7+ SEO Best Practices (Evergreen) to Rank higher in SERPs

When your content is not in the top 10, nobody likes you. 

Yes, it is a fact. 

Even if you produce a superb piece of content, unless ranking higher, you can’t generate ideal results. 

Whatever your goal is, ranking higher is one of the standard best practices. 

Traffic is essential for every business. Either you bring traffic to your content organically or use a paid strategy. 

SEO best practices keep your keyword rank higher in search engines and boost the ideal traffic. 

In this article, I will cover the SEO best practices that keep your ranking higher organically. 

What is SEO best practice?

When you plan to improve your website’s ranking on search engine result pages, you must maintain a set of tasks. 

SEO best practice comes with tasks like Keyword Research, On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, Technical SEO, etc. 

Let me clear the term SEO best practices first. 

According to leading search engine Google, search engine optimization best practices help crawl, index and even understand the content easily. 

The best performance comes when you focus on advanced SEO. However, before that, don’t miss the basics of SEO. 

If you maintain SEO basics, then only you develop your advanced search engine optimization. 

Don’t worry! I’m here to guide you on SEO best practices. So, let’s dive in…

Focus on Goal with SEO KPI

The goal is essential for every business need. If you want long-term success, you have to set a goal. 

Now, what would be the SEO goals?

Before that, you must understand the SEO KPI or search engine optimization key performance indicators. 

According to a search engine journal, SEO KPI is fundamental to growing for long-term benefits (in every business).

Bringing traffic is not strict; however, getting the ideal one is more strategic. 

KPI of SEO helps to bring ideal traffic to your business (or content). 

CLV or Customer Lifetime Value

CLV is essential for every business growth. Through this, you can measure the revenue you generate through your customer. 

Does it seem tricky? Here is an easy explanation for you!

From the business perspective, you (as an owner) need to understand your customers’ behavior. 

Along with the above, you can pinpoint your marketing strategy even before customer relationships. 

So, when you have a clear understanding of your customers, you can only project the right goal for your business. 

SEO CLV helps in:

• Understand customer persona. 
• Make a clear vision of marketing strategy with the budget. 
• Bring opportunities to value customer lifetime value even over time. 
• Understand the CAC or cost of acquisition. 

When you have data to understand your SEO CLV, you can set the ideal goals for your business. 

Remember, if you know your customer well, you can make growth better. 

Let’s come to another essential SEO KPI. 

Understand User Intent

User intent is the key to getting ideal traffic to your business. 

Whatever your niche is, user intent matters the most. 

Even if you are ready to trigger your SEO goal, the user intent will be the key. 

Now the question is how to understand the right user intent. 

Yes, it is not tough to understand; rather tricky to find the user intent. 

When you search for something in Google, you may see that Google gives you suggestions. 

The suggestion comes from the user’s previous search. 

You can even find some suggestions at the bottom of your search result page. 

Apart from the above, you can get some questions under the ‘people also ask’ section. 

These suggestions come according to the search, and therefore these are strong user intent. 

I have a fantastic way to let you find the user intent. 

According to your niche, you can go to any marketplace. 

For example, suppose your niche is ‘Mouse’. 

You can go to Amazon and search for the term ‘mouse’. 

You can see many search suggestions like ‘best mouse’, ‘cheap mouse’, ‘wireless mouse’, ‘gaming mouse’ and more.

These are user intents. 

Collect as much user intent as possible. 

You can use any keyword research tool to collect user intent. 

Now, come to the main segment. 

Not only collect user intent, but you also need to understand them well. 

Some user intent may have commercial intent, some have informational intent, and some have transactional intent. 

Segment them accordingly. 

Understand the matrics well before using them. 

Do Advance Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization. Yes, it is 100% right. 

When you need long-term success, you must focus on Advanced Keyword Research instead of generic keyword research. 

Finding keywords is not challenging. But segmenting them according to requirements is the biggest challenge. 

I’ll guide you with the advanced keyword research that you need to maintain SEO best practices. 

But before that, let me clarify the difference between head keywords, synonymous keywords and LSI keywords and why to choose what!

Head Keywords

Head or seed keywords are generally one of two phrases with high search volume. 

Every head keyword is highly competitive, and in the perspective of SEO, it is harder to rank. 

Why?

The head keywords do not have a clear intent. 

It may be about digital marketing or the definition of digital marketing. 

It does not clear the intent of the search. 

Why?

If you search the term ‘Digital Marketing on Google, you will get different results. 

The results maybe

• About digital marketing (definition)
• Digital marketing company
• Digital Marketing Training
• Digital Marketing Book
• Fundamentals of digital marketing

Have you observed the difference among the answers? 

Almost every result has a different search intent. 

How!

Suppose you want to hire a digital marketing company for your business; what do you search on Google?

Either digital marketing company, digital marketing agency, or even digital marketing services (you may search for internet marketing instead of digital marketing). 

When looking for digital marketing training, you may search the same. 

Have you got what I mean to say?

Synonymous Keyword

When you want to avoid keyword stuffing, you should use synonymous keywords. 

