SEO Guide

Skyrocket Your Rankings with Our Comprehensive SEO Guide!

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the systematic optimization of websites to increase their visibility in the search results of engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. SEO aims to design and structure websites so that they appear on the first page of search results for specific queries (keywords).

Search engines act as filters, sifting through the vast array of web content to deliver relevant results to users. They use crawlers to analyze, index, and rank websites based on various content-related and technical factors.

The goal of SEO is to optimize websites with respect to these factors to rank higher in search results, thereby attracting more users to the site. This involves working on relevant content, website structure, keyword usage, and enhancing user-friendliness.

Unlike Search Engine Advertising (SEA), which relies on paid ads, SEO focuses on organic search results, aiming for sustainable website improvement.

SEO, SEA, and SEM - Understanding the Terms

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) focuses on optimizing a website’s structure and content to achieve organic visibility in search results. SEO aims to naturally elevate a website’s position on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) by aligning with search engine algorithms and providing relevant content for users.

SEA (Search Engine Advertising) refers to placing ads in search results through paid clicks (Cost per Click, CPC). These ads are booked by businesses to quickly and targetedly respond to search queries, appearing above organic results.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the umbrella term for SEO and SEA, describing the combination of both approaches. The goal is to maximize visibility and performance in search engine marketing by leveraging the strengths of both SEO and SEA.

A more detailed comparison and ways to effectively combine SEO and SEA can be found in our article on SEO, SEA, and SEM.

The Benefits of SEO

Widespread Reach: SEO allows you to tap into over 90% of global internet traffic, as search engines are used by nearly all internet users worldwide. This enables you to reach potential customers globally.

Targeted Audience Engagement: SEO helps you reach relevant users already searching for your offerings. Compared to other advertising methods, SEO has the advantage of targeting interested users, resulting in less wasted reach.

(Theoretically) Free Advertising: Unlike other advertising methods like posters, TV commercials, or online banners, SEO can (theoretically) generate free advertising, as organic search traffic doesn’t directly translate to monetary costs. However, note that SEO efforts require time and resources, which can lead to indirect costs.

With a professional SEO partner, you can achieve your SEO goals collaboratively. Develop a sustainable strategy that targets your audience and focuses on impactful content to build your online presence and improve organic search results.

SEO Trends for 2024 and the Role of User Experience

In 2024, SEO has evolved into a holistic endeavor that goes beyond mere text optimization. Google now places far greater emphasis on optimal User Experience (UX) to provide users with the best possible experience. Some key factors Google prioritizes include:

Quality Content

Readable and informative content is more important than keyword density. The focus is on valuable, relevant content for users.

Loading Speed

A fast website is critical for a good user experience. Google rewards fast, well-optimized pages with higher rankings.

Clear Site Structure

Intuitive navigation and a clear structure are essential for user-friendliness and make it easier for both users and search engine crawlers to navigate the website.

Mobile-Friendliness

As more users access websites via mobile devices, mobile optimization is central to a good user experience.

Security and Privacy

Google places great importance on secure websites and compliance with privacy regulations to ensure safe browsing for users.

In 2024, SEO is a multidimensional topic that encompasses the entire website and its performance. A smart combination of high-quality content, a well-structured website, and technical optimization contributes to both an optimal user experience and strong search engine rankings.

The Components of SEO

SEO can be broadly divided into two areas: On-page Optimization and Off-page Optimization.

On-page optimization involves technical and content-related measures applied directly to the website. This includes optimizing the website structure, content, and elements like meta tags to provide an optimal experience for both search engines and users. Off-page optimization focuses on external websites and how they link to your site, such as through backlinks. It aims to improve the website’s reputation and visibility online. For SEO beginners, content-related measures are particularly relevant, as they require less prior knowledge than technical optimizations. They are foundational and simpler but no less important.

SEO Trends for 2024 and the Role of User Experience

In 2024, SEO has evolved into a holistic endeavor that goes beyond mere text optimization. Google now places far greater emphasis on optimal User Experience (UX) to provide users with the best possible experience. Some key factors Google prioritizes include:

Quality Content

Readable and informative content is more important than keyword density. The focus is on valuable, relevant content for users.

Loading Speed

A fast website is critical for a good user experience. Google rewards fast, well-optimized pages with higher rankings.

Clear Site Structure

Intuitive navigation and a clear structure are essential for user-friendliness and make it easier for both users and search engine crawlers to navigate the website.

