1. SEO Basics
1.1 What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of optimizing a website in various ways. This optimization leads to your website being displayed higher in search results, resulting in more conversions, such as increased sales or customers.
1.2 Paid and Organic Search Results
There are two types of search results: organic and paid. In paid search results, you need to pay money. For example, you pay Google a certain amount for each click on the advertisement. When a user searches for keywords related to your website, your site will be displayed, and you only pay if the user clicks on your website. In the following image, you can see how paid and organic search results are displayed by Google.
1.3 Ranking
The ranking, which is the position of your website in search results, depends on various factors. Modern search engine algorithms, like Google’s, consider countless factors to determine the ranking. However, eight key factors can be identified:
- Content
- Backlinks
- Relevance
- Performance
- Mobile Optimization
- Keyword Optimization
- Structure
- User Experience
Note: There are many more factors, some of which may be equally important as those mentioned. However, for the sake of simplicity, this article will focus on these eight key factors.
- Content: The content on your website is incredibly important. Google pays particular attention to content quality and originality.
- Backlinks: The backlink system is straightforward: if many other websites link to yours (especially reputable websites according to Google), the chances of ranking higher increase.
- Relevance: If your website’s content is not relevant to users’ search queries, Google will not display your website. Therefore, try to tailor your website content to match potential customers’ search intentions.
- Performance: Google values the speed of your website. Ensure that you use small JavaScript and CSS files and compressed images to optimize performance.
- Mobile Optimization: Approximately 60% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, your ranking will suffer.
- Keyword Optimization: Keywords are the words for which you want your website to appear. Conduct a keyword analysis and optimize your website accordingly by using the chosen keyword and similar ones more frequently in a meaningful, qualitative context.
- Structure: Your website may be visually appealing, but if the structure does not meet Google’s standards and Google does not understand the content properly, achieving a high ranking will be difficult.
- User Experience: Google takes into account various signals, such as CTR (click-through rate), bounce rate, and dwell time.
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Contact now2. On-Page Optimization
You now know the SEO basics. Let’s delve into the details: On-Page Optimization. On-Page Optimization can be divided into 5 subtopics:
- Optimizing Meta Tags (Title Tags, Meta Description, etc.)
- Creating High-Quality, Keyword-Rich Content
- Hierarchy of Headings
- Incorporating Multimedia Elements like Images and Videos
2.1 Optimization of Meta Tags
Meta tags are located in the <head> section of your website. The two central meta tags are “title” and “description.” Together, these two tags form the SERP snippet displayed by Google (SERP = Search Engine Results Page). The snippet for Wikipedia looks like this:
You have likely seen such SERP snippets before and can understand their importance for your website’s ranking. This is your chance to entice users to visit your website. Pay special attention to using appropriate keywords.
<head>
<title>This is the title of this page</title>
<meta name="description" content="This is the description of this page" />
</head>Tip: The title should be 55-70 characters long (Google considers pixel width), and the description should be 150-160 characters. Several tools can help you optimize these two tags (e.g. the SERP Snippet Generator by Sistrix).
2.2 Creation of High-Quality Content
The content of your website is paramount. Without content, your website is nothing. Everything on your website is content: images, videos, texts, contact details, etc. In addition to the standard data about you or your company, running a blog can be helpful. Here you can create high-quality content related to your field of expertise. This builds trust, increases your reach, and shows Google that you are knowledgeable about your industry. To maximize success, it is advisable to use your chosen keywords.
2.3 Hierarchy of Headings
Search engines use your headings to better understand the structure of your content. Users often only scan a website and look for headings that catch their attention. Therefore, the correct formulation of headings and adherence to the correct hierarchy of headings are crucial.
Start with an <h1> heading. Try to use only one <h1> heading per page of your website. The <h1> heading resembles the <title> tag and is used to represent the main content.
The other headings can then be used multiple times throughout the website in the correct order.
<!-- Correct order of headings -->
<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>2.4 Multimedia Elements
In the era of short-form content (TikTok, Instagram, etc.), retaining website visitors’ attention is more challenging than ever. Use multimedia elements like videos or images to keep users engaged. Additionally, multimedia elements offer an excellent opportunity to introduce your team, showcase projects, and more!
When using multimedia elements, ensure semantically correct implementation. For example, when using images, use descriptive file names, providing a hint about the image content. Also, fill in the alt attribute for each image, briefly describing what the image shows and allowing search engines to understand images.
<img src="/snowy-mountain.png" alt="A snowy mountain in the Alps" />Tip: Properly using multimedia elements might even get you featured in other search engine areas, such as the “Images” section on Google.
