1. Write longer posts
Google indexes websites based on their content (amongst other signals). Long content contains more keywords and information that the user will find beneficial. Longer blog posts also help with dwell time. Dwell time is the amount of time that passes before a user returns back to the search engine results page. Longer content that is engaging and high in quality will make people stay longer on your website and read more. At the same time, a longer dwell time is very beneficial for your ranking because it is a sign for Google that people enjoy your content.
2. Produce fresh content
Google loves fresh content. This is not only because fresh content is more relevant to users, but it also lets Google know that you are still active.
3. Use keywords
Using the right keywords is essential! While you need to use the right keywords that properly define what your content is about, you also need to consider what your users and potential customers are looking for. Search intent is a huge part of keyword research. An expert in their field will search for something completely different to a person who knows nothing about that field.
What you should look for are key indicators such as search volume (average monthly searches) and competition scores that show how easy or difficult it is to rank for a specific keyword. Of course, keep in mind that the keywords need to be relevant to your website, product or service.
4. Optimize your title, meta description, and headings
You already have long and high-quality content, and you are a pro at including keywords? Then what about your title, meta, heading, and sub-heading tags?
Title Tag
The title tag should contain keywords that are relevant to the webpage and your content. This tells search engines what the website or page is about and helps it index your site according to those keywords.
Keep in mind to optimize your title to resonate with what users are looking for, rather than stuffing it with keywords
Meta Description
A meta description is the short paragraph of text (snippet of information) under the URL which is used as a preview in the search results.
It is important to have a good meta description because it is what the users see when they decide whether or not to click the link to your site. Google may, or may not decide to use your description and may even alter it. Nonetheless, this is one of the places you want to pay attention to as Google will use it when trying to understand what your page is about.
Heading
There should only be one <h1> tag per web page, and this heading should contain the main keyword your content is focusing on. Google checks these tags the same way as it checks title tags, so be ready to optimize this part of your page.
The subheadings <h2> and <h3> should also include your target keywords. However, keep in mind to always write for the reader and use headings that enhance the reader’s experience.
5. Optimize your URLs
While most users will pay little attention to your URLs, they are important for your basic SEO. The best practice is to keep your URLs as simple as possible. Google wants you to have simple and readable URLs to provide a logical URL structure. Instead of numbers, you should use text in your URLs and that the URL should describe what the content is about while being as short as possible
6. Backlinks
Another very important part of basic SEO is backlinks. A backlink is when one website mentions another website by linking to it. While backlinks are a major deciding factor that helps your website increase its rank, those backlinks should come from high-quality websites that are related to your content’s topic.
Google sees backlinks as users voting that your content is helpful. The higher the domain ranking of a website, the more power does their backlink or “vote” has because they have established themselves as reliable sources.
7. Optimize your images
While images are nice for the reader of your blog, search engines can have trouble understanding images. To make it easier for search engines to index your images correctly, you can use alt text. The alt text is used within HTML code and describes what the image shows. Every image should have a detailed and accurate description in its alt text.
Alt texts are also important for the blind or visually challenged as they require a special computer or software that reads text aloud. In addition, if the image is not seen or loaded your alt text will be shown and lets the reader know what the picture is supposed to show.
8. Consider site speed
Site speed is a very important factor that search engines look for when ranking websites. Google itself said that page loading speed is an SEO ranking signal. A fast site is also less frustrating for users to navigate through.
9. Mobile Friendliness
In 2015, Google started penalizing websites that were not mobile-friendly. What does it mean to be mobile-friendly? It means that the website or webpage is responsive or adaptive to mobile devices. Sometimes if the webpage is not responsive, there will be a separate mobile website
10. Measure your results
In order to know if your basic SEO is helping your website, you should start tracking your data. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great tools that can analyse and save all your data. It doesn’t only tracks where users come from, but also how they are getting there. This tool also creates custom reports for you when analysing your data.