Mobile-Friendliness

As more users access websites via mobile devices, mobile optimization is central to a good user experience.

Security and Privacy

Google places great importance on secure websites and compliance with privacy regulations to ensure safe browsing for users.

In 2024, SEO is a multidimensional topic that encompasses the entire website and its performance. A smart combination of high-quality content, a well-structured website, and technical optimization contributes to both an optimal user experience and strong search engine rankings.

First Steps for On-page SEO Optimization

Before starting to optimize your website, you should assess your current SEO status. Here are some key questions and how to find the answers:

Is Your Website Indexed?

Check this by searching for your website on Google. Enter "site:" followed by your website’s URL (without "www." at the start) in the search bar.

Is Your Website Ranked?

Check your website’s ranking status for relevant keywords.

Is Your Website Error-Free and Well-Structured?

Check your website for errors and ensure a clear structure and navigation.

Does Your Website Offer High-Quality, Relevant Content?

Review the quality and relevance of your content.

After analyzing your website, you can start making necessary improvements to enhance your on-page optimization and achieve better search result rankings.

Checking Indexing and Search Result Hierarchy

After verifying whether Google has indexed your website, if successful, you should analyze the hierarchy of your search results. Here are some key points to consider:

Check the Hierarchy of Your Search Results

Search results should roughly reflect your website’s structure. The homepage should rank highest, followed by major subpages like "About Us," "Contact," or "Blog," and then deeper pages like blog articles or product pages. If the hierarchy doesn’t match your website’s structure, work on the site structure and sitemap to provide a clear structure for search engines and users.

Check the Appearance of Search Results

Your page titles and descriptions should be meaningful and fully displayed. If improvements are needed, optimize snippets and meta tags to make your search results more appealing.

Check the Relevance of Search Results

Ensure the displayed search results are relevant to the entered search terms. Work on your content and keywords to improve relevance for users.

By reviewing and optimizing these aspects, you contribute to improving user experience and your website’s visibility in search results.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free and powerful tool provided by Google to help website owners analyze and optimize their online presence. With Search Console, you can monitor and optimize the following aspects:

Indexing Status

Check whether your website is indexed by Google and identify any indexing issues.

Backlinks

Analyze websites linking to your site and the resulting traffic.

Key SEO Factors

Monitor rankings, keywords, and other critical SEO metrics.

To use Google Search Console, you need a Google account and must register your website as a "property." After successful registration, you gain access to a dashboard displaying all key metrics. A tutorial on using Search Console is available on Google’s support website. With Google Search Console, you can measure your website’s performance in Google search results, troubleshoot issues, and optimize visibility.

Optimizing Content: A Guide to Successful Search Engine Optimization

The content of a website is the central factor for successful search engine optimization. To optimize it effectively, follow these steps:

1. Keyword Research: Start by identifying relevant keywords, including both general search terms and specific long-tail keywords. Tools like Google Autocomplete, Google Keyword Planner, SISTRIX, or AnswerThePublic can help.
2. Assessing Search Volume and Competition: Check the monthly search volume and competition for identified keywords. Look for keywords with high search volume and low competition to improve your chances of ranking well.
3. Creating High-Quality Content: Produce relevant, unique, and helpful content for users. Strategically incorporate identified keywords into the text without making it sound unnatural.
4. Optimizing Titles and Meta Descriptions: Optimize your page titles and meta descriptions for search engines, including the most important keywords, as these appear in search results.
5. Using Headlines and Structuring: Structure content with headings and subheadings. This improves readability for users and helps search engines understand the content.
6. Enhancing with Images and Videos: Images and videos can enhance text and improve user-friendliness. Ensure proper optimization by adding alt attributes, file names, and descriptions for images and videos.
7. Internal Linking: Link relevant content within your website. This helps users find additional information and improves your site’s structure.

By following these steps, you can optimize your content for both search engines and users, achieving better visibility in search results.

Proper Use of Keywords in Content

The correct placement and frequency of keywords in your content are crucial for successful search engine optimization. Consider the following aspects when using keywords:

1. Headings: Place keywords in headings (H1, H2, H3), especially in the main title (H1), to help readers and search engines understand the content’s focus.
2. Keyword Density: Distribute keywords throughout the text without overusing them. Excessive keyword density can be flagged as spam by search engines and disrupt readability.
3. Variations: You don’t need to include additional keyword variations. Search engines like Google understand context and will rank your page for similar terms and misspellings.
4. Readability and User-Friendliness: Always write for human readers, even when optimizing for search engines. Well-written, readable text enhances user experience, which can positively impact search engine rankings.

