Top 10 SEO Rules to Improve Your Google Rankings

The extremity of hunt motor optimization (SEO) is to get Google to service your webpage links whenever a idiosyncratic enters a related hunt query.

Although determination isn’t a fixed blueprint that tin warrant you apical rankings, determination are respective SEO champion practices (which you mightiness deliberation of arsenic SEO rules) that volition summation your chances of ranking good successful unpaid results.

With that successful mind, let’s dive in.

10 SEO Rules That Can Help You Rank

These are the apical champion practices that tin assistance your tract fertile organically (i.e., for free):

1. Ensure Google Can Find and Index Your Site

Google needs to crawl (i.e., find) and scale (i.e., store) your pages to fertile them successful its hunt results. Which is wherefore you request to guarantee determination aren’t immoderate issues affecting these processes.

One mode to show this is with Google Search Console (follow the steps successful the usher if you request to make an account).

Then, from your relationship dashboard, click connected “Indexing” > “Pages.”

Scroll down to find a array entitled “Why pages aren’t indexed.” Click connected 1 of the reasons to get a database of pages not indexed for that circumstantial reason.

For example, here’s what clicking connected “Not recovered (404)” looks like.

You tin past enactment to resoluteness the issues affecting those pages.

For a much thorough audit of issues that tin negatively impact crawling and indexing, usage Site Audit.

Enter your domain sanction and click “Start Audit.”

After you configure the task and the audit is complete, spell to the “Issues” tab. 

Then, prime the “Category” drop-down and click “Crawlability.”

You’ll present spot a database of issues that tin harm your site’s crawlability.

Go done the database and resoluteness each problem.

Then, bash the aforesaid with “Indexability” selected from the “Category” drop-down. 

2. Target Relevant Primary Keywords

Each leafage connected your tract should people a unsocial primary keyword. To summation the likelihood of that leafage appearing arsenic 1 of the apical links successful Google’s results.

But what are the right keywords, exactly?

The close keywords for your pages person the pursuing characteristics:

• Decently precocious search volume (meaning a bully fig of radical hunt for the keyword each month)
• Not excessively hard to fertile for
• Relevance to your marque oregon your products oregon services

You tin find these presumption with Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool. Which makes it casual to find superior (and secondary) keywords for your website.

Start by entering a word applicable to your business. And deed “Search.”

The instrumentality volition past make a broad database of related keywords and important accusation astir each. Such arsenic monthly hunt volume, keyword trouble (a measurement of however hard it volition beryllium to fertile highly), and search intent (the crushed down the query).

For your superior keyword, marque definite to find a keyword that has a hunt measurement of astatine slightest 100 and a keyword trouble people (KD %) beneath 49%.

And see hunt intent, which volition pass however champion to usage each term. 

For example, if you privation to make a landing leafage to merchantability your caller work oregon product, you should people a keyword with commercialized oregon transactional intent.

When you’ve recovered imaginable superior keywords, tick the checkbox adjacent to each term. And click connected the “+ Add keyword to list” fastener to make a customized list.

Make definite to springiness your database a applicable name. And click the greenish cheque mark.

You tin past entree your customized keyword database via Semrush’s Keyword Strategy Builder. Which you tin usage to find secondary keywords and physique keyword clusters. So you tin fertile for much presumption and pull adjacent much postulation to your pages.

We’ll spell implicit however to physique contented astir your keywords aboriginal successful this guide, but cheque retired our step-by-step keyword optimization guide for adjacent much accusation connected however to efficaciously usage hunt terms.

3. Organize Your Site’s Structure

Site operation refers to however web pages are arranged and connected with each other. A tract operation that’s coherent and intuitive ensures users and hunt motor crawlers tin easy navigate your site.

Good tract operation besides helps you debar duplicate content (i.e., contented that is precisely the aforesaid oregon akin to different portion of contented connected your website).

Duplicate contented tin dilute your SEO efforts by making it harder for Google to find which leafage to amusement successful the hunt motor results pages (SERPs).

To make a bully structure, marque definite that your website has a level architecture. Which you tin bash by grouping your contented by topics. 

That way, the homepage tin nexus to class pages. And those class pages tin nexus to subpages oregon idiosyncratic pages that autumn nether the aforesaid category.

Doing this (as opposed to utilizing a heavy architecture) means it takes nary much than 3 clicks (ideally) to get from the homepage to your “deepest” page.

If you request to marque changes to your tract structure, work our usher connected how to physique a coagulated tract architecture. Or inquire your developers to marque the indispensable changes.

It’s besides a bully thought to marque definite you’re utilizing descriptive URLs that are arsenic coherent. Meaning URLs that some users and hunt engines tin understand.

