Search Engine Optimization

Nobody likes to wait, and this also applies to search engines. Every user expects a fast-loading website and is disappointed when this expectation is not met. Google sees it the same way: why waste valuable resources on slow pages? A slow website can jeopardize the success of your SEO efforts. The following points should be checked and optimized regularly:

 

• Elimination of resources that block the rendering of your website
• Deferring non-visible images (off-screen images that appear "below the fold")
• Reduction of the load effort for the main thread (time saving by reducing parsing, compiling and executing JavaScript)
• Provision of modern image formats to enable faster loading of images

You can get an initial overview with the "PageSpeed Insights" tool: PageSpeed Insights

The importance of "mobile" in the context of SEO cannot be emphasized enough, especially since Google has made the move to "mobile first" and no longer differentiates between desktop and mobile indexes. Tool providers such as SISTRIX have also reacted and offer special visibility analyses for mobile devices. It is therefore crucial that your website is optimized for mobile devices right from the start. The "MobileFriendly" tool helps you to test your website for mobile optimization.
 

Basic rules for good mobile usability and therefore SEO basics are:

• Fast loading time
• Easy to read font sizes
• User-friendly even for large fingers ("sausage finger" operability)
• Sufficient distance between the various side elements

If you would like to take a closer look at the topics of mobile and usability in addition to search engine optimization, we recommend that you take a look at our blog.

You should make it as easy as possible for users to find certain content. Search engines like Google have the same goal. A clean information architecture and a flat hierarchy of your website have a positive effect on your SEO results. In practical terms, this means

• Release content for search engines
• Make any content accessible with 3-4 clicks

As simple as it sounds, check whether your website is approved for search engines at all. It is often enough to set or forget a small tick and the page will be removed from the Google index. Keyword: noindex.

A "site query" on Google can help:

The 77,000 results shown here in the example correspond to the number of pages that are in the Google index. If this number differs greatly from the number of pages you have stored in your CMS or store system, you should crawl your entire website. Crawling means using a tool to follow every single link on your website. With a crawl, you can also find out the click depth of your website, i.e. how many clicks are required to reach your content. A very good and inexpensive tool (even completely free for websites under 500 pages) for crawling a website is the "Screaming Frog SEO Spider":
 

 

It is important to use "speaking" URLs. These consist of readable words or keywords instead of long ID numbers or cryptic characters. The advantage from an SEO perspective is that they achieve higher click-through rates in Google results as they clearly describe what the user can expect on the website. To improve your search engine optimization, you should also observe the following rules in addition to speaking URLs:
 

• Keep your URLs as simple and short as possible
• Use keywords
• Do not use special characters
• Use the minus sign as a separator
• Use lower case only
• Avoid filler words

This is what an appealing and SEO-compliant URL could look like:

Among the more than 200 different SEO ranking factors on Google, the HTML title tag continues to play a decisive role in the search engine optimization of your website. You can see the title tag of your website in the browser, in the source code or in the Google search results.

How to optimize the title tag of your website:

• Each URL should have an individual title
• The keyword should be as far forward as possible, ideally in first place
• The title should not contain more than 70 characters
• The title should encourage the user to click

• At least 80 characters, maximum 150 characters including spaces. If you exceed this value, Google will simply cut off the meta description and replace the last characters with (...).
• Keyword at the beginning of the first 80 characters and ideally again within the second 80 characters. The keywords are highlighted in bold in the search results.
• Write in a promotional and informative way. Also use a clear call to action to have a positive influence on the click-through rate within the Google results.
• Use special characters to draw the attention of searchers to your snippet. As always, the same applies here: Don't overdo it, otherwise we'll have spam!

• Use relevant keywords: Place your most important keywords in the headings to increase the relevance of your content for search engines.
• Hierarchical structure: Use the HTML heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) in a logical hierarchy to clearly display the structure of your page.
• Clear and concise: Keep your headlines short and meaningful so that users and search engines immediately recognize what your text is about.
• Appealing formulations: Design your headlines in such a way that they arouse the reader's interest and encourage them to read on.
• Avoid keyword stuffing: Integrate keywords naturally and avoid excessive repetition to ensure better readability.

By optimizing your headlines, you not only improve the user-friendliness of your website, but also increase your chances of better rankings in the search results.