In general, it’s best to incorporate keywords naturally without compromising readability. This way, you can cater to both search engines and users, achieving successful optimization.

Structuring Headings for Optimized SEO Performance

Follow these guidelines when structuring headings:

When creating content for websites, it’s important to structure the text so that readers can easily read and understand it. This is achieved through headings that clearly outline the structure of a page or article. For search engines, it’s not enough to simply highlight headings with larger fonts. Instead, headings should be structured using HTML tags <h1> to <h6> so that search engine crawlers can recognize them.

One H1 per Page

Each webpage or article should have only one <h1> heading that reflects the page or article’s topic. If possible, the <h1> should include the target keyword.

Hierarchical Order

Headings should be hierarchically ordered, starting with <h1>, followed by <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>. Each level should be subordinate to the previous one.

Logical Structure

Avoid arbitrary mixing of heading sizes. Stick to the hierarchy to maintain a clear structure. For example, an <h3> can follow an <h2>, but not an <h4>.

By consistently applying these guidelines, both search engines and human readers can better understand and navigate your content. This contributes to better readability and successful search engine optimization.

Optimal Image Optimization for Google

To provide your visitors with an optimal user experience, your website should include images alongside text. Images can clarify information and enhance the page’s aesthetics. However, they must be optimized for search engine crawlers to recognize and categorize them correctly.

File Name

The file name should be descriptive and, if possible, include the target keyword. Follow these guidelines:

• Use only lowercase letters.
• Avoid special characters or umlauts.
• Separate words with hyphens (not underscores).

Title Attribute

This text appears when the cursor hovers over the image. The title should be precise and, if possible, include keywords.

Alt Attribute

The alt attribute is for accessibility and should accurately describe the image content. Including keywords here is also beneficial.

Format and File Size

To ensure fast page loading, images should be adjusted and compressed. They should not exceed 300 kilobytes, ideally under 100 kilobytes. Online tools like TinyJPG can assist with compression.

By properly optimizing your images, search engines can better categorize them, and your users benefit from a fast, accessible website.

By properly optimizing your images, search engines can better categorize them, and your users benefit from a fast, accessible website.

Optimizing Snippets for Better Click-Through Rates

The snippet, consisting of meta-title, URL, and meta-description, is the showcase of a webpage in search results. A well-optimized snippet can increase click-through rates and drive more visitors to your site. While you don’t always have full control over the snippet’s content, as search engines like Google select the most relevant text, you can influence it by adding <meta title> and <meta description> tags in the HTML code.

An optimal snippet should meet the following criteria:

Main Keyword

Include the main keyword the page is optimized for.

Spark Curiosity

Pique users’ curiosity and encourage them to click.

Address Search Intent

Fulfill the user’s search intent and convince them that the page offers the desired information.

Clearly Present the Topic

Present the page’s topic concisely and clearly.

Make a Promise

Promise users what they will find on the page.

The length of the title and description is a critical factor. If they are too long, Google will truncate the text and replace it with ellipses. To avoid this, use tools like SISTRIX’s SERP Snippet Generator, which measures pixels instead of characters. However, you can only see the final snippet appearance on the search results page.

Yoast SEO - A Helpful Tool for WordPress Websites

For websites built on WordPress, the Yoast SEO plugin is a useful tool that simplifies snippet optimization. With its integrated snippet editor, HTML tags can be easily adjusted in the CMS backend without needing to edit the code directly.

An optimal snippet should meet the following criteria:

Main Keyword

Include the main keyword the page is optimized for.

Spark Curiosity

Pique users’ curiosity and encourage them to click.

Address Search Intent

Fulfill the user’s search intent and convince them that the page offers the desired information.

Clearly Present the Topic

Present the page’s topic concisely and clearly.

Make a Promise

Promise users what they will find on the page.

The length of the title and description is a critical factor. If they are too long, Google will truncate the text and replace it with ellipses. To avoid this, use tools like SISTRIX’s SERP Snippet Generator, which measures pixels instead of characters. However, you can only see the final snippet appearance on the search results page.

The plugin provides separate text editors for meta-title, meta-description, and permalink, showing in real-time how the snippet will appear in desktop or mobile views. It also provides immediate feedback on snippet length, which, while not 100% accurate, serves as a good initial guideline.

Yoast SEO simplifies snippet optimization for better search result visibility and increases click-through rates through appealing webpage previews.

