Give your website a speed boost
Patience is a virtue you won’t find in users on the web. Do you really want your users to wait up to 5 seconds before they see the first useful piece of information on your website, especially when the competition is only a few clicks away?
Any delay can be detrimental, especially if you are making money from your website. Keep in mind that more and more users are browsing the internet on mobile devices, which has different loading speed requirements than desktop PCs with a Wi-Fi connection.
To shorten loading times, here are the most important methods:
- Optimize images: Images can take up a lot of storage space. When producing a lot of content, it is easy to lose track of image sizes and their impact on website performance. Images should be optimized for mobile connections and modern formats such as WebP should be considered, which enable high-quality images with reduced file sizes. Technologies such as cloud hosting can also contribute to better performance, especially at a time when 4G and 5G networks are widely available.
- Faster server: The choice of server is crucial to the loading speed of your website. Large hosting providers with low prices do not always offer the best performance. A dedicated private server can result in faster loading times and less downtime.
- Minimize code: Many content management systems like WordPress make it possible for non-experts to create websites without coding knowledge. Nevertheless, every website consists of code, and superfluous code can affect the loading speed. Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is helpful to make the code more efficient and remove unnecessary parts.
- Use AMP: “Accelerated Mobile Pages” (AMP) is a Google standard for mobile devices that reduces websites to the essential HTML elements. By providing parts of your website in AMP format, you can significantly reduce loading times for mobile users and receive preferential treatment in Google’s mobile search.
Link websites with relevant content
The quality of the websites you link to plays a crucial role in the credibility of your own site in the eyes of search engines such as Google. Not only is it important to link to popular sites that have a high SEO authority themselves, but also to ensure that this content is closely related to the topic of your website.
Linking to other websites is all about selecting content that could be relevant and valuable to your users. While it may seem contradictory at first to direct visitors away from your site, this plays an important role in building networks and partnerships with other website owners. Reciprocal linking can help to increase the reach of both sites and make content accessible to a wider audience.
When setting links, you should make sure that they are of high quality and thematically relevant. Both ‘do-follow’ links and ‘no-follow’ links have their importance. Do-follow links are crucial for transferring SEO value and can influence the ranking of your page in search engines. No-follow links, although they don’t directly transfer SEO value, are still valuable as they can increase organic traffic and contribute to brand awareness.
Write for people, not for machines
In your SEO efforts, it’s crucial that you target real people, not just search engine algorithms. To make your website attractive to users, two key elements are crucial: readability and depth of content.
First impressions count enormously, even in the digital space. Visitors to your website should be able to tell immediately whether they can find the information they are looking for. Every element on your site should therefore have a clear function and invite the visitor to engage further with your content.
The time spent on your website is an important indicator for search engines that users are finding what they are looking for. This can lead to your website being favored for similar search queries in the future. But it’s not just readability that is important; the content must offer real added value. High-quality content is characterized by comprehensive and unique information that goes beyond what can be found on numerous competitor sites. Invest in thorough research and make sure your content is up-to-date and relevant. Consider concrete examples, visual elements and interactive content to improve the structure and comprehensibility of your content.
Meaning of backlinks
Links that point to your website from other sites are called backlinks. Backlinks are extremely important for your website as they signal trust to search engines. The operators of other websites vouch for the value of your content. A prerequisite for Google and co. to rate a backlink positively is, of course, that the linking website itself enjoys a high level of trust and is popular with users.
For an online marketing agency, backlinks are an essential part of off-page SEO and usually take up a lot of time. New websites from which you hope to receive backlinks should fulfill the following criteria:
- Good ranking: the site should show up in search engines for terms that are also relevant to your website.
- No link spamming: Some websites contain more links than content. This is not only annoying for the user, it also devalues the backlink.
- Relevant link titles: Thanks to HTML, links can be elegantly hidden behind words. These are usually highlighted in color in the text to signal to users that this word is clickable. When linking to your site, you should make sure that these words themselves cover a relevant keyword.
- Incidentally, it doesn’t always have to be links: Just having mentions of your website on high-quality pages can significantly improve your search engine rankings.
Which tools do we as a seo agency suggest?
Even though you can learn the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) relatively quickly, advanced SEO strategies can be complex and challenging. To overcome these challenges and stand out from the competition, there are a variety of tools available to help you improve your ranking. In addition to well-known tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and the Google Keyword Planner, advanced tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs or Moz are essential for in-depth analysis and monitoring of your SEO performance.
