SEO Strategies are a set of rules for improving a website’s organic rankings in search engines like Google. Implementing effective SEO Strategies typically leads to higher rankings and increased website traffic.
Why?
The higher your page ranks, the more likely a searcher will click on your material.
You should follow best practices for SEO in Kenya to put your best foot forward and aim to rank as highly as possible.
Here are the 10 most crucial SEO best practices you must know:
1. Align your content with search intent.
Search intent (sometimes known as “user intent”) is the objective of every search query.
Understanding and satisfying search intent is Google’s top objective. All of the pages on the first page passed Google’s search intent test.
Blog entries and videos rank highest in search results. Not ecommerce pages that sell oatmeal cookies.
Google recognizes that people who search for this keyword want to learn from Eye2Leads.
A query such as “buy oatmeal cookies” yields product advertising and ecommerce pages.
In this situation, Google recognizes that customers want to buy. As a result, there are no oatmeal cookie recipe links.
This means:
If you want to rank on page one of Google, you must first understand search intent and generate content that matches it.
There are four main categories of search intent:
- Informational: when someone wants to learn more about something.
- Navigational: when someone searches for a specific page or website.
- Commercial: when someone wants to know more before making a purchase.
- Transactional: when somebody intends to complete an action or purchase.
2. Use primary keywords.
A primary keyword (or “target keyword”) is one that best describes the content of a page.
And each page of your website should focus on a single primary keyword. (If you want it to rank in Google.)
Where you employ your major keyword is also important. It helps to optimize the page.
So, if feasible, include your target term in aspects such as:
- The title tag
- The primary headers, particularly the H1
- The Introduction
- The webpage’s URL
For example, the main keyword in this article is “seo best practices.” And you’ll notice it’s contained in all of those elements.
The primary keyword is frequently the keyword that most accurately expresses the overall concept of the page and has the largest search traffic.
3. Create compelling title tags and meta descriptions.
The page title and meta description are two of the most essential meta tags on your page.
Title Tags
Title tags are clickable headlines that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).
They communicate to Google what your page is about. And they’re fundamental from an SEO perspective.
Title tags are crucial for providing users with a short overview of a result’s content. And why it is pertinent to their inquiry.
It’s frequently the first piece of information searchers use to determine which result to click on.
As a result, it is critical to create compelling titles for your webpages.
Generally, title tags should be between 50 and 60 characters long. This manner, words will not be cut off in desktop or mobile SERPs.
Here are some other title tag best practices to keep in mind:
- Include the desired keyword.
- Match the search intent.
- Avoid using multiple title tags.
- Avoid keyword cramming.
- Keep them descriptive, but concise.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are meta tags that describe the content of a webpage.
It is frequently featured below your page’s title and URL in the SERP.
Meta descriptions should generally inform and interest users by providing a brief, relevant summary of the page’s content.
They function similarly to a pitch, convincing a searcher that the page is exactly what they’re looking for.
Google often truncates meta descriptions on desktop to 155 to 160 characters.
So, make sure your summary is factual and concise.
Meta descriptions should generally inform and interest users by providing a brief, relevant summary of the page’s content.
Here are some best practices for meta descriptions:
- Create a unique meta description for each page.
- Use action-oriented copywriting.
- Include your primary keywords.
- Match the search intent.
4. Optimize your images.
Images have an important role in boosting a visitor’s overall experience.
When used properly, photos can improve your site’s overall SEO and increase organic traffic.
Here are several approaches to optimizing your images:
Choose the best file format.
Images are frequently the major contributors to total page size and loading time. And page speed is critical for a positive user experience.
The first step is to choose the optimal file format.
The most popular picture formats on the internet are JPEG and PNG.
Both formats employ different compression methods. As a result, the file sizes between these two can vary significantly.
Given the differences in file sizes seen above, it is easy to proclaim JPEG the winner. But this would be a mistake.
While JPEGs look wonderful for photographs, PNGs are better suited for images with text, line drawings, and so on.
WebP is another common choice. It is a recent picture format that offers excellent lossless and lossy compression for web images.
According to Google, WebP lossless images are 26% smaller than PNGs and 34% smaller than equivalent JPEGs.
Compress your images.
Image compression is a procedure that reduces the size of photographs while maintaining quality.
The higher the image file size, the longer your page will take to load.
So it’s critical to compress your photographs before uploading them to your website.
Here are a few free resources that can help:
- TinyPNG: employs sophisticated lossy compression algorithms to reduce the size of your PNG and JPEG files.
- ImageOptim: is by far the greatest program for compressing images on Mac.
- ShortPixel: is an excellent WordPress plugin for automatically shrinking photos.
Provide alternative text for images.
Alt text (short for alternative text) is text that appears in HTML code to describe a picture on a website.
It provides context for both search engine crawlers and screen readers.
Despite developments in Google’s capacity to recognize photos, adding alt text to images remains vital.
The following are a few alt text best practices to adhere to:
- Don’t exceed 125 characters.
- Add a single primary keyword to the context.
- Don’t use “picture of” or “image of.”
