SEO Best Practices add much-needed structure to content, on and off the web.

Honestly, I always thought writing was fun and I believe the SEO improved my work. As it developed, Best Practices emerged that mostly made sense. Current SEO Best Practices focus on creating content that answers search queries and is easy to skim to find those answers.

I’ll say it out loud – I like SEO because it provides Rules of Engagement for web content.

I do my best to keep up with SEO trends and adjustments and subscribe to the usual suspects – Search Engine Journal, Content Marketing Institute (CMI), Semrush. Going forward, I hope to see more content from the Arizona Innovation Marketing Institute (AZIMA), which recently hosted a panel discussion on SEO Trends and Best Practices.

I’m a little embarrassed that I hadn’t encountered this group earlier. I heard about it on a Slack channel for the Arizona WordPress Meetup. Dana Baedke, President of the RUNMARK communications firm generously shared highlights on the AZWP channel. She gave me permission to summarize her observations.

If You’re Doing SEO Right, Stay the Course!

Anyone who’s paid attention to SEO in recent years understands that SEO fundamentals haven’t changed: Develop content for users and design accordingly. This isn’t a trend – it’s an established piece of SEO Best Practices. In fact, it’s probably the most important one.

The key takeaway regarding SEO was that the strategy has not changed that much…you should design and develop content for the user.”
Dana Baedke, President, RUNMARK

This goes back to Google’s years-old advice to write natural content without obsessing about keywords. Sure, they’re important, but if it’s a struggle to incorporate them into your content, don’t sweat it. There are lots of related words and keyword phrases (which do a better job of mirroring how people search) to use.

Use SEO Best Practices to sail ahead of the competition like this regatta leader.

If your SEO strategy keeps you competitive, don’t change it. Pixabay/ermakovasve

Of course, if a client has gone to the trouble to provide keywords, you should use them. Put them in your title and at least a couple of headers and H2 headers, introductory paragraphs, and snippets. Don’t be afraid to look up synonyms or check Google’s similar search recommendations that appear at the bottom of every search engine page (or SERP for the acronym-addicted).

How content looks is also important. Readers often skim content, so a smart strategy is to keep sentences short and less than two full lines. Limit paragraphs to six. It’s OK to keep them even shorter if your analytics show a majority of your site visitors are using smartphones.

Remember, smaller screens are more challenging to read but they are a majority for initial searches, especially in the B2C market.

Website and Page Hierarchy Remain Important SEO Best Practices

In an SEO context, hierarchy refers to how a website and page are structured. Pages and sites should be easy for a site visitor to navigate. If it isn’t, they will quickly leave, which will eventually result in higher bounce rates and that definitely weakens a site’s SEO efforts.

These items also fall into Best Practices rather than trends. Search engines want to provide useful, authoritative content. Well-organized and reader-friendly content provides an essential SEO boost as well.

I'm using this CAD floor plan design as a metaphor for SEO Best Practices.

Just as you’d design a floor plan, you should carefully design your website. Pixabay/3844328

A Top-Down Structure is a Best Practice for Website Hierarchy

Website hierarchy, or structure, for businesses, usually follows a top-down approach. There’s a landing page that provides basic information about what the business does – how it can help with a particular problem or requirement. This can be anything from manufacturing or marketing support (business-to-business, or B2B) to daycare or groceries (business-to-consumer, or B2C). Some businesses, like plumbers or HVAC services, have B2B and B2C customers.

The landing page will have a menu, often in its header and repeated in the footer or a sidebar. That’s where the structure comes in. Typical menu items are labeled as About, Services, and Contact. Menus often include a FAQ, Testimonials, and Blog or Newsletter. Details, like specific services, are nested underneath.

Best Practices for Page Hierarchy Require Skilled Writing

As a writer, I get so frustrated when I see an otherwise excellent post or page that has poor posture, so to speak. There’s so much useful information that could be presented so much more efficiently!

That’s where skilled writing, or at least copyediting will help. The role of a content creator isn’t necessarily to be an expert but to take information and put it in language readers can understand. That said, many of us certainly gained expertise in industries and topics over our working lives.

I always tell my clients that they’re the experts in their fields. My role is to translate their expertise into content their target audiences can skim or read carefully as they need.

The Negative SEO Trend is a Risky One!

This last piece really caught my attention. I’m on hiatus at the moment, but I wrote about using negative SEO in a weekly newsletter a few months ago. (See the 4/19/23 newsletter on my archive page.) I haven’t seen much on negative content but I have worried that it could become an SEO trend.

Using negative content is a risky SEO trend represented here by Darth Vader.

Resist writing to the dark side. Pixabay: ErikaWittlieb

I reported on Ann Gynn’s CMI article about how and when a contrarian marketing strategy can perform well. It featured a Philadelphia jeweler whose tagline is “I Hate Steven Singer” and uses the phrase in its URL. Its advertising and website content, one reviewer wrote, stresses the quality of their jewelry and put down the competition. Since then, the content has taken the hate vibe down several steps.