SEO Content - Landing Pages and Blog Posts for Better Visibility

SEO content is specifically developed for search engine optimization to increase a website’s visibility. Two common forms are landing pages and blog posts.

Landing Pages: Encouraging User Action

Landing pages are subpages optimized for specific keyword clusters, designed to drive visitors toward a defined action, such as a purchase, contact request, or subscription. They aim to directly convert searchers.

For example, a landing page for "WordPress Agency Cologne" might include a description of the agency and its services, encouraging contact.

A landing page should include the following elements:

• A compelling title that conveys the benefit of the conversion.
• Convincing content that supports this promise.
• At least one CTA button that prompts visitors to take action.

Blog Posts: Creating Content for Search Queries

Blog posts often aim to answer specific questions or provide helpful information for users. They are optimized for specific search queries to increase organic traffic and establish the website as a relevant information source, building user trust.

For example, a blog post for a WordPress agency might provide a guide on using specific WordPress features or a checklist for successfully setting up a website.

Both types of SEO content contribute to better visibility and higher conversion rates for a website.

Blog Articles - Helpful Content for Readers and Search Engines

Blog articles are an excellent way to create keyword-specific content and cover a wide range of topics and keywords. These articles are optimized for informational search queries, providing helpful information to readers and driving traffic to the website.

When creating blog articles, consider the following key aspects:

Length

An article should be at least 200 words to be considered relevant.

Competitor Analysis

Analyze what your competitors are writing and consider how to improve your articles. Compare yourself to top-ranking pages in terms of quality and quantity to reach the first SERP.

Title and Snippet

Titles and snippets are especially important for blog articles. Craft the title to spark reader curiosity and provide enough information in the teaser to encourage clicks.

Introduction

The first sentence should be engaging to capture reader interest and keep them reading. Rhetorical questions, storytelling, surprising facts, or bold promises (fulfilled in the article) can help.

Linking

Use linking opportunities in blog articles to support arguments with sources, link to other articles or sections, and create a strong internal linking structure. This helps search engine crawlers better understand your content.

By creating helpful, well-optimized blog articles, you can make your website more attractive to readers and improve its position in search engine results.

E-A-T - A Critical Ranking Factor for Websites

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, three key aspects for evaluating websites. This ranking factor ensures users receive accurate answers to their search queries by considering the qualifications and reputation of authors and websites.

Expertise refers to the author’s professional competence in the topic being covered.

Authoritativeness evaluates the reputation of the website and its authors within the industry and among other experts in the field.

Trustworthiness assesses whether the information presented on the site is factually accurate and reliable.

E-A-T is particularly relevant for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics, such as financial or health-related issues, but it also plays a role in everyday topics.

You can enhance your expertise by producing high-quality content and earning backlinks from other websites. However, it’s important that the content on your website remains thematically consistent, as inconsistency can lead Google to downgrade your expertise and authoritativeness, even if the information is factually correct.

Thin Content - Avoiding Thin Content for Better Search Engine Rankings

Google aims to provide users with the highest value in their searches. Therefore, content offering little to no value is considered thin content and should be avoided. Thin content appears in various forms:

Thin Affiliate Websites

Affiliate websites consisting solely of automatically generated content and affiliate links are considered thin content, as they offer little unique value.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate or copied content is viewed as thin content, as it provides no added value compared to the original.

Automatically Generated Content

Content generated by software is often unhelpful and contains high keyword density to rank well. It is quickly identified as thin content.

Doorway Pages

Doorway pages are designed to rank well and redirect visitors to another address. Despite often having substantial content, they are considered thin content due to their lack of unique value.

To avoid thin content and achieve better search engine rankings, focus on high-quality, relevant, and original content. If you need support creating search-optimized content, consult experts in content marketing.

Original Content - Create Unique Content for Better Search Engine Rankings

A key aspect of successful search engine optimization (SEO) is avoiding duplicate content. Duplicate content occurs when the same or very similar text appears on multiple websites. Search engines like Google penalize duplicate content with lower rankings, as it offers nothing new or valuable.

Ethical considerations are important: Never copy content from other websites and pass it off as your own. Even on your own website, avoid repeating text. For example, ensure the company description on your homepage doesn’t match the text on your "About Us" page word-for-word.

Technical issues can also lead to duplicate content, such as when your website is accessible under multiple URLs or has very similar language versions. In such cases, 301 redirects and canonical tags are used, though these fall under technical SEO and are not covered in detail in this beginner’s guide.

