer conversions.

17. Optimize for Voice Search

With the rise of smart devices like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri, voice search is becoming increasingly popular. Optimizing your content for voice search can give you a competitive edge in SEO. Voice searches are often longer, conversational, and phrased as questions, so your content should reflect this by incorporating natural language and question-based keywords.

How to Optimize for Voice Search:

• Use Conversational Keywords: Incorporate long-tail keywords that mimic how people speak. For example, instead of just targeting “best running shoes,” you could use “what are the best running shoes for beginners?”
• Answer Direct Questions: Create content that directly answers common questions related to your niche. Use FAQs and structured data to provide clear, concise answers that voice search devices can easily pull.
• Improve Local SEO: Many voice searches are local, like “find a coffee shop near me.” Make sure your local SEO is optimized by keeping your Google My Business profile updated and including local keywords in your content.
• Focus on Featured Snippets: Voice search often pulls answers from featured snippets. To increase your chances, ensure your content is formatted in a way that directly answers questions—using bullet points, numbered lists, or concise paragraphs.

By optimizing for voice search, you’re not only improving accessibility but also positioning your content to meet the growing demand for hands-free search options.

Key takeaways

• Choose keywords that have search potential with a high search volume and low keyword difficulty. Find the best keywords to rank for, and then choose realistic topics to match.
• Understand the search or user intent behind queries and create content that will fulfil what your audience wants. Distinguish between informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial intent before planning and creating content.
• Use your primary keywords effectively throughout your content. Write title tags that include the keyword, and use it in the meta tags, header tags, and URLs too.
• Write compelling title tags and meta descriptions that capture searchers’ attention when they are looking for which site will best match their search query in the search results.
• Build an internal linking structure on all your content so the Google bots can find and crawl your pages and also understand the relationship between content pieces. Remember to include external links too, but ensure you only link to credible and authoritative sources.
• Building authoritative backlinks is another best practice to adhere to. Since they are seen as “votes of “confidence,” getting more quality backlinks tells Google that your website has high-quality content, which improves your rank and website’s visibility.
• It’s critical to engage your readers by having high-quality, relevant, authoritative, valuable, and original content. Ensure your content is skimmable by using white space, clear headings and subheadings, including optimized images, and being mobile-friendly.
• Following Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines is a must, especially if you publish content in the YMYL niches. Your content needs to showcase experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, which buys you credibility with both users and Google.
• Create topical clusters to help you rank higher and for more long-tailed queries. Spend time building a pillar page and then write related articles. Ensure all the content in a cluster links to each other.
• Optimize your page speed to lower your bounce rate and Google will reward you for it.
• Old content doesn’t have to stay “on the online shelf” and die. Dust it off by repurposing and refreshing it. Up-to-date and accurate content remains valuable for your audience.

Conclusion

Implementing these 17 SEO best practices will help you stay ahead in the game and improve your website’s visibility in search engine results. By consistently optimizing your content, keywords, and user experience, you can rank higher, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately achieve your business goals. Don’t wait—start optimizing your content today and watch your rankings soar!

Have you tried implementing these best practices yet? Which strategies have brought you the most success in boosting your SEO?

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