9 SEO Best Practices for Stronger Organic Traffic in 2022

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1. Develop content based on target keyword research

As you develop your content SEO strategy, SEO tools like Semrush, Surfer SEO, and Ahrefs can help you zero in on what your ideal target keywords should be. Your keyword planning tools are set up to help you align your content with what your searchers are looking for. Each piece of content you create should strive to match search intent

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1. Develop content based on target keyword research

as closely as possible. Whichever tool you use should provide suggestions based on: Primary keywords. These high-level keywords should serve as the main topic. Secondary keywords. Should be used as often as possible as subheadings in your articles and pillar pages.

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1. Develop content based on target keyword research

Supporting language. Lower-level keywords you can use throughout the text.

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2. Use effective titles and headings

Though the terms may be interchangeable to most people, titles and headings are distinctly different and occupy different parts of your web pages’ code. The title is placed in the <head> element of each HTML document you create, and the <head> serves as a container for each web page’s metadata (data about data).

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2. Use effective titles and headings

This includes information like the document title, the language used on the page, and scripts for your analytics tools. The title (which is placed between the <title></title> tags) tells Google and other search engines what the page is about at the very highest level. It’s also shown on the search engine results.

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3. Write strong meta descriptions

The meta description tag defines the block of text that shows up after the content title in the SERPS (search engine results pages). Just like your page titles, your page’s meta description is placed in the <head> of each page’s HTML code. This is the text that explains what information that content provides.

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3. Write strong meta descriptions

As with the header text, you need to think about what you look for as a user. What description would make you click on the link to read more? Keep in mind that Google frequently rewrites meta descriptions. After analyzing user intent, they do their best to take your content and

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3. Write strong meta descriptions

describe it as something they think users are looking for and then display that. Sometimes they take the text from your meta description or what’s on the page and reconfigure it in a way they think works better. The meta description is not used in the search rankings algorithm; however, your site’s click-through rate from the search results is.

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3. Write strong meta descriptions

So, make your meta description as attractive as possible, even if Google ends up rewriting it for you. It’s always worth trying to get the information you want out there, and it’s an opportunity for free advertising within the search rankings.

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4. Optimize all images

You want your pages to load as quickly as possible, so make sure you optimize images so their file sizes are as small as they can be. Use Google Lighthouse to scan your site and find what images might cause it to slow down. Optimization services, such as Bulk Resize Photos and Ezgif, can help you reduce media file sizes, but

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4. Optimize all images

most CMSs offer some optimization features too, allowing you to edit directly in the post. The easiest way to avoid having to reduce a lot of image sizes later on, is to make it a best practice to develop your images to look as good as possible at the smallest size possible. This is because Google considers

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4. Optimize all images

the user experience in its search ranking algorithm, and if your page loads slowly but your competitor's page that contains the same information loads quickly, especially on mobile, Google is going to give the faster page to users first.

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5. Include a number of internal links

You want to link whenever it’s appropriate, but always include a few internal links to relevant pieces of content. Google crawls every page and wants to see that you are linking to more articles around the article that you’re writing. Link with intention and keep search in mind, especially when choosing anchor text.

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5. Include a number of internal links

This means that instead of using phrases such as “Read this article,” you’re using anchor text that utilizes the primary keyword that the article is based on. This tells search engines more information about where the link is headed. Google doesn’t say how many external or internal links to include, but as a rule of thumb, base this on

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5. Include a number of internal links

the length of your content. The most important thing is to make sure all your internal links are relevant. There’s no hard limit to how many you should include, but if you link to a lot of non-relevant content, it distracts the reader and confuses search engines. We recommend using several internal links

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5. Include a number of internal links

for clarity purposes toward the beginning of the article when you’re introducing new concepts to your readers, but your ultimate goal when creating links in your content should be to focus on the user.

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6. Provide a user-friendly design (on desktop and mobile)

Design is frequently left out of internal discussions around improving a company’s search engine rankings, with the focus instead tending to rely on improving meta tags and creating high-quality content, but it really shouldn’t be. Google wants users to easily find what they’re looking for when they land on a page, no matter what device they’re on.

