5 SEO Best Practices to Help You in the Long Run

Jane has finished a 1,879 words long article on debating best practices for her blog.

Now, it is time for her to implement her SEO strategy so that her blog post ranks on the second page of the SERP!

Why the second page?

Well, she has read in a report that 9 out of 10 web pages fail to rank on the first page of Google within 12 months of being published. So there is very little chance that her article would rank.

You must have concluded that Jane is crazy! And you would be right to do so! Who goes to the second page of a SERP anyways!

Unlike Jane, your target is to have your website or blog to rank on the first page of Google.

Thus you are looking for SEO best practices that would keep pumping gas in your site so that it can climb the search pages months and years after page goes live.

That is exactly what we are going to discuss in this article!

Whether you do your site’s search engine optimisation yourself or you have an SEO services provider on payroll, these 5 SEO long-term best practices would be useful to you for years to come.

What is SEO?

SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, is the process of having a website rank higher in the search results for a query. This process includes many tactics which-when properly implemented-would give a signal to search engines that your website is relevant and useful to the searchers.

Now that we have made it crystal clear what SEO is, let us talk about SEO best practices you need to implement for better site performance in SERPs in the long run.

1. Performing regular keyword research

If you are not able to target and rank for the right terms, your visitors will not be able to find you. So, keyword research is the most essential SEO approach /tactic. 

Since there is no telling what search phrases people may be using to look for your website, it would pay to stay informed and updated on this matter.

From your list of keywords, select some which are likely to be consistent with your site. Then sprinkle synonyms of these around your website in a relevant manner.

The next best practice is

2. Setting up proper internal link structure

Internal linking means the practice of placing internal links which connects one page to another relevant page on the same website. 

Internal linking is crucial for both search engine crawlers and your site visitors!

Why?

Well, internal linking makes all the pages on your site visible to Google, which would definitely help your SERP ranking. It would also make all the helpful resources on your page to be accessible to your users.

An added benefit: it also helps you to establish the hierarchy on your website!

3. Following technical SEO best practices

Here are some of the best practices you can follow in terms of Technical SEO: 

Increase Site speed

If you want to keep your site under the blessings of search engines, you need to make your site load faster. In case you didn’t know, site load speed is a ranking factor for Google.  

Studies have found that a 1s rise in page load time slashes your site conversion by 7%! Meaning this is something that should one of your top priorities for your site!

Acquire an SSL certificate for your site

It has been observed that 1 out of every 2 websites on the first page of Google SERP has “https”, i.e. SSL certificate. In case you are not familiar with SSL certificates, it is a certificate that certifies your site to be secure.

In our opinion, people are so used to seeing the “https” on the websites they visit every day that is a common practice. So it is not something you can relegate to your backburner!

Duplicate content

Having duplicate or similar pages means traffic is split between these two pages. If you merge such pages into one, then not only does it enhance the authority of that one page but it also cuts down your effort to maintain multiple pages!

4. Being active in social media 

It is a fact that social media engagement is considered a ranking factor for Google!

It means what you think it means!

The more your website or blog posts are shared on social media, the more relevant and authoritative it appears to Google crawlers! And that is worth a considerable SEO boost!

5. Publishing guest posts in relevant sites

Besides producing high-quality content for your site, you need to think of publishing more guest posts on your niche. Through publishing posts to other sites, you could acquire more backlinks.

It would pay to know that backlinks have always been a ranking signal for Google. Since it can’t know how authoritative your site or post is, it relies on backlinks pointing to your page.

The more quality backlinks you can manage through guest posts, the more relevant you appear to Google! And Google always rewards the relevant ones!

Conclusion

Since there are about 200 ranking factors that Google considers, there is no limit to the number of ways you can make your site appear as a rich resource!

If you follow top SEO blogs, you would have a clear idea about the diverse tactics people are coming up with to optimise their own or client sites for search engines!

At this point, we are going to say something you have probably heard many times in many other articles. That it pays to stay updated on any and every SEO practice that you can get your hands on. In fact, this is one of the most surefire tactics when it comes to SEO long term best practices!