Slowly Load Your Pictures
In app and online development, lazy loading is a strategy that delays non-essential resource loading (pictures, videos, etc.) during page load time.
Users only load images and videos when they require them.
Google discusses the connection between site performance and lazy loading as follows:
“We improve performance by lowering initial page load time, initial page weight, and system resource consumption when we lazy load images and video.”
5. Increase Your SERP Space
With all the changes Google’s home page has seen over the years, who knows what the future holds for SERP mainstays like answer boxes, knowledge panels, local packs, and ads?
We can only rely on the fact that organic search results are ever-evolving.
So how can one establish themselves in this turbulent search environment?
This is where you begin:
Land Highlighted Excerpts
Although featured snippets have been around for a long time, their usefulness hasn’t decreased.
Featured snippets remain above search results, but obtaining and maintaining them over time are still difficult tasks.
Thus, how may one obtain a featured excerpt?
- You formulate queries in your content and use ranking keywords to help your audience find the answers they seek.
- You arrange your material in paragraphs, tables, lists, and other snippet-wise formats.
It’s also worthwhile to review this Stone Temple study, which discovered that, depending on the market, different formatting strategies had varying success rates:
Respond to frequently asked questions (FAQs) in your niche using concise paragraphs of writing (40–60 words, the length of a typical featured snippet).
It seems to work rather well for many types of definitions, however it’s not a surefire way to get to position zero (just be aware of answer boxes that offer real dictionary definitions for some questions).
Use Schema
Although you won’t receive a featured snippet, schema markup can still result in one or more SERP features.
In addition to the schema implementation itself, try your desired search terms on Google here.
- Examine the kinds of SERPs that these queries pull.
- Determine which areas are filled with your content and consider whether the features are enough for you.
- Look for the gaps that your material can fill in as well; this is possibly the most crucial step.
6. Boost User Experience
Google closely monitors user interactions with pages. User experience (UX) therefore plays a major role in raising search ranks.
A major factor in enhancing UX is page speed. But it’s only the beginning.
To guarantee that visitors to your website have a positive experience, consider the following additional SEO advice:
- Employ subheadings and headers. Making effective use of headers and subheadings (H1, H2, H3) improves reader accessibility and aids Google in comprehending your material.
- Make your writing visually appealing. Readers can better understand your material by using visuals. Make use of pertinent screenshots, videos, and graphics to support your arguments.
- Do not use invasive pop-ups. Pop-ups irritate visitors to your website. Google has penalized websites using obtrusive pop-ups since 2017. Thus, it’s advisable to utilize them in moderation.
- Make use of white space. An essential component of successful design is white space. The Interaction Design Foundation claims that using white space enhances focus, branding, and intelligibility.
- Make your website responsive. UX and Google’s mobile-first indexing both depend on mobile friendliness. You may check how well your website functions by using Google’s mobile-friendly test.
7. Create SEO-Friendly URLs
Both users and search engines can infer the topic of the destination page from a well-structured URL.
Think about structuring your material such that URLs make sense. And in a way that makes sense to people.
Keeping that in mind, the following is how to begin crafting well-organized URLs:
- Make use of short URLs. Short URLs typically perform better than long URLs in SERPs, according to a Backlinko study.
- Don’t forget to include your goal keyword. If you want to improve your search engine rating, make sure the URL contains your goal keywords.
- If needed, add subfolders or categories. For instance, you might have a subcategory called “shop” if you’re a goods seller. This aids visitors in navigating your website.
8. Repurpose both recent and historical material.
To get better results, you can repurpose material into new formats in addition to reoptimizing it.
Why would you repurpose content?
A simple blog post, article, or tutorial is OK, but such kinds of material are not very competitive. This is a result of companies publishing content more quickly. Actually, half of the 53% of businesses that employ content marketing do so on a daily basis.
You can make a lasting impression by repurposing your material into novel formats, such as these ones:
- Infographics
- Videos
- Posts on social media and more
Additionally, it can help you revitalize old site content by giving it a new format that adds value to your page and helps you rank higher in search results. This is an alternative to letting your previous content dwindle in terms of traffic, shares, and conversions.
How should content be repurposed?
Content repurposing and old content optimization are comparable.
You should concentrate on pages:
- Reduced engagement, conversions, and traffic
- displaying on page two or above in search results, but lower
- Adding value to your company’s overarching objectives
You should concentrate on pages that provide the highest return on investment (ROI) for optimal outcomes and time management. You might wish to skip a page if it doesn’t contribute to your objectives, such as increasing awareness, leads, or sales. There are times when you might spend time on a page unrelated to your objectives.
For instance, you can choose to turn an article on industry trends into an infographic. Though it’s unlikely to bring in calls, leads, or sales, this piece could net you some worthwhile shares and links. These benefits can help your SEO approach, which can raise other pages’ search engine rankings.
After deciding which pages to convert, you must select the appropriate format. For example, which video will be the most valuable? Or does an infographic match consumer preferences?
You want to make the most out of both your time and money, so take your time making this choice. To determine what kinds of content are most effective for your topic and industry, conduct keyword, SERP, and audience research. You can add your extra stuff to the page once you’ve created it.
