SEO guidelines are recommendations for optimizing a website for search engines to improve its visibility and rankings.
1. What is SEO?
SEO refers to measures aimed at increasing the visibility of a website or its content in the unpaid search results of a search engine. These measures include optimizing content, improving website structure, using relevant keywords, and encouraging natural backlinks from other websites. The goal of SEO is to enhance a website's position in organic search results and thereby generate more qualified traffic. The Google algorithm uses over 200 criteria to determine the relevance of a page.
1.1 Google Criteria
There are 6 Google criteria that play a role in the algorithm:
- Keyword Research & Strategy: A solid keyword strategy is the cornerstone of effective search engine optimization (SEO). It helps target the right audience and improve your website's visibility in search results.
- Content & Content Creation: Compelling content is key to attracting more visitors to your website and boosting its rankings. Engaging content keeps users interested and encourages them to explore further.
- Website Architecture & URL Structure: A well-organized website structure ensures users can navigate easily and find the information they need quickly. Clear URLs containing relevant keywords also help search engines understand and rank your pages better.
- Mobile Friendliness: With 84% of Germans using mobile devices to browse the internet, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is crucial. A responsive design ensures a seamless user experience across different devices.
- Source Code & Technical Implementation: A clean and well-structured source code is vital for search engine bots to crawl and index your website effectively. It improves your website's overall performance and visibility in search results.
- Crawling & Index Management: Managing crawling and indexing processes ensures that your website's relevant pages are properly crawled, indexed, and visible to users. This optimization helps increase your website's visibility and reach online.
2. Content
The best search result is the most relevant answer to the user's search intent. Search engines can only assess what content exists on the page. Therefore, in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it's crucial to ensure that your content directly addresses the user's query and provides valuable information. By understanding the user's intent and optimizing your content accordingly, you increase the likelihood of your page ranking higher in search results and meeting the needs of your audience effectively.
User Intent:
- Informational (80% of searches): Users conduct searches without prior knowledge of a specific brand. They use generic search queries to find information or solutions to their queries.
- Transactional (10% of searches): The primary objective of these search queries is to initiate an action, such as making a purchase, signing up, or engaging in some form of interaction.
2.1.1 Keyword
2.1.1.1 Keyword Allocation
Before redesigning the website content, it's essential to define keywords or keyword combinations that will be optimized textually. It's advisable to focus on a maximum of two primary keywords per page.
Excessive use of a single keyword, known as keyword stuffing, can be detrimental and may result in exclusion from search engine results or a decline in rankings.
The main keyword, representing the primary topic of the page, should be the most frequently used among the content-describing words in the document.
There isn't a fixed percentage for how often a specific term should appear in the text. Rather, the selected keywords should maintain a healthy proportion to the entire text, ensuring the content remains easy to read and comprehend.
Effective keyword allocation is crucial for improving search engine visibility and ensuring that your website ranks well for relevant search queries.
2.1.2 Snippet Optimization
A snippet is what users see on a search engine results page, comprising the title, meta description, and URL of a website. The snippet design acts as a virtual business card and significantly influences whether users choose to visit the page. Therefore, the titles and meta descriptions play a crucial role in click rates, traffic, and ultimately, the potential for generating orders.
2.1.2.1 Titles
In the context of SEO, "Title" refers to the title of a webpage displayed in search engine results, impacting the click-through rate and visibility of the webpage.
- The page title is one of the most important elements of optimization.
- The length should not exceed 65 characters including spaces.
- The keyword is at the beginning.
- An USP increases the click volume.
- Branding should be placed at the end of the title.
- Page titles should be designed individually for each page.
Bad Example:
New 911 GT3 RS sets a lap time of 6:56.4 minutes through the “Green Hell” Most powerful 911 with naturally aspirated engine sets benchmark at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife | Porsche Salt Lake City
Good Example:
New GT3 RS celebrates its world premiere | Porsche Salt Lake City
2.1.2.2 Meta Desciprtions
The meta description is an HTML element that provides a brief description of a webpage's content and appears in the search engine results. Meta descriptions are displayed as a snippet in the search result pages.
- They are not a ranking factor but influence the click behaviour.
- The length should not exceed 160 characters incl. spaces.
- The keyword should be within the first 40 characters.
- An USP and call-to-action should be included..
- Meta description should be designed individually for each page.
Bad Example:
Good Example:2.1.3 Image Optimization
Optimizing images improves visibility in image searches and provides an additional avenue, through Google's image search, to attract users' attention to your website alongside the regular web search results.
To ensure search engines understand image content, consider the following:
- Alt Attribute/Alt Text: Use keywords to describe images in detail.
- If images are linked, the Alt attribute serves as the link title, using the target page's keyword.
- File Names: Use meaningful, keyword-rich file names with hyphens to separate words.
- Example:porsche-718-cayman.jpg” alt= “Porsche Dealer Website Porsche 718 Cayman” title= “Porsche Model 718 Cayman”>
- Example: <img src=“porsche-718-cayman.jpg” alt= “Porsche Dealer Website Porsche 718 Cayman” title= “Porsche Model 718 Cayman”>
2.1.4 H-Headlines
Search engines prioritize semantically correct "h" elements, considering main and subheadings as crucial content elements that reinforce the main keyword of a page. H-headlines organize the page for both users and Google's bots, requiring a hierarchical structure akin to a table of contents.
