4 Main Do's And Dont's Of Seo For Ranking High

In this growing age of Digital Marketing, marketers are finding new ways to get recognised and to drive leads to their website. There is a lot of misconception going around in the market regarding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and people don’t know the exact uses of it. SEO refers to the strategies used to help websites have better rankings on Search Engine Results Pages (aka SERPs), which makes them easier to find through online searches. Sometimes people say that SEO should be stopped after a point of time and to focus more on content which is untrue as it is a never ending process. Taking all factors into consideration we have come up with a list of Do’s and Don’ts that you should practice for your SEO campaign so that you get consistent leads.

To start off our list of SEO do’s and don’ts, what should you do to earn a top spot on the search engine results? Here are four important do’s to boost your Google rankings!

• DO use long tail keywords: Keywords are an integral part of SEO. When you target specific keywords, they should meet two specific criterias: high relevance and low competition. These types of keywords are known as long-tail keywords

Since long-tail keywords contain more words, it gives them more specificity. As a result, these keywords have a clearer search intent and also come with less competition. So, instead of targeting a keyword like “Headphone,” try something like “which headphone is the best for watching movies.”

• DO have a presence on relevant social media platforms: It is important to keep your social media profiles updated, have interactions with other users, and periodically post new content. Social media is a powerful business tool when used wisely as it has a wide user base which is essential for generating leads. Consumers can even interact with the brands on social media, be it in terms of product/service knowledge or product/service complains.
• DO create Title tags and Meta descriptions that stand out: Title tags and Meta description are an essential element of your web content. Title tags are very important because they’re the main thing that will determine whether a user clicks on your content on the search results.

Meta descriptions play a role in drawing users to click on your listing, while simultaneously informing the search engine about the context of your page. It is also important to include keywords because they will appear in a bold font in related searches and grab the attention of potential visitors. Try to write a meta description that conveys the context of your page in under 160 characters.

• DO track your site matrix: None of the other do’s and don’ts for SEO would be of much use if you don’t verify that they’re working for you. Keep an eye on whether they’re performing well. Once you have everything in place, keep up with site metrics that can help show you where to improve, which are given below:

1. Conversion rate
2. Traffic flow
3. Bounce rate
4. Click-through rate

Just as there are specific actions you should take, there are also things you’ll want to avoid. Here are five don’ts to bear in mind as you launch your campaign.

• DON'T engage in keyword stuffing or unnatural phrasing: Keywords should be naturally incorporated into the content. If the page content doesn’t seem to make sense to you, it’s likely that other users (as well as the search engine) will feel the same way.We shouldn't pack keywords after keywords in each paragraph or else google won't respond nicely. This strategy is a black hat SEO strategy which goes against Google's guidelines and should be avoided. 
• DON’T use a lengthy title: Avoid using a lengthy title as it is unhelpful to the users. Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long or otherwise deemed less relevant compared to the content, Google may show only a portion of it or one that's automatically generated in the search result. It may also show different titles depending on the user's query or device used for searching. Unneeded keywords in your title should also be avoided to make your title relevant.
• DON’T let your page speed be slow: Avoid letting your page speed be low. Generally 85% of the people expect a web page to load up below 3 seconds or less. If it takes a lot of time for your web page to load up, users won't hesitate to hit the back button. When a lot of people do like that, Google would assume that your content isn’t relevant and your page would go down the rank. To keep ranking higher, ensure that your website doesn’t take more than 3 seconds, ideally 1-2 seconds. If the speed of your web page is slow, you can speed it up using the following ways:

1. Compressing the images
2. Improving the server response time
3. Caching your web pages
4. Limiting the redirects

• DON’T neglect responsive design for your website: None of the other SEO don’ts on this list will help you rank high if you only apply them to a desktop format. Almost 75% of all Internet time is spent on mobile. Google has started prioritising mobile formats over desktop ones.

In other words, a site that isn’t optimised for mobile won’t have any shot at ranking. Your content needs to have a responsive design i.e, it needs to work equally well on both desktop and mobile devices for it to appear on Google search results.