It can be frustrating. You invest in a beautiful new website, but it can only be found by typing in the company or brand name. This can certainly serve the purpose of a website, but you can't really call it a sales tool. However, with the right SEO know-how and enough patience, this can be changed. As so often, it's the little things that make the difference between success and failure.
In the following article, I would like to explain the key factors of search engine optimization that make the difference.
Table of contents
- The right keyword - the door opener to your website
- Writing articles with added value - the key to more visitors to your website
- Good text structure - for improved reading behavior
- The title – the main reason why the visitor at least starts reading your article
- The meta description - The icing on the cake for the title, to arouse even more interest in the article
- Optimizing URLs - No user likes cryptographic characters, and Google doesn't either
- What should you bear in mind when choosing a domain?
- Hosting - What does it have to do with a better ranking? (h2)
- Content is King - The heart of your search engine optimization
- What should I do before I start writing?
- Topic research - the basis for an outstanding article
- Subheadings - Rarely is the entire article read
- What tools are available to help you find subheadings?
- LSI - Create a link to your article for several keywords
- How should the content of your article be structured?
- Content objective - What do you want to achieve with it and how will you do it?
- The table of contents - Get to the point quickly
- The introduction - make them want to read more
- The description - What is important here?
- Images - They look good and make it easier to consume the content
- The conclusion - an important finishing touch
- Link building - How to network your website correctly
- Internal links - Determine the flow of consumption on your website
- External links - Offer your site visitors targeted added value
- Backlinks - The supreme discipline when it comes to link building
- Parasite SEO - How to use the authority of the internet giants for your own benefit
- Setting links correctly - so that users click on the link
- Mobile First - An underestimated ranking factor
- Website loading speed – nobody wants to wait
The right content is the basis for increasing your visibility online. This includes text, images, videos, audio files and other media. It is always important that the content of each page of your website covers a specific search intention. There are keywords associated with each search intention.
Keywords are divided into single keywords, i.e. a single keyword, and long-tail keywords, i.e. linked keywords. Long-tail keywords are very specific and usually have a low search volume. This does not mean that a long-tail keyword necessarily has to consist of many words. A name is also a long-tail keyword, consisting of two words. Very specific with a low search volume. The following chart from ahrefs shows that, at a rough estimate, 30 percent of search queries consist of one word and 70 percent of long-tail keywords.
When looking for the right keyword for a page, there are a few things to consider. In the end, you should choose a long-tail keyword that...
I will now explain how you can get to your keyword using an example:
Let's assume that you are an interior designer and would like to receive more enquiries via your website. The approach is now to create content around the topic of your service at regular intervals and to revise and expand it again and again. It is important to know your target group. Based on this, you need to choose the topics for your posts and the right language for the text.
If your main target group is between 30 and 40 years old, families or the middle class, a suitable topic for the service “Furnishing an apartment - 10 tips for modern interior design” could be. “Furnishing an apartment” would be the long-tail keyword.
Free keyword analysis tools:
Paid keyword analysis tools:
If we enter our keyword “furnishing an apartment” into Google, we see that it is associated with
on this topic.
For us, the first 10 SERPs (top 10 result pages) excluding ads are of interest.
To get ideas for your post and its headlines, read each post carefully and take notes on the text content, images, sources, etc.
When you're done, you should have a wealth of important information that, taken together, should paint as complete a picture of your topic as possible. To really add value, you need to provide information that no one else is covering in their post. Content that adds value to other posts usually comes from your own experience with the topic or from further, more in-depth research.
With the information you have gathered for your text, you need to think about a good structure. To do this, define appealing headlines that need to be put in a meaningful order for a good reading flow. Only then should you start writing your text.
Your main headline should be at the top, which is also the title. This is the so-called h1 headline, which is also displayed in Google searches.
The first part of the title should be your main keyword. The second part should be a teaser for the content . Important: Think of the headlines of newspaper articles. They are a bit exaggerated, but they arouse the reader's interest. You should be able to say the same about your main headline.
In summary, your headline should...
You should define such a unique title for each of your pages on your website, as each page has its own ranking on Google.
An appealing meta description can help to dispel any lingering doubts about clicking on your article.
It is displayed directly below the URL of a search result in Google searches. It is important to note that, as with the title, the meta description should...
Sometimes it also makes sense to ask questions that imply a yes.
If no meta description is defined, Google will define one. If you define one yourself, it will be used in most cases. However, if Google determines that your description does not match the content of your page, it will not be displayed.
A suitable meta description belongs to every title. So, think of an appealing description for each of your pages.
Rich snippets allow you to add even more value to your Google ad. One classic example is the star rating, which helps to build trust in advance. But photos, contact details and product prices can also be integrated.
You can find a complete description of the possible data under Rich Snippet Data.
