- 1. Original and Unique content
- 2. Engaging Content
- 3. Good titles and descriptions
- 4. Demonstrate your expertise
- 5. Score 100% when it comes to on-page SEO
- 6. Never violate Google webmaster guidelines
- 7. Keep your website fresh
- 8. Forget about spammy Link building
- 9. Promote on social media
- 10. Stay in synch with the latest trends
- Key Learnings
In this post, you’ll learn about the 10 most important SEO practices that will keep both Google and your users happy. Find out what you need to do to gain the respect and attention of the World’s biggest search engine.
So, what is the secret formula for getting millions of Google visits, and how can you ensure 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 the phrase ‘original and unique content’; honestly, I am not sure how many times I have said it myself.
It’s becoming a cliché, but if you want to rank high on Google, you need to publish high-quality, original, and unique content 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 happen.
You can read my SEO writing guide for more information on how to create content that satisfies the above rules, but as a general rule of thumb, content creation usually takes up most of your website’s time.
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; 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 clear that social signals (comments are also social signals) have started to play a more important role in 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, while 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. The reasoning behind it is that user engagement is a ranking signal that tells Google that a particular page is important to users.
Since search engines want to show pages in their results pages that help users, they will most likely 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 it talks about SEO, it is the importance of having good titles 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 every page on 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
Again, this is related to the quality of the content, but if you are an expert on a topic, ensure that you show that on 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 on 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 also trust you.
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 to optimize it for search engines.
It is not difficult to have an SEO-optimized website, and it is the first check you need to make when evaluating your overall internet presence.
You can compare your website against my SEO checklist to better understand what you need to change for on-page SEO.
I consider on-page SEO to be more important than ever, so I suggested that you be 100% compliant.
What I always tell my clients as an example is the following:
When building a skyscraper, you need to ensure that you have good and strong foundations before building the floors. Proper on-page SEO will ensure your website’s foundations are in good shape before any 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, violating webmaster guidelines occurs when you are not familiar with them, so you do something that violates them without knowing it.
Second, you know that you are violating the guidelines, but you are doing it believing that this way will get you more traffic and faster results.
To avoid unwanted troubles, you can read the Google Search Essentials 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; good results will come.
7. Keep your website fresh
From all search engines, Google loves fresh content and up-to-date websites. Give Google another reason to differentiate your website from the competition by regularly providing high-quality content.
Content freshness is a Google SEO factor, and this is not something I assume or predict; 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 to show Google that you are in sync 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 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 for our campaign.
To put it simply, link-building is a thing of the past. Not only can it not help your website achieve better rankings in Google, but it can also do more damage than good.
Does that mean 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, not artificially created links.
The best way to distinguish between the two is as follows: A natural link is placed by a webmaster or blogger to help their readers learn 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 to get 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 to what extent social media networks influence rankings, they have often 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 social media mentions as one of the most appropriate ways to promote a website are becoming increasingly frequent.
Do not forget that social media promotion will also increase user engagement with the content, promote brand awareness, and a great way to let other webmasters know about your content and get more natural links.
10. Stay in synch with the latest trends
One way to fully take advantage of Google SEO is to stay in sync with the latest developments. Their quality team makes thousands of changes per year to 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 learn 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’s algorithm and start thinking about how you can create a website that has something to offer visitors.
When you create a website that stands out, you can be certain that traffic from Google will start flowing in, with or without SEO.