Ideally, each URL should see your people keyword for the corresponding page. And beryllium concise and escaped of unnecessary characters and parameters.

Stick to a lower-case, hyphen-separated format truthful they’re casual to read.

✅ www.yourdomain.com/category/sub-category/page-description

❌ www.yourdomain.com/index.php?page_id=123&category=9

4. Create Useful Content

Google’s guidelines for SEO stress that contented should chiefly absorption connected providing worth to quality readers. Which is wherefore you should make utile contented that’s broad and offers caller insights oregon perspectives.

Creating high-quality content similar this isn’t conscionable bully for SEO. It’s besides much apt to support users engaged.

Where tin you find ideas for engaging, people-first content?

You apt gathered galore ideas from the Keyword Magic Tool. But you tin stitchery adjacent much with the Topic Research tool.

Simply participate a taxable into the hunt barroom to make contented suggestions. 

The instrumentality volition past show cards of related subtopics. Including trending topics, which person a occurrence awesome successful the apical close corner.

Click connected immoderate paper to research examples of headlines that execute good for that subtopic. And the communal questions radical hunt erstwhile seeking related content.

Once you’ve identified a suitable topic, it’s clip to nutrient your content.

And your contented should connection the following:

• Actionable solutions to your readers’ symptom points
• Unique insights that your readers tin larn from
• Expert opinions oregon experiences
• Clear and digestible writing

You tin easy amended the readability of your transcript successful existent clip with Semrush’s SEO Writing Assistant.

Start by selecting “Analyze my text”.

Then paste oregon benignant your transcript into the substance field, adhd your people keyword(s), and click “Get recommendations.”

The instrumentality volition past show respective transcript suggestions, grouped nether “Readability,” “SEO,” “Tone of voice,” and “Originality.” 

Like this:

And marque usage of SEO Writing Assistant’s AI tools, recovered successful the “Smart Writer” box. 

Then, measure each proposal and instrumentality indispensable changes.

Further reading: 14 Tips for Writing Awesome Website Content

5. Help Search Engines and Users Understand Your Content

There are 3 main things you tin bash to assistance Google recognize your contented better. And supply a amended idiosyncratic experience:

• Use wide and concise headings
• Optimize your rubric tags and meta descriptions
• Implement schema markup

Let’s get into it.

Use Clear and Consistent Headings

First, your contented should usage a wide and accordant heading operation (H1, H2, H3, etc.). To interruption down contented into digestible sections and alteration readers and hunt engines to rapidly grasp what the leafage is about.

Organize your headings hierarchically, according to their relevance and value to the wide topic. 

Nesting headings successful a logical bid (H1 for the main title, H2 for large sections, H3 for subsections, and truthful on) makes contented easier to travel and understand.

Like this:

Optimize Your Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Next, marque definite that your contented contains unique, descriptive, keyword-optimized title tags and meta descriptions.

This helps users recognize what your leafage is astir earlier they adjacent click done from hunt results (assuming that Google uses your rubric tag and meta statement connected the SERP).

You tin easy cheque your tract for duplicate oregon missing rubric tags and meta descriptions with Semrush’s Site Audit tool.

To start, participate your domain sanction and click “Start Audit.”

The instrumentality volition past inquire you to participate immoderate configuration details earlier initiating the audit.

Once the study is ready, click the “Issues” tab.

This volition amusement you assorted problems detected connected your site.

In this example, the instrumentality has recovered 26 pages without rubric tags and 10 pages with duplicate meta descriptions. 

Click the bluish nexus to spot the affected pages. Then, enactment to resoluteness the issues.

Implement Structured Data

Third, instrumentality structured information (also known arsenic schema markup).Which is codification that helps hunt engines amended recognize your pages.

For example, utilizing look schema tells Google that your leafage contains a recipe. And provides accusation similar cooking time, prima rating, fig of reviews, and ingredients.

That way, Google tin show your nexus successful hunt results. Along with much accusation that searchers mightiness find relevant.

Like this:

Product markup, connected the different hand, provides Google with accusation similar merchandise rating, price, and availability.

And people markup gives details astir acquisition courses, similar the rubric and duration, the instructor’s name, and the price.

6. Make Sure Your Site Provides a Good User Experience

User acquisition (UX) refers to the wide acquisition a visitant has portion interacting with your website. It covers everything from navigation and leafage plan to leafage load velocity and website responsiveness.

Since Google’s extremity is to aboveground contented that champion satisfies users, its ranking strategy rewards sites that present good UX.

Among the astir important UX-related ranking factors are page load speed and mobile-friendliness.

Let’s look astatine both.

