To see and be seen: Search Engine Optimization / SEO

Keyword research and user intention

Keyword is probably the most frequently mentioned term in the SEO environment and not without reason. Because keyword stands for search term. Keywords are divided into short-tail and long-tail, whereby it is not necessarily the length of the keyword that matters, but rather how specific the search query is. Long-tail keywords are more specific and usually contain a verb such as "download" or "to make yourself". The list of results here is shorter, and the likelihood of a conversion is higher.

Keyword research is nothing more than compiling a list of words that the user uses to search for a product, service, information or a specific location. For keyword research there are some very useful tools that help to find possible terms. A competitor analysis is also useful: a successful e-commerce company often owes its success to a well-chosen set of keywords.

More and more important in the field of keywords is the user's search intention. Thanks to artificial intelligence, Google is increasingly able to deliver results that pretty much reflect what the user is specifically looking for.

Thus, there are the following categories on the topic of search intention:
- informational search intention: the user is looking for information
  on a specific topic.
- transactional search intention: the user has action intentions, often
  he is looking for a specific product that he wants to purchase.
- navigational search intention: the user is looking for a website he
  knows or the website of a brand he knows.
- local search intention: offers from the local area are searched for,
  such as restaurants.
- News search intention: the user is looking for news about a topic or
  news.

A good keyword research requires creativity and experience. Professional tools and the creation of a buyer profile (buyer persona) and ergo the definition of the target group also facilitate an important role.  

Content opimization

The central topic in the area of search engine optimization is undoubtedly the content area. Because this is where everything ultimately comes together: Keyword research is used to find terms according to which a website will be optimized. As soon as a keyword set is available that increases the visibility and ranking of a website, this keyword set is used to create content.

This is where the customer journey comes into play, i.e. the customer journey or the user's purchase decision process. For each of the individual touchpoints during the customer journey, the appropriate content must be provided and the user must be picked up. The potential customer should thus gain trust and make the transaction on the page that best accompanies them during their and trust during the decision-making process.

The task is to produce content in different formats while using the keywords.

Content formats include
- Transactional content: the user should be encouraged to make a
  purchase, book a trip or take out a subscription, for example. Using
  the right keywords is most important here - but this is also where
  the biggest competition lurks.
- Informational content: Information or guides are provided here.
- Evergreen content is particularly efficient here. With evergreen
  content, topics are prepared in such a way that they remain
  relevant over a long period of time. Thus, good evergreen content
  ranks higher than time-related content, which wants to be revised
  again and again. However, content with high content freshness is
  also important.
- Branding Content: This is enormously important for branding and
  plays a significant role in the SEO strategy.
- Social Content: This refers to content on social media and not only
 Facebook and Instagram, but also forums and sites like Linkedin.        This is how backlinks can be gained, for example.
- User-generated content: This is very useful content in the form of 
  reviews or testimonials - as long as they are positive!

Link building

Link building refers to links that are created when external websites link to one's own site. This is a very old ranking factor, the relevance of which is discussed again and again. However, it is certain that links from high-quality websites that fit the topic have a positive effect on visibility and ranking. Very positively, in fact. For example, it is desirable for the manufacturer or seller of coffee machines if one of his models is chosen as the test winner in a comparison and many online media report on this (Amazon is very successful with this model). A direct link in the form of a URL is also of positive benefit. It is important that the linking website is an authority in its subject area and has an excellent ranking itself. Of course, the topic should also fit. However, if you buy backlinks or link from anonymous web catalogs, you even risk being penalized by Google.

To get good backlinks is a big challenge for every website owner and requires a lot of effort and patience. So it makes sense to follow a strategy here as well.

The evaluation of backlinks takes place under the following criteria:
- Domain Pop / Domain Rate: stands for Domain Popularity, meaning
  that many links should come from as many URLs as possible and
  not many links from only one URL.
- Age of the domain: the longer a linking source is, the better the link
  is rated.
- Trust: as already described, topic-related relatedness and authority
  of a page represent an important criterion.
- Backlink rating by tool providers: this is like a reflection of a
  backlink rating by link quality rating by link rating tools.
- Traffic: the more visitors come to a page through the backlinks, the
  more positive the rating by Google.
- Dofollow and nofollow: if a link is afflicted with a nofollow mark, the
  value of the link is zero; conversely, dofollow links are to be rated
  positively, provided that the preceding criteria are correct.

Link building is the most important part of offpage optimization. Offpage because the positive impulses come from an external, not the own website.

Monitoring, KPI and reporting

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators, i.e. key figures for measuring and analyzing the measures taken. Monitoring is the regular monitoring and evaluation of the SEO measures taken, in reporting the results are summarized.

The most important KPIs are:
- Visibility of the selected keywords: the performance of the keyword
  set defined to increase the visibility of the website is measured.
  Since it is possible to get visibility in addition to other keywords, it
  should be analyzed whether this has a positive or negative effect on
  visibility.
- Pagespeed: it is easy to measure the loading time, there are many
  tools that you can use for free.
- Ranking of specific keywords: each keyword is assigned a specific
  ranking. This has consequences for the measures taken or to be
  taken.
- Organic traffic: these are the visitors who land on a website due to
  the organic search results.
- Dwell time and bounce rate: this is an important KPI for the quality    of content. The longer a user stays on a page (preferably also on
  different subpages), the more favorably it affects the ranking. A
  search engine correctly interprets this as meaning that the content
  is interesting for the user, and this is rewarded. The bounce rate, on
  the other hand, is a value that has a negative impact on the ranking.
- Snippet click-through rates and CTR: An attractive page title and
  description as well as a high click-through rate, i.e. the user clicks
  through as much content as possible.

Monitoring and reporting are among the most important tasks in search engine optimization and must be checked regularly.