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6. Provide a user-friendly design (on desktop and mobile)

Aim to make it as easy as possible for someone on their phone to use your site — and just as easy on a computer web browser. Is it easy to navigate your site? Is it easy to scroll and click links? Does your long-form content provide a table of contents or an easy way to jump around?

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6. Provide a user-friendly design (on desktop and mobile)

Sometimes when you build a website for your desktop users only, you don’t get a chance to see how it looks on a phone. Again, when developing your website, keep the user in mind. Depending on how your prospects engage with your content, you might not need to worry about mobile that much, but for

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6. Provide a user-friendly design (on desktop and mobile)

pure ranking purposes, the mobile experience matters a lot. Thankfully, content management systems like HubSpot and WordPress make it easy to ensure your site’s user experience is consistent and easy from the start, thanks to responsive design.

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7. Optimize page speed

The <head> section of each HTML document loads before the visible portion of a particular page does. This means that the code in this section should be as lean as possible. Unfortunately, because this section of a page is less visible to stakeholders on a site, the head ends up being neglected over the years.

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7. Optimize page speed

It’s not unusual for multiple scripts for Google Analytics or user behavior tools like Hotjar to be left in the code, slowing download times. If you’re curious about what you can do to optimize your page speeds, you should take advantage of Google’s Lighthouse test. This tool shows you everything that is slowing down your

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7. Optimize page speed

load time, in addition to images. It can deliver information at a granular level, essentially telling you: “Hey, these are the seven things that are loading slowly.” You can use this information to decide what is essential to your internal needs and what can be omitted.

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7. Optimize page speed

You also want to make sure your CSS (cascading style sheets) are tidied. They should be up to date and constructed as efficiently as possible. Whenever you have an opportunity to minify your CSS, you should take it. You don’t have to take a large amount of code down, but every tenth of a

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7. Optimize page speed

second counts. Site managers with pages that contain a lot of information will want to take advantage of opportunities to deliver as much content as possible to Google and the user as early as they can. It’s a good idea to ensure that your text is visible before your web font loads.

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7. Optimize page speed

You can also take advantage of lazy loading so that less search-critical content, such as images and video, is rendered after your page’s text.

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8. Make use of navigation and sitemaps

Your top navigation is the single greatest vote you can have on your site for the importance of a piece of content. Here are tips for making it SEO friendly: Link to your biggest pillar pages from your top navigation. You don’t want to link to everything at this level, but the main topic pages on your

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8. Make use of navigation and sitemaps

website should go here. Use language that is relevant to the searcher. Try not to use terms such as “solutions” and “services” if you can help it. For example, a plumber’s website could link directly to “sink installation,” “toilet installation,” etc. Sitemaps, on the other hand, are XML files that tell Google what’s on your site.

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8. Make use of navigation and sitemaps

Once yours is complete, submit it to Google through Google Search Console. In the case of HubSpot and WordPress, you’ll automatically have a sitemap built in that breaks out all the sections of your website in a coherent way. As a general SEO best practice, you should make sure your sitemap is clearly laid out and

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8. Make use of navigation and sitemaps

that Google knows about it. Google is really good at crawling pages and finding internal links, but you should always have a sitemap set up within Search Console. It’s a great resource to have, especially if, down the line, you need to disavow toxic backlinks.

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9. Lean into semantic HTML

Semantic HTML tells Google what it’s crawling and looking at, and header tags are one of the biggest parts. Semantic HTML reveals the structure of a page — how the content is laid out and what primary and secondary topics are included. It doesn’t only show Google what the concept is, but what the text is in relation to the rest of the text.

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9. Lean into semantic HTML

This means that instead of formatting your text on a page with larger and smaller text, you use the heading tags discussed earlier. Instead of using the <b> tag to indicate bold text, the HTML code around the text should indicate the text is <strong>, which places more emphasis on what is between the tags. There is a specific, linguistic difference to

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9. Lean into semantic HTML

Google about how aspects of your text function, and they consider the HTML to see how much of the page is bold versus italic. They know what a well-written document title and page structure look like. Much like creating a site with a user-friendly design, most content management systems make it very easy to create a page

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9. Lean into semantic HTML

using proper semantic HTML.