Focus on creating unique, relevant, and high-quality content to achieve good search engine rankings and provide users with the value they seek.

Simple URL Structure for Better SEO

A clear URL structure helps both search engines and users understand your website’s structure.

Follow these practices to maintain a user-friendly and SEO-optimized URL structure:

Use a Clear Schema

Every subpage should be reachable within a maximum of three clicks and clustered by topic.

Avoid Cryptic URL Components

URLs should not contain incomprehensible parts like "12221_weeeddedeedede.php".

Keep URLs Readable and Understandable

URL components should clearly indicate their meaning.

Use Short Slugs

The final part of the URL, the slug, should be short and descriptive.

A good URL structure looks like this: "https://www.domain.tld/subpage1/subpage2/". An example of an optimized URL would be "https://www.domain.tld/blog/seo-guide/". This URL is easy for search engine crawlers to understand and meaningful for users.

By simplifying your URL structure and following these recommendations, you can improve user experience and achieve better search engine rankings.

Internal Linking - Linking for Optimized Website Navigation and Better SEO Rankings

Internal linking is a key component of user-friendliness and SEO performance. Internal links help users and search engine crawlers navigate your website and find important content. The more links pointing to a page, the more accessible it is.

Consider the following aspects when designing internal linking:

Network-Like Linking

Create a network of cross-references between your webpages to form an informative web that users and crawlers can easily navigate.

Textual Link Integration

Integrate links into the body text and avoid generic "click here" links.

Descriptive Link Names

Name links to clearly indicate their content and include relevant main keywords.

Well-thought-out internal linking not only enhances user-friendliness and content discoverability but also helps search engines evaluate and index your website, contributing to improved search engine rankings.

Off-page SEO - Basics of Off-page Optimization

Off-page optimization primarily focuses on link building, which determines a website’s popularity and quality. Google interprets backlinks as a positive signal that a page offers relevant, high-quality content, as other websites link to it.

Link building can be done in various ways:

Content Marketing

Create engaging SEO content and promote it on social media and other platforms to attract attention from other websites. You can also try publishing guest posts on blogs with backlinks to your website.

Public Relations

Effective corporate communication increases the likelihood of being perceived as an expert in your field, encouraging other websites to link to you.

Outreach Efforts

Contact other websites and ask if they’d be willing to link to your site in relevant places.

In link building, you have less control over success than with on-page measures. The quality of backlinks also plays a crucial role. Key quality criteria include:

Recency

The date of the link and the recency of the linking page are relevant. A backlink from a 1998 blog is no longer valuable for your ranking today.

Relevance

The linking site should be thematically relevant, and your link should be placed in an appropriate context. If possible, backlinks should include your main keyword.

Traffic

The higher the traffic of the linking site, the more positively Google evaluates the backlink.

Focus your off-page SEO efforts on generating high-quality backlinks to improve your search engine rankings and attract your target audience’s attention.

Black-Hat SEO - 6 Things to Avoid

You now know many strategies to improve your website’s ranking—keywords, backlinks, internal links. You might be tempted to use these strategies "cleverly." Link farms, hidden keywords, dubious SEO offers—website operators often try to trick search algorithms with questionable methods. Here are some of the worst black-hat methods and why you should avoid them.

1. Hidden Keywords: A classic black-hat tactic involves filling a paragraph with a keyword and making it invisible, e.g., by coloring it white. Users don’t notice the text, but crawlers detect the high keyword density positively. Today, search algorithms quickly recognize and penalize such tricks.
2. Cloaking: Cloaking shows different content to users and crawlers based on IP addresses or applications. While IP cloaking is hard to detect, search engines continuously improve their detection methods. If discovered, cloaking has negative consequences for indexing.
3. Link Farms: Link farms are sites created solely to link to other "real" websites to boost their rankings. These sites fail to meet backlink quality criteria and should be avoided.
4. Duplicate Content: Identical text on multiple websites or URLs is considered poor practice and penalized by search engines.
5. Keyword Stuffing: Excessive use of keywords, making the text unnatural and less readable, is a black-hat method.
6. Buying Backlinks: Buying and selling backlinks violates search engine guidelines and can lead to ranking and indexing penalties.

Focus on genuine, high-quality content and strategies to sustainably improve your website’s SEO performance and achieve strong rankings.

