Future-proof strategies: 12 SEO measures for consistent results

A lot has happened in the SEO landscape in the recent past. First the AI content boom, then the Helpful Content Update, many other core updates and the latest Content Warehouse API leaks.

Even SEO veterans can get nervous and ask themselves:

Which SEO measures still make sense at the moment? And which will remain relevant in the future?

I can’t see into the future, but based on the opinion of experts in the industry and my own assessment, I have compiled a list of future-proof SEO measures.

The following 12 SEO measures will not only help you to optimize your website now, but also to be well prepared for the future.

You will learn how to increase your visibility in search engines, generate more organic traffic and improve your user experience. Prepare to maximize your online potential and achieve long-term success!

1. define SEO goals

The first measure you should take is to become aware of the goal of the .

You can use the SMART criteria to set meaningful SEO goals:

• Specific: Goals should be clearly and precisely defined. Instead of “more traffic”, the goal should be “30% more organic traffic within 6 months”, for example.
• Measurable: Concrete figures or metrics must be defined to track progress, e.g. “Increase conversion rate by 15%”.
• Achievable: Goals should be realistic and achievable based on available resources and the current state of the website.
• Relevant: Goals must match the overarching marketing strategy and business requirements.
• Time-bound: A clear time frame should be set, e.g. “Increase organic traffic by 30% within the next 6 months”.

Examples of SEO goals

• Traffic increase: Increase in organic traffic by 50% within one year.
• Conversion rate optimization: Improvement of the conversion rate from 2% to 3% within
• Keyword ranking: Placement in the top 5 for three main keywords within 9 months.
• Backlink building: Creation of 50 new high-quality backlinks within 3 months.

2. carry out a keyword research

Once you know your SEO goals, you need to get an overview of relevant keywords. Even in 2024, everything still revolves around keywords.

The following tools and techniques are particularly helpful for effective keyword research and optimization:

• Ahrefs: A comprehensive tool that enables detailed analysis of keywords, backlinks and competitors. It helps you to identify profitable keywords and track their performance.
• Semrush: Provides comprehensive insights into keyword strategies, competitive analysis and traffic estimates. It’s great for identifying keyword opportunities and monitoring SEO performance.
• Sistrix: A specialized tool for analyzing keyword rankings, visibility index and competitor analysis. It shows the strengths and weaknesses of your SEO strategy and helps you to optimize it.

If you can’t do much with this yet, take a look at our detailed guide to keyword analysis.

3. create and optimize content

Even in times of ChatGPT, content is still in demand to be successful in SEO. Although there are likely to be serious traffic losses for top-of-the-funnel keywords, you still need content to cover your important keywords.

The quality and corresponding optimization of your content will therefore become much more important in the future. Producing half-baked texts with the help of LLMs will certainly not lead to success in the long term.

Quality and relevance: What is good content?

To create high-quality and relevant content, you should:

1. Understand and anticipate user intentions: The content must directly address the questions and needs of the target group. Also try to anticipate the user’s next steps and help them along the way. An example: For a website about vegan recipes, the content should not only offer recipes, but also tips and nutritional information.
2. Publish detailed and well-researched content: Each article should provide in-depth information. For example, an article on “vegan recipes” could contain detailed instructions, lists of ingredients as well as alternatives, preparation tips and nutritional information.
3. Integrate visual elements: Supplement the text with images, infographics and videos. A recipe can be significantly enhanced with step-by-step images or a video tutorial.

Topicality and uniqueness are still important

In my opinion, topicality and uniqueness will play an even greater role in the ranking of content in the future.

• Regular updates: Keep the content up to date by regularly adding new information or revising existing content. For example, seasonal vegan recipes can be published or updated at the appropriate time of year.
• Unique content: Avoid duplicates and offer unique perspectives. Instead of copying generic recipes, develop your own creations or offer personal tips and tricks.

Optimization for keywords

Despite all the hype about AI and super-smart algorithms, Google is still largely keyword-oriented. So we continue to use all the old-school tricks for on-page optimization:

• Keyword integration: Use your most important keywords as well as variants and synonyms naturally in the text. For example, an article about vegan recipes should contain keywords such as “vegan recipes”, “simple vegan dishes” and “vegan cooking instructions”.
• Placement of keywords: Keywords should be placed in strategic places such as in the title, headings, first paragraph and meta descriptions. Make sure to also use the keywords in image descriptions and alt tags.
• Avoid keyword stuffing: Excessive use of keywords can be counterproductive. The text should always remain readable and natural.

