As we head into the fourth quarter of 2018, the question is, “Are you happy with your SEO results?” Whether you have had increased website traffic via SEO or not, there are some important SEO best practices you should start to implementing today to grow your website presence. Read on to learn more.

Make Your On-Page SEO Foolproof

When it comes to Google’s algorithm, on-page SEO is a major factor. This is because it provides meaningful context within your content, organizes your content, and creates ways for visitors to easily maneuver your website to find the relevant content they are searching for.  

To make your on-page SEO foolproof, you need to write engaging meta data without keyword stuffing. The trick is to focus on the user rather than the Google crawler. Your meta title and description should provide the user with relevant information that will get them to click on your link. While it is important to have your keyword in the title and the description, don’t overdo it. Instead, come up with a creative and compelling title and description that Google and the user respond to positively.  

Organize your Content with Headers

Headers give the reader direction and tell them exactly what the content is all about. Headlines are a great way to break up content to make it easier to read, more engaging, and more organized. For your title, always use an H1 header and for headers throughout the content, use H2 and H3 headers when appropriate. 

Insert Internal Links

You want users to be able to easily navigate your website for relevant content. This is where internal links can really come in handy. Using one or two internal links on a blog piece or website page will help the reader find the information they seek.  

Never Leave up a 404 Error Page

When a user lands on a 404 error page, you can expect them to bounce out immediately and move on to your 

competitor. What’s more, Google will alert you to these errors in their site-errors dashboard so you can get them fixed right away.  

Be Sure Your Website is Responsive

More and more people are using mobile phones and tablets to search the Internet. For this reason, it’s important for your website to be responsive to whatever screen the user is viewing. Otherwise, you’ll see your bounce rate go up. In fact, Google puts priority on your site’s mobile version over your desktop version. If your website is not responsive, Google may overlook it entirely.  

Get an SSL Certificate

The purpose of an SSL certificate is to keep user information secret. This means that anytime a user makes a purchase or donation on your site, the information is kept under lock and key. If you don’t have an SSL certificate, Google will let the user know. All in all, this certificate gives you an SEO boost and lets users know that your site can be trusted.  

Is Content Still King in 2018?

Yes and no.

While informative, engaging content is still a valuable way to drive traffic to your website and generate you as an authority in your field, trust is an ever increasing component of your website’s success, especially when it comes to a user taking a meaningful action, like filling out a contact form or making a purchase.  

While excellent SEO infused content will bring users to your site, it is trust that will keep them there and make them come back. In today’s climate, people are wondering what is “real” and what is “fake”.  This means that you must establish a trustworthy reputation.

To do this, create valuable and dependable content, try not to self-promote too much in your content (don’t make it all about you!), be active on social media by engaging with customers, and build backlinks. It can not be stressed enough how important backlinks are to Google’s algorithm. In fact, the more backlinks you have, the more Google will give your site precedence over your competitors in search engine results.

Sources:

https://www.thecreativemomentum.com/blog/the-top-5-seo-best-practices-in-2018

https://www.forbes.com/sites/denispinsky/2018/06/06/seo-for-writers/#7228cc65315d

https://moz.com/blog/how-to-fix-crawl-errors-in-google-search-console