Google’s search engine is known as one of the most popular search engines in today’s online world. Google’s prides itself on its up-to-date algorithms that prevent websites from gaining mislead traffic. One of its main objectives is to lead searchers to quality content, information and images that is of direct relevance to their search and can add value to their online experience.

The question is, what is best practice SEO in Google’s books? There are no quick fixes or tricks. However, there are key rules that you can follow for building your SEO strategy in Google.

Here are some key elements to remember when creating your website to ensure that you are getting the visibility you want from Google and get more people coming to your website.

Build quality links 

When you have a consistent and healthy link building strategy, this signals to Google that your website has authority. A way to do this is to ensure that quality links from other quality sites are being directed back to your website.

There are numerous ways that this can be achieved. To start off with, create Business profiles on well known online directories. Most of us know the common ones that people use or the ones that first pop up when we do our own searches for products and services. Most of these sites have free profile options. Simply make a list of these and ensure that you place your website address on there, as well as other important information including a summary of your business, opening hours, logo and images.

Another great way to create quality links pointing back to your website is to do guest blog posts for other businesses. Many businesses are on the look out for content to add value to their own websites. For example, you may run a content writing business. Get in touch with other similar businesses that aren’t in direct competition with you and offer to write advice driven blogs for their site. As a content writing business, you could approach business strategists and design businesses. These businesses may want to offer a range of marketing advice for their audience. Simply ask if it would be OK to place your website in the blog’s byline.

It’s a win-win situation. They receive value driven content that will help boost their own SEO by beefing up their content and driving traffic to their website. You will get your business seen by their audience, as well as build quality links back to your website, which Google rates.

Create Value driven content

Don’t forget about your own content. The more content you have, the more likely Google will see your website as having information of relevance to searchers. Around 750 words per page is a good word count to aim for. Make sure you break up your content with relevant H1’s and subheadings, and make sure it is informative information.

For example, if someone comes to your site looking for information on plumbing services, make sure that you create a range of pages that meet their needs. This includes creating an engaging homepage with call to actions, individual service pages, as well as a blog and FAQ page.

Don’t fall in the trap of just creating top pages, being the pages that sit on your menu. Take advantage of building keyword driven URL’s for each individual service you might offer and blog topic. The more relevant pages and content you can build, the better for your online visibility.

Use keywords

Every page on your website should have its own purpose. It should have a keyword focus, which will dictate the message and content of your page.

Just like how keywords are important to the body of your content, your keywords are just as important in your URL. This is one of the main ways Google will crawl your site and pick up whether the page is relevant to what people are searching.

As a rule of thumb, keep it short and simple. Long URLs, although they may be optimised, can be seen as confusing. For example, if you sell books online, one of your URLs might be bookstore.com/cookbooks. In this example, a key category of books that are sold is a keyword that is featured in the URL.

Try to focus on one keyword per page, including using it a couple of times in the bulk of your content. Ensure it is featured in your H1’s, URL’s and seen in your meta descriptions and alt tags.

Also, you can you similar phrased keywords to flesh out your content and signal to Google that your website really is an authority on your subject matter. For example, if your keyword is “gardening equipment”, you can also use phrases throughout your content such as “gardening tools” or “landscaping equipment”.

Get a responsive site

Last but not least, ensure that you have a responsive website. It should be mobile friendly and easy to navigate and read. Many people build a website that is both desktop and mobile friendly, but forget about how it might look on mobile.

According to SEO Shark if your website doesn’t work on mobile, it could impact your bounce rate, which Google isn’t a fan of. If you noticed that your bounce rate is high, you might speak with your SEO agency. Check each page of your website in mobile, including its font size and layout. Also, don’t stop at checking it on your mobile in portrait view. There are online sites that allow you to check how your website looks on a range of different devices and in both portrait and landscape format. 

Remember, to get into Google’s good books, it’s about consistently building a website that your audience legitimately wants to go to and engage with. When in doubt, remember the rules of quality linking, value driven content, keywords and responsive design.

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