SEO Best Practices for Posting Website Content

Matthew Hoff

20 March 2020
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What Is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of modifying a website or webpage to improve performance by increasing its visibility and ranking position in search engines. Although these incremental changes may not increase traffic individually, when applied together they can influence Google’s ranking algorithms to show a particular page closer to the top of the search  results — above similar websites and competitors. Follow the checklist below to help ensure IWBI’s content gets the most out of SEO.

Quick SEO checklist:

  1. Align keyword to the page you are creating using Google’s Keyword Planner tool
  2. Optimize meta title by ensuring you include keyword in the beginning of the title tag 
  3. Write a meta description that would inspire a user to click your page in search results
  4. Go through your page and optimize and assign headings tags using keywords
  5. Compress and properly size any images, and insert an alt attribute for each image
  6. Review content and add keywords or similar iterations where applicable. Also, add internal links to other pages on the website where those phrases appear in the content

To help you with this process, utilize our free SEO meta tag character limit tool to choose the best titles and descriptions for Google search.

Title Tag

A page’s title is one of the most important SEO ranking factors you can control. It tells search engines what the page is about, which is why it is vital you include relevant keywords or an accurate description of the page’s purpose in the title. 

* To avoid confusion, know that the phrases title tag, meta title, and page title all refer to the same thing.

 

Example of an optimized title tag and description

SEO Best Practices for Title Tags

  • Format is important when crafting a title. Your title tag should be written like this, if possible:
    • Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Branding
    • WELL AP - WELL Accredited Professionals | International WELL Building Institute
      • Note: The branding section of the title is automatically appended to the page
  • Avoid duplicate title tags. Whenever possible, all pages should have a unique title 
    • If possible, keep title tags to 60 characters or less in length, including spaces. This increases the level of ranking potential each word carries, and prevents titles from being truncated in the search results.
    • Use a letter counting tool or length equation to help keep track of how many characters used

Meta Description

Although a page’s meta description doesn’t directly influence its Google ranking, it is still an important aspect of helping search engine performance. The meta description appears directly under the title in search results, and is ideally interesting enough to inspire users to click on your result instead of another site’s.

 

SEO Best Practices for Meta Descriptions

  • Ensure the page’s aligned keyword or similar iterations are included in the description. This is important because search engines will bolden any words in the description that match the user’s query. Therefore, the addition of bold phrases draw users eyes toward your result if there are more bolded words vs other competitors’ results.
  • Keep in mind that search engines do not guarantee your custom meta description will be displayed in the results. Sometimes, depending on what a user is searching for, a site’s individual result will pull relevant data (content that includes the user’s query, for example) from other portions of IWBI’s website. Search engines like Google do this if it thinks a meta description does not match what the user typed in the search box.
  • Each page created should utilize a unique meta description
  • If possible, keep meta descriptions to less than 160 characters in length, including spaces. A description can be longer or shorter. But keep in mind if it is too long, Google will truncate (or cut off) the latter part of the description — potentially hiding important information. Conversely, if too short, you’re not making best use of valuable real estate Google provides for search results.

Page Headings (H1-H6)

In terms of on-page content, heading tags serve multiple purposes for SEO. In addition to being one of the stronger on-page ranking signals, headings serve the vital function of organizing your content in a hierarchy that helps search engines like Google understand each section of your page and the importance of each. Ideally, the heading tags should create a logical outline of the document.

SEO best practices also encourage websites to be accessible and adhere to ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) readability recommendations. For example, users with limited vision utilize screen readers to help understand the content on a page. Headings help screen readers organize the most important content in a logical manner, greatly improving accessibility. 

 

SEO Best Practices for Headings

  • Primary Headings (H1s) should be reserved for the most important aspect, or the main function, of each page. In most cases, there should only be one H1 per page (unless the page in question has a great deal of content, and is organized in several sections that cover various disparate topics)
  • Naturally include keywords, iterations of a keyword, or synonyms within as many headings as you can. However, don’t “keyword stuff” i.e. don’t list several keywords inside of a single heading in a way that can be considered unnatural or artificial. Always write with your audience in mind, not Google. 
  • Never use heading tags to stylize text, unless it fits in the existing hierarchy. Instead, use designated CSS classes to achieve your desired look. For example, if you want a piece of text to be slightly larger and bold, SEO best practices dictate you not use a h4 tag (although that would accomplish this particular goal) but instead utilize the <b> and <big> tags.

Html code displaying optimized headings

Correct Heading HTML Hierarchy

General On-Page Content

The actual copy on your page is vital in helping Google understand what your content is about, and thus ranking it properly. Throughout the process of writing a new page, think of ways keywords can be integrated into the copy. There are also other important ways to structure your content in a way that optimizes it to rank well in search results.

 

SEO Best Practices for Writing Content

  • While it is important to optimize on-page content with keywords, it is also important not to over-optimize with keyword stuffing extra phrases in ways that read unnaturally. Although Google’s algorithm ranks your website, real life users are who purchase, engage, and share -- so your content has to sound natural.
  • Insert internal links that point to other useful or related content on the IWBI website. Links are a huge ranking signal, so when you use keywords in the anchor text (the blue underlined part of the link) it helps the page you’re linking to rank better for those phrases.
  • Capitalize on formatting methods that help users digest the content on the page. Things like bulleted or numbered lists and bolded or italicized words not only make it easier for users to read large blocks of text, but can also help your page rank better.

 

 🛠  Get Our Free SEO Meta Tag Character Limit Tool

Always know the SEO meta tag character limit with our free tool that helps you choose the best titles and descriptions for Google search. 

Download SEO Meta Tag Builder

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Matthew Hoff

Matt's has a passion for helping brands & organizations get found anywhere users are looking for them. Spreading good ideas and important information is what the Internet is all about -- and when users are able to cut through the noise, then that's a positive experience for all parties involved.

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