seo checklist

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

Google remains one of the most important channels to get visitors to your website. That is why it is best to pay the necessary attention to the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of each page. These 9 tips will give your website a boost!

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

1. Place the most important search term(s) in the page title

The page title can be found above the address bar of your browser and is used by default as the name for the bookmark of the page:

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

In addition, the page title is also shown as a headline in Google search results:

The page title is therefore one of the most important elements for SEO. So think carefully about your page title instead of quickly entering one and you’re done!

Some tips for a good page title

Choose a title that best describes the page

Place the most important search term(s) in the page title (preferably as far up front as possible)

Make each page title unique

Limit each page title to a maximum of 70 characters

2. Provide an enticing and action-oriented meta description

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

The meta description appears as a description in Google’s list of results in most cases (not always):

Although the meta description has no direct influence on the rankings in Google, it can encourage people to click through to your website in the search results.

Some tips for a good meta description

Include the most important search terms in the description at least once (these search terms will appear in bold in the results list when searched for)

Encourage visitors to take a certain action on the website (reading an article, registering for an event, purchasing a product online, …)

Make each meta description unique

Limit each meta description to a maximum of 160 characters

3. Use a logical URL that contains the most important search term(s).

The url represents the address of a page and also plays a certain role for SEO.

Some tips for a good URL

Put the most important search term(s) in the url

Use the hyphen (-) as spaces between each word

4. Put enough links on every page

Google will place more value on a page when it is linked to a lot. In addition, a visitor will often stay longer on your website if he can click through to other interesting pages on every page.

It is therefore best to provide enough links on each page, this can be both internal (to other pages on your website) and external (to other websites).

But don’t cheat or Google will penalize this, so only post links that are sufficiently relevant!

5. Also make your images findable for Google

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

A visitor can not only reach your website via the general results list, but also when he clicks on an image in Google, he ends up on your website:

Via the alt attribute of an image you can provide Google with a description of the image. In this way, people with a visual impairment can also “read” what is displayed on the image via this alt attribute. If you include the most important search terms in the alt attribute, the image may also be shown in the results list.

So both a quick win for SEO and for the accessibility of your website!

6. Make sure the text is easy to scan

Few visitors like a long continuous text. Do you want to keep the reader’s attention?

Then alternate text with enough images, regularly provide a new paragraph with a (intermediate) title and put the most important words of your text in bold. This way, a visitor can scan the page at a glance. Lists are always good too.

And you could guess it, not only a visitor, but also Google likes a good scannable page.

7. Have every new page indexed by Google

7 SEO tips to rank higher in Google

Did you just create a new page? Then it is best to have it indexed immediately by Google via the Google Search Console (formerly known as the Google Webmaster Tool).

This can be done by entering the new page via “URL Inspection” and then requesting indexing:

seo checklist