SEO best practices are a set of practices that are also designed to help improve a website’s search engine ranking. Common search engine optimization and SEO best practices include on-site optimization, keyword research, and building site backlinks.

Put another way:

There’re a million things you can do to get higher Google rankings (including advanced SEO strategies and techniques), but it’s important to know the basics first.

You want to make sure your site follows current best SEO practices. This is the foundation. Then, once you’ve established your foundation, dive into new and innovative methods. With that, here’re the most important SEO practices you need to know today:

Include your main keyword early in your content.
It’s no secret that you want to use your keywords a handful of times on your page.

But you might not know that the location of your keywords also matters.

In particular, you want to mention your main keyword at least once at the top of your page.

Why does it matter?

Google places more weight on terms that appear at the top of a web page. In other words, the best SEO practices play an important role in organic website development in Google searches. So, you’re on the right page if you’ll look for the best SEO practices.

Therefore, a million things you can do to get higher Google rankings (including advanced SEO strategies and techniques).

For example, this page on my site is optimized around “Mobile SEO”.
So I mentioned the term once in the first 25 words of my content.

simple

Write unique titles, descriptions, and content.
Avoiding duplicate content is one of the most important SEO practices to keep in mind.

Google says you should avoid “duplicate or near-duplicate versions of your content on your site."

The Best SEO Practices for Organic Website Growth in Google

Here we are sharing the best SEO practices for organic website growth in Google. And this rule applies to every piece of content on your website, including:

• Title tags
• Meta description tags
• E-commerce product pages
• Landing pages
• Image alt text
• Category Pages

Basically: If you publish a page on your website, the content of that web page must be 100% unique. If you run a small blog with a home page and a bunch of blog posts. So, this rule is pretty easy to follow. But if you own an e-commerce site with thousands of products. It can be also difficult to write unique content for each page.

Hard… but will be worth it for you in organic website growth in Google searching. However, if you’re having trouble writing content for each page, consider combining pages that have similar content. Or use the canonical tag.

Optimize your title tag for SEO

Your title tag is key when it comes to on-page SEO.

Google even says: “It’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages."

High-quality page titles
Here’s how to get the most out of your page title tag:

Front-load your main keywords: “Front-load" simply means starting your title tag with your main keywords.

Why is this important?

Well, search engines pay close attention to the terms you use in your title tag. This is why you want your keyword in your page title.

Include your main keyword in the title tag.
But what you may not know is that Google also places more emphasis on words and phrases that appear early in your title tag.

Google emphasizes the initial words in the keyword title tag.
So if it makes sense, start your title with the keyword you want to rank for.

For example, I currently rank #1 for the super competitive term “eCommerce SEO Google”.

And my title tag starts with the same sentence.

eCommerce SEO Google SERP

Sometimes it’s not possible to use your keyword initially because it will make your title tag look awkward. Yes, search engine optimization is important. But your title tags also need to be useful for users.

(more on that later)

If you’re not able to start your title tag with a keyword, no big deal. Add your keywords as soon as possible.

For example, this page is optimized around the keyword “SEO strategy”.

Backlink – SEO Strategy Guide
I couldn’t figure out a way to add the keyword “SEO strategy" to the beginning of my title. So I used my keyword as early as I could.

Keyword SEO strategy in the post
It’s not good at first. But it’s quick enough for Google to see that my page is clearly about “SEO strategy."

Use one keyword per title: Google is really clear on this.

They don’t want you to stuff your title with a bunch of different keywords.

Avoid stuffing unnecessary keywords in your title.
(also known as “keyword stuffing")

Instead, you want to use an important keyword in your title. And if your page is of high quality, you will naturally rank for that keyword… and many others.

For example, this page on my site is optimized around the term: “keyword research”.

Backlink – Keyword Research Guide

And, as you can see, I use this term in my title tag.

Keyword Research – Keywords in the title
The other words and phrases in my title are just to highlight what my page is really about.

Keyword research topic
And because my page contains high-quality content, it’s in the top 5 for my main keywords.

Keyword Research – Google SERP
And, according to SEMRush, this page also ranks for 630 different keywords.

SEMrush – Ranking Keywords

Did I optimize my page with around 630 keywords? Nope, what!

Instead, I optimized my page (and title) around one important keyword. And Google largely took care of the rest.

Write compelling, shareable titles: Your title tags should make people want to click through to your page to learn more.

Why?