When you work with systems like WordPress and create a new page, the URL is automatically generated. In this case, you should always choose a meaningful and descriptive name. Ideally, your URL ending, i.e. the last part of it, should contain the main keyword of your current page.
The more structured your URLs are, the better website visitors and Google will be able to find their way around.
The structure means that the page names are in context with each other and make it easier to guess the content behind them. When creating the structure, the following should be taken into account:
Before you purchase a particular domain, there are a few things to consider. The domain may already have a history that could make it difficult for you to start your ranking efforts.
But what exactly does that mean? If the domain previously had an owner, it may be that this domain has already been penalized by Google.
This can be compared to buying a used car with hidden damage. You may have paid too much for it, but then you don't get the performance you were hoping for.
A Google search for a domain name can sometimes provide information about its associated content. If this content is negative, this is not a good sign.
To get a more detailed insight into what the website/s looked like at an earlier point in time, you can search for the desired domain on archive.org.
You can also get a more detailed picture of the domain by using the backlink tool to see which links there are to your domain.
If the links come from spam or other dubious websites, for example, you should try to find another domain.
If there is little or good content on the domain, you can assume that the domain authority has not yet been damaged and that you can strengthen it over time through SEO measures. If you get a domain that has exactly the same name as your main keyword, it is called an exact match domain. If the main keyword is only part of your domain, it is called a partial match domain.
This has a positive effect on the ranking of your website, but it no longer plays as big a role as it used to. The content behind it is much more important.
If you want to build a brand, abrand domain is the best option. Here, the domain is usually a fictitious name or a combination of common words. A brand domain does not help you with SEO at the beginning, but in the long term it can be very helpful if your brand is already well known and has a better domain authority.
There are two aspects to this. Imagine that your target group lives in Austria, but you host your website in America. This means that the loading time of the webseite for your target group is much higher than if the server were located in Austria.
The second aspect is the IP address classification. If you choose a cheaper hosting solution, you will share an IP address with several website operators. If you have more budget available, you can choose a variant in which your own website has a unique IP address. This is called a dedicated IP address. This is of a higher quality than class C IP addresses and therefore has positive effect on the ranking.
One of the most important factors for the ranking of your site is the content.
If it offers real added value for your target group, your site will become more relevant and will therefore be ranked higher.
I deliberately wrote page and not website, because Google only ever ranks individual pages. Of course, well-ranked pages also have a positive effect on your entire website, because the pages are linked to each other and if the user is already on your website, it is quite possible that he or she will want to look at other content.
Before you start, it is important to develop a content plan. It is relatively pointless to just start writing.
At the beginning, you should of course think about what you want to write about, what the goal of your post is and, above all, who you are writing it for.
The following types of content are particularly suitable for posts:
If you have an idea about what topic you would like to write about, the first step is to analyze it.
This consists of two parts:
The research work is sometimes quite time-consuming, but the effort will pay off later. After all, you want to offer added value for your target group.
A post containing little knowledge is of poor quality and simply offers no added value. This makes the post unreadable for your target group and for Google.
It is really important to focus on quality rather than quantity. It is better to create fewer, but higher quality and, above all, complete posts.
By complete, I mean that the post should not raise any more open questions about the topic.
High-quality content needs appealing subheadings that are well structured. They form the framework for the paragraphs below, so to speak
The notes you have made will tell you what this topic is about and, above all, what is relevant to it.
You should supplement these subheadings with a niche subtopic that, ideally, no one else has mentioned in their post.
This makes your post unique on the one hand, but also more complete. The goal should be to produce more comprehensive and better content than your competitors.
A useful tool that I can really recommend to you for getting ideas for your headlines is answerthepublic. This will give you a list of questions or prepositions related to your topic.
Google also provides some ideas here. Just enter your main keyword in the Google search box. You will see similar search suggestions as a preselection or below the ranking list
From an SEO perspective, it makes sense for your subheadings to contain so-called LSI keywords for the main keyword.
An LSI keyword (Latent Semantic Indexing) is a term that is related to another term in terms of content.
This means that your post is associated with several search terms, thereby increasing the click-through rate on it.
You can find LSI keywords for your main keyword at the bottom of the Google search result.
Now that you have a plan for your content, you can start writing. For each of your predefined subheadings, you can write an easy-to-understand, appealing text.
Following your main headline (h1 - 1x per page), you can build a structure with h2, h3 and h4 headlines. The number after the “h” indicates the level of the headline.
The way you write your text depends on your target audience. Google classifies website visitors into three categories (beginner, intermediate and advanced). Depending on who you want to address with your content, you need to choose your text language.
The primary goal of your text should be the user experience. Generate an experience for the visitor from your text.
