SEO: Website and Technology

From keywords to meta data, from responsive design to backlinks –there’s a lot to consider to ensure your content ranks with Google.

This area of search engine optimization includes all technical adjustments that are made to the website — i.e. On-Page measures.

1. Keywords

To ensure that content is found by search engines and thus also by users, each individual page of a website should be optimized for keywords. To do this, think carefully about which terms or combinations of terms your target group is searching for. Then assign the identified keywords to the different pages of your website — about 1 to 3 keywords per page.

If you have identified several keywords per page, decide which is your main keyword. This should then be given the highest priority in search engine optimization and appear most frequently. And it should appear in the following places: page title, main heading and subheading, several times in the body text, page URL.

It is also important to use the keywords in the following meta information of images / videos such as the file name, caption and alt text.

2. The URL

In addition, search engines are interested in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), i.e. the address of each page. This should be no more than 120 characters long and in the best case “speak”, which means that you should be able to read the content of the page from the URL.

Last but not least, but also from the point of view of search engine optimization, it is advisable to integrate keywords or at least the main keyword into the URL — ideally as the first or last word of the URL. If the address contains several words, these should be separated by a hyphen.

3. Meta information

Another important area of technical search engine optimization is meta information. They provide search engines with important information about the content of the page and are output in the search results (e.g. on Google). Here is an excerpt of important meta elements:

• Title: Meaningful and unique page title with approx. 55 characters or 512 pixels width;
• Description: Max. 155 characters; has no more influence on the ranking, but prominent positioning as descriptive text of the search results; good description leads to longer retention time, because the user knows what to expect

However, not only the pages themselves, but also the image files of your website have their own attributes. These should also be optimized for search engines. Therefore, in order to assess whether images fit the content and are helpful for the user, the following information is needed:

• File name: meaningful in terms of content; words separated by hyphens
• Image title: is often displayed when hovering the mouse over the image
• Caption: appropriate text with keyword describing the image
• Alt text: exact description of the image content in case an image is not displayed (e.g. slow data line, accessibility)

4. Page speed

The speed at which a website page load is relevant for your search engine optimization. In addition, the site speed is also important with regard to the user. This is shown not least by the lower bounce rates of faster websites.

But how do you optimize page speed? First of all, it’s about identifying page speed issues. You can do that with the handy Google Page Speed Insight tools. A good way to improve page speed in general is to use compression for large files. Among the largest content of a page are images. They are essential for a good look, but they also slow down the page load. Therefore, the same applies here: compress.

To speed up page speed, it also helps to optimize the code of the page — for example, by ordering the order in which CSS and Javascript are requested.

5. Mobile SEO and Responsive Design

This means that companies must optimize their site so that users have an error-free and pleasant browsing experience on mobile devices. To ensure this, the search engine recommends using Responsive Design. Responsive means that a website should fit all kinds of screens, including smartphone screens, but also large desktop screens.

And site operators should check which content is actually required for smartphones and tablets. Using Responsive Content, they can deliver shortened texts and versions to users — without reducing the information content of a post. This not only optimizes the browsing experience, but also sends positive SEO signals.