Improve Google ranking: Tips on onpage, offpage & technical SEO

Feature image for the blog post about improving Google rankings

Google rankings are crucial for a company's success - in all industries! Why? Because a better ranking of your own website in the Google SERPs means higher traffic and more potential new customers.

 

In this article, we at Timo Specht would like to tell you how you can improve your rankings and even appear at number 1 on Google! We cover the different SEO disciplines:

 

Get SEO tips for the areas of onpage, offpage and technical SEO and find out which mistakes you should avoid in search engine optimization.

 

Onpage SEO: Optimize your website from the inside out

On-page SEO includes all measures that are carried out directly on your website to improve its ranking on Google and other search engines. This includes the optimization of content and meta tags, the insertion of internal links, but also the development of an appealing content design with images, graphics, videos, etc.

 

Many would probably describe good on-page SEO as the most important factor for better SEO success - and we at Timo Specht also believe that content is key! Find out now how you can improve the content of your website for search engines and at the same time contribute to greater user-friendliness.

 

Onpage tip 1: Keyword research and optimization

When you think of SEO, keywords are probably the first thing that comes to mind. And indeed, keyword optimization is a very important part of any successful SEO strategy. Because without the right main and secondary keywords, your target group won't be able to find your website - and you won't be successful.

 

 

Here are some things that can help you with your keyword researchand optimization:

 

  • With tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Ahrefs or SEMrush to find relevant keywords for your content.
  • Analyze your competition and find keyword gaps that you can use.
  • Long-tail keywords often have less competition and are more specific.
  • Integrate your keywords naturally into your content, headings and meta tags (no keyword stuffing).

 

The aim of any keyword research is to find terms with a high search volume and low competition. Once you have achieved this, the keywords should be incorporated into your content in a natural way. This is the only way to avoid compromising the user experience and deliver high-quality content.

 

Use variations of your keyword and make sure that the terms really match the offer presented on your website. If this is not the case, it is advisable, especially for online stores, to create landing pages such as blog articles that only deal with your keyword. From here, you can link to your offer in the appropriate places.

 

Onpage tip 2: Content quality and length

High-quality content is essential for good rankings: Google and visitors to your website prefer content that is useful, informative and well-structured. Comprehensive research ensures that your content is up to date and offers added value. But how long should the content be? As with keyword research, you can also use your competitors as a guide here.

 

Longer articles with 1500 words or more often rank better, as they are considered more comprehensive and informative. However, if all the important topics have already been covered, the opposite can also occur: Unnecessary or inappropriate information, duplication, convoluted sentences and lots of filler words can massively impair the reading flow.

 

Therefore, make sure you only provide content that is really relevant. Use paragraphs, bulleted lists and subheadings (H2 to H6) to make the text reader-friendly. Always keep your content up to date by checking information and making regular updates.

 

No idea what to write? Research for SEO content

You now know how your content should be structured: but what should you actually write? Research is an important step in the creation of SEO-optimized content. In addition to the keyword analysis there are also special tools for finding popular content and topics . But there are also free options.

 

In addition to the competitor analysis, you can, for example, make use of the "other questions" section that appears in the search engine results after a Google search. You can use this to find out which topics or problems your target group is concerned with and create content that relates to this. With your own FAQs , your website may end up under these Google questions itself - this expresses expertise and improves your reach.

 

Important: If you orientate yourself on the competition, you should duplicate contenti.e. copying other texts or article structures, at all costs: This will be penalized by Google with a drop in rankings!

 

Onpage tip 3: Meta tags and descriptions

Meta tags are short HTML or XHTML elements that are integrated into the header of a page and provide search engines with information about your page. As soon as the search engine requires certain information, it accesses the meta title and the meta description (together the meta snippet), for example, but also information about the author, the language, the indexing of HTML pages or the following of outgoing links.

 

The metadata is not only important for the search engine, but also for internet users. If certain parameters are adhered to, such as the character length, the snippet you have created can be displayed in the search engine results.

 

The title and description give users an initial insight into what content they can expect on the page. Therefore, use concise title tags with relevant keywords and write appealing meta descriptions that can also contain HTML characters. This way you can increase the clicks(CTR) on your web pages.

 

Onpage tip 4: Importance of images for search engine optimization

Images are not only important for the visual appeal of your site, but also for search engine optimization. They improve the user experience and are therefore also rewarded with higher Google rankings. In addition to images, you can also include relevant YouTube videos in your content to provide additional information.