Link Spam

Link spam has the same goal as link farms but uses a different method: instead of creating a dedicated website for links, other websites are flooded with links, typically through comment sections using bots. You’ve likely encountered such comments under videos or articles:

"Fast, easy, and safe ways to earn real money. Over €10,000 a month!!! CLICK HERE: bit.ly/adfsf/fdsfdsf.php"

Such comments aim not only to lure naive internet users but also to trick crawlers into believing the linked site is more popular than it is. These methods are easily detected, cause issues for other websites, and are rightly considered absolute SEO taboos.

Copying Content

As mentioned in the duplicate content section, never copy content from other websites. This is not only ethically wrong but also ineffective, as search engine crawlers detect duplicated content and penalize the copying site.

Dubious SEO Agencies

If you entrust your website’s SEO to an agency, ensure it is reputable. A good indicator is realistic promises.

Agencies promising top rankings after a single payment typically either fail to deliver or use black-hat methods to temporarily boost you to the first SERP. You may see short-term success, but you’ll fall hard once the deception is uncovered.

Sustainable SEO is not a one-time, quick-fix task, and reputable SEO agencies know this. Big promises for little money are always a red flag—avoid such agencies.

SEO Reporting - Evaluating Your Measures

To determine whether your SEO measures are effective, monitoring your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential. However, you shouldn’t report every metric, as this can be overwhelming and unhelpful. Instead, create reports for different stakeholders with the most relevant KPIs, from which actionable recommendations can be derived.

The goal of reporting is to capture the status quo at a specific point, analyze performance over a period, identify issues, discover (new) competitors, and evaluate the success of measures decided in the previous reporting. This allows you to define new measures for the next period. Reporting is not a one-time task but a critical step to maximize your search engine optimization efforts.

Performance Measurement

Various free tools help you measure your success. Ensure you consistently use the same tools to report your metrics for meaningful comparisons and interpretations. One tool we’ve already introduced is Google Search Console. Google Analytics also provides performance-based KPIs.

Tool Tip

With Google Data Studio, you can create interactive, customizable reports. This is a great tool for consolidating data from various sources. You can create different views tailored to specific audiences. However, for deeper on- and off-page optimization, you’ll likely need paid tools. The range of offerings and pricing plans is vast, so we can’t recommend a specific solution—your choice depends on your goals, budget, and preferences.

SEO KPIs - Metrics for Reporting

The classic answer: It depends. Depending on your business model, different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are relevant. Consider which KPIs are most important for you and how to measure them effectively when developing your SEO strategy. Without measurement, there’s no reporting. We won’t leave you alone and provide a brief overview of some useful metrics.

• Number and distribution of organic keywords, broken down into Top 3, Top 10, Top 20, and Top 100, compared to the previous period.
• Average ranking position per keyword.
• Impressions, clicks, and click-through rate, ideally broken down by your most important landing pages.
• Conversion rate: Who downloaded your whitepaper, registered for a webinar, or sent a contact request?
• Bounce rate and dwell time on your site.
• Page load times and crawling performance/errors in Google Search Console.
• Number of high-quality backlinks and changes compared to the previous period.

You can monitor and report many more metrics. We may write a separate article on this soon. This brief overview, however, already shows whether you’re on the right track.

Also interesting: Create a segment in Analytics for filtered organic traffic. This allows you to compare SEO performance with users arriving via paid SEA ads. You’ll notice that those coming through organic traffic typically stay on your site much longer—provided your strategy is precisely tailored to their intent and needs.

The Value of an SEO Relaunch

We’ve summarized the most important and common SEO measures for you. If your site isn’t achieving the desired ranking, you can theoretically address it yourself. Is your website loading slowly because images are several megabytes? Simply compress and scale them. Are your blog posts poorly written and structured? Revise the text. Missing significant backlinks? Launch an outreach campaign!

However, some issues aren’t so easily fixed. If your website is technically outdated, non-responsive, or has numerous problems, the most sensible step may be a complete restart: a website relaunch. This involves rebuilding your website from the ground up, optimizing design, structure, and content for SEO from the start.

You might wonder how a complete website reset could be more sensible than gradually optimizing your old site. Doesn’t a relaunch involve disproportionate effort? It depends on the case. If large image files or poorly written content are the only issues, targeted measures suffice. However, if your website is severely outdated or poorly coded, consider a relaunch. Otherwise, optimizations may feel like renovating a collapsing house. Instead of running from one issue to the next and painstakingly replacing broken structures, it’s better to tear it down and rebuild from scratch.