Synonymous keywords are almost the same as broad keywords, just different from synonyms. 

For example, ‘Digital Marketing’ synonymous keywords are ‘Internet Marketing’ or ‘Online Marketing”.

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are very effective. When trying to get the actual result, you search for long-tail keywords. Isn’t it?

Suppose you need to learn digital marketing, you may search for ‘Digital Marketing Training’ or ‘Digital Marketing Course’ or even ‘Digital Marketing Training Near Me. 

These are the long-tail keywords. 

Remember, in long-tail keywords, the search intent is clear. That’s why the conversion rate is higher with the long-tail keywords. 

In keyword research good practice, long-tail keywords play the most critical roles. 

How?

Suppose you need to grow your business with digital marketing. What would be your query?

You may hire a digital marketing company to grow your business. 

Here the term ‘digital marketing company’ is a long-tail keyword. 

You may argue that “I can use digital marketing to hire any digital marketing company.”

You may do so. 

However, the terms digital marketing company and digital marketing have different search intents. 

Now let me clear you some pros and cons of Longtail Keywords. 

Long-tail keywords are competitive to find. However, if you know keyword research well, you can easily find the best long-tail keywords for your business or website. 

Focus Type of Keyword Search Intent oriented Content

Apart from the head and long-tail keywords, it would be best to focus on your keyword’s intent. 

I’ve found three major types of keywords for you, according to research. 

1. Informational intent – this type of keyword is mainly used to gather information. For example, ‘how to start digital marketing. 
2. Navigational – this type of keyword uses to dive into any particular website. For example, suppose your keyword is ‘how to start digital marketing, and you landed on the ‘Biva Technologies’ website. 
3. Commercial intent – these types of keywords are money keywords. When you are in the phrase of conversion (buy/purchase/discount/deal etc.), these keywords are used. For example, ‘digital marketing service discounts’. 

From the above, you can understand the reality of why advanced keyword research is essential. 

Produce High-Value Content with Effective Search Intent

Do you know ‘content is everything’?

However, a great piece of content must meet practical search intent. 

When you’re making content, the user intent must be there. Eventually, high, value content always includes the search intent. 

Search intent is the reason behind every search query. Even Google loves providing priority to search intent. 

You may be amazed to know that almost 97% of results that comes top of the list must pass Google’s essential rule towards search intent. 

Now, let me clarify how to cope with your search intent with content. 

But before that, you have to understand the common search intents:

Informational Intent Content

When you are willing to discover any concept or know any information, your search intent is informational. 

Suppose you are willing to know about digital marketing, your may search either 

‘What is the digital marketing

Or 

‘Digital marketing’

According to research, I’ve found some exciting terms related to informational search intent. 

• What…
• How…
• How to…
• History of…
• When…
• Where…

Let me share a bitter fact. 

The informational intent type of content does not have a tangible goal. So if you are trying to produce conversion or leading, informational intent-based content is not ideal. 

Navigational Intent Content

When a searcher lands on a particular website or navigates to their desired location, the intent comes here as navigational. 

If you understand the value of branding, you can realize navigational content well. Navigational intent-based content drives traffic to a brand. 

The intent is almost transparent when a user comes to a specific website, landing page, or platform. 

The user wants to take action from there. 

Here is an example for you.

Suppose you want to hire an ‘SEO Expert’ and land on Biva Technologies. This is a navigational search (intent). 

Your search for the brand is almost transparent.

Navigational search intent-based content must cover brand visibility and awareness. 

Transactional search intent content

You may understand the term transactional. Transactional search intent content deals with both information and buying together. 

When you search for any top 10, or any product review, or compare any two or more products, you are interested in taking action. Isn’t it?

When you are in the decision stage, your search intention is filtered with the following search terms:

Best…(features or importance)

Top 10…(Listicle)

101 ways….(Listicle)

….reviews (details about any product or service)

….vs….(Comparison)

I always suggest creating content around these above search terms with common intents as a content creator. 

Commercial Search Intent Content

For any business commercial search, intent-based content is ideal for conversion. The user searches to buy or take a service or even subscribe to any newsletter. 

Generally, the commercial or high intent content is triggered with:

• Buy
• Offer
• Discount
• Deal
• Coupon
• Subscribe
• Free shipping and 
• More. 

The term commercial search intent-based content must drive traffic to take any particular action. 

If you understand the sales funnel, you can quickly know what triggers you use to develop your content. 

Remember, ideal content can drive traffic and build your digital asset. 

Optimize your content with a Compelling Title

The title is essential for every content because it increases clickability. The title itself helps provide insight into a topic (content). 

According to the SEMRush blog, Google treats ‘title’ as a ‘primary piece of information.’

SEO best practice requires title optimization well. 

An SEO friendly title must have:

1. Primary keyword (target)
2. Number (2022)
3. Power word (best)
4. Avoid keyword stuffing
5. Title length 50-60 characters (ideal)

Along with the above, the SEO-friendly title must be precise, including the proper diction. 

If you are interested in bringing actual leads, keep optimizing your title with the above. 

