What is Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (also known as SEO) is a series of measures that ensure a website can be optimally read and analyzed by search engines, such as Google. These measures aim to help a website achieve the best possible placement in the unpaid search results of a search engine. Having a good ranking on the organic search results pages will increase the traffic to a website, which in turn will have a positive impact on sales.

Here we explain everything you want to know about “Search Engine Optimization”.

What is a search engine and how does it work?

Before we go into detail on the search engine optimization, we would first like to discuss the operation of a search engine in general, so you can better understand the next steps of the optimization process.

Among the search engines, which include the Internet giant Google, one understands a search service on the World Wide Web, which searches – based on a search query of a user – the widths of the Internet and corresponding references (hyperlinks) to HTML documents in a list that might be relevant to the query you are looking for.

These result lists (also called “Search Engine Result Page” – SERP ) are compiled according to certain criteria and factors and sorted by means of an algorithm for relevance to the user and his asked query. This results in a ranking of the delivered references, which positions the most relevant results at the top.

The basis of such a search engine is a huge database with lots of links to HTML documents cataloged. In order to provide you with the desired results, the search engines work with a so-called index. These record all the relevant results so that they can be retrieved in less than a second when the user enters a specific keyword.

To fill the index, the search engines work with so-called crawlers. These “robots” automatically search the Internet for relevant content and store everything that they consider “important” in a cache so that it can be retrieved at any time at lightning speed and made available to the user as part of the search results.

But how does the bot recognize whether it could be a relevant page on a specific topic? For this purpose, the so-called metadata are read out, which include the meta-title and the meta-description. You can assign these yourself when creating the respective website and ideally include the most important keywords.

If a user enters the desired keyword or keyword combination that you have processed both in your optimized texts and in the metadata, Google can search specifically for results that contain this term. In the best case, Google will find your site relevant to the search query and place it prominently on the results pages.

Through the targeted use of different keywords, you can positively influence the ranking in the SERPs.

In the best case, a website will be placed among the first ten results. This result is desirable because more than 80 percent of all online users look at only the first ten results found on the first results page of the search engine.

That’s when Search engine marketing (SEM) comes into play in efforts to achieve these popular rankings, which we will explain in more detail.

SEO, SEA or SEM: What are the differences?

When search engine marketing (also called “Search Engine Marketing” – in short, “SEM”) is a branch of online marketing, which deals with all measures by which a website in the result pages of the search engines can be positioned. Search engine marketing is composed of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine advertising (SEA).
SEM = SEA + SEO

Under the search engine optimization (also called “search engine optimization” – short “SEO”) is the optimization of websites for better positioning/delivery in the organic (unpaid) Results of a search engine. In SEO, one differentiates between OnPage optimization (all adjustments on a website) and OffPage optimization (all external factors of a website, eg backlinks).

The search engine advertising (also called ” Search Engine Advertising” – short “SEA” ) is limited to paid activities (eg switching of advertisements) for better presence of companies/brands within the search engine results pages. This involves all online forms of advertising that are billed via clicks (cost per click).

Which SEO areas are there?

Search engine optimization consists of two key pillars – OnPage and OffPage optimization. Both pillars are important and should be equally considered in order to achieve the best possible success for your website. In most cases, OffPage optimization is preceded by OnPage optimization.

The OnPage SEO includes all adjustments to the site, such as content optimization (eg in terms of format, quality, headings, keywords), and the optimization of technical aspects, such as metadata, URL structure, broken pages, and many more.

The OffPage SEO is about measures that take place outside the page to be optimized, the so-called external factors of a website. In most cases, these are backlinks / external links. These are still one of the most important ranking factors and therefore enormously important for a good ranking in the organic ranking.

In addition to OnPage & OffPage SEO, as part of search engine optimization, we also speak of Local SEO (local search engine optimization), International SEO (international search engine optimization) and Mobile SEO.

Which measures make the most sense in your case depends entirely on your company, your goals, and your target group.

Why a good ranking in the search results is so important

How often do you search Google for a specific term? Probably several times a week, if not daily. And how often do you only look at the results you see on the first page? Probably very often, as is the case with most users.

Hardly anyone is paying attention to the second page and the chances of being found by users are decreasing the further back your site is placed in the search results of a search engine.

If you lead a successful business and want to continue to assert yourself against the competition, there is hardly a way around search engines today. There is almost no other way to be noticed by the potential audience than to be found on Google. Because let’s face it – trade directories can take only a handful.

