SEO Best Practices
By: Dena Write-Solutions
Tags: Branding, Marketing, Digital Marketing, SEO, Writing

Search engine optimization (SEO) best practices help to improve the search engine rankings of your website. In the world of content writing, SEO is king, but I think it is overstated. Yes, you need to establish good SEO practices so that potential clients or customers can find your site. That said, any decent content writer can provide standard SEO.

The magic combination that everyone is truly looking for is the combination of SEO best practices combined with high-quality content. Getting people to find your website is essential, but it does little good if no one is engaging with the content.

What are SEO Best Practices?

There are advanced SEO techniques that you can incorporate, but not until you have the basics down first. Once you build a solid foundation, you can slowly implement more advanced approaches.

It is also important to note that best practices are often a moving target that changes rapidly as search engines like Google strive to find a way to maximize the ranking of high-value sites. When producing content for your website, the following tips, combined with excellently crafted content, will help boost your ranking.

1. Add your primary keyword early in the content. Most content writers know that you need to use your most important keyword more than once on a content page, but what many fail to realize is that where you use a keyword makes a difference. Put your main keyword within the first couple of paragraphs of content.

2. Avoid duplicate content. That one seems pretty straightforward, and most content mill writing skirts around this by rehashing the same content over and over but mixing it up just enough that it isn’t plagiarism. What few seem to realize is that rehashing content that you can find all over the web offers no value to your site.

Even on your own site, duplicating, or near duplication, of content, does nothing for your SEO ranking, and honestly, it annoys readers. Focus on creating a unique voice for your product, business, or brand.

3. Your title is crucial, yet one of the things to which content creators give little attention. Google, the ultimate authority on all things SEO, has said, “it’s important to use high-quality titles on your webpage.”

4. Use internal and external links. Internal links are an easy way for people to navigate around your site, and high-quality external links will hopefully earn you those coveted backlinks to your content.

5. Use high-quality pictures and custom infographics to help your content tell a story. In the digital age, when we expect all knowledge to be instantly available, relevant pictures and graphs help readers engage with your content. As a bonus, that’s another thing Google has been pretty open about getting preferential treatment.

Those five pillars form the foundation of solid SEO friendly content, but it is still missing the most crucial element. To truly grasp the type of quality you need for your content, think about the unimaginable size of the internet.

If you sell widgets, run a parenting blog, or have a law firm website, so do millions of other people. So, why would your content rank above everyone else’s for that coveted first-page placement on Google search results?

Beyond the Basics

You have to have something original to say, no matter how often the topic has been rehashed. It seems intimidating to contemplate creating new content on, well, almost anything. So, what can you do to build authority on a topic that has been done over and over again?

First, if it is relevant, use geography to your advantage. If you want to appear on page one as a personal injury firm on a Google search, you need to narrow the field. So, if you are a California firm, make sure you use California as a keyword in your content. It’s even better if you are vying to be the top result for personal injury firms in Ojai, California.

Beyond geography, you need to craft your content carefully to your intended audience. If you write generic content with titles like “Parenting Toddlers,” no amount of SEO perfection is going to earn you the coveted first-page ranking.

However, if you establish yourself as an authority on parenting toddlers, and you write about “Practical Ideas for Road Trips With a Toddler,” and you follow that up with new and interesting ideas that work, you have a much higher chance of hitting your mark.

Focus on Quality Over Quantity

For a truly successful website for marketing purposes, you do need plenty of content, but your priority should be the uniqueness and quality of your content. In a world where the internet can connect you with professionals in almost any field, with a few clicks, why struggle to craft your content if it isn’t your field? If you run a blog, you will probably do your own writing, but even then, you can benefit from having another writer with strong SEO experience edit or contribute.

If you want to sell widgets, but understand the power of digital marketing, hire someone who is a talented writer in the field of widgets. If you’re going to write your own content and have the talent to do so, take the time to edit your work carefully. Use professional editing tools to ensure you do not have any overlooked spelling or grammar mistakes, and focus on creating engaging content that provides a service to your audience.