In my last article, I laid out the more technical reasons why a website does not rank. Some Black-Hat Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) hacks can do more damage than good. And Google has been actively and consistently penalizing techniques that try to game the system and deceive users.
This article will outline some of the most important points to getting a website ranking well in no time. This article will show 13 tips across four major sections that improve the searchability of a website.
Before we delve into the details, understand that Google never created a certification or official guideline to SEO because it does not encourage anyone to game the system. It believes SEO should ultimately be used for the good of content sharing, and not ranking for the sake of ranking. That said, Google’s search spider is still a computer that adheres to a complex set of algorithms. And algorithms can be predicted.
Keywords
Keywords are a singular or set of words that define the topic of a written content. The more relevant your keywords are to what people are searching for, the higher the chance they will be found on Google.
1. How to Find Your Keyword
Having the right keyword for your website, especially on the landing page, is important. But how do we know what set of keywords work well with our website?
A proper keyword research goes a long way in understanding what people are searching for on Google. Sometimes we may think we know what they are, but will often be surprised with our findings.
By using the Google Keyword Planner, we can insert a set of words that we think best describe our industry, and Google will help populate all relevant findings.
In order to use the Google Keyword Planner, you will first need to set up a Google Adwords account. After that, you will be required to create an advertisement which you can then pause so it wouldn’t cost you a dime. Then, full access to the all-powerful Keyword Planner will be yours.
Suggested keywords populated by Google also include their average monthly search numbers, how competitive they are, and their estimated bid cost.
The smart move here is to find the least competitive keyword that best describes your content. That way, you can rank higher faster without paying an arm and a leg.
Although some keywords are so important you cannot escape. In this case, you can improve your standing on that keyword either by writing more relevant content or considering paying for Adwords.
Having established a set of strong keywords that help your website rank, you will also have a better idea of what kinds of blog content you can write.
Now that you have your keywords, it’s time to populate them into the different pages and posts on your site.
2. Keyword on Each Page
For starters, it is most important to have a well-defined keyword for your main home page. This makes it discoverable on Google Search Results Page (SERP).
But the same keyword research strategy has to also be implemented on every page and post on your website. For example, if you have an eCommerce website that sells about 20 products, you will also want all of them to be directly discoverable on Google. But which parts of the page should your keywords be located? Read on to find out.
3. Title and Meta Description
We begin from the top; page title and meta description. The title is the big blue captions on a Google Search result. They define what your page is with bigger texts that are also hyperlinked to your destination URL.
The Meta Description is the longer description that appears below in grey. This part gives the website an extended introduction on what your site is about. Both the Title and Meta Description of your website should contain your selected keyword.
4. Post Header and in Paragraph
Include your assigned keyword as part of the post title in order to reflect to search spiders and users what this post is about. Label the title with a Heading 1 or Heading 2 format so they carry more weight in your content.
Once you have done that, it also helps to include your keyword into the first sentence of the first paragraph.
5. Keyword Density
This refers to how many times your assigned keyword appears in that post. While it is good to have it sprinkled in here and there, having too much will definitely cause your post to lose ranking.
There is no absolute number that will definitely work for Google, however, most experts in the field believe keeping density between 0.5% – 2% is ideal. This means for every 100 words that go into your post, only 2 should contain your assign keyword. This is where your ability to use alternative words and names becomes useful.
6. Naming Your Images
There are two different camps in this technique of SEO. One believes that having your keyword in the name of your image will help boost site ranking, while others think this is an old method that should be forgotten.
But I believe that people still search for images on Google using keywords. The results returned will sometimes be based on Google image identification Artificial Intelligence (AI), and also based on keywords assigned to images.
For this purpose alone, naming your image according to the assigned keywords is still a useful task as it increases discoverability.
One such technique is the addition of keyword into the image URL. All media uploaded onto the web will have their own URL. Adding the keyword at the end of it can increase it’s visibility.
Another method is by adding the keyword to the image’s Alt Text. This, too, will improve searchability. After uploading an image, simply add the Alt Text in the properties.
Once an image is uploaded, you will be able to edit the properties including changing the URL, image name, and also Alt Text.
7. Page/Post URL
Finally, and possibly the most important, to add your keyword into the page/post URL. When a new post is created, it is common for many website managers to randomly assign a set of alphanumeric sequences that mean nothing.
By replacing the random characters with your assigned keyword, it will help search spiders find your post faster by matching them directly with search queries. More importantly, users will be able to immediately know what your post is about by looking at the link itself.
Sentence Structure
Because most content is consumed on mobile devices these days, there is more weight placed onto how content is structured for better viewability. For example, multiple headers help break the content down into bite-sized chunks. And shorter sentences and paragraphs prevent readers from losing their way through the article.
1. Headings and Subheadings
All content should have the main header as title, which typically comes in Heading 1 or Heading 2 (H1 and H2) formats. The subsequent subtitles can have Headings with lower weight, for example, H3 if the title is H2. That way readers can easily make sense of the article even before beginning to read. And because it helps readers, it will also help with your SEO.
2. Lengthy Subtopics but Short Sentences
Each subtitle should be followed by no more than 300 words, broken down into paragraphs. Each sentence should contain less than 20 words for better readability. Apply Transition Words to connect two sentences that explain the same thing. For example, end a sentence explaining something then pick it up later with Transition Words like ‘However, Although, And, Moreover’, and similar.
3. Active Voice
These sentences should also preferably be written in Active instead of Passive Voice formats. The acceptable Passive Voice format is below 10% of your total number of sentences.
Links
Links play an important role in determining the Domain Authority of your website. Domain Authority is defined by three major factors of your website: Age, Popularity, and Size . Popularity here refers to how many other external sources are directed to and from your website. There are three main types of links that can increase the popularity of your website, which will ultimately boost your Domain Authority.
1. Backlinks
Backlinks are the type of links that are generated from an external website or other sources. Examples would be links coming from other websites mentioning your article, or if your post was shared from social media platforms.
Good ways to increase backlinking would be to strike collaboration deals with other websites, where you frequently share each other’s posts on your platforms. Another method would be by having your post shared by users of social media.
The more backlinks your posts receive from external websites and social media platforms, the higher chance your Domain Authority will increase. This will help boost your website higher up the Google Search Results.
2. External Links
While Backlinks refer to links of your site being posted in other places, External Links are links from your site that lead out of your website. It is Google’s way of rewarding your site for interacting with external pages and sources.
It also makes sense that while it pays to receive linking from other websites, it is equally rewarding to perform external links in your website to theirs.
3. Internal Links
Internal Links connect one site to another from within your domain. This step is important because it allows your users to move freely around your website without getting stuck in a cul-de-sac.
Famous ways of implementing Internal Links include adding related articles and links to find out more about your product or service (Similar Products or Articles). If you write articles for the website, also consider adding internal links in the form of clickable words. These can relate back to previous articles or works that you’ve made in the past.
By looking at all the detailed requirement Google wants in a good website, one may be forgiven to think that it is incredibly complex. But if we were to peel away the technical layers and observe the core of its purpose, Google’s main goal is to make information search and consumption as easy as possible in today’s world of Instant Gratification. At the same breath, the search giant also tries their best to keep black-hat SEO hackers from destroying our search experience.
