SEO: The Basis for Online Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the prerequisite for your web content to gain visibility on the Internet and to be found by your potential customers in the first place.
From the point of view of web experts, SEO is a part of search engine marketing. Its task is to optimize the organic (unpaid) ranking of a website on Google & Co. The goal of SEO is to give a website optimal visibility on the Internet. For the vast majority of users, only the top 10 — i.e. the first page of Google search — are relevant. If you manage to place your site in this group, you are very likely to generate not only more traffic, but also a greater number of qualified leads and thus new customers.
On-page optimization: The basis for effective SEO
On-page optimization includes all components of an Internet presence that are relevant for the crawlers of the search engines. Today, the main focus is on exciting, up-to-date content that is relevant to search engine users. Of course, keywords play a central role here, but the way they are used has changed considerably from the past. The keyword stuffing practiced in the past has completely lost its relevance. Keywords must reflect the search intentions of Google users and must therefore be relevant to the topic, but must no longer dominate the content of a page.
Choosing effective keywords therefore requires research and analytical expertise. Without knowledge of the respective target groups and the keywords they use in their search for products, services or information, the keyword structure of a page will very quickly come to nothing from Google’s point of view.
Further aspects of the On-page optimization refer to the search engine-fair inclusion of diagrams, multimedia contents as well as interactive content, meaningful descriptions and meta tags as well as a meaningful internal link structure of the side.
Today, Google demands comfort and added value for human users also with regard to web design. Responsive web design and thus optimal usability of a website on desktops and mobile devices is standard for a good rating by Google today.
Off-page optimization: Purely quantitative link building is no longer sufficient
Off-page optimization of a website is about its external link structure. Google has been demanding class, not mass, for some time now. The so-called link popularity of a website is based on the relevance of its content and the quality of its external links. The decisive factors are the reputation and content authority of the linking pages.
Further criteria for high-quality backlinks are their content relevance and keyword congruence with the linked content. A website only receives such backlinks if it also has high content authority on the web and is attractive to its users through high-quality content. Google also ultimately demands via its link requirements that the operators of a successful web presence engage in active content marketing.
The Google algorithm also considers it positive if the link building of a website is organic and sustainable. On the other hand, pages are penalized if they display inferior link environments and unnatural link structures. Paid backlinks are explicitly penalized, which in the worst case can lead to exclusion from the Google index.
Search engine optimization requires analysis and strategic concepts
SEO is one of the most important efficiency drivers of a website — it is the basic prerequisite for effective online marketing. Good SEO not only leads to higher traffic and customers who are really interested in the respective offers, but also enables sustainable investments and at least a constant ROI. It also supports sustainable brand building and increases awareness of your online offering and brand.
The prerequisite for this is that SEO is operated as strategy work. As such, it requires permanent planning, regular conceptual updates and analytical support.
