How important it is for you as a company to be found on Google, we probably do not need to explain here. Most companies are also aware that their website should be optimized for Google. In practice, this discipline is called «search engine optimization» or «SEO» for short. The abbreviation SEO stands for the English term «Search Engine Optimization». However, many companies are still not aware of what exactly SEO is and what measures need to be taken into account and implemented in order to attract as many searchers as possible from Google to the website. 

In principle, the most important factors can be divided into 8 areas. A distinction is made between the OnPage and OffPage measures. Under the «OnPage factors» all measures are summarized, which can be made on directly on your web page. On the other hand, we summarize all measures that must be optimized outside of your website under the term «OffPage factors». 

Due to the scope of the topic, we decided to create an SEO article series for you. In this first blog post, we will explain the basic functioning of a search engine and the topics «Keywords» and «Content».

Here you can find the overview of the different factors:

OnPage factors:

1. Keywords: Will be presented in this blog post 

2. Content: Will be presented in this blog post 

3. Technology: Read our blog article SEO Series: OnPage Factors «Technology & User Experience»

4. User Experience: Read our blog article SEO Series: OnPage Factors «Technology & User Experience»

OffPage Factors:

5. Links: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Links & Social Signals»

6. Social Signals: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Links & Social Signals»

7. Branding: Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Branding & specific factors»

8. Specific factors (local, regional, etc.): Read our blog article SEO Series: OffPage Factors «Branding & specific factors»

How does a search engine work?

Google sends bots (computer programs) all over the web, which scan the web pages and return the information to Google (this process is called indexing). Only Google knows how exactly these bots work, but numerous studies and reports from Google itself give us an idea of what needs to be taken into account so that Google understands our website as well as possible.  

Google also revises their algorithm (search logic) again and again. These updates are called Core Updates. SEO is also for this reason not a one-time thing, but a constant process.

Keywords

Whoever deals with SEO will sooner or later encounter the so-called keywords. Keywords are words, which are entered by the user in the search field at Google.  

The SEO process often begins with the question of which terms your customers are actually looking for? And this is very often already the first big hurdle for many companies. Customers sometimes search directly for products, but usually more for solutions or enter their problems into the search box. Accordingly, if you want to buy an electric car, people don't just search for the car brand, but for terms like "electric car with high range". 

So how can you best define the keywords? 

• Determine important topics
  Our recommendation is to simplify the process by thinking in terms of topics first. Collect topics that are important to themselves and their customers and create a hierarchical representation.
  
  Google also has a limited crawling budget. This means that it will never be able to crawl all the world's websites. Therefore, focus on the most important topics. We recommend to fix 10 - 15 topics. 
   
• Derive keywords from topics 
  Next, derive possible keywords from these topics. A small "hack" is to enter these potential topics in the search box at Google and then look at the bottom of the first page at the related search queries which keywords are often searched for in this context.
  
  Of course, there are various free or paid tools on the web, which you can use to define your keywords. For this we use the extensive functions of our SEO professional tool «Sistrix», which we make available to our customers on request. 
  
  Again, limit the number of defined keywords. We recommend 10 - 20 keywords per topic. 
   
• Create content by keyword groups 
  Now assign the keywords to the previously created thematic structure and create new content on your website according to this structure, also called information architecture, or revise the current structure.

Content

Good content (today most people talk about content or content marketing) not only makes your website more attractive, but is also relevant for your SEO performance. Always remember that you create your content for your customers and not for the search engine itself. After all, Google's ultimate goal is to provide searchers with the best content. So if you always think about your customers when creating your content, in most cases this is also in Google's interest. 

You can learn how to use content marketing in your business in our blog article "Why is content marketing so important in the future and how can you use it for your business?".

When it comes to optimizing your content for the search engine, you can focus on the following topics: 

• Relevance: The content must be relevant. It must make sense in terms of the topic and be helpful to your customers. Keep in mind your previously defined keyword groups. 
• Quality: The content should be of high quality. Error-free texts, good images and correct content are important.   
• Topicality: Google likes topicality. Remember to constantly integrate current topics on your website and to always update your content.  
• Scope: Many analyses prove that extensive content (> 1,000 characters) ranks significantly better. However, the content should only be extensive where it makes sense.  
• Structure: pay attention to keyword grouping here as well. 
• Multimedia: Enrich your content with multimedia: Images, videos, graphics or interactive elements.  
• Local / International: Adapt your content to your target market. America favors different content than Asia. 

Avoid the following to avoid a negative effect on your ranking or a penalty. 

• Duplicate Content: Make sure your content is not duplicated on your website.  
• Noindex Content: Remove harmful or incorrect content. 

Conclusion

Of course, in addition to the right keywords and good content, you still need to keep your website technically up to date. Above all, it must be ensured that the website is loaded quickly on mobile devices, where the Internet connection is sometimes less good. 

What else is important regarding the technical SEO factors, what you can do yourself to optimize them and how exactly you proceed, you will learn in the next blog «SEO OnPage Factors: Technology & User Experience» of our SEO article series.

If you need help creating your keyword portfolio, contact us, our SEO experts will be happy to assist you.