7 best SEO practices all website owners need to know

So you want to get ahead on search engines, and you know that SEO is the way to go about it. 

But did you also know that there are some key practices you need to adapt to ensure your techniques will actually work, instead of falling flat against your competition? 

Eye10 has been brought to you by real SEO experts and we’re keen to share our knowledge with you. In today’s post, we want to delve into the important topic of the best practices you need to adopt if you want to generate quality results for your SEO strategy. 

When these practices are followed, your pages are more likely to rank higher because relevancy and quality have been factored in. So let’s get started! 

H2: #1 – Identify your keywords first

Identifying your SEO keywords after a page has been published is akin to only lighting the stove to cook dinner when it’s time to take the food out of the oven. Sure, you could do things that way, but it’s going to waste a lot of time and energy in the process. 

In terms of your SEO, the longer your content remains unoptimised, the more website traffic and conversions will continue to pass you by. 

So before writing content for your website or even mapping out your pages, you need a clear keyword strategy. Each page should have a main keyword, along with supplementary keywords that expand on this original keyword to add depth and further relevance to your users. 

Create a spreadsheet of these keywords, along with aspects relating to the search volume and keyword difficulty to guide you. Implement these keywords within your body copy, headings, image file names and page metadata. 

Also, be careful to implement keywords in a way which does not hinder readability. 

H2: #2 – Align your website’s content with search intent

It’s one thing to include keywords in your content. But in order to be truly successful, you need to really consider what users are actually looking for when they type such search queries in. That’s because if your website includes particular keywords, users will expect they can find related information or complete a certain action when they visit that page. 

Remember, search intent can be informational, navigational, commercial or transactional in nature. So the purpose of a user’s search really needs to be clearly established within your content. If so, you can move beyond just gaining page views and actually attract users who are more likely to convert. 

H2: #3 – Make quality a priority 

Sure, it’s easy to spam your pages with keyword stuffing or even to use ‘clickbait’ style tactics. Not to mention paying for links on dodgy, low domain authority websites. But all in all, there’s simply no fooling search engines, let alone human users who will either land on your content and complete the intended action or make a quick exit. 

The best place to start here is within the content of your web pages. Although your pages will need to include keywords, the content itself should always be readable and engaging. 

The basics, such as adequate word lengths, not to mention spelling and grammar checks, all help. You can then further expand on your SEO by looking at related keywords, including questions and phrases that hone in on your niche, instead of giving one-word answers. 

As for gaining backlinks (an integral part of your off-page SEO) – these need to be of high quality too. Look for websites which have high domain authorities and websites which give backlinks from unique IP addresses. Organic backlinks are certainly the way to go, as they are less likely to be deemed as spam by search engines. 

H2: #4 – Keep users on the page for as long as possible

Getting users to land on your page is only half the SEO battle, as you must employ tactics to keep them there for as long as possible. 

Aside from writing relevant content that is also of a decent length, some of the top tips to keep users on the page for longer include using internal links, infographics, video content and original imagery – all of which take users to the next natural step, instinctively meeting their needs instead of leaving them hanging. 

If users are bored, confused or find your pages irrelevant, they’ll leave the page. So now is the time to review each of your pages (including blog posts!) to ensure they pack a punch where engaging content, not to mention the facilitation of conversions, is concerned. 

H2: #5 – Carefully craft your meta titles and descriptions

Every page of your website has a meta title and description that will display on search engines. 

Failing to add in your metadata will mean search engines will pull through a random piece of text on the page, which most likely won’t describe the purpose of that page, ruining the chance of the link being clicked on.

Instead, your meta titles and descriptions should contain the main keyword of the page. They need to give a small snippet of what to expect on the page and be the correct character length to display correctly too. 

If in doubt, most CMS tools allow you to preview how your page meta titles and descriptions will look on search engines, or you can manually check the indexing listing of your existing pages. 

H2: #6 – Optimise your images

Do you upload images to your websites with file names such as ‘untitled1’ or ‘djhfbdjfbdf.jpg’? If so, good luck on being found through Google images! 

Instead, all images of your websites should have relevant file names that factor in SEO. The image descriptions and alt tags should also be SEO friendly. Whether your website is ecommerce based, a blog or even representing a local business – we can’t stress the importance of optimising your file names.

Furthermore, the sizes of your images should also be optimised so that they don’t cause your pages to load slowly. We recommend running some page speed checks to ensure all of your pages load lightning fast. 

H2: #7 – Carefully track your page metrics and overall performance

Whether you check your website analytics, connect to Google Search Console or go all out by investing in SEO software – you need to stay on top of your page views, impressions and conversions. 

That way, you’ll know which pages are helping your SEO and which pages need a little work. You can also make a note of trends, including the types of search terms that are pulling in the most traffic for your pages, so you can expand on your success. 

Such analytical tools do exist, but they can only be of benefit if you use them! So don’t be that website owner that creates content but never checks in with it over time. Instead, remain informed by using SEO tools and software, so that your SEO strategy will never miss a trick. 

H2: Eye10 SEO software – improve your search engine rankings today for just $39

There is no such thing as a perfectly optimised website without SEO software! The good news is that with Eye10, you can gain all the information you need to know to improve your SEO software without paying a fortune – as is the case with most other tools on the market.

For just $39 a month, you’ll receive a generous amount of daily allowances across each of our SEO tools. You can even access Eye10 in 9 different languages! 

Best of all, Eye10 is designed to bring SEO down to a level that everyone can understand so that you can make meaningful changes to your SEO strategy without getting confused. 

Try Eye10 today and immediately receive access to our full range of SEO tools. Improving your SEO strategy has never been easier or more affordable with Eye10!