Here are some simplified points regarding the use of headings on web pages:
- Only one H1 heading should be used per page.
- Headings after H1 are for structuring content.
- Headline content should match the specific keyword of the page.
- Subheadings can be used multiple times in a hierarchical manner.
Benefits:
- Main heading and subheadings are crucial content elements.
- They reinforce the page's specific keyword.
- They help structure the page for both users and Google's bots.
Note:The number of headings depends on the length of the text and increases with more content.
2.1.5 URL Structure
A well-structured URL design organizes a website's content, serving as the connection between the content and the user. It enhances user experience by employing a logical URL format with clear page hierarchies, making website navigation effortless. Moreover, a well-designed URL structure communicates to Google the content and relationships between various pages on the website, influencing Google's rankings.
-> Use of HTTPS protocol-> Use of HTTPS protocol
-> Use of meaningful keywords
-> Use of meaningful keywords
-> Use of short and simple URLs
-> Use of short and simple URLs
-> Use of hyphens & lowercase letters
-> Use of hyphens & lowercase letters
2.1.6 Canonicals
Canonical tags are commonly employed to address duplicate content problems by informing search engines which URL to prioritize for ranking and indexing. This involves designating a URL as the original source ("canonical URL"), with all other URL variations (duplicates) referring back to the original source.
2.1.6.1 Guidelines
- The canonical attribute is used for URLs with identical content and links, such as those containing tracking parameters.
- The canonical attribute should not be combined with other indexing instructions like meta robots "noindex".
- The link element should only reference accessible URLs returning a response code of "200".
- To ensure the canonical tag functions properly, the same URL must be specified as the canonical tag across all duplicate versions.
- Avoid link chains by directly pointing the canonical attribute to the correct link target.
- Use the canonical attribute sparingly and avoid problems with URL structure or information architecture from the outset.
2.1.7 Meta Robots
Meta Robots tags can impact how search engines crawl and index content. They allow website owners to specify which URLs should be indexed and which ones should be excluded from search results. URLs that aren't indexed won't appear in Google search, so it's important to use this setting cautiously.
3. Content Creation
"Content is king" suggests that valuable, engaging, and pertinent content plays a crucial role in the online success of companies.
3.1 Content Optimization
Search engines operate based on text and rely on textual content for ranking purposes. The higher quality and uniqueness of the text, the more favorably search engines rate its relevance. Pages with thin content miss out on opportunities for improved rankings. The length of the text should align with the visitor's search intent, and the page should meet all user needs related to the topic.
3.2 Landingspages
A landing page is designed with a specific objective: to encourage users to take action and convert. It can exist as a standalone page or as a subsection of the main domain.
3.2.1 DO's
- Identify 1-2 primary keywords and 3-4 secondary keywords.
- Use a clear and well-structured template to guide users effectively.
- Use links as call-to-action buttons.
- Avoid overwhelming users with excessive information or choices; limit text to under 700 words.
- Implement on-page SEO techniques such as optimizing headlines, titles, meta descriptions, and images.
- Ensure responsive design and optimize loading times for better user experience.
3.2.2. DONT's
- Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Simplify the template structure to make user actions clear.
- Limit the number of links to prevent confusion for users.
- Keep landing pages concise; avoid excessive length.
- Remember to optimize on-page factors.
- Ensure fast page loading times and optimize landing pages for mobile devices.
3.3. MEASURING SUCCESS
- Generate reports for insights, benchmarking, and other analytics.
- Utilize a robust business intelligence tool like Power BI.
- Key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be valuable include: Traffic growth, Channel performance, Ranking analysis, Visibility assessment
4. Rich Snippets
Rich snippets are special code markups that website owners can employ to enhance Google's search result pages. They assist search engines in comprehending the content of a page and can boost click-through rates by providing users with more information about the page's content prior to clicking on the search engine result.
Advantages of Rich Snippets:
- More Visibility
- Trsut
- Higher Relevance
- Information Content
With Rich Snippets:
The search result gives a better insight into the content of a website.
Without Rich Snippets:
The search result does not provide any additional information.
5. Open Graph
The Open Graph Protocol (OGP) is a web protocol used to control how a website appears when shared on social networks. Meta tags are added to the website to ensure a consistent format across different social media platforms. While OGP doesn't directly impact a website's SEO, it can affect off-page optimization results. Presenting content attractively on social networks can lead to increased traffic, click-through rates (CTR), shares, and conversions.
6. Mobile First Index
Mobile First Indexing means that Google predominantly utilizes the mobile version of a website's content, which is crawled using a smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking purposes.
6.1. Best Practices
Responsive Design: Responsive web design involves creating a single version of a webpage that adjusts automatically to fit various screen sizes using CSS.
Dynamic Deployment: Dynamic deployment enables accessing the same URL regardless of the device. This setup utilizes user-agent sniffing and the Vary: user-agent HTTP response header to provide different HTML versions based on the device.
Verification in GSC: You can check if a website is optimized for the mobile-first index in Google Search Console.