- Google PageSpeed Insight:
Loading speed is a critical factor in the success of your website. With Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, you can evaluate the loading speed of your website and compare it with that of your competitors. Simply enter your URL to get a detailed list of aspects that could have a negative impact on loading speed. This tool is also useful for analyzing your competitors’ websites to understand which factors contribute to a faster loading time. - Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner remains an essential tool for keyword research. It not only offers a variety of keyword ideas, but also precise estimates of the search frequency of certain terms. By analyzing the AdWords prices for these keywords, you can get a feel for the competitive intensity of each keyword – usually a high price indicates strong competition. - Integration of other innovative tools
You should also consider newer tools that take into account emerging SEO trends such as voice search optimization and the use of artificial intelligence. Tools such as Surfer SEO, Clearscope or Yoast SEO for WordPress can be crucial for adapting your content to current search engine algorithms and user needs.
Write individual and relevant meta descriptions for each page
Write individual and relevant meta descriptions for each page
Meta descriptions play a central role in SEO by providing search engines and users with a concise summary of the page content. These descriptions are displayed in search results and help users decide whether they want to click on the link to your website. It is therefore advisable to take control of these descriptions by defining them directly in the HTML code of your page.
When writing the meta description, it is important to find a balance between brevity and informativeness. Although Google usually displays up to 155-160 characters, the optimal length can vary depending on how it is displayed in the search results. The aim is to arouse the user’s curiosity and encourage them to click without omitting important information. Keep in mind that the description should be relevant to the page content and contain keywords that accurately reflect the user’s expectations.
Best practices: It makes sense to regularly monitor the performance of your meta descriptions and check whether they are having the desired effect. Use A/B tests and analyses to find out which formulations achieve the highest click-through rate (CTR). Ongoing optimization of these descriptions helps to continuously improve the visibility and attractiveness of your pages in the search results.
Use readable and meaningful URLs
The design of URLs is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience. Your URLs should not only be clear and readable, but also point directly to the content of the page. Use hyphens to separate the individual keywords in the URL, as this improves both readability for users and crawling efficiency for search engines. It is crucial to include relevant keywords in your URLs to make it clear to search engines what the page is about.
Best practices for URLs:
- Short and concise: Keep your URLs as short as possible without losing important information. Long URLs can be off-putting for users and are less effective for SEO.
- Avoid excessive keyword stuffing: While keywords are important, their number in the URL should be limited to avoid giving the impression of spam.
- Structuring: A well-structured URL that reflects the hierarchy of the website helps users and search engines understand the page in the context of the entire website.
- Consistency: Stick to a consistent naming convention for your URLs. This improves the user experience and helps to manage your website.
Our online marketing agency places great importance on reflecting the content and structure of your pages optimally in the URLs and making adjustments where necessary to maximize the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.
Rely on social signals
Social signals are playing an increasingly important role in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), even if their direct influence on rankings may be limited. However, their indirect effect on brand presence and traffic generation is so significant that social media SEO should not be neglected.
An active presence on social media increases the visibility of your company and your content. This leads to increased brand awareness and can drive more traffic to your website. Interactions such as shares, likes and comments on social platforms signal to search engines that your content is relevant and valuable, which can indirectly contribute to SEO performance.
Strategies for social media SEO:
- Encourage engagement: Encourage active interactions on your social media pages. Higher engagement can increase the reach of your content and attract more visitors to your website.
- Share content: Regularly share quality content from your website on social media to attract users to your site.
- Build a network: Use social media to build relationships with influencers and other businesses in your industry. This networking can help spread your content and reach new target groups.
- Consistency and brand identity: Keep your communication on social media consistent and in line with your brand identity. A strong brand presence on social media strengthens the trust and credibility of your brand.
By strategically harnessing the power of social media, you can not only drive direct traffic to your website, but also help strengthen your online presence in the long term.
Choose alone or together with an online marketing agency the right keywords for your media
Not only the size, but also the name, the alt tag and the description of your images and other media on your website are important for SEO.
Our SEO agency uses important keywords in the description of your media to give search engines a further indication of what your website is about.
Users can also benefit from the additional information: If the images cannot be loaded, the alt tag appears in their place and reveals what should actually be shown here. The title text, on the other hand, is displayed in some browsers as soon as the user moves their mouse over it.
Write unique content
Plagiarism is not only a problem with academic papers. Your website can also suffer if you copy your competitors’ texts. In some cases, Google even removes pages with stolen content from the search index.
In addition to a high keyword density, it is particularly important for texts on the web that the information is prepared in a way that is easy for the reader to understand. No user reads word for word. They scan the page for headings, key points and visual elements and then decide whether the page is worth their time. Therefore:
- keep your paragraphs short
- write clear headings
- and guide the reader through the text with images and graphics.
Online Marketing Switzerland: Your personal SEO strategy
The web is in constant change. Search engines change the criteria they use to select websites for their search results more often than many SEO specialists would like. However, some core principles remain the same with every update.
The factors mentioned in this article are universal and can already put your website at the top of the search results. Provided you are willing to put some energy into your SEO strategy. As more and more customers see the Internet as a convenient shopping opportunity, your efforts will certainly pay off.
As experts for Online Marketing Switzerland, we can help you to promote your site to the top of the search engine.