 

Caution: Pay attention to copyright when selecting images and photos. Instead of stealing them from other websites, you should use stock photos or create the images yourself.

 

Before you integrate images, graphics, etc. into your website, you should name the files with keywords. Add keywords to your images in the CMS also add alt texts with relevant keywords as a description to provide Google with information about the images and to rank better. Also reduce the file size of your images: This will improve the loading time of your page and contribute to technical SEO.

 

Onpage tip 5: Use of tables and graphics

Tables and graphics can make your content easier to understand. They not only offer added value for your readers, but can also be used as featured snippets in the search results - you shouldn't miss out on this opportunity! These formats are particularly popular for structuring your page better:

 

  • Lists / enumerations like these provide a better overview and prevent blocks of text.
  • Tables are suitable for presenting data clearly and making comparisons.
  • Graphics and diagrams illustrate complex information visually.
  • Infographics summarize interesting data and facts and are easy to share.

 

To ensure that graphics & co. fit perfectly with your website, they should match the corporate design on your website and ideally also contain your logo or name. This will strengthen your brand awareness when the images appear in Google Images.

 

Again, make sure that you do not take any graphics from other websites or, depending on the data protection regulations, cite the source and link to it. However, it is always best if you recreate the graphics in a similar way and add more up-to-date information. This way you create added value and stand out from the competition!

 

Off-page SEO: Improve Google rankings through external measures

In addition to on-page SEO, there is of course off-page SEO. This discipline includes all measures that do not take place on your own website. In particular, building backlinks, social media marketing and testimonials on review platforms can improve the relevance of your landing pages for search engines. Timo Specht will now explain how this works in detail!

 

Offpage tip 1: Backlink building

With backlinks are links that lead to your website from trustworthy and thematically relevant websites. To optimize your link building you can enter into partnerships with other companies to link to each other's sites. You can also guest posts on blogs or search for old or broken links on relevant websites to offer yours as a replacement.

 

Buying links is another way to generate more backlinks in the shortest possible time and achieve better Google rankings. With this option, however, please note that the quality of the linking website is usually also reflected in the price. You must therefore expect ongoing, sometimes very high costs and accept backlinks that are taken offline again after a few months.

 

Offpage tip 2: Social media engagement & influencer marketing

A strong social media presence can also increase traffic to your website and thus indirectly improve your Google ranking. Regularly share content on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to gain more visibility.

 

Tip: You don't have to be equally active on all platforms. Conduct a target group analysis to find out which social media channels are suitable for your company.

 

But to really benefit from the advantages that social media offers, it is not enough to share a photo or news from the company blog every now and then. Interact with your followers through comments, likes and shares to encourage engagement.

 

Cooperate with influencers to strengthen your reach and generate high-quality backlinks. Paid social media campaigns are also an opportunity to promote your content in a targeted manner and reach new target groups. All of this has an impact on your relevance and therefore also on your search engine rankings.

 

Offpage tip 3: Importance of testimonials

Testimonials and reviews are not only important for user trust, but also for your Google rankings. Positive reviews on platforms such as Google Company Profiles (formerly Google My Business) as well as Google Reviews can improve your ranking and ensure more local visibility visibility.

 

Actively ask satisfied customers for reviews and make the process as easy as possible. Respond to both positive and negative reviews to show that you take customer feedback seriously. You can also integrate testimonials and reviews as references on your website to gain the trust of new visitors and increase dwell time.

 

Technical SEO: Optimizing the technical aspects of your website

Technology is not your thing? We try to explain technical SEO to you in a simple and understandable way, as this discipline should not be underestimated for your Google rankings. Essentially, technical search engine optimization refers to improving the technical aspects of your website - who would have thought it?

 

You can now find out how you can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site, improve loading speeds and URL structures and facilitate mobile use.

 

Technical SEO tip 1: Increase website speed

Have you ever left a website because it simply took ages to load? This is exactly what we want to prevent with website speed optimization; because slow websites inevitably lead to higher bounce rateswhich can have a negative impact on your ranking!

 

To improve the loading speed and other core web vitals the PageSpeedInsights tool from Google can help you measure and optimize them. It detects sources of errors that you can then eliminate with a little technical know-how.

 

For example, the images on your website could have an impact on loading speeds. Minimize the image size and use modern image formats such as WebP. Unknown fonts or pop-ups could also affect the speed of the website.

