Website SEO best practices

If you manage a website, you probably think a lot about search engine optimization, or SEO. Web SEO is basically about how you can create, structure, and update your website so you can increase your search visibility in Google search results. After all, most users will only click links on the first page of search results - and of those, most will only click on a link from the top few results.

SEO best practices

Google is constantly updating how they address SEO rankings, so they can present links that are the most relevant and most interesting to users. If you’re just getting started with web SEO for your website, you might want to read Google’s advice on how to create helpful, people-first content.

Google advises that website owners should follow several guidelines to make great websites with high-ranking SEO:

Self-assess your content. This means that you should look at traffic on your website, and understand what content people want to look at so you know what your website’s focus really is. Google provides several questions you can ask yourself as you audit your website, including:

• Does your website provide original content? Copying and pasting content from other websites onto yours is often a sign of a “spam” site, and Google will de-prioritize your ranking.
• Does your website provide insightful analysis? Another way to think about this is: Do visitors come to your website to learn about things? The answer should be ‘Yes.’
• Do titles and headings make sense? Google looks at page structure as well as content. Consider breaking up long content with section headings to make it easier for the reader.

Provide a great page experience. You should aim for a “people-first” web experience that real people will want to use. That means your website should provide helpful content, and not just “filler” content meant to pad out a search result. Ask yourself questions like these to assess your website:

• Does your website load a lot of javascript, stylesheets, and other non-content just to render the website? Real users like websites that load quickly.
• Will real people learn enough about something to be useful? When you aren’t sure how to do something, and need help, you often turn to Google for help. If you ask “How can I write an article in DITA?” you expect to find articles about writing DITA that actually teach you how to write in DITA. You don’t want a “10,000-foot” overview of DITA that doesn’t really show you what to do.
• Does your website have a primary focus? Websites typically have a theme or topic area that they focus on. For example, Technically We Write is about professional and technical writing so you expect to find articles about writing in professional and technical contexts, including tips and tools.

Practical advice

Cyrus Shepard at Zyppy recently shared an article about Google and web SEO that explains how recent Google updates punish SEO. Here are their recommendations, based on an analysis of 50 websites:

1. Anchor text variety
2. Page update frequency
3. Highly clickable title tags

For example, “anchor text variety” refers to how you link to pages. Consider how you might link to an action, like contacting someone in your Sales team. You might use anchor text like “Contact us” or “Request a quote” or “Email us.” If they all point to the same destination web page, that counts as three anchor text variations. The study suggests “Losing sites were far likelier to have more anchor text variations per page than winning sites.”

Web SEO is a moving target

Google constantly updates their recommendations on website SEO, so it’s a good idea to read their SEO starter guide and their description about how Google search works to better understand how Google ranks your website. But also consider that your web SEO visibility may differ depending on what your website is about, and your goals in making that website. In general, focus on areas of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (Google calls this EEAT). If you create websites that are pleasant to use and filled with meaningful content, you should do well.