5 Best SEO Practices To Follow In 2024

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The search engine optimization (SEO) industry changes rapidly and sometimes drastically. The entire field is at the mercy of Google's whims and, to a lesser extent, other search engines with smaller market shares. The tiniest tweak to an algorithm could send your formerly high-ranking webpage to the obscure depths of Google’s second page. While algorithm changes are unpredictable—not to mention proprietary—these five best SEO practices to follow in 2024 should improve your web page ranking and keep it stable in the face of change.

Build High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are the backbone of any good SEO practice. Backlinks are the links other people and organizations put on their web pages, pointing back toward yours. They’re the hardest to create because you can’t control other people’s actions. Most of the time, the best thing you can do is create high-quality, helpful content that people will want to share. That can be challenging. People can’t connect to your content if they can’t find it because your page ranking isn’t high enough. It’s a frustrating feedback loop, and the difficulty of creating backlinks is unfortunate. Search engines rely on them as indicators of quality and relevance, so they’re vital.

To escape the vicious cycle of not having backlinks because no one can find you and no one can find you because you don’t, look for the best blogger outreach agency out there. With blogger outreach, you trade free access to your product or service for a link on the blog going back to your website. Using a blogger outreach agency gives you access to their contacts, knowledge, and expertise.

Choose Your Keywords Carefully

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What happens when you type “car” into your search engine? What about your vehicle's make, model, year, and color? The search results you get for each should be considerably different. Getting your web page to rank for a more specific keyword than something general from a purely numerical perspective will be far easier.

A general keyword like “car” is known as a short-tail keyword. A lengthier phrase like “2005 silver Honda Civic” is a long-tail keyword. SEO best practices recommend using a mixture of both. You may not rank for your short-tail keywords, but they will help both search engines and individuals categorize your website. Various tools are available online to help you determine the competitiveness and relevance of different keywords. Take advantage of these services, but don’t trust them blindly. You intuitively have a much better grasp of the most relevant keywords to you or your organization. Learning how a search engine will interact with them is only a matter of learning.

Watch Your Web Traffic

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Another benefit of tailoring your keywords is that the percentage of people reaching your web page who find it relevant will increase. Let’s assume that your web page gets 100 hits daily to simplify the math. Of those 100 hits, one results in a transaction. A one per cent conversion rate isn’t great, but your website receives roughly 3,000 hits monthly. Depending on what metric you’re using and what your goals are, that’s not bad.

Now, let’s pretend you redid your webpage with better keywords. Your web traffic decreases by half. Is this a crisis? Proof that SEO isn’t worth it? If your conversion rate doesn’t improve, it might be. However, the people looking for your website should hopefully search for your product or service. Since your webpage is more relevant to visitors, let’s assume two of the 50 people visiting your page daily convert. That’s a conversion rate of four percent—much better than one percent. Web traffic isn’t everything. Your conversion rate is a far better measure of your success.

Get Going with Google My Business

Did you know search engine results vary by location? It’s true. The difference is partly because different countries have different laws about acceptable content, but the rest is because search engines are there to make your life easier. If you search “gas station” while on a road trip, you don’t want to be directed to a location three hundred miles away. You’ll need gas, snacks, or a restroom long before that, so you want the nearest gas station.

Google My Business is a fast, free, and easy way to make Google aware of your location and services, improving your local SEO.

The Virtues of Video Content

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Many organizations have hesitated to produce video content despite the incredible benefits of video marketing. Perhaps the expense of creating a high-quality video is a deterrent, or maybe whoever is in charge of making content decisions has a personal dislike of videos. Whatever the reason, you’re missing out if you’re not taking advantage of video content. It’s phenomenal for engagement and discovery metrics, and it can improve your SEO.

With the growing prevalence of e-commerce and virtual business operations, SEO is more essential to your and your organization’s success than ever before. Search engine algorithms contain a lot of industry-specific jargon and uncertainty. However, with enough effort and the right tools, you can implement the best SEO practices to help your organization thrive in 2024.