When lots of people click on your result in Google, you can find yourself ranking high for that term.

Lots of clicks can lead to higher rankings.
That’s why, once my SEO stuff is taken care of, I start optimizing my title for clicks and shares.

In other words:

I try to write title tags that are interesting, compelling and compel people to share.

For example, this list of content marketing tools has an eye-catching title.

Backlinks – Best Content Marketing Tools

Improve your site’s loading speed
Google doesn’t usually talk publicly about the ranking factors in its algorithm.

So when they talk a lot about a certain ranking signal, you know it’s a big deal.

Site loading speed is one of those rare ranking factors.

Using page speed as a ranking factor
This is why I highly recommend loading your site as quickly as possible.

(Especially on mobile devices.)

Your first step is to benchmark your site’s current loading speed. That way, you know where you are before you start making changes.

I recommend the very helpful PageSpeed Insights tools.

Google Page Speed Insights
However, the recommendations you get from this tool come from Google itself.

PageSpeed Insights – Results
Also, it doesn’t just tell you if your page is fast or slow. This tool provides you with a detailed report that includes ways you can improve.

PageSpeed Insights – Opportunities
If you want to dig deeper with page speed stuff, check out Web Page Test.

Web page test
This is a free tool that gives a more accurate sense of how your site loads to real users.

Web Page Test – Results

Either way, here are some ways you can improve your site’s loading speed.

Compressed Images: This is a big one. Images make up the bulk of the page size (in terms of KB). This is why I recommend using a tool like Kraken.io to shrink your image size.
Use lightweight themes: Heavy WordPress themes can slow things down. So if your theme isn’t optimized for speed, consider switching to it.
Use Slow Loading: Slow-loading images can increase your site’s loading speed by 50% or more. The downside is that images appear when users scroll down the page, which is not good for UX. So it’s a bargain.
Use a CDN: CDNs serve images and other media on your site to servers that are closer to your users.

Here are some ways you can build links to your site.

First, focus on content formats that perform best in terms of backlinks.

Our analysis of 900+ million blog posts showed if and why posts (with infographics) got more links than other types of content (like video).

“Why posts", “what posts" and are heavily linked to infographics.
This does not mean that publishing this type of content will automatically result in links. But, at least according to this study, it can increase the odds that other people will connect with you.
Second, create content with a “hook."

A hook is an angle, data point, or something controversial that naturally encourages people to link to you.

For example, a few years ago I published a post about a strategy called the “Skyscraper Technique."

Backlink – The Skyscraper Technique

Unlike most SEO case studies, this post includes a detailed, step-by-step process.

Skyscraper Technique – Steps
I also made sure to give the strategy a name to make it easier to remember.

Skyscraper technique
And because my content includes multiple hooks, this page has 11.2K backlinks.

Ahrifs – Skyscraper Technique – Backlinks
Improve your site’s user experience
Improving your site’s user experience (UX) can, directly and indirectly, help your SEO.

UX can directly help with SEO because Google knows when people start “pogo-sticking" after landing on your site from search results.

Pogo sticking

If enough people bounce from your site to search engine results, it tells Google that your results didn’t give the searcher what they were looking for.

And your search engine rankings may start to drop.

Too much pogo sticking indicates poor material and poor grading.
You can get proxy measurements of Pogo Sticking from Google Analytics. If your page has y high bounce rate, it could be a sign that users aren’t finding what they’re looking for.

Post with a high bounce rate.
UX can indirectly help with SEO as people are more likely to share and link to a user-friendly site.

A user-friendly site can help with SEO.
So if your site is hard to use, uses intrusive pop-ups and ads, and has a bunch of broken links… people won’t link to it.

(Even if you have great content.)

So yes, UX is something every site owner should pay attention to anyway. It just so happens that great UX can also boost your SEO.

Learn more above all, about The Best SEO Practices for Organic Website Growth at Google

Advanced Keyword Research Tutorial (5-Step Blueprint): A deep dive into finding keywords for content, landing pages, and more.

Link Building for SEO: The Definitive Guide: More tips and strategies for building backlinks to your website.

Actionable SEO Techniques That Work Best: A list of advanced SEO strategies that I recommend checking out after you implement the SEO best practices here.

Amazing Free SEO Tools: A hand-curated list of tools that can help you implement many of the strategies in this guide. The Best SEO Practices for Organic Website Growth in Google are the best way to make money online.