Write Compelling Meta Description

The meta description is essential to rank your website on any search engine like the title. 

Why?

Let me clear you what meta description is!

A meta description is a snippet (summary). When people search for something in Google, they find a summary (snippet) under the title (title tag). 

According to Google, the meta description is a short and relevant summary that improves users’ interest in a particular page or post (content).

Additionally, meta description helps to convey information that convinces users to understand what exactly the page is all about!

Meta description helps to grow click-through rate (CTR). 

Indeed, the meta description does not help SEO directly. However, the CTR helps to rank higher. 

Now let’s come to SEO best practice with the meta description. 

Follow the simple steps:

• Use the focus (primary) keyword in your meta description. 
• Write helpful information as a summary (within 160 characters). 
• Use the clickable pitch that improves CTR. 
• Write string meta description. 

Optimize Images with Image Alternative Tag

If you check the best performing content, the image content comes second in the list just after the video. 

You know that image plays a crucial role in enhancing traffic. It may be a blog post or any product page or other related page; the image helps in many ways. 

So not only create a proper image, you need to optimize your photo with the ideal ‘img alt tags.’

Why?

Crawler (search engine) can read the image attributes and rank them according to them. 

Now let’s check the best image optimization practices. 

• Choose the ideal image format – I always prefer these image file formats. JPG (JPEG), PNG, WebP, GIF (in some cases). 
• Maintain the ideal size – Ideal image size is always essential. You need to maintain the perfect image size according to the platform. You can use Canva to make an ideal size of the image. 
• Compress your image – High definition image may hurt your website loading speed. You can compress your image with free tools like – TinyPNG, ImageOptim, etc. (search Google for the “free image optimization tool”). 
• Add image alt text – Adding image alt text is essential to rank your image in search results. Use the primary keyword as image alt text. Just avoid keyword stuffing. 
• Use Lazy Load – At the page loading time, Lazy load helps to initial page loading time. 

Optimize Website Loading Time

According to a report, no one loves a slow website. 

If you want to get rid of frustrated users, you have to maintain a good page loading time. 

You can find various tools that help you check your website loading time. 

Some of them are: 

Google page speed

Gtmetrix

The ideal page loading time is below 3 seconds. 

You need to optimize your website loading time for desktop and mobile users. 

Here are some excellent tricks to decrease your page loading time:

• Use good hosting. 
• Optimize all images. 
• Avoid unnecessary ‘CSS’. 
• Use lazy load.
• Use any cache plugin (WordPress)
• Delete unused, unneeded, inactive plugins (WordPress)
• Easy navigation.

Develop an Internal Linking Structure

An internal link is essential for two significant reasons. One is to maintain the website’s hierarchy and understand the pages, including the content. 

Internal linking benefits website rank boosting. An ideal internal linking structure is the key to SEO best practices. 

To grow your SEO score, you have to use the proper internal linking structure. 

The proper internal linking structure must help other pages from the top carriers. Ideal internal linking helps easy navigation among pages. 

Make URL Short and Sweet

URL or uniform resource locator is one of the central segments of your website. Optimizing URL is important because it helps both search engines and users to understand the destination page well. 

SEO best practices include URL optimization. I’ve found some crucial tricks to make your URL SEO friendly. 

1. Use primary or targeted keywords in your URL. 
2. Avoid date and time in URL. 
3. Avoid unnecessary words
4. Use optimal length (up to 60 characters)
5. Use hyphen (-) [default is hyphen(-)] to separate words (in URL)

Proper URL structure is essential to let your audience guide what they are looking for. 

Develop UI and UX

SEO best practice includes UI and UX are two important triggers that every website must follow. The two interdependent terms, UI and UX, stands for User Interface and User Experience. 

Never underestimate the UX because it is one of the crucial factors in ranking higher. 

In every written content, you must use the following to develop your UX. 

1. Use headings and subheadings appropriately. 
2. Use graphical elements (visuals) like images, infographics, charts, 
3. Make website or webpage mobile-friendly. 
4. Remove unnecessary popups.
5. Use space (white space) to develop the focus, legibility, and branding. 

Let’s come to UI. If you want to develop your SEO score, you need to follow these:

1. Make the website mobile-friendly. 
2. Use the right color with your niche. 
3. Make easy navigation. 
4. Use graphical elements (where required)
5. Avoid unnecessary CSS. 

Your SEO is half done if your website’s UI and UX are well. 

Authoritative Backlink is Must

Till 2022, the backlink is essential to rank higher. However, Google’s algorithm focuses more on authority first. 

If you earn an authoritative backlink, you can rank higher. 

As a result, I suggest you focus on building a high-quality backlink that helps your search ranking boost. 

Here I have a nice trick. You probably know the importance of competitor analysis. 

You can analyze the backlink gap and work on it. 

You can find various tools there to do so. However, the best tool is SEMRush. 

Final Thought

SEO best practice is essential if you want to rank your website higher in search results organically. You know ranking higher is competitive, and choosing the right keyword to develop content is essential SEO best practice. I’m trying to cover some essential SEO hacks that help build your website ranking higher in this article.