When I visited the website, and the only negativity on the homepage was in the popup to “Join the Haters” and get Steven’s newsletter, and a top menu link that didn’t work. The content was exactly what I’d expect from a jeweler who sells diamonds – soft-focus photos of diamond engagement rings and earrings and wedding bands. The headers read “GUARANTEED YES!” and their brand is “Ready for Love.”

At some point, a content box labeled “Why Hate Steven” dropped down where I was reading. I clicked on it and was taken to an About page that didn’t give me a reason to hate the guy; in fact, I liked his backstory.

The hate campaign just seems illogical to me. Proceed with caution when you take a negative content strategy.

Updated 9/27/23

It’s pretty much a given that websites need to be mobile-friendly. And with mobile search so dominant in the B2C (business-to-consumer) market, it makes sense that business owners should focus on writing for mobile search

All Sites Should Be Mobile-Friendly

It makes sense to invest in a solid mobile experience for customers. I can’t stress this enough: if a website – and especially an e-commerce website – isn’t easy to navigate or read on a smartphone, potential customers will leave.

Writing for mobile search is essential for a mobile-friendly site.

Mobile-first design is still “a thing,” to quote a search suggestion I got from Google. This design responds to customers who go online through a smartphone. According to TechJury, a company that tests and reviews software and devices, searches conducted on mobile and desktop are about even.

Safari dominates mobile search and accounts for 51% of smartphone searching. It seems iPhone users really love to look at their small screens.

In fact, TechJury finds that 66% of all internet traffic is from mobile devices – just 37% comes from desktops.

Americans spend about five and a half hours on their smartphones every day!

I really didn’t believe this at first, but then I remembered that I read a couple of papers on my smartphone every morning. I also use my phone to search if I’ve shut down my laptop for the night or if my tablet is running low on juice.

Remember, tablets are also considered mobile devices and about 35% of people ages 16 – 64 have at least one. I actually read papers on my tablet more than on my phone and most of my book-reading is on the tablet.

Write With Mobile Searching in Mind

Google ranks mobile search separately from desktop search to accommodate all mobile users. So how can a business satisfy desktop and mobile users?

It isn’t easy without doing a deep dive into how people access your website. Almost half of the top-ranking keywords rank differently for desktop and mobile. That number jumps to nearly 80% for all keywords!

Searches on desktop and mobile devices will deliver different results.

What’s going on here? It isn’t that people are searching differently. It’s that the search engines respond with different search engine result pages (SERPS) for different devices. A site that isn’t mobile-friendly or has tons of content squeezed into one or two long paragraphs won’t rank well on a search performed on a smartphone. It’s too hard to read.

(Frankly, it probably won’t do well on a desktop search, either, unless it has some truly impressive and consequential information.)

If you find your visitors reach you mostly through mobile, use that as your starting point for content.

Break up the content with lots of headers and shorter sentences and paragraphs
Add + and – signs to expand or compress descriptions
Compress images for faster downloads
Leave out special effects!

In addition, search engines tend to assume a mobile searcher is looking for local resources like a gas station or restaurant. Capitalize on that – include your geographic location (South Scottsdale, SoHo, downtown wherever) on your homepage and in metadata.

Keep in mind that few people actually buy or fill out a contact form during their first visit to a site. They may come back a few times to read more or watch a product video to get more information. And, of course, many return to see if prices have changed.

Writing for Mobile Search Pays Off With Lower Bounce Rates

Bounce rates measure the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing just one page. A bounce rate under 40% is considered to be pretty good.

GoodFirms is a company that researches and recommends business solutions (software, platforms, etc.) for its clients. It surveyed about 200 web design agencies and freelancers about mobile site design.

Designers responded that poor content structure is responsible for about 35% of dropped site visits. In other words, the way the content was presented – not the actual content value – was a huge turnoff. If content isn’t easy to read, its value is lost.

That doesn’t mean just breaking up blocks of content. That helps, of course, but search engines will penalize content it judges is too brief (“thin” content) or shows a poor grasp of language – misspellings, overuse of exclamation points, bolded language, and italics all contribute to a spammy appearance.

The biggest culprit behind bounce rates are:

Slow download speeds – 88.5%
None-responsive sites (links don’t work, videos don’t play) – 73%
Bad navigation – 61.5%

Maybe I’m jaded, but to me, these statistics also hint at poor content. If a site owner won’t pay for a responsive site that’s easy to get around, why would they pay for good content?

What if site statistics show even visits from mobile and desktop?

Lots of people still double-dip on search, using two different devices even at the same time.

Double-dipping on search. Image: Firmbee/Pixabay

If site stats show that visits are more or less even for mobile and desktop, I’d say go for the mobile-first approach for design and content.

You can always add content-heavy pages for a blog, customer testimonials, and the About page, which is still important for a lot of consumers. People like to know details like where you source materials or the company’s civic or public service. Just be sure to use H1 and H2 headers and break up sentences and paragraphs so content can be easily scanned for specific details.

Personally, I write with a mobile-first approach for web pages and even for blogs. It’s rewarded me with lower bounce rates.

Honestly, you can’t lose with content that’s got good placement, organization, and enough depth to signal authority or at least competence. Writing for mobile search forces all three to happen – and that can only boost your business!

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