Further best practices

• Structured structure: Organize the text with clear headings and paragraphs. Use lists and bullet points to increase readability.
• Internal links: Link relevant content within your website to improve the user experience and increase dwell time. Use keyword anchor texts here!
• CTA (Call to Action): End each article with a clear call to action, e.g. “Try our latest vegan recipe and share your experience in the comments!”

4. optimize meta titles and meta descriptions

Since the meta title is still a strong ranking factor and the meta description is still displayed in the SERPs (although often overwritten by G), it remains an important SEO measure.

Best practices for meta tags

Length:

• Meta title: Ideally 50-60 characters. Anything over this will be cut off in the search results.
• Meta descriptions: Should be between 150-160 characters long to be fully displayed.

Keywords:

• Strategic placement: Use the main keyword at the beginning of the meta title and in the meta description.
• Relevance: Make sure that the keywords appear natural and relevant.

Call-to-action:

• Calls to action: Use calls to action such as “Read now”, “Learn more” or “Visit us”.
• Emphasize benefits: Arouse users’ interest by emphasizing the added value of the content.

Meta title examples:

“Vegan recipes for beginners | simple and delicious”

“SEO tips 2024: How to improve your Google ranking”

“The best smartphones 2024 | Test & comparison”

Meta description examples:

“Discover the best vegan recipes for beginners. Simple, quick and delicious. Try them out now!”

“Find out how you can improve your Google ranking in 2024 with our SEO tips. Read more now!”

“Compare the best smartphones 2024 and find the perfect device for your needs. Find out more now!”

5. consider page speed and core web vitals

A few years ago, there was a lot of hype about this topic. Currently, it is rather quiet again and it is also known that it does not play a major role in your ranking – however, this only applies if your website performs properly. It is therefore important to ensure this in the future.

Test loading speed

The loading speed of a website is crucial for the user experience and the ranking in search engines. Slow pages demonstrably lead to higher bounce rates and ultimately to lower rankings.

The following tools and techniques can be used to measure and improve loading speed:

• Google PageSpeed Insights: This tool analyzes the speed of a website and provides detailed reports with suggestions for improvement. It evaluates both the mobile and desktop versions of the site.
• GTmetrix: Provides a comprehensive analysis of page speed and gives specific recommendations for optimization.
• Pingdom: Another tool for measuring loading times, which also records historical data and performance trends.

How can loading times be improved?

• Image optimization: Reduce the file size of images without losing quality, for example using tools such as TinyPNG.
• Enable browser caching: Enables frequently used resources to be saved in the user’s browser.
• Minification of CSS, JavaScript and HTML: Remove unnecessary characters and spaces to reduce the file size.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): Distribute the content of your website to different servers worldwide to shorten the loading time.

Core Web Vitals

The Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics defined by Google to measure the user experience of a website. They focus on three main aspects:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the loading performance. LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds after the page is first loaded.
2. First Input Delay (FID): Measures the interactivity. FID should be less than 100 milliseconds.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures the visual stability. CLS should be less than 0.1.

How can Core Web Vitals be improved?

• Improve LCP: Optimize loading time of the largest content block by using fast loading servers, reducing render blocking elements and optimizing images and videos.
• Reduce FID: Reduce loading time for interactive elements by minimizing JavaScript and loading asynchronously.
• Minimize CLS: Improve visual stability by using fixed sizes for all elements that are dynamically loaded and limiting animations to transformation-based changes.

6. use structured data

Structured data is a standardized format for identifying information on a website that helps search engines to better understand the content.

By using schema markup, specific elements on your page can be highlighted, which improves the display in search results.

Advantages of implementing structured data

• Improved display: Rich snippets that display additional information such as ratings, prices or events can increase the click-through rate (CTR).
• Increased visibility: Visually appealing search results increase the chance that users will click on your page.
• Better data interpretation: Search engines can interpret the content of your page more accurately and display it in relevant search queries.

How can I use structured data?

1. Select Schema.org: Choose the right schema markup for your content. Popular markups are, for example, for articles, products, events or reviews.
2. Add code: Insert the corresponding JSON-LD markup into the HTML code of your page. JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is the recommended method for embedding structured data.
3. Testing: Use the Google Rich Results Testing Tool to ensure that the structured data is implemented correctly and can be read by search engines.
4. Monitor: Use Google Search Console to monitor the performance and recognition of structured data and make adjustments if necessary.

If you want to find out more, take a look at our detailed article on structured data & SEO.

7. mobile optimization

Mobile-first indexing means that Google uses the mobile version of a website for indexing and evaluation instead of the desktop version. As the majority of users access the internet via mobile devices, an optimized mobile site is crucial for a good ranking and user experience.

