What is meant by a "search engine placement"?
The term search engine optimization is often abbreviated with SEO and adapted from English (Search Engine Optimization). As the name already suggests, search engine optimization describes all measures that aim to ensure that a homepage achieves a higher rank in a search engine and is therefore also visited by a majority of users.
However, until a website can achieve a good search engine placement, it must first be optimized and then regularly checked. SEO is therefore essential for successful online marketing, because only through media presence can many customers be won!
What is the importance of a good search engine ranking?
Search engine placement describes the ranking of your own website in a search engine, for example Google. If one now enters "accommodation Berlin" and finds your hotel on the first page, your homepage has a good search engine placement. Those websites, which are to be found on higher ranks, are visited more often and receive accordingly also more frequently customer evaluations.
These reviews, along with many other factors, play an important role in the area of search engine placement. They are considered the figurehead of a company or product and are therefore significantly responsible for purchasing decisions. Therefore, the higher the search engine ranking, the more popular the website.
How do I improve my position in search engines (here: Google)?
The start is the creation of a website, which should comply with data protection regulations and be encrypted and well developed. Equally relevant is a high-quality and for the target group appealing content. So here you should pay particular attention to the wants and needs of those people you want to address with your website.
The position in search engines refers not only to the content of the website but also to the appearance and the user-friendliness. For example, one pays attention to security through "https protocols", positive customer reviews, quality of the website and the general content (=the texts, the offer of the website). In order to improve your search engine ranking, you should consider the mentioned points for the time being and wait to see if anything changes. After the mentioned measures you can think about advertising or other possibilities.
Does SEO only make sense for bigger companies?
No, definitely not - quite the opposite: Especially small to medium-sized companies achieve high profits from high-quality search engine optimization. Especially for local and regional businesses, this area of online presence should be of utmost importance, because: Local action and global thinking are an important interaction for any company, no matter how big it is or what products/services it offers!
What are keywords?
Keywords are those words that contribute significantly to finding a page. The most common way to find an answer or a certain website on the World Wide Web is to enter one or more keywords. These keywords are called Keywords (= keywords) in the technical language and must be optimized in advance as such.
This in turn means using those keywords that have the highest search volume. If you sell shoes in Vienna and have optimized the keywords "shoes Vienna", your customers will find you in the upper ranks of the respective search engine. This achieves that customers visit your website when they are looking for something, which can significantly increase any sales figures.
The above-mentioned search volume indicates how often a keyword is searched for within a month. To address as many (new) customers as possible, many search variants should be included in the keyword list. In the case of stores, hotels or restaurants, for example, it is suitable to also include cities in the vicinity in connection with a keyword.
Choosing the right keywords is a top priority in terms of search engine optimization. It is proven that websites rank higher if their title, headlines or URL contain keywords. Nevertheless, be careful: do not overdo it! Quality over quantity has still proven itself and indicates the professionalism of a homepage!
What are onpage and offpage optimization?
The onpage optimization primarily includes the content of a website - more precisely all texts. These are analyzed by the respective search engine and subsequently receive an assessment. Here one would like to find out, which websites offer really relevant information for the user and which are simply not usable. Factors such as loading time, user-friendliness, images, and internal and external links are also analyzed.
The offpage optimization, on the other hand, deals with so-called backlinks, i.e. references back. These are links from other homepages, which lead to the respective website and are evaluated like recommendations. From search engines themselves, these points are also included in the search engine placement.
What is Responsive Design?
What A homepage in the so-called responsive design adapts to the any mobile device, so for example smartphone or tablet and can thus be used by various devices without any problems. This put an end to the previous problem of computer-adapted designs and sizes. This move had to be made not only because of the change in technology, but also because of customer satisfaction. Responsive Design?
The more appealing a website is and the clearer and easier it is to use, the more people prefer to access it and spend time on it. This means: The higher the user-friendliness of your website, the longer people stay there and inform themselves about your offer.
What does search engine optimization cost?
For the complex topic of SEO there is no flat rate. The cost of search engine optimization depends on many factors: Do you do most of it yourself? Do you place extra advertisements?
However, it is especially recommended here to spare neither cost nor effort to achieve a good end result. Once you have found a professional SEO agency that knows your company and your needs, you should start a comprehensive cost analysis.
For small and medium-sized companies, there is the so-called "Go-digital", a subsidy from the BMWi (German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), which covers 50% of the costs incurred. A study by Barketing Satista 2018 also revealed that 84% of respondents said that Search Engine Optimization would have been profitable!
Who does not need Search Engine Optimization?
Through search engine optimization, one would like to mainly draw new users to a website with the help of keywords. Well-known homepages such as those of associations, the federal government or schools, are often already entered in the browser line, whereby a search engine placement would be irrelevant. The websites mentioned are so-called non-commercial websites, which serve to provide information to a closed target group and do not pursue any economic interests.