Search engine optimization - a guide to improve your ranking

The SEO Guide: step by step guide with lots of tools

In today's digital world, it is more important than ever for your website to be visible in search results. A good ranking in search engines can make the crucial difference between success and failure for your business. If you are invisible online, the chances for success are slim to none. In this guide to search engine optimization, we will show you how to optimize your website for both search engines and users alike. We will introduce you to the various aspects of SEO step by step, from keyword research to user experience optimization. Whether you are new to SEO or an experienced professional, this guide will provide you with valuable tips and tricks to boost your website's visibility in search results and generate more organic traffic. Let's dive into the exciting world of search engine optimization together!

A general note, many of the below listed tools are offered as a "Freemium" version. Freemium refers to a pricing strategy including a basic version of the service that can be used free of charge. Additional features and services as well as the “full” service are fee-based.

1. Keyword Research and Analysis

The foundation of good search engine optimization starts with the selection of the right keywords. The appropriate keywords help making your content more visible to your target audience and search engines. Without choosing the fitting keyword set for your website you won’t have the needed base to build up from, so do invest enough time and resources into creating this required foundation to get your desired results. Below you can find some useful tools to help your keyword research:

• Google Keyword Planner (Free): A free tool by Google that helps you find keyword ideas and analyze their search volume and competition.
• Ubersuggest (Freemium): Free tool by Neil Patel to generate keyword ideas and analyze their search volume, competition, as well as seasonal trends.
• Keywordtool.io (Freemium): A free tool that helps you find useful long-tail keywords and analyze their search volume and competition.
• Answer the Public (Freemium): A free tool to find questions and topics related to your keywords to create relevant content that interests your target audience.
• Moz Keyword Explorer (Freemium): A tool by Moz that helps you find keyword ideas, analyze their search volume and competition, and set priorities for your planned keyword strategy.

2. On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization refers to improving the existing content and HTML elements on your website in order to increase general visibility and user-friendliness. It is crucial to not only be visible online but to “deliver” useful content and information once users are actually on your website. Here are some tools to can help you with on-page optimization to create this positive user experience:

• Yoast SEO (Freemium): A popular WordPress plugin to help you optimize your content and meta tags to achieve better rankings in search results.
• SEMrush (Freemium): A comprehensive SEO tool that helps you analyze your on-page optimization and receive improvement suggestions.
• Screaming Frog (Freemium): A crawler tool that helps you identify and fix technical and on-page issues with your website.
• Google Search Console (Free): A free tool by Google to monitor your website's performance in search results and receive helpful optimization suggestions.
• Moz On-Page Grader (Freemium): A tool by Moz helping you to analyze your on-page optimization and receive improvement suggestions.

3. Technical SEO

Technical SEO as a term refers to the general improving of technical aspects of your website in order to increase crawling and indexing efficiency. A solid and visible website needs to be flawless regarding the technical aspect to create the best experience without technical hiccups. Especially an appropriate page speed is essential to not lose users while navigating your website. Waiting for a page to load without fast results and visible progress will stir users and potential customers away to another website with faster page speed. Here below we gathered some tools to help you optimize the technical aspect of your website and to help you with technical SEO to improve your website:

• Google PageSpeed Insights (Free): A free tool by Google that helps you analyze your website's speed and receive optimization suggestions.
• GTmetrix (Freemium): A free tool that helps you analyzing your website's speed and receive optimization suggestions.
• Pingdom Website Speed Test (Free): A free tool to analyze your website's speed and receive according optimization suggestions.
• DeepCrawl (Freemium): A crawler tool that helps you identify and fix technical issues on your website.
• Botify (Freemium): A crawler tool that helps you identify and fix technical issues on your website.

4. Content Optimization

Content optimization refers to improving the quality and relevance of your content to enhance user experience and increase the ranking in search results. Here are some tools that can help you with content optimization:

• Hemingway Editor (Free): A free tool to help you optimize your texts by identifying complex sentences and common errors.
• Grammarly (Freemium): A tool that helps you identify and fix grammar and spelling errors in your texts.
• Readable (Freemium): A tool that helps you analyze the readability of your texts and receive improvement suggestions.
• Copyscape (Freemium): A tool that helps you identify and avoid plagiarism in your texts.
• Quetext (Freemium): A tool to identify and avoid plagiarism in your texts.

5. Linkbuilding

Linkbuilding as a major SEO tool refers to the process of acquiring backlinks from other websites to increase the authority and ranking of your own website. A successful linkbuilding strategy can definitely help to improve your website's visibility in search results and generate more organic traffic. Here are some tools that can help you with linkbuilding as analyzing and knowing where your website stands is a necessary foundation for successful linkbuilding:

• Ahrefs (Freemium): A comprehensive SEO tool that helps you analyze backlinks, find new linkbuilding opportunities, and monitor your competition.
• Majestic (Freemium): A tool that helps you analyze backlinks, find new linkbuilding opportunities, and evaluate your website compared to your competitors.
• Moz Link Explorer (Freemium): A tool by Moz that helps you analyzing your backlinks, find new linkbuilding opportunities to expand your backlink structure and evaluate your website compared to your competitors.
• BuzzSumo (Freemium): A tool that helps you find viral content and influencers in your industry to identify targeted linkbuilding opportunities.
• Linkody (Freemium): A tool to monitor your backlinks, identify lost links, and find new linkbuilding opportunities.