How can I optimize my website for smartphones?

1. Mobile-friendly design: Ensure that all content and functions are available and usable on mobile devices.
2. Loading speed: Optimization of mobile loading times by compressing images and reducing JavaScript.
3. Viewport configuration: Correct setting of the viewport to ensure optimal display on different devices.
4. Flexible layouts: Use of flexible grids and layouts that adapt to the screen size.
5. Media queries: Use of CSS media queries to optimize the design for different device types.
6. Fluid Images: Scale images and media content so that they remain within their container and change proportionally to the screen size.

8. focus on the user experience (UX)

The user experience (UX) plays a decisive role in the SEO ranking of a website. Google and other search engines are increasingly evaluating websites based on their user-friendliness.

In view of the vast amount of fresh AI content, user signals will continue to play an extremely important role for Google rankings in the future.

UX optimization is therefore currently one of the most important SEO measures!

Factors such as low bounce rates, longer dwell times and a high interaction rate signal to search engines that a page is relevant and user-friendly.

A good UX leads to more satisfied users who stay on the site longer and return more often, which has a positive effect on the ranking.

How can user-friendliness be improved?

1. Simple and intuitive structure: Clear, logical navigation makes it easier for users to find information.
2. Breadcrumbs: These help users to track their position on the website and quickly return to previous pages.
3. Search function: A well-functioning search function significantly improves the user experience, especially on extensive websites.
4. Optimizing loading speed: Fast loading times are crucial for a positive user experience. This can be achieved through image compression, code minimization and the use of content delivery networks (CDNs).
5. Comply with W3C guidelines: These guidelines ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including people with disabilities.
6. Alt tags for images: Descriptive alt tags help visually impaired users and improve SEO at the same time.
7. Clear fonts and contrasts: Using easy-to-read fonts and sufficient contrasts makes the website easier to use for all visitors.

By implementing these best practices in terms of navigation, loading times and accessibility, you can improve the user experience, which in turn has a positive effect on your SEO ranking.

9. do not neglect technical SEO measures

Technical search engine optimization is not necessarily sexy, but it is important for the ranking of your website. Your technical basis should be in order and not have any serious problems. This creates the foundation for the success of further measures.

Use a speaking and logical URL structure

A clear and logical URL structure helps search engines to better understand and index the content of your website. Well-structured URLs improve user-friendliness and make it easier for users to understand the structure of your site.

Best Practices:

• Short and descriptive URLs: Use concise and descriptive URLs that reflect the content of the page.
• Avoid special characters: Keep URLs simple and avoid unnecessary special characters and parameters.
• Keyword integration: Integrate relevant keywords into the URL to improve SEO.

Clean up sitemap

A sitemap is a file that provides search engines with a list of all the pages on your website. It helps search engines to crawl and index all content efficiently, especially for large or complex websites.

Best Practices:

• XML sitemaps: Create and maintain an XML sitemap that contains all the important pages of your website.
• Regular updates: Update the sitemap regularly to reflect changes to the website structure.
• Submit to search engines: Submit the sitemap to search engines such as Google and Bing to ensure that all pages are crawled.

Configure Robots.txt correctly

The Robots.txt file tells search engines which pages or directories they are allowed to crawl and which they are not. This is particularly important to exclude duplicate content and irrelevant pages from crawling.

Best Practices:

• Correct syntax: Make sure that the Robots.txt file is correctly formatted and free of errors.
• Use for sensitive areas: Prevent crawling of sensitive areas such as admin pages or duplicate content.
• Testing: Use tools such as the Google Search Console Robots.txt tester to check the functionality of the file.

If you want to go into more detail, start here with our article on technical search engine optimization.

10. work on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)

Although E-E-A-T, formerly just E-A-T, is not officially a direct ranking factor, it does play a role in the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (SQEG).

So it is definitely important for assessing the quality of your content. And I think that this will become even more important in the future with the flood of AI content. Let’s take a look at the individual points.

Experience

Experience refers to the fact that the content creator has first-hand experience with the topic they are writing about. This is particularly relevant for YMYL (Your Money Your Life) pages that cover topics such as health or finance.

Strategies for building experience:

• Testimonials and case studies: Content should include personal experiences or specific case studies. For example, product reviews could come from people who have actually used the product.
• User reviews: Real testimonials and testimonials from customers can increase credibility. These should be supplemented by photos or videos that prove the authenticity of the experience.

Expertise

Expertise means that the content is created by people with proven expertise. This is also particularly important for YMYL topics where the content can have a significant impact on readers’ lives.