Through targeted search engine optimization and the improved ranking in the organic SERPs, you increase your visibility enormously, so that you are often found by your potential target group.

As a result of this better findability, traffic and interactions on your site will also increase. Users are interested in you and your products and will make more purchases, increasing your company’s sales.

However, those who do not run SEO these days and are therefore not or only very hard to find on the search engines Google, Bing or Yahoo, give away a lucrative opportunity to increase the company’s success and lets the competition take precedence.

But a half-hearted search engine optimization and a resulting mediocre placement in the search results brings nothing, because only who gain ranking in the top 10 on Google, will be permanently successful.

However, you should keep in mind that professional search engine optimization is not a fluke. Rather, it is a continuous optimization process that continues even after completion of the basic optimization. SEO is a sustainable business that should be given sufficient time and energy throughout.

What are SEO KPIs and which are the most important?

The KPIs are the key performance indicators that play an important role in today’s world if you want to measure the success of your SEO strategy. Since there are several KPIs that are all more or less important, we would like to explain the most important factors for you. However, you should know in advance that SEO metrics are only relevant if you can identify them regularly and above all reliable.

The visibility index

Use the visibility index to see how “visible” a page is in a search engine’s results. The respective keywords serve as the “basis of measurement” here.

This KPI is especially useful if you want to run a competitive comparison.

The indexing

Also, the indexation rate proves to be a good factor to measure the success or failure of a page. It compares the ratio of submitted and indexed pages, from which the indexation rate is determined.

The page performance

Among other things, the page performance provides information about how fast the load times and the server response times are. The faster the pages can be retrieved, the better this will affect the ranking in the search engine.

The ranking development

This can be used to derive what adjustments need to be made in terms of content so that the site continues to rank on top of the rankings. Keep in mind that the ranking will change over and over again, also because the competition also operates SEO. That’s why it’s important to keep an eye on the development and, for example, create matching landing pages to create new keywords.

The CTR (click-through-rate)

The click-through rate is also known as “CTR”. Google Search Console gives you access to this important value, which helps you understand how good or bad your traffic is to specific content. However, a bad CTR should not discourage you, but rather encourage you to optimize content so that the CTR will improve in the future.

The page views

The pageviews serve as an important indicator of the channel through which users reach your website and where there may be room for improvement. For example, you can determine if access was from paid or organic sources.

Dwell time and bounce rates

These are also two important indicators that can provide information about the quality of your page or its content. The faster a user leaves the page and the less he or she can be animate to click or buy, the faster you should find the mistakes because it can be assumed that the website is not user-friendly enough.

Keep in mind that the lower the bounce rate and the longer the users stay on your site, the better this can affect your Google ranking.

For whom is SEO suitable?

It can be said that SEO really is for anyone who wants to increase their organic visibility in the search engine or take their business success to a new level.

SEO is a very good tool to raise awareness, whether you’re an organic farmer in a small town, running a sports club, or running a huge, world-renowned business.

Through SEO you can achieve the following:

Increase your future customer inquiries by incorporating specific search terms relevant to your business into the content of your website.
Increase your revenue by attracting more interested parties through relevant content.
Become more visible to potential customers who are directly in your environment.

For all this to succeed, you should perform regular optimizations. Do not forget to constantly optimize the content of your website. To find out the most important search terms, you can, among other things, be guided by the monthly search volume of individual keywords. This search volume indicates how often a keyword or keyword combination is searched.

You see: SEO is suitable for advertisers, for service providers, for sole proprietors and for medium-sized, as well as for large companies. Even creatives, doctors or lawyers, workshops and kindergartens – everyone can benefit from a professional search engine optimization.

How long does SEO take?

The first search engine optimization measures will certainly be completed in a few weeks. This means that analyzes are prepared and evaluated and an SEO report is developed. Likewise, the first part of OnPage and OffPage Optimization can already be tackled so that you will notice the first positive effects after a few weeks or a few months.

However, you should keep in mind that SEO is a lengthy process that needs to be done on a long-term basis if the desired success is to be maintained in the long term.

The search engine optimization is constantly changing and therefore requires always a quick intervention, because on the one hand the competition does not sleep, so you have to readjust in direct competition, again and again, to keep the ranking in the search engine.

On the other hand, the algorithms of Google and other search engines change regularly, which may require intervention to compensate for a ranking loss.