Page Speed

Page speed is the clip it takes for a webpage to load. And faster is amended due to the fact that it reduces the likelihood of users leaving your page. 

According to Google’s overview of the Core Web Vitals, the largest substance oregon representation artifact connected a leafage should load wrong 2.5 seconds. 

You tin easy cheque your site’s leafage velocity with Site Audit.

From the “Overview” tab, click “View details” nether “Site Performance.”

The instrumentality volition amusement you a study with assorted leafage velocity metrics. It volition besides database imaginable show issues that mightiness beryllium affecting your leafage load speed.

What tin you bash to amended leafage speed?

Generally, the astir impactful fixes are:

• Minimizing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code: Reduce unnecessary codification by eliminating whitespace, comments, and redundant scripts
• Reducing representation record sizes: Compress images to alteration record size without compromising prime utilizing tools similar TinyPNG oregon ImageOptim. Or WordPress plugins similar Smush.
• Implementing lazy loading: Delay loading of non-essential resources until they're needed to amended archetypal leafage load times

Mobile-Friendliness

Ensuring your tract is easy accessible, usable, and visually appealing connected mobile devices is indispensable due to the fact that Google uses mobile-first indexing. Which means it prioritizes the mobile mentation of a tract for indexing and ranking purposes. 

In different words, your site’s mobile UX should beryllium arsenic bully arsenic your desktop UX.

The simplest mode to guarantee your tract is mobile-friendly is by implementing a responsive design. In fact, Google recommends utilizing responsive design erstwhile gathering your site.

Responsive plan uses CSS to alteration however a leafage is rendered depending connected the device. So a webpage appears optimized connected antithetic surface sizes—from a smartphone to a elephantine monitor.

Here’s what it looks like:

Responsive plan works good for SEO due to the fact that it lets users entree your contented utilizing a azygous URL, careless of their device.

Use the Site Audit instrumentality to cheque for method issues connected your site, including those related to mobile optimization.

Head to the “Issues” study and filter by “mobile” to item mobile-specific issues.

And erstwhile you’ve implemented the indispensable fixes, you tin rerun the audit to cheque that each issues person been resolved.

You tin larn much astir however to amended your site’s mobile-friendliness by speechmaking our in-depth usher to mobile SEO.

7. Optimize Your Images and Videos

Image and video optimization means enhancing the quality, relevance, and accessibility of ocular content. And it maximizes integrated visibility.

This is particularly existent erstwhile you see that images are 12.5 times much apt to look successful mobile hunt results compared to desktop results. And videos are 3 times much apt to appear.

Let’s spell implicit to optimize both.

Optimize Your Images

To amended your image SEO, commencement by adding descriptive and applicable alt text. Which helps Google recognize your images and improves your site’s accessibility for visually impaired users.

As a rule, effort to bounds your alt substance to 125 characters and incorporated applicable keywords without being spammy.

Good: Brown leather L.L. Bean duck boots

A small spammy: L.L. Bean brownish leather hiking walking wintertime duck boots

In summation to optimizing representation alt text, you should bounds your representation record sizes to forestall dilatory leafage loading times.

You tin bash this by resizing images with a instrumentality similar Canva oregon by compressing images with a instrumentality similar TinyPNG.

Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality makes it casual to find errors similar missing alt text, images that are excessively big, and more.

Start by clicking the “Issues” tab. 

Look for image-related errors. 

Click connected 1 of the issues to larn more. For example, we clicked connected the “# images” nexus beside “don’t person alt attributes.”

Now you person a database of images with missing alt text. Along with links to the representation itself and the leafage you tin find the representation on.

Go done the database and adhd alt text, wherever necessary.

Optimize Your Videos

To optimize videos for SEO, usage descriptive titles (no much than 60 characters) that see your people keyword. And trade video descriptions that entice hunt users to click through.

Like this:

It’s besides a bully thought to adhd timestamps to videos. Because Google sometimes uses these to make “key moments” for videos successful hunt results.

And videos should person eye-catching thumbnails to gully searchers’ attention.

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool tin assistance you find ideas for video contented that’s apt to look successful the hunt results.

Once you’ve created a study for your effect keyword, spell to “SERP features” nether the “Advanced filters” option. From here, you tin filter keywords based connected those that trigger a video effect successful the SERPs. 

8. Leverage Internal and External Linking

Internal links link your pages with 1 different portion external links link your pages with different websites. And you request both.

Using interior links makes it easier for users and hunt engines to observe much of your content. And assistance administer authorization (PageRank) passim your site. 

This means that high-authority pages connected your tract tin walk immoderate of that authorization to different pages via interior links. To amended their ranking potential.

