What is SEO? Why is this important?

SEO – what is it and why is everyone talking about it? As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably come across this abbreviation before. This article will give you a basic understanding of the topic. Let’s get started!

Definition: What does SEO stand for?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It includes all measures that serve to increase the organic visitor numbers of a website. Organic visitors are users who arrive at the website via the “natural” results of a search engine. This does not include visitors who find the site via paid advertisements.

Or to put it simply: you try to attract as many visitors as possible to your site without having to advertise. The advantages are obvious: Compared to SEA (paid ads), there are no click costs.

To achieve this goal, there are several different approaches and sub-areas of search engine optimization. But let’s first clarify why SEO is so important and whether SEO is worthwhile for you.

Why search engine optimization is important

Every day, around 3.5 billion search queries are recorded worldwide via Google(as of July 2019). And the trend is rising. You probably know it yourself. You want to know or find something? The first step leads to Google.

Although there are also other search engines such as Bing or DuckDuckGo, Google is still the pioneer of search engines with a market share of around 90%.

So if you want potential customers to find you via the Internet, you have to be found via Google! If the competition is ranked just one position above you, it will already receive significantly more visitors (and therefore potential customers).

Is SEO worthwhile for you?

The answer to this question is “yes” in almost all cases. Of course, there are always exceptions. If you work in online marketing or e-commerce, SEO is a must.

But smaller local service providers such as craftsmen, restaurants and the like can also benefit massively from SEO. The same applies to specialty stores such as pet shops. Local SEO plays a particularly important role here.

Basically, SEO is worthwhile for anyone who is inquired about online. And that applies to almost all business areas these days.

However, if you live largely from your walk-in customers and have a prime location in the city center or in large shopping centers, for example, then the SEO budget is probably better invested elsewhere.

The basics: What is important for SEO?

You now know what SEO is and why it is important. But how does it all work now? What is important for SEO?

Search engine optimization can be roughly divided into two main areas. This includes on-page optimization (everything that takes place within the site) and off-page optimization (external factors).

Both disciplines are equally important. You can find a detailed comparison between on-page and off-page SEO here: OnPage vs. OffPage

OnPage SEO

OnPage optimization concerns all measures that improve the quality of the page itself. Above all, this includes technical accuracy, usability and the quality of the content.

The technical aspects include

• Links and redirects
• “Clean” programming
• Loading times
• Optimization for mobile devices (extremely important!)
• Give the search engines a helping hand (allocation of the crawling budget, sitemaps, etc.)

Operability includes:

• Easy-to-read and appealing content (highlighting, short paragraphs, etc.)
• Simple and logical navigation
• Attractive design
• Easy handling
• Users should reach their destination as quickly as possible

The quality of the content is what counts above all:

• completeness, all questions should be answered
• Real added value for the user! “Content is king” counts more than ever
• Topicality of the contents
• Correctness of the content
• No unnecessarily bloated texts
• Logical structuring

As you can see, many factors play a role in on-page optimization. This list by no means covers all aspects, but should give you a rough overview of the most important topics.

Read more: OnPage SEO for beginners

OffPage SEO

Off-page optimization is all about backlinks, i.e. links from other pages. A link is virtually a “recommendation” in the online world. It is therefore no wonder that backlinks play a decisive role in search result rankings.

Both the number and the quality of the links are decisive.

How is the quality of the links determined?

• The link source should be as relevant to the topic as possible
• The link source itself should be trustworthy
• The “stronger” the page that links to you, the better

But when is a site “strong” or trustworthy? Values such as Domain Authority, Topic Authority, Trustflow, Citationflow, Referring IP’s and some other key figures are always used as standard.

It would go beyond the scope of this article to go into all these terms. Just remember that not all backlinks are the same.

A site that has existed for several years, publishes reputable content, pays attention to the selection of its outbound links and has many visitors is a good link source per se.

Any “spam sites” that basically provide no added value and only exist to provide links are a bad source of links.

The aim of off-page measures is therefore to increase the number of “good” links to your own site. So it’s all about making your own website known.

Read more: OffPage SEO for beginners

How long does optimization take and what does SEO cost?

Unfortunately, there is no general answer to this question. The time you need to land in the top 3 results depends on many factors. How much time (or money) do you invest in SEO, how strong is the competition, what is the starting position?

Basically, SEO is a long-term project and takes time. Search engines also want to bring a certain consistency to their results. Therefore, you will not rank from position 50 to position 1 overnight.

Google will test how good your content actually is. This means that you will be placed a little further ahead, the user signals will be evaluated, and then things will continue based on this. This will happen again and again.

Accordingly, SEO always takes time.

If you actively take care of SEO, you should see the first noticeable results after around 3 to 6 months. Of course, it can always go faster or take longer. However, if you want to start with SEO now, plan for at least a few months.

The question of the costs of an SEO campaign cannot be answered in general terms either. Three questions are also decisive here:

• Where do we stand?
• Where do we want to go?
• What is the competition doing?

Depending on the initial situation, objectives and competitive environment, the answer to the question of how much SEO costs can always be different.

However, as the effort involved in analysis, research, content creation etc. is usually relatively high, you should budget at least a four-figure sum per month for SEO support.