 

You should therefore avoid unnecessary JavaScript and perform tasks with high computing power one after the other rather than in parallel. Also use caching techniques to shorten loading times for returning visitors.

 

Technical SEO tip 2: Mobile friendliness

With more and more users accessing the internet via mobile devices, a mobile-friendly website is essential. Make sure your site looks and works well on smartphones and tablets to rank high in mobile search results.

 

Use a responsive design that automatically adapts to the screen size and avoid blocks of text; these become even longer walls of text when compressed. Test your website regularly on mobile devices or use Google's Mobile-Friendly-Test API , for example, to ensure that your entire website is optimized for mobile devices.

 

Technical SEO tip 3: Optimizing the URL structure

The URL is the name or address of the landing page that is displayed in the address bar of your browser. This is also part of technical SEO and can influence your Google ranking.

 

An optimized URL structure helps the crawler to understand the content of your page better and faster. Use so-called "speaking" URLs that contain relevant keywords without stop words contain relevant keywords without stop words. Also avoid unnecessary parameters or special characters and keep your URLs short and concise. This will help you organize your website better and make it easy for users and search engines to understand.

 

3 typical mistakes when "improving" your Google rankings

Many website operators make mistakes in search engine optimization because they mean too well or don't have the necessary technical know-how. We at Timo Specht will show you the most common mistakes and explain how you can avoid them.

 

Mistake 1: Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing refers to the excessive use of keywords in your website content. It is no longer the case that as many keywords as possible ensure better Google rankings; in the past, a keyword density of 2 to 3% was often considered optimal. Search engines now regard the frequent use of the same terms as spam: there is a risk of penalization from Google!

 

So avoid repeating keywords unnaturally often. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that contains your keywords organically. Synonyms and related terms add variety to your texts and cover topic-relevant secondary keywords, which also have an impact on your search engine ranking.

 

Mistake 2: Neglecting meta tags

Meta tags are important components of on-page SEO. However, due to a lack of HTML knowledge, they are often not or insufficiently used, which is reflected in low SERP rankings; these codes are easy to implement on a website, even for non-experts.

 

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Optimize your meta tags regularly to ensure that they comply with current SEO best practices. Use title tags with relevant keywords and engaging meta descriptions that encourage users to click.

 

Error 3: Missing internal links

In addition to backlinks internal linking help search engines to crawl and index your site better. Why? Because it recognizes the relevance of individual pages through internal link structures and better understands which pages are in context.

 

If someone searches for your company in combination with a keyword, it is possible that not just one, but several landing pages of your website will appear in the results.

 

So don't neglect this aspect; use relevant anchor texts to link to another landing page, a PDF file, an image etc. and make sure that every page of your website is accessible via at least one internal link. The link to the homepage should be used most frequently. In order to maintain the reading flow, you should also not set too many links.

 

Advantages of SEO agencies: Is professional help necessary?

Search engine optimization is a complex field that is constantly changing and evolving. If you don't employ trained SEO & online marketing specialists in your company, it's almost impossible to land in first place or even on page 1 of the search engine results.

 

A professional agency like Timo Specht GmbH can help you improve your Google ranking in the long term. Benefit from specialized SEO agencies:

 

Expertise and experience

Professional agencies have the necessary expertise to develop effective SEO strategies. Thanks to years of experience, implementing these strategies is much more efficient than doing search engine optimization on your own.

 

Saving resources

Working with an SEO agency saves you human and time resources that you can invest in other areas of your business. We continuously monitor the performance of your website and make constant adjustments to achieve the best possible results.

 

Access to professional SEO tools

Of course, you can also purchase search engine optimization tools yourself; however, these are often very expensive and not easy to understand for non-experts due to their many functions. Specialized agencies have access to professional SEO tools and software that are essential for carrying out effective SEO measures.

 

Conclusion

If you want to improve your Google ranking, you need a holistic and well-thought-out SEO strategy that includes both on-page and off-page as well as technical SEO measures. It takes a lot of time and know-how to consider all ranking factors for your Google rankings and avoid serious SEO mistakes.

 

Professional SEO agencies ensure sustainable success, taking the pressure off you and your employees. If you are interested in SEO yourself, start implementing our tips today and watch your ranking in the search results improve. Otherwise, we are happy to assist you as an SEO agency. Book a free initial consultation and get in touch.

 

 

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