Here’s a ocular representation:

What’s the champion mode to attack interior linking? Here are immoderate tips:

• Keep links applicable to some the root and the people leafage to heighten thematic connections crossed your site
• Use little and descriptive anchor text (the clickable substance successful a link) to assistance users and hunt engines recognize the relevance of links and the contented of the linked page
• Avoid placing excessively galore links connected your pages. Doing truthful tin confuse Google’s crawlers and distract users.
• Link from high-authority pages to lower-authority ones to dispersed PageRank and elevate pages that mightiness not person arsenic overmuch attention
• Avoid utilizing the rel=“nofollow” property for interior links unless you don’t privation to walk authorization to the linked page
• Support caller contented with astatine slightest 2 oregon 3 incoming interior links from much established pages

Use Site Audit to find interior linking opportunities and errors. 

Within the “Overview” tab, click “View details” nether “Internal Linking.”

This volition unfastened your interior linking report. Which includes insights astir leafage crawl extent (how galore clicks it takes to scope antithetic pages), the fig of interior links connected each page, and however links are distributed crossed your site.

The “Internal Link Issues” conception lists interior linking problems and offers suggestions for however to hole them.

Besides interior links, adding outer links pointing to applicable outer resources tin supply worth to readers.

Here are immoderate outer linking champion practices to support successful mind:

• Only nexus to relevant, credible, and authoritative sources
• Use the rel=“nofollow” property whenever you don’t privation to endorse the linked leafage for ranking purposes (for example, if you’re linking to a competitor)
• Ensure your anchor substance is relevant, descriptive, and succinct

9. Earn Backlinks to Your Website

Backlinks are links to your tract from different websites. And they awesome to Google that your tract is simply a credible and invaluable root of information.

The much high-quality backlinks you person from relevant, authoritative websites, the much apt it is Google volition comprehend your tract arsenic rank-worthy.

How tin you gain these backlinks?

Consistently people invaluable contented that people attracts links. 

Other link building techniques include:

• Digital PR (sharing an absorbing communicative with publishers via a property release) 
• Reclaiming mislaid oregon breached backlinks pointing to your tract by offering a substitute page
• Reaching retired to sites that notation you without presently linking to you to inquire for a link

You tin easy find nexus gathering prospects with the Link Building Tool.

Simply participate your domain into the hunt container and deed “Start Link Building.”

After mounting up your project, caput to the “Prospects” report. Here, you’ll find a database of websites that could nexus to you if you attack them. 

The “Rating” file indicates the worth and imaginable easiness of getting a nexus from each domain.

Once you’ve reviewed the suggested sites, usage the Link Building Tool to scope retired to your nexus gathering prospects and show the presumption of your efforts.

To support an oculus connected the wellness of your wide backlink profile, usage Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool.

Start by entering your website sanction into the hunt barroom and click “Start Backlink Audit.”

Once you configure the instrumentality and tally the audit, you’ll spot metrics like:

• The fig of domains linking to your site
• The fig of backlinks pointing to your site
• Your Authority Score, which measures your domain’s reputability

The “Overall Toxicity Score” conception indicates however steadfast your backlink illustration is. If yours is “Medium” oregon “High,” that’s an denotation you should absorption connected gathering much high-quality backlinks. 

10. Promote Your Content

Promoting your contented done different channels increases your content’s visibility, drives further postulation to your site, and tin amended your hunt show implicit time. 

There are aggregate promotion strategies you tin usage to amplify your content’s reach.

For example, you could usage email marketing to nonstop retired newsletters highlighting your latest content. 

You could besides usage paid advertising campaigns to spot your contented successful beforehand of circumstantial assemblage segments who whitethorn not person discovered your website done integrated search.

And you tin stock contented connected social media, encouraging interactions specified arsenic likes, shares, and comments to further summation your content’s visibility.

While it tin beryllium hard to enactment accordant with societal media contented promotion, Semrush’s Social Poster makes it easy.

Start by selecting a applicable societal transmission and click “Connect.”

Next, log successful to authorize access. And repetition this process for each of your societal media accounts.

Head backmost to Social Poster and deed “Calendar.”

Select the time and clip you privation to station contented and the societal channel(s) you privation to station on. 

Add your content. And click “Schedule.”

Further reading: 20 Content Promotion Strategies To Make Your Content More Visible

Elevate Your Online Presence with SEO Rules 

SEO is an ongoing process requiring persistence and adaptability.

That said, definite SEO rules stay the same.

By pursuing the SEO guidelines outlined supra and utilizing tools similar the Keyword Magic Tool, Site Audit, and Backlink Audit, you tin navigate your SEO travel with confidence.