There are lots of things one should do to get improved Google rankings.

But it is critical to get the basic things down first.

In other words:

You should ensure your website development company follows current SEO best practices. That is the foundation.

What Are SEO Best Practices Provided by web development services?

SEO best practices are tasks designed to improve a website development services rankings. 

Common search engine optimization best practices include researching keywords for on-site optimization and making backlinks to a site.

Only 62% of Google searches ever click on something from the second page of their search results. This is why it is important to try ranking on the first page of Google.

You can put your best efforts forward by following SEO best practices.

Here are the nine most important ones you need to know.

Align Your Content with Search Intent

Search intent (“user intent”) is the purpose behind almost every search query. 

Understanding and catering to search intent is the ultimate priority of Google. As a result, pages that rank on the first page have all passed Google’s test on search intent.

If you want to rank on page 1 of Google, you must understand search intent and create content that matches it. 

There are four common kinds of search intent in web development services: 

1. Informational: when someone is attempting to learn more about something
2. Navigational: when a person is searching for a particular page or website
3. Commercial: when someone is trying to learn more before making a purchase
4. Transactional: when someone intends to complete an action or transaction

To quickly find a keyword’s impact, head to Semrush’s Keyword analysis tool. 

Enter your keyword, hit search, and you will see a box labeled “Intent.” 

Write Compelling Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

The page title and meta description are your page’s most important meta tags. 

Title Tags

Title tags are clickable headings in SERPs (search engine results pages).

They indicate to Google what the page is about. And they are fundamental from an SEO perspective. 

This is the reason a title tag looks like this on Google’s search results:

Title tags are a must in giving people a quick look into the content of a query. And why it’s relevant to their query. 

It’s often the primary information searchers use to decide which result to click. 

So, it’s important to use proper titles for your web pages. 

Generally, keeping title tags between 50 to 60 characters is best. This way, words will not get cut off from the desktop or mobile SERPs.

Here are some various title tag best practices to bear in mind:

• Include the targeted keyword
• Match search intention
• Avoid duplication of title tags
• Avoid keyword stuffing
• Make sure it is descriptive but concise

Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a line used to describe the page’s content.

It’s often shown below the title and URL of your page on the SERP. 

Meta descriptions generally inform and interest users with a short, relevant description of the page. 

They are like a pitch that convinces a person that the page is exactly what they are looking for. 

Google typically limits meta descriptions to 155–160 characters.

So, make sure the summary is accurate and concise.

Here are a few meta-description best practices to adhere to:

• Write a super awesome meta description for every page
• Use action-oriented marketing material
• Include your target keyword
• Match search intent

Optimize Your Images

Images play a major role in improving a visitor’s user experience. 

When used correctly, images can contribute to the site’s overall SEO and boost regular traffic. 

Here are four ways to improve your images:

Choose the Best File Format 

Images are often the main contributor to total page size and loading time. And page loading time is an important ranking factor. 

The first step is choosing the best file format.

The most commonly used picture formats on the web are JPEG and PNG. 

Both formats use different compression techniques. This is why the file sizes between both of these two can be dramatically different.

Like so:

Looking at the variation in file sizes above, it would be convenient to declare JPEG as the winner. But it will be a mistake.

While JPEGs look good for photographs, PNGs are best suited for images with text, line drawings, etc. 

WebP is another popular thing. It’s a modern image format that provides superior top-notch and lossy compression for web images. 

As per Google, WebP lossless images are about a quarter smaller than PNGs and a third smaller than comparable JPEGs.

Compress Your Images as a web development services

Image compression is applied to images to minimize their size while not degrading quality. 

The larger the image file size, the more time your page loads. 

It’s important to compress these images before you upload them to your site.

Here are many free tools that can help:

• TinyPNG: uses smart lossy compression methods to limit the file size of the PNG and JPEG files
• ImageOptim: by far the greatest tool for compressing images on a Mac
• ShortPixel: a cool WordPress plugin for automatically compressing images 

Provide Alt Text for Images

Alt text (short for alternative text) is included in HTML code to explain an image on a webpage. 

It provides context for search engine crawlers and those showing a page with a screen reader.

Despite advances in Google’s ability to understand images, adding alternative text to images is still necessary. 

Here are several alt-text best practices to follow:

• Keep it under 125 characters
• Include one main keyword for context
• Don’t include “image of” or “picture of.”

1. Lazy-Load the Images

Lazy loading is a method in the app and web development company that defers loading non-critical things (images, videos, etc.) at page load time. 

Images and videos are loaded if and when users need them.

“When we make use of lazy load images and videos, we cut the page load time, initial page size, and system resource use, all of which have positive impacts on performance.”

Optimize Your Site’s Page Loading Speed

Google considers site loading speed a basic ranking factor. Especially on mobile. 

This is why we suggest making your site load in the quickest possible way. 

To benchmark the site’s current loading speed, take Google’s own PageSpeed Insights tool. 

Start by entering the URL and then hitting”Analyze.”

You’ll see a dashboard with the site’s overall health. And a thorough report with all the ways we can improve. 

To dig deeper, use the Site Audit tool.

First, create a new project (if you still need to). And look for “Site Performance” and hit the button “View details.“

Then, see and address all the problems and warnings under “Performance Issues.”

These are all the issues on the site that are preventing it from loading faster. 

You can also click “# issues” to see the issue and how to fix it. 

You’ll see a list of URLs and the different load times.

Build an Internal Linking Structure With the help of a web development company.

Internal links are important because they establish an information hierarchy for the website development company. And assist Google in understanding the content on your page.

When used the better way, internal links can boost the rankings.

An SEO best practice is about adding internal links from the various top-ranking pages on the site to pages that require a boost. 

Generally, this is about linking old pages (that do very well) to new ones. Old pages always are known to have better authority. 

It’s a nice shortcut to let you use internal links without analyzing every page on the website. 

That being said, one should still look out for internal linking errors. They can be detrimental to your SEO. 

Use the internal linking report on any Site Audit tool to quickly find and fix these errors. 

Again, start by creating the project if you have not done so already, and look for the “Internal Linking” box. 

And click on the button which will say”View details.”

Then, see and address the errors and warnings under “Internal Link Issues.”

Improve User Experience by giving them improved web development services

Google keeps a close watch on how users engage with different groups. As such, user experience (UX) is a major factor in helping better search rankings. 

Page speed has a key role in bettering UX. But it’s just a starting mark. 

Here are a few relevant SEO tips provided by web development companies to ensure that users have a good experience when the people visit your site:

• Use headers & subheadings: Proper usage of headers & subheadings (H1, H2, H3) lets Google understand your content better and makes the text more accessible to readers.
• Make your content visually appealing: Images help readers understand the content better. Use relevant images, videos, and screenshots to help get your point across.