At the end, the visitor should think that reading the article has really helped him. Important: each pagee should have only one goal. Anything else will cause confusion.
You can achieve this with:
Articles are rarely read in their entirety. Therefore, the motto is: get to the point as quickly as possible. Ideally, the user should be able to reach the relevant paragraph with a maximum of three clicks.
A table of contents can help:
Some CMSs, such as WordPress, offer a table of contents as a plugin. If you are technically more adept and work without a plugin, you have to set an anchor in the code for the subheadings to be linked.
You should start the text with an introduction, asking a question, stating a fact or giving a preview of your article. It should simply whet the reader's appetite for your article.
Then you should provide meaningful content for all subheadings. Important: write short sentences and small paragraphs. Long sentences make it more difficult to read.
Feel free to include LSI/long-tail keywords and mark important words in bold so that it is possible to scan your paragraphs. Optimize the text for a long visit and low bounce rates by writing captivating texts. If you notice an increase or decrease in bounce rates, you know that the user experience has been improved. Grammar and spelling are an absolute must. It is embarrassing and you also lose credibility and authority.
If you use images, you must define a meaningful alt attribute. The alt attribute is an alternative text in case the image cannot be displayed. Google recognizes this alternive text and thus knows what is displayed on the image and can use it positively.
Since the loading time of your page is also a very important ranking factor for Google, the following parameters are important when using images:
End your post with a conclusion or a short summary in which you emphasize the most important content again.
At the end, your text should have at least 500 words. The length of your text always depends on the post.
You can get a rough idea by looking at similar posts.
A good link structure is just as important as good content. It increases the likelihood that your content will be consumed. So, remember: “No decent traffic if your website is poorly linked.” In the following text, I will explain what types of links there are and what to look out for when building links.
Internal links, as the name suggests, are links that are exclusively within your website.
Link connections can be as follows:
By placing links in a targeted manner, users can find their way around the site more easily. And if visitors can find their way around more easily, Google can find its way around more easily too!
Wikipedia is the best example of good internal linking. Virtually every term on a page leads to a page on which that term is explained in detail. This is also noticeable in Google searches. Wikipedia is listed at the top of many search results. Good internal linking is not the main reason for the good ranking, but it contributes significantly to it. Therefore, you should also link your website well internally.
If there is important external content that you would like to link to, then external links are the way to go. There can be a wide range of reasons for this. I have listed a few possible reasons for you below:
If you provide an external link, you should make sure that it is set to "nofollow". Otherwise your page will lose Link Juice (link strength). You can think of it like this: when a user comes to a certain page of your website via Google, this juice is 100%.
Depending on the number and weighting of your page, this 100% is distributed to all dofollow links to strengthen your internally linked subpages. All in all, it makes sense to link to external pages. Linking to high-quality websites such as Wikipedia sends good signals to Google.
It is much more difficult to get a link from an external website to your own. However, with the right strategy and a lot of effort, it is possible. In principle, it is better to have strong backlinks than many backlinks. A strong backlink would be, for example, a link from Wikipedia. A weak backlink would be a a link from an insignificant website that has little visibility. Use the popularity of others to build your own website. So, make sure you create a win-win situation.
In the first step, you have to focus on the simpler options you have for backlinks. You can implement the following measures immediately:
It becomes more difficult if you want to get links from top domains. This could be a successful blogger, for example. If you sell products, for example, it could be an expert in the industry. Try to get in direct contact with the person in charge and offer him a solution that benefits both of you.
You can also sponsor various events. The link to your site will end up on the organizer's page. If this has a good trust rank, it will give your site a boost.
If you want to know where and how many links there are to your website, you can find out using the backlink tool.
Websites like Wikipedia, Focus, Quora and Co. are real power sites. Google trusts these sites blindly, as they now enjoy a high level of authority. The problem with this is that bad posts on such sites get a better ranking than a better post on another website.
However, if you manage to get a backlink on these sites, you can use this trust to your advantage. Some of these sites allow you to create posts on such sites.
Do you know the situation when a text ends with “...please click here” and the word “here” is linked? Not nice. It is much better to integrate the link into the paragraph, like Wikipedia does, i.e. to link a specific term.
The name of the term is the anchor text of the link. It tells Google more than the content of the linked page itself.
Nowadays, more than 50% of websites are accessed using a mobile device. It is therefore obvious that Google is paying more attention to responsive design. If the website does not have a responsive design or a mobile view, the page will definitely be penalized. With Google's Responsive Tester, you can check whether your website is optimized for mobile devices.
The loading speed of your website is also becoming increasingly relevant when it comes to ranking. Visitors to your site expect the website to load immediately when they access it. As a rule of thumb, the loading time should not take longer than 1.5 seconds. You can test your website with Google's speed tester.
You can improve your loading time accordingly by:
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