SEO Techniques to Improve Your Search Rankings in 2026

Best SEO Techniques to Improve Your Search Rankings in 2026

So you built a beautiful new website for your business, with all the features and functions, and basically everything users would go drooling for. So the next obvious thing to expect was a good amount of web traffic, right? But it didn’t go that way, did it? And now you are left wondering what went wrong. The answer is ‘most probably SEO’.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of techniques you need to practice in order to keep your website visible across the web. Notably, SEO is a dynamic process because the algorithms that Google uses to rank your website on the top, are modified every now and then. We need to use best SEO Techniques to improve the rankings.

Here are the SEO Techniques to Improve Your Search Rankings in 2026

1. Write Long Blog Posts
2. Use the Bucket Brigade Copywriting Technique
3. Keep Updating Old Content
4. Get Quality Backlinks
5. Research Your Keywords Well
6. Write RankBrain-Friendly Content
7. Focus On What Your Target Audience Wants
8. Analyze Your Website’s SEO
9. Use Internal Links
10. Find Broken Links On Wikipedia
11. Post Your Content On Social Media
12. Write Better Headlines
13. Use Appropriate Tags For Visual Content
14. Use More Infographics
15. Find Keywords Your Competitors Rank For
16. Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices
17. Improve Your Page Loading Speed
18. Optimize Your Content For Voice Searches
19. Make More Video Content
20. Create Good Website Architecture

However, there are some fundamental rules in SEO that you need to keep in mind before making your content live over the internet. In this write-up, we will discuss some of the best SEO practices at present that would remarkably improve your website rankings..

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Keywords:

Everyone knows they have to sprinkle keywords across the content in a uniform manner to make it more visible to Google. But then that’s not it. Depending upon the type of your business or website, you have to determine whether you have to use long-tail keywords or Short-tail keywords. Many best digital marketing companies have made it possible to carry out keyword analysis through mobile apps in android and ios platform, where you can get faster and more organized results.

If your website is more of a blog that doesn’t correspond to your physical business, Short-tail keywords would be able to bring in a lot of traffic to your website. Although getting a lot of website traffic this way is possible, you may gain less number of loyal readers. Long-tail keywords on the other hand, are strings of keywords that will drive specific customers to your website. So if you have a business that is connected to the website for sales and purchase, you should use Long-tail keywords more; though you won’t get as much traffic as Short-tail keywords.

The key is to balance the type of keywords:

Prioritize Short-tail keywords if yours is a blog or an informative website.

Have more Long-tail keywords if you have a website for business.

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Content Quality:

Many out there still might be unaware of this, but Google has duly updated its algorithms to evaluate content quality. Evidently, you would rarely find a write-up that is ranked among the top searches and is grammatically incorrect at the same time.

It is true that keywords matter a lot, but using keywords in the content is a technique everyone is aware of by now. So, the responsibility somewhat shifts to the shoulders of content quality protocol to bring up the best ones. Some of the major quality parameters Google uses to evaluate content quality at present are sentence construction, punctuations, spelling and more.

Leverage Social Media:

Use of social media is sort of an unconventional approach of garnering traffic for your website. And by the courtesy of mobile app developers, you would rarely find a person who doesn’t have top most popular social media apps in their phone. Therefore, every time you publish a new post on your website, don’t forget to share its link, embedded in a short post, on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn handle. This way you can gain a significant organic reach. For a larger reach, you can use paid sponsoring which can get you recognition among hundreds of thousands in no time.

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Have a Mobile-friendly Website:

Even though it is a website that you want to promote and not a mobile app, more than half the number of digital users across the world have become accustomed to surfing websites on phone. According to Statista, 43.6 percent of total website traffic in 2016 was generated through mobile phones, which was 35 percent in 2015. The figures are quite clear, so you know what to do.

Here are the most effective SEO techniques to help you improve your search rankings, categorized for clarity.

1. On-Page SEO: Optimizing Your Content and Structure

On-page SEO refers to all the optimizations you make directly on your website to help search engines understand your content.

• Create High-Quality, User-Focused Content: This is the most critical factor. Your content should be helpful, reliable, and people-first. Don’t just rehash what’s already out there. Provide unique insights, original data, and a comprehensive answer to the user’s search query.
• Strategic Keyword Research & Intent: Go beyond simply finding keywords. Understand the intent behind the search.
  • Informational: The user wants to learn something (“how to bake a cake”).
  • Navigational: The user wants to find a specific site (“Gmail login”).
  • Transactional: The user wants to buy something (“buy running shoes”).
  • Commercial: The user is researching before buying (“best running shoes 2025”).
  • Align your content with the correct intent. Use long-tail keywords (longer, more specific phrases) to capture targeted, low-competition traffic.
• Optimize Core On-Page Elements:
  • Title Tags: Craft compelling, unique title tags (under 60 characters) that include your main keyword and a clear value proposition.
  • Meta Descriptions: Write a concise, enticing summary (under 160 characters) that encourages clicks.
  • Header Tags (H1, H2, etc.): Use headers to structure your content hierarchically. Your <h1> should contain your primary keyword, and <h2> and <h3> tags should be used for subheadings to improve readability.
• Internal Linking: Link to other relevant pages on your website. This helps search engines discover new content, spreads link equity, and keeps users engaged on your site for longer.
• Optimize Images and Videos: Use descriptive file names (e.g., seo-strategy-chart.jpg instead of IMG_1234.jpg) and write informative alt text for all your images. This helps both search engines and visually impaired users understand your visuals.

2. Off-Page SEO: Building Your Authority and Trust

Off-page SEO includes all activities you do outside your website to improve your search rankings. It’s about building your reputation and showing search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.

• Build High-Quality Backlinks: Backlinks are links from other reputable websites to yours. They act as a “vote of confidence” and are one of the most powerful ranking factors. Focus on earning links from relevant, high-authority websites.
  • Guest Blogging: Write articles for other blogs in your niche that link back to your site.
  • Content Promotion: Create valuable, shareable content (like infographics or data-driven studies) that other sites will want to link to.
  • Broken Link Building: Find broken links on other websites and suggest your relevant content as a replacement.
• Social Media Engagement: While social shares don’t directly impact rankings, a strong social presence can increase visibility, drive referral traffic, and lead to more natural backlinks and brand mentions.
• Brand Mentions & Citations: Getting your brand name mentioned on other websites, forums, and directories (even without a direct link) can signal to search engines that your brand is credible and worth ranking.

3. Technical SEO: Ensuring a Healthy and Fast Website

Technical SEO focuses on optimizing the technical aspects of your website to improve crawling, indexing, and user experience.

• Improve Core Web Vitals: Google prioritizes websites that offer a great user experience. Core Web Vitals measure key performance metrics:
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How quickly the main content of a page loads.
  • First Input Delay (FID): How quickly the page responds to user interaction (clicks, taps).
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much a page’s layout shifts during loading.
• Mobile-First Indexing: Ensure your website is fully mobile-responsive and provides a seamless experience on all devices. Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.
• Site Speed: A fast-loading website is essential for user experience and search rankings. Compress images, minify code, and use a reliable hosting provider.
• Structured Data (Schema Markup): Use structured data to help search engines better understand your content and display rich snippets in search results (e.g., star ratings, product prices, FAQ toggles).
• XML Sitemaps & Robots.txt: An XML sitemap helps search engines discover and crawl all important pages on your site. The robots.txt file tells search engine bots which pages they should not crawl. Ensure these files are properly configured.

Conclusion:

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