Strategies for building expertise:

• Expert authors: Content should be written by experts who have the relevant qualifications and professional backgrounds. This must also be made clear to readers and search engines!
• Well-researched content: Articles should be thoroughly researched and up to date, with references to scientific studies or recognized sources.
• Proof of qualifications: For YMYL subjects, official evidence such as licenses, memberships in professional associations or academic degrees should be provided.

Authoritativeness

Authority refers to the recognition and reputation of a website or author within an industry. Sites with high authority are often cited and linked to by other trusted sources.

Strategies for building authority:

• Backlink strategies: Here we are again. Link building! High-quality backlinks from recognized websites in the industry help to strengthen authority.
• Industry-specific publications: Articles and mentions in recognized industry magazines and forums increase visibility and reputation.
• Mentions without links: Mere mentions on reputable sites can also increase authority.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness refers to the trust that users and search engines place in a website. Transparent and truthful information is crucial for trustworthiness.

Strategies for building trustworthiness:

• Secure website (HTTPS): The use of an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmissions creates trust.
• Transparency: Clear information on contact details, company location and legal information such as data protection guidelines is essential.
• Customer reviews: Positive and verified user reviews strengthen trust in your content.
• Factually correct information: All published information should be factually correct and supported by reliable sources.
• User-friendliness: Avoid excessive advertising and pop-ups that could impair the user experience.

By consistently implementing these principles, you can strengthen the experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness of your website, which is especially essential for YMYL sites to gain and maintain the trust of users and search engines.

The “improvement” of your E-E-A-T is an important SEO measure for 2024 and the coming years.

11. building backlinks and link building: now more than ever

Backlinks are links from other websites to your site and have always played an important role in search engine optimization (SEO).

Google has often preached that we shouldn’t concentrate on backlinks, but the latest Content Warehouse API leaks have shown us how they are lying coldly. To be honest, I wasn’t surprised.

So why will link building remain one of the most important SEO measures?

Properly implemented, they are the decisive signal for the evaluation of the authority and trustworthiness of a website by search engines.

High-quality backlinks can significantly improve the ranking of your website and ultimately also contribute to E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

How can I build backlinks?

1. write guest posts:

Guest posts on thematically relevant and trustworthy blogs or websites offer the opportunity to gain valuable backlinks. Make sure to deliver high-quality content that provides added value for readers.

2. build relationships:

Networking with other website operators, bloggers and influencers from your industry can lead to natural backlinks. Regular exchange and collaboration promote reciprocal linking.

3. high quality content:

Create unique, informative and relevant content that other sites like to link to. For example, comprehensive guides, studies, infographics or case studies can attract attention.

4. broken link building:

Identify broken links on other websites that refer to pages that no longer exist. Offer the website operators to replace these links with your relevant content.

5. press releases and PR:

Publish press releases about interesting events, studies or developments in your company. These can be picked up and linked to by news portals and blogs.

6. directories and industry portals:

Entries in trustworthy business directories and portals can generate additional backlinks. Make sure that these directories are reputable and offer added value.

With the increasing spread of AI-generated content, it will become more and more important to stand out through authentic and trustworthy backlinks.

Backlinks from high-quality sources “prove” that your content is valued and recommended by real people, which is simply not the case with AI-generated content.

That’s why you should tackle this topic with great commitment from now on and make it one of your top SEO measures for the coming year. Our backlink agency can of course help you with this.

12. clean up the page: remove unnecessary and irrelevant content

Regularly cleaning up and removing content that is no longer needed or irrelevant is an essential measure for optimizing your website.

Old, outdated or low-quality content can impair the user experience and have a negative impact on SEO rankings.

Which content to delete for better SEO?

1. Use analytics tools such as Google Analytics to identify pages with low traffic, high bounce rates or outdated information. Such pages are often candidates for cleanup.
2. Regularly carry out a comprehensive content audit to assess the current status of all content. Document the quality, relevance and topicality of each page.
3. If certain content is outdated but still offers potential value, consolidate it with similar, up-to-date content. Alternatively, you can update this content to make it relevant again.
4. For removed pages that still had valuable backlinks or high traffic, set up 301 redirects to relevant, existing pages. This ensures that users and search engines are redirected to current content.
5. Remove content that cannot be updated or consolidated and offers no added value. This creates space for new, high-quality content and improves the overall quality of the website.
6. Monitor the performance of your content on a regular basis and carry out minor adjustments on an ongoing basis. This helps to keep the quality of the website high in the long term.

By cleaning up and removing irrelevant content, you can improve the user experience, boost SEO performance and increase the efficiency of your website. This contributes significantly to a positive perception by users and search engines.