In today’s digital age, establishing an online presence has become essential for companies and organizations. According to Internet Live Stats, there are now over 1.8 billion websites worldwide, creating intense competition for visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). The primary goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to ensure that websites rank highly on these SERPs. For any website owner, securing a spot on the first page of search engine results is crucial, as it significantly increases the chances of attracting more visitors, generating leads, and boosting conversion rates.

SEO is not just an option but a vital marketing tool that every website owner should utilize. To achieve the desired rankings, it’s imperative to develop and implement effective SEO strategies. This is especially important for those enrolled in advanced training programs like the Digital Marketing Course in Delhi, where in-depth knowledge of SEO is imparted as a core component.

Several key ranking factors must be adhered to in order to improve a website’s standing on search engines. To help you navigate this competitive landscape, I’ve compiled a list of ten SEO best practices that every website owner should follow. By adhering to these strategies, you can enhance your online presence, outperform your competitors, and achieve sustainable growth.

Optimize Your Website Speed

A little long ago, before the advancements that have taken place on the internet, you would be comfortable waiting for close to five minutes for a popular website to load fully.
Today that is not the case. Users only wait for an average of fifteen minutes for the website to load. Slow loading speeds can be said to be the kiss of death for most websites.
A 2016 Q2 Mobile Insights Report shows that if load time decreases by 100 milliseconds, conversion rates can drop by 7%. One of the most crucial factors considered when ranking a website is how fast the website loads.
A website with a slow loading speed will be ranked lower than a website with a higher loading speed. To appear on the first page of the search engine results pages, you will have to optimize your page loading speed.
What a slow website does is frustrate the user’s experience, which discourages the user from visiting the website. In the mind of a website user, a slow website should not be trusted.
As businesses and organizations strive to reap from the many benefits generated by high page rankings, optimizing their websites’ speed becomes a vital priority.
There exist several tools that can be used to establish the speed of the website. One such kind of tool is Google’s Page Speed Insights.
Another tool that is also highly recommended to check on the speed status of a website is the GTMetrix.  This is a free tool that will make you aware of the status of your website speeds.
It will also provide you with insights and recommendations on some of the things you can do to improve your website’s speed. 
Here are some of the things that you can do to increase the loading speed of your website:
Compressing the images on the website
Deleting the unnecessary plugins
Minify the JavaScript and the CSS files
Reducing the server response time

Make Use of HTTPS

Google’s major concern is the user experience and the security of the web users. Google wants the website owners to take full care of the security of the users.
To make sure that this is attained, in the year 2014, google rolled a new piece of algorithms that saw HTTPS websites rank higher than HTTP websites. 
To further strengthen the HTTPS factor, in 2015, Google announced that HTTPS would be used as a tiebreaker in a situation where two or more websites have equaled in all other ranking factors.
That said, the big question now is how to have an HTTPS website. An SSL certificate is what makes the difference. A website with an SSL certificate will have its URL starting with HTTPS, while a website without an SSL certificate will have its URL starting with HTTP.
An SSL certificate is majorly tasked with encrypting the communication between the website servers and the user browsers. The communication cannot be intercepted by intruders, which makes it safe.
All websites that mind the users’ security and privacy and intend to improve in rank should start to have an SSL certificate. To date, the wave towards HTTPS has been spectacular. A google Transparency Report shows that 93% of traffic arriving on google websites are all based on HTTPS. 
You are perhaps asking yourself which SSL certificate type should you choose for your Search Engine Optimization needs. Well, currently, google does not discriminate and rank websites based on the SSL certificate that they have.
They are all treated the same. It does not matter whether you choose to go for a Wildcard SSL Certificate, SAN SSL, or any other. They will all help with your google rankings.

Match the Search Intent

This is also one of the critical factors as spelled out by the latest google algorithm. Search intent sometimes referred to as user intent, is the reason behind all search queries.
One of the utmost priorities of google is to ensure that the search results satisfy the search intent. If you intend to have your website appear on the first page of the search engine results pages, you will need to understand what the search intent is and then come up with content that fits the search intent. 

Invest in Relevant and Catchy Content

Another essential tip for increasing your ranking in the search engine results pages is to create catchy and worthy content. One that will harness the attention of your readers and keep them coming for more.
Captivating content, created specifically for your website visitors and free from flaws, will invite more traffic to your site. Traffic increases the relevance and the authority of your site, two very crucial ranking aids. 
Relevant content takes into consideration the keyword factor. You should identify and target a specific keyword phrase for every page that appears on your site.
You will also need to be keen on the flow and the structure of your content. Ensure that the content is free from flaws such as spelling mistakes and poor punctuations. Flawless, captivating, and quality content puts you on the path to SEO success.

Regularly Update Your Content

You now realize the weight and stress that I am giving to content. Search engines also give such weight. As I have mentioned earlier, how much relevant a website is will dictate where the site falls on the search engine results pages.
To make your site relevant, you will have to update it with new and fresh content continually. Website visitors want to find something new each time they visit your website.
Failing to update the website will make them leave and not visit your website, which is not a good thing for your traffic and your site rankings, for that matter.

Aim to Improve the Visitors’ site experience

a study conducted SEMrush on search engine ranking factors found that the top ranking factors considered when ranking websites are; the bounce rates, time spent on site, pages per session, and the number of website visits. All these factors can be looked at from one angle- they all are about the experience that your website will give to your web visitors.
The thing is, if your website is easy to use and navigate, has clarity, and offers value to the visitors; then the website is likely to get and retain more visitors. With satisfied visitors who stay for long on your website, you will likely improve in your search rankings.  

Work to get more Backlinks to your website.

Backlinks are links from other pages to your pages. Having backlinks is one of the highly valued search engine optimization factors.
When you have highly reputable websites linked to your website, it shows that your website can be trusted. A trusted website will invite more traffic, which in turn improves your Search Engine Rankings. You should always strive to have backlinks for your SEO purposes. 

Optimize Your Images

Optimizing your images is essential to improving the speed of your website. As explained earlier, the faster your website’s speed, the higher your ranking in the search engines.
Optimized images are also quick to be noticed by search engines. So as to make sure that you rank high in the search engine results pages, you will have to start thinking about optimizing those images. 

Give appropriate Titles to your website pages to help your users as well as search engines.

To know what your website is all about, search engines will have to read your title tag or meta title. The title tag is that blue link that everyone sees on the search engine results pages.
It is different from the bold heading that appears on the page itself. You should make sure that you include the keywords that users are likely to look for in the title tag.

Use videos

The use of videos is one of the best forms of content that can help with your search engine optimization strategies. Videos are best when it comes to delivering a large amount of information within the shortest period of time.
From the search engine optimization point of view, the longer your visitors spent time on your website watching those videos, the better chance you stand to increase your search engine rankings. 

Final thoughts

Many benefits come with ranking higher on google. With this in mind, websites are fighting for space over the first results page. Reaching the first page of the search engine results pages is not rocket science.
With proper tools and measures in place, it can be achieved. This article has explained some of the worthwhile practices that can be used to put your website on top of others as far as website ranking is concerned.