The Ten Commandments of SEO

In a world saturated with content, every business owner is vying for attention. However, wise content marketers understand that not just any attention is important to a business. Only attention from the right audience will bring positive impacts to your business, and it is the duty of any self-respecting content marketer to drive the right audience to their business website.

If you want your business website or blog to rank high in the SERPs (search engine result pages), then you need to follow these SEO commandments. There are ten of them, and if you adhere to all of them, then you will see your website or blog start climbing up the rankings on the SERPs. In this blog post, we will go over all ten of the SEO commandments so that you can start putting these SEO best practices into practice and see results.

Let's get started.

1) Thou Shalt Do Thy Research

Do your research. This is one of the most important pieces of advice that you can give to website owners. You need to understand who your target audience is and what kind of content would interest them.

Identify your audience and speak their language. Before you can optimize your site for search engines, you need to know who your target audience is and what they're looking for. Once you know that, you can tailor your content to their needs. For example, if someone is looking for information about a particular topic, make sure that your content includes relevant information about that topic.

On the flip-side, if you don't know what they're looking for, or if you don't have the right content to offer them, they'll quickly move on to another site. It's important not to be afraid to change course; SEO is an evolving process and what worked yesterday might not work today. Be willing to experiment and try new things.

Let's not forget the basics. Make sure your website is well-designed, easy to navigate, and full of quality content. Once you've got those down, start working on more advanced SEO strategies (like keyword research which we will talk about later). By taking these simple steps first, you'll set yourself up for success in achieving higher rankings in Google and other search engines.

2) Thou Shalt Understand Keywords

Understanding keywords is essential for any business. Not only do they help to improve organic traffic, but understanding the keywords that are important to your audience can also help you reach a larger audience. Here are some tips for content marketers to get the most out of keywords:

1. Start with keyword research. Keyword research is important in order to determine which keywords are most important to your target audience and how best to optimize your content around those keywords.

2. Make sure your content is optimized for search engines. Once you have determined your target keywords, make sure that all of your content is properly optimized for search engine results pages (SERPs). This will ensure that you rank high on relevant searches and attract more visitors from potential buyers.

3. Use keyword density correctly. Too much or too little keyword density can damage your ranking and visibility on SERPs, so be careful not to overuse them or use them incorrectly. Do not keyword stuff, instead aim to have just the right amount of keywords to give readers good understanding about the article without being overwhelming or intrusive. Keywords also serve to give context to the content which allows search engines to index and rank your pages correctly.

4. Make use of long-tail keywords. The vast majority of highly targeted organic traffic comes from long-tail keywords. Hence, you should focus your efforts on targeting long-tail keywords instead of the more generic, short-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are usually more specific and have less competition. This makes them a better option for generating leads and increasing organic traffic.

3) Thou Shalt Create Great Content

In order to create great content, it is important to understand how to conduct keyword research, as we have touched upon in the second commandment. By understanding the keywords that are most relevant to your audience, you can create content that is both informative and useful.

Creating content for both people and search engines is critical for success in today’s online world. People want information that is easy to understand and engaging. This means that your content should be written in a way that is accessible and engaging. Additionally, search engines reward quality content with higher rankings. By writing quality content and optimizing it for both people and search engines, you can ensure success in today’s digital landscape.

Creating great content is not easy, but it is essential for both online success and long-term visibility. By following the SEO Commandments, you can create content that is both informative and useful to your audience.

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating great content. First, make sure that your content is highly useful and relevant. This will help to engage your audience. People want information that they can understand quickly. Second, don’t forget to optimize your content with keywords! By writing quality content and optimizing it for both people and search engines, you can increase your chances of success in today’s digital landscape.

4) Thou Shalt Target Make Your Web Pages Load Quickly

Generally, people dislike waiting for web pages to load as humans have short attention spans. Slow loading websites badly affects user experience, and it is known that if a page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, then people are more likely to bounce to another page or just abandon the website entirely.

Not to mention, Google will penalize websites that take more than 3 seconds to become usable. This means you can kiss goodbye to the chance of ranking your website in the top spots of the SERPs.

As a general guideline, make sure your website doesn't take longer than 3 seconds to load and become interactive and you will be in the good graces of search engines like Google.

5) Thou Shalt Create Keyword-rich Meta Tags

Meta tags are page identifiers used by Google and other search engines to understand what a page is about. It consists of the meta title, usually the page title, and also meta description, which is a short description of what the page is about.

When it comes to writing meta tags, there are a few tips that you should keep in mind. Keyword rich phrases are essential for improving your SEO rankings and making it easier for people to find your content. Additionally, make sure that your titles are clear and easy to understand.