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Contact now3. Technical SEO
You have learned how to improve your website with content changes and adjustments to your website’s structure. Now let’s move on to the next topic: technical search engine optimization. **Attention: This section will get slightly technical. Depending on your website’s complexity, you may want to seek help from a web developer. I’m here to help! Feel free to drop me a message.
Technical search engine optimization can be divided into 5 areas.
- Optimization of Website Speed and Performance
- Mobile Responsiveness and Mobile-First Indexing
- XML Sitemaps and robots.txt for Crawling by Search Engines
- Canonical URLs to Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
- Schema Markup for Rich Snippets and Structured Data
3.1 Optimization of Performance
Performance, i.e., the speed of your website, is crucial for a good ranking position. To improve your website’s performance, you can take various steps. The simplest step is often reducing image size and minimizing large database queries. A useful tool for measuring performance is Lighthouse. Lighthouse is an open-source project by Google that helps analyze your website.
3.2 Mobile Responsiveness
Approximately 60% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, achieving a good ranking becomes difficult. To ensure mobile responsiveness, you can adopt the Mobile-First approach: Develop your website first for mobile devices and then for desktop devices.
3.3 Sitemaps and robots.txt
XML sitemaps are a way to represent the content (primarily pages) of your website. Depending on how your website is built, you can create a sitemap in various ways. Most Content Management Systems (CMS), like WordPress, automatically create a sitemap for you. If you have built your website from scratch, you may need to create one manually. Don’t worry, creating a sitemap is not difficult. Depending on the technology you use, you can easily find solutions for sitemaps online, as someone else has likely already created a good solution.
Robots.txt files tell search engines which pages should be indexed and which should not. For example, you can specify that your admin login page should not be displayed in search results.
3.4 Canonical URLs
If you have different URLs displaying the same content, you should use canonical URLs. Canonical URLs specify which URL is the “main page,” and search engines prioritize this page for indexing and ranking. You can communicate canonical URLs in the <head> element of your alternative subpage. Let’s assume you have a blog post titled “5 Tips for Organizing a Dishwasher.” The main URL could be ”https://www.dishwashermaster.com/blog/5-tips-for-organizing-a-dishwasher”. The alternative URL could then be ”https://blog.dishwashermaster.com/5-tips-for-organizing-a-dishwasher”. On the alternative URL, you can now refer to your main URL.
<!-- Head section of the alternative page "https://blog.dishwashermaster.com/5-tips-for-organizing-a-dishwasher" -->
<head>
<link
rel="canonical"
href="https://www.dishwashermaster.com/blog/5-tips-for-organizing-a-dishwasher"
/>
</head>Google doesn’t like duplicate pages. Therefore, you should always use canonical tags when dealing with duplications.
3.5 Schema-Markup
Schema-Markup does not directly influence your ranking, but it can lead to increased traffic to your website. Schema-Markup helps search engines to interpret the content on your website correctly. When you use schema markup, you have the chance to appear as a “Rich Result.” It looks like this:
.
The pizza recipes are presented in a convenient, visually appealing way and even appear before the actual search results. You can learn how to use schema markup on Schema.org. Google also has helpful articles.
Do you need help with optimizing your website for search engines?
Then get in touch with me! I'd be happy to assist you and take your business to the next level.
Contact now4. High-Quality Backlinks
I already mentioned the importance of backlinks at the beginning of this article: When many websites link to your page (or your articles), Google understands that the content is valuable. To get high-quality backlinks, you can employ various strategies: You can post your articles on social media and share them in forums. This increases the likelihood that people will notice your content and ideally share it on their channels. There are countless strategies for building high-quality backlinks, but covering each possibility would exceed the scope of this article.
5. User Experience
The user experience on your website is paramount. You need a clear structure, sensible navigation, an appealing design, and easy ways for users to get in touch. Optimizing the user experience is an ongoing process: You need good analytical data to make informed decisions that lead to better results.
6. Local SEO
If you have a “location-dependent” business (like a restaurant or a hair salon), local SEO is essential for you. Optimize your website for search queries like “hairdresser city” or similar. Additionally, you should create a Google My Business listing. Furthermore, consider listing your business in industry-relevant and local directories and forums to increase your reach. Customer reviews are also an excellent way to build trust. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing, in forums and directories, or directly on your website.
Do you need help with optimizing your website for search engines?
Then get in touch with me! I'd be happy to assist you and take your business to the next level.
Contact now7. Measuring SEO Success
To ensure that your SEO strategy is on the right track, you should collect analysis data. There are countless tools and services that can assist you with this, but I won’t go into detail in this article.
Thank you for reading the article until the end! Do you have any questions, feedback, suggestions, or would you like to collaborate with me? Feel free to write me a message.