Every SEO consultant has a preferred set of practices that they like to work with when SEOing a website, and I am no different.
So here I am going to share what I find works well with every client that I work with. Nothing but best-practice recommendations that actually move the needle.
- Internal Links – The staple of every SEO campaign that I manage. By creating a carefully planned internal linking campaign, I have had sites take huge jumps through the SERPs. And why does it work? Well, Google uses internal links not only to crawl through a site, but the anchors that are used help explain what a page is about. If you construct this carefully, you can push the right signals to pages on a site and see some fantastic growth.
- Keep Pages Concise – This one works time and time again. Longer content isn’t always going to be the best content. The best content is always going to be those that get to the point without all of the fluff that takes ages to read, and offers nothing to take away. Case in point: A current client (ecomm) removed the 3-400 words of content at the top of each site page and saw pages leap up 40-80 positions in Google.
- Backlinks – Yes, those old Chestnuts. But there are backlinks, and then there are BACKLINKS! It isn’t all about the power of the page at all. I have seen links from really strong, but unrelated, sites get next to no benefit. On the flip side, I have had links with a DR of 25 but really closely related, push a page up many places. Choose your battles carefully and try not to rush it.
- Get your On-Page Right – Google is still looking for sites that tick as many of their boxes as possible. If you miss out on any of these, or gloss over something and only do an ‘OK’ job, then you are leaving yourself wide open for someone else to pick up the search places. Spend time to make sure you are doing everything you can and if needs be, make use of my SEO audit checklist to act as a reminder (follow the ‘Page Level’ section).
- Research – If you do no research for any SEO campaign, you are onto a back foot straight away. Without research, how will you know what competitors are doing? How will you know which keywords you are missing out on? How will you know where to pitch your site for the best backlink opportunities? Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was any solid SEO campaign.
- User Satisfaction – Did you know that Google actually uses this as a ranking signal? Buried away in their guide on how Google search works, is a little nugget of information that can’t be argued with. They say “whether the page has a good user experience”. It makes perfect sense if you think about it, so take care on how you deliver the best possible experience to site visitors.
- E.A.T – Expertise, Authority & Trust – a major foundation of what Google is looking for. They want to rank sites that offer as much of these 3 principles as possible, and there are many pages of research and information about these points. Search Engine Journal has some great information that can help you understand more about what E.A.T means, and what you can do to impact it.
If you have any points that you would like to add, then please pop a comment in below.