Concerning the big field of linkbuilding it is important to focus on the quality and relevance of backlinks when developing a linkbuilding strategy to achieve long-term positive results. Many low-quality links are definitely not worth more than fewer high-quality links. Remember that building relationships with other websites and influencers in your industry is an important aspect of linkbuilding that signals organic relevance to Google and customers. By creating valuable content and collaborating with other websites you can strengthen your online presence and increase your website's visibility in search results.

6. Local SEO

Local SEO is not only a subcategory of SEO, local SEO refers to optimizing your website for local search queries. This is particularly important for businesses that want to target local customers. By putting your focus on optimizing your website for local search queries, you can increase your business's visibility in your specific region and attract more local customers. Especially businesses without a online section depending on transactions on site gain a lot by focusing on your local customers and targeting their needs specifically. Here are some tools that can help you with local SEO:

• Google My Business (Free): A free tool from Google that helps you showcase your business in local search results and on Google Maps. Appearing on Google Maps with a correct address, contact options and especially your current business hours is essential as a professional business.
• Moz Local (Freemium): A tool by Moz that helps you optimize your local presence in search results and manage your business information across various platforms.
• BrightLocal (Freemium): A tool that helps you optimize your local SEO strategy by monitoring local rankings, reviews, and business information.
• Whitespark (Freemium): A tool especially to research local keywords, monitor local rankings as well as finding and managing local citations.
• Yext (Freemium): A tool to manage your business information across various platforms and optimize your local presence in search results.

7. Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO refers to optimizing your website for mobile devices, from mobile phones to different sizes of tablets. As more and more people access the internet through mobile devices, it is important for your website to function well and be user-friendly on these devices. Nobody wants to navigate through mixed up content or a website than won’t work properly on a phone or tablet. Here are some tools that can help you with mobile SEO to optimize your website for mobile devices:

• Google Mobile-Friendly Test (Free): A free tool by Google that helps you check the user-friendliness of your website on mobile devices and receive optimization suggestions.
• Bing Mobile Friendliness Test Tool (Free): A free tool from Bing that helps you check the user-friendliness of your website on mobile devices and receive optimization suggestions.
• Varvy Mobile SEO (Free): A free tool that helps you check the mobile user-friendliness of your website and receive optimization suggestions.
• MobiReady (Free): A free tool to check the mobile user-friendliness of your website and receive optimization suggestions.
• W3C Mobile Checker (Free): A free tool by W3C, helping you to check the mobile user-friendliness of your website and receive optimization suggestions.

8. User Experience (UX) Optimization

User Experience (UX) Optimization refers to improving the user experience on your website. A good UX can help increase visitor satisfaction, extend the time spent on your website, and improve the conversion rate. A positive User Experience is composed of a well thought-out structure, working technology and meaningful content providing valuable information. Here are some tools that can help you with UX optimization:

• Google Analytics (Free): A free tool from Google that helps you analyze visitor behavior and receive optimization suggestions for your website.
• Hotjar (Freemium): A tool that helps you analyze visitor behavior by creating heatmaps, visitor recordings, and surveys.
• Crazy Egg (Freemium): A tool that helps you analyze visitor behavior by creating heatmaps, scroll maps, and click maps.
• Optimizely (Freemium): A tool that helps you conduct A/B tests and multivariate tests to optimize the user experience on your website.
• UsabilityHub (Freemium): A tool that helps you conduct user tests to check the usability of your website and receive optimization suggestions.

9. Monitoring and Reporting

Monitoring and reporting as part of your SEO strategy involve tracking your SEO results and creating reports. Regular monitoring and reporting allow you to measure the success of your SEO strategy and make adjustments as needed. Here are some tools that can help you with monitoring and reporting:

• Google Analytics (Free): A free tool from Google that helps you monitoring your website's traffic and performance and create detailed reports.
• Google Search Console (Free): A free tool by Google to help monitoring your website's performance in search results and receive optimization suggestions.
• SEMrush (Freemium): A comprehensive SEO tool to monitor your rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic and create detailed reports.
• Ahrefs (Freemium): A comprehensive SEO tool, monitoring your rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic and create detailed reports.
• Moz Pro (Freemium): A tool by Moz that helps you monitor your rankings, backlinks, and organic traffic and create detailed reports.

By using these tools and techniques for your website, you can successfully improve your search engine optimization and increase your website's visibility in search results. A good website is comparable to a well-oiled machine, composed of different parts from technical aspects to relevant content.

As an expert on search engine optimization Maik Mohl, the head of Metamove GmbH, has the experience of over 1000 successful projects at his disposal. He supports you on your journey to a successful website and a good ranking in search engines. Experienced for more than 20 years in the field of search engine optimization Maik Mohl is the expert for your success online and upping your rankings in search engines. His goal is to bring you to the top of the search results and to support your daily business as well as you longterm strategy to success with a wide range of SEO measures. In-depth consultation and a distinctive expertise from technical SEO to picking the most promising keywords up to monitoring and a general improvement of User Experience on your website is his game. As an experienced marketing agency located near Munich, Germany, Metamove is also happy to provide their services to international clients of different business branches.