Nowadays, SEO is an important topic for everyone who has a website. But what do you need to keep in mind when it comes to SEO? The optimization of your own website is an increasingly complicated task. Google & Co. are constantly changing and improving their ranking criteria.

What do you need to keep in mind with SEO?

If you want to optimize your website, you should make sure that it is not only optimized for search engines but that the content is tailor created for your audiences.

To carry out successful OnPage analysis, you should check and cover the following points:

Are all links still intact? Are there backlinks that lead to pages that no longer exist? These are the so-called broken links. They often arise because the URL refers to a domain that is no longer accessible. Causes for this can range from the renaming, removal, or deletion of a domain address. In addition, likely reasons can also include that the referring domain has been newly registered, or because the domain of the target page has been logged off.

Is there duplicate content, i.e. content on your website that is repetitive?

How intensively do you maintain structured data? Structured data is information and content on a website that is highlighted for search engines. For example, a recipe can be highlighted as “recipe”, beverages as “drink”, etc. The principle behind this is: The more the search engine knows about you, the easier it is to evaluate and categorize your content. Structured data is standardized and coded by a programmer, or can be inserted without code with the Google Data Highlighter. With the last variant, however, it is important to note that the structured data only helps Google to categorize your content. Google Data Highlighter does not work for content categorization in other search engines.

Last but not least, the page speed is an important factor! The page speed describes the loading time of a website. In this case, the faster, the better. Keep in mind that the loading times differ between the mobile and the desktop version.

These further steps have to be considered in Technical SEO.

Concerning the user, one should make sure that the source code is formatted correctly and that all backlinks lead to an existing page, and not result in any 404 error landing pages.

The page speed is just as important for the user. If you have to wait a long time for the desired page to load, you will leave very quickly. Because of this, it makes sense to deal with the backlinks in the course of optimization and to check them again.

Increase website performance

Since mid-2020, Google has been using standardized metrics to determine the quality of a website. These metrics are called Core Web Vitals and consist of three components:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long does the page take to load? A good value here is less than 2.5 seconds.
• First Input Delay (FID): How long does it take for the user to interact with the page? (Example: clicking a button or typing in search fields).Here, a good value is under 100ms.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much page elements shift when, for example, a pop-up appears. Here, a good value is less than 0.1, which is calculated by multiplying the affected area by the total shift in percent. If the affected area equals 50 percent of the screen and now shifts by 14 percent, the calculation would be 50% x 14% = 0.07 – which is less than 0.1 and therefore, a good value. Here, unlike LCP or FID, there is no unit.

To improve the page speed, it is important to know where your server is located and from where the users accesses the page For example, users in Australia have to wait longer for a page to load from a server in southern Europe, compared to users loading the same pages from northern Europe. The closer the server is to the user, the faster the site loads. Also, themes, plugins, and widgets often slow down the page.

Consider your own SEO and the SEO competition

If the competition is strong in regards to SEO, it is worth to analyze them carefully.

Important questions that facilitate the analysis are:

• Which content formats do the competition use?
• Which formats have a high interaction rate and high engagement?
• How often and in what rhythm is content published?
• Do the competitors use Google Ads?
• Do they actively promote backlink building?
• Which keywords do they use?

Many companies work with different tools in order to make successful SEO checks and to implement search engine optimization successfully. To improve your own SEO in the long term, a well worked- out strategy is essential.

Especially when starting to build your own strategy, it is recommended to contact marketing experts about the possible applications in SEO.

How to develop a SEO strategy

To approach your search engine optimization easily and systematically, you should consider these points:

1. Finding organic traffic potential, i.e. dealing with topics that are relevant and interesting for your target group. If you have difficulties in doing so, Google Trends search offers a solid starting point.

2. On your website, optimize:

• Keywords: Check whether the keywords you use match the search queries of your target group and whether they occur frequently in your text. Make sure that all three keyword types are represented.
  • Short or Head Tail: Short keywords often consist of only one word
  • Mid Tail: Short phrases that are more specific than a head-tail
  • Long Tail: Long search terms that sometimes consist of a whole sentence and are very specific
• Texts: Align your texts with the user and reader. Answer your customers’ questions with your texts and thus, create added value. This helps you to position yourself as an expert in your industry.
• Structured data: Maintain the names and labels of your data to make it easier for the search engine to categorize them
• Links: Make sure that all links on your website lead to an existing and reputable site

Now you have all of the important tools at hand to advance your search engine optimization. If you  want to gain further insights  on how you can combine your SEO with effective PR measures, read more here.

About the author

Lukas Huber

Marketing Assistant at HBI Helga Bailey GmbH – International PR & MarCom

Lukas Huber has been part of HBI’s marketing team since 2020. As Marketing Assistant, his responsibilities include the development of marketing campaigns, social media management and the creation of specialized articles.