SEO is therefore not a fluke, but a long-lasting affair, which is very worthwhile, so that the expenses for SEO are usually easily put into perspective. Finally, you increase your visibility and, as a result, the turnover of your company.

Should I do SEO myself or hire a service provider?

Certainly, there are some measures that you can easily implement yourself. However, SEO is much more than just putting keywords into a text, because there are also various technical issues to consider.

The following reasons argue for commissioning a service provider:

You save time and personnel resources and can concentrate on your daily business.
They leave the entire preparation and implementation as well as the reporting to an expert.
The service provider has all the necessary knowledge to implement SEO in a short time, while you probably would have to work for a long time, without ultimately a success would be guaranteed.
The service provider can access numerous important tools (including paid ones).
The service provider is familiar with the new regulations regarding search engine optimization.

As you can see, if you do SEO yourself, you might save some money at first glance. But this often turns out to be a fallacy, because in the time in which you or your employees are concerned with the search engine optimization, you can not pursue your actual work. Apart from that, experience has shown that it takes more time for you to achieve success even after a short training period so that a short-term investment can be more worthwhile.

And the crucial thing: If you operate SEO yourself, but do not permanently see the desired success, you have lost a lot of time in which you might have already generated new customers and thus sales when commissioning a professional SEO service provider.

What really matters in SEO

The misconception that it only matters in search engine optimization to get a good ranking in the Google ranking, persists stubbornly. You can only keep this good ranking permanently if you offer the user a unique experience.

He has to feel comfortable on your website and feel like looking around and informing himself. He must feel that he is in good hands with you. This means: You must completely satisfy the needs of the user if you want to be permanently successful.

But you can not do that by sprinkling some keywords in piecemeal content. Rather, the user must be able to inform himself holistically about everything that moves him.

In addition, you should optimally prepare the content so that it is appealing to the user. It also means that you enrich texts with pictures or graphics and that you make the entire website as user-friendly and comprehensible as possible.

The navigation must be conclusive and the user should feel “picked up” at any time at his starting point. Only then will he be able to move around your site for a long time and interact with it, which has a lasting positive effect on the desired, good Google ranking. By contrast, pure textual optimization will in all likelihood not be crowned with lasting success.

The 5 biggest SEO myths

There are many myths around the subject of “SEO.” We have selected the 5 biggest mistakes for you.

Myth 1: The keyword in the meta-description improves the ranking

This is only indirectly true, because: Not the keyword you place in the description improves the ranking, but the many clicks generated by the search term.

So if you put a keyword that no one is looking for, your score would not be (or only very far behind) on the search engine because the clicks are declining.

Myth 2: The more incoming links point to my page, the better this will affect the ranking

It used to be the case that the number of inbound links was rated first, which quickly improved Google’s ranking. Today, however, this is no longer the case.

Instead, the incoming link must have an excellent quality to influence the ranking positively.

Myth 3: If I want to deindex a page, I have to set it to “noindex, nofollow.”

If you wish to remove the page from the index, you should declare it as noindex, follow. To get the link juice of the respective page, you should under no circumstances set this to “nofollow.”

Myth 4: The Panda algorithm penalizes links of poor quality

No, because the Panda algorithm has absolutely nothing to do with the links. For him, only the quality of the content is interesting.

Myth 5: Technical SEO guarantees a top ranking in the Google ranking

Again, that’s only half the story, because technical SEO helps to positively influence the ranking, but real success can only be achieved if you also optimize the content, in a way that is really relevant to the user.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Search engine optimization (also known as “SEO” for short) includes all measures to optimize websites for better positioning in organic search engine rankings.

Website content that can be indexed by search engines is optimized in such a way that the website is delivered to the best possible positions by users for content-relevant search queries.

The goal is then to animate the user to click on the reference to their own website in the search results. This can be achieved through optimized meta-data that signals to the user that the content of the website is most relevant to their query.

Where: The better the ranking in the SERPs ( ” Search Engine Result Page ” – SERP) is, the more you benefit from high visibility, which consequently leads to higher click-through rates, which in turn can have a positive effect on the sales figures of your company. An increase in awareness can also be the result.

It is important that the website and its contents are optimized to meet the expectations of the user after he has come to the site via the results page of the search engine.

For SEO to bring the desired success with it, it must be very well prepared. Therefore, before you start the actual work, a comprehensive SEO analysis should be performed. It is also advisable to have a detailed competition analysis to get an impression of the positioning in the market as well as opportunities and risks.