Write titles that are catchy but not misleading. Use numbers and lists in your headlines for added impact. And finally, be sure to keep your headlines unique and interesting so that they stand out from the rest of the content on the web.

It might be easier said than done, but making sure your headline is catchy yet rich with keywords may prove to be more challenging than anticipated. However, if you can pull it off correctly, it will reward you tons of organic traffic.

6) Thou Shalt Build Backlinks

A lot of people use the word “backlink” as if it was a dirty word. “Backlinks” is one of those words that is misunderstood by many. To many people, backlinks are just “links to your site from other sites”.

This is true, but why would you want to have backlinks? For SEO purposes. In order to rank better in search engines, you need to have good quality backlinks. Quality backlinks are links that point to your site from other high-quality sites. The reason why I’m saying “high-quality” is because if the link points to your site, then it has to be relevant to your content.

Let’s take an example. Let’s say that you own a website about dogs. You post a new article on your site and people start sharing it with their friends, family and other dog lovers. Some of these people who share your article decide to include a link to your site in their Facebook posts. Now if there was an article about the best dog food, then these people have shared a link to your website that is about the best dog food. 

If they liked what they saw on your site, they may re-visit and even convert into leads and eventually customers. However, even if they did not convert, you would have generated additional organic traffic that's coming in via the backlinks you've built.

Having backlinks also signals Google your site is reputable and contributes to site authority and pagerank on the SERPs. So don't pass up on building backlinks back to your site, especially reputable sites. Now, get out there and start building backlinks wherever possible!

7) Thou Shalt Build E.A.T. with Content

What does it mean to build E.A.T. (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) with content? It takes more than just good keywords these days to establish your website or brand as an authority and expert in your field or industry.

In order to gain the trust of your audience and search engines, publishing professional content that is useful and relevant to your target audience consistently is absolutely necessary.

When people trust the content that you put out, they will keep coming back for more as they have established your website/ brand as an expert and authority in the field or industry you operate in. This sort of trust takes time to build up, but once you succeed, then you will see a consistent flow of organic traffic coming to your site.

Of course you would still need to maintain your E.A.T. after achieving it by continuing to publish useful and relevant content regularly.

8) Thou Shalt Optimize Your Images

Images are an important part of your website content. They can help to convey the message that you're trying to send and attract visitors. However, if your images are not optimized correctly, they can lead to decreased traffic and engagement.

There are a few tips for better image optimization:
- Optimize file sizes across all your images, you need to strike a balance between quality and file size.
- Make sure your images are properly captioned. Captions help to further describe the message you are trying to convey with the image.
- Use appropriate keywords in your image alt text, titles, and descriptions for your images. This helps search engines understand what the image is about and also helps visually impaired audiences to decipher the presented image.
- Use keyword-rich file names for your images. This helps search engines understand your image in order to index them properly in image search on search engines. 

You can't improve an image if you don't have all the necessary files present, so make sure each one is properly labeled with file name, description, and any relevant keywords. And finally, always ensure that all of your images meet Google's quality standards before uploading them to your website or blog.

If you follow these tips, you'll be able to improve your organic traffic and overall website visibility.

9) Thou Shalt Promote Your Content

Quality content is the key to success when it comes to SEO. It's important to follow best practices when it comes to keyword density, meta tags, and titles as we've seen above. Additionally, it's important to promote your content through social media, email marketing, and other channels. You can then use Google Analytics to track your progress and see the ROI of your promotion efforts.

Google Analytics is a great way to track your progress and see the ROI of your promotion efforts. By understanding where your visitors are coming from, you can optimize your content for the most effective reach. For example, you might want to focus on promoting content to users who are searching for specific keywords via specific channels. 

Promoting content is critical for SEO success, and using Google Analytics makes it easy to track progress and see the impact of your efforts on various channels.

10) Thou Shalt Monitor Your Progress

It's important to monitor your progress and keep track of what works and what doesn't in order to improve your business. You can do this by looking at things like your keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rate. By tracking these statistics over time, you'll be able to see which tactics are working and which ones aren't.

The most popular ways to monitor the performance of your website is by using Google Analytics and Search Console, which are FREE and provides you with many useful and insightful data points! 

Try different tactics and strategies and see which ones work best for your business. This is a constantly evolving process, so don't be afraid to try something new every once in a while. If it works well for you, stick with it! And if it doesn't work out, always be open to trying something new again.

Final Thoughts

SEO is an important tool for any business that wants to rank high in search engine results and attract more organic traffic. However, SEO is an ever-changing landscape, which means that what worked yesterday might not work today. As a result, it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices. The ten commandments of SEO are a good starting point for anyone who wants to improve their website's ranking. By following these simple tips, you can set your site up for success and start seeing real results.