With a market share of 92,26% (as of April 2021), Google is by far the most widely used search engine in the world. So if you want to have more visitors (traffic) on your site, it's professional SEO optimisation (Search Engine Optimisation) for Google is one of the most effective ways to achieve this goal. Because if Google likes your site, it will show up high in the search results. There are many different ways to optimise your website. It is important to keep the focus on the important things. While some factors have little weight and their optimisation to perfection brings about rather minor improvements, others are indispensable and should definitely be taken into account if your goal is to have more visitors on your website on a regular basis.
In general, it can be said that Google is the user's advocate: Google is interested in showing website visitors exactly what they want to see in a way that is optimised for their user experience (UX). This results in the SEO guidelines, i.e. the factors to which Google gives the most weight when it comes to assessing the quality of a website. The Google ranking, i.e. your position in the list that is displayed when a potential customer searches for your service, is then based on this assessment.
The following statistic shows how decisive your ranking is in this list:
According to a recent study by ahref
This is because most Google searchers do not go further than page 2 or 3, because the sophisticated Google algorithm already shows them what they were looking for among the first search results.
Now, of course, the question of all questions arises:
How can you also be displayed on the first or best: the first page on Google?
The basic prerequisite for a well-performing website is, of course, that it functions perfectly from a technical point of view. If it takes several seconds to load before the first content is displayed, common sense (and numerous studies) tells us that many impatient website visitors prefer to look elsewhere.
Of course, it is also important that the website does not contain any errors (bugs) on the programming side. A clean and modern source code is therefore also a must in order to rank well on all search engines.
Google uses a sophisticated algorithm called the Google Crawler to rank websites. When your website goes online and it is not specified otherwise in the settings, this crawler will go through your website, evaluate it and index it at the end. A modern source code makes the Google crawler's work easier, which is why Google also rewards the use of, for example, semantic HTML (HTML = the hypertext markup language that is the basic framework of every website) with a higher ranking.
A stable server infrastructure with many fallback options ensures that your site is always accessible. When looking for a service provider, it is advisable to choose one that has been established on the market for years. These are usually very reliable.
With a modern website, it is mandatory that the layout of the page adapts to different screen sizes so that the content of the website is always displayed perfectly. In recent years, the number of users accessing websites from mobile devices has continued to increase. In 2020, the proportion of website visitors accessing them from desktop PCs was 36%, but the proportion of mobile visitors was 61% - and the trend is rising.
For this reason, Google has moved to the motto "mobile first" in recent years; the mobile user experience is now a decisive factor in how successful your site is.
If you take a closer look at the next website you visit, you will most likely see a small lock symbol in the upper left corner of the browser right next to the domain. This indicates that the website is being accessed in a secure manner. When you click on a website on Google, or use a feature such as a contact box, requests are made from your computer to the server where the website is located. Nowadays, it is standard for every trustworthy website to have an SSL or TLS certificate. This makes it possible to transmit encrypted information to the server via https, e.g. your search query, and also to receive encrypted information from it. This ensures that no one somewhere in between can read your data.
A website that is regularly maintained and on which up-to-date content is always published is rated better by Google than a website from 2010 that deals with topics that have not been up-to-date for a long time.
In order to create content on a regular basis, it makes sense to have a blog on practically every website where a service is sold. In this blog, you can always write articles on current topics that are relevant to your target group.
The added value that your articles have for your target group should be in the foreground for you. For this reason, it is worth taking a close look at your target groups. What do they want, what are they interested in? From this, you can then develop the topics for which you create content.
If you provide unique and relevant information on your page that your website visitors can't find anywhere else, they will automatically land on you.
A good approach here is a comprehensive keyword analysis. With this analysis, you can find out what your potential customers are looking for, but also which questions do not yet have answers.
If we want to get information, we want it as quickly as possible. So when a visitor is on your site, he wants to be presented with what he wants to see directly and without detours, otherwise he will simply look elsewhere. To keep your visitor on your website, it is advisable to have a good structure with appropriate headlines as well as short and crisp text sections.
1. google reviews
Since the user experience is paramount for search engines, feedback from your visitors is also important for Google. This happens both indirectly, e.g. by measuring the time visitors spend on the website, and directly through ratings.
If you do high-quality work and your clients are satisfied, it makes sense to inform them of the existence of this evaluation option.
2. backlinks
If you have made a name for yourself and provide high-quality, unique content, it is highly likely that other websites will link to your articles. The more important and higher they rank, the better it is for your reputation.
If your website has a solid technical base, is regularly updated, you create unique and relevant content for your target group and receive more and more social trust due to your quality, you are well on your way to a high Google ranking.
You need to be a little patient, though, because your website has to prove that it can keep attracting visitors and some aspects, such as Google reviews, simply evolve over time.
A good structure is crucial for the success of your website.
The importance of clearly structured content is made particularly clear by the following statistics:
the number of website visitors accessing it from smartphones was 61% in 2020 - and rising (see also: https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/mobile-vs-desktop-usage)
According to a Microsoft study (https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/), the average attention span of adults has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to only 8.5 seconds in 2015. This is lower than that of a goldfish, which can concentrate on one thing for 9 seconds.
Already in 2014, visitors spent less than 15 seconds on a website (see: Chartbeat study analysing 2 billion users' data; https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/chartbeat-website-engagement-data-nj).
So it makes sense to show the valued website visitor, our potential customer, what they want to see, simply, quickly and to the point.
Set priorities! To give a clear impression, it is important not to overload your potential clients with too many details. Think about what is most important to you of all the things you could present and focus on that. The clearer the idea you end up with, the greater your brand recognition will be.
First of all, it makes sense to analyse our competitors, because they have optimised their websites for the same target group.
- What menu items do you have?
- What information do you focus on?
- What does the main page look like, what sections are there?
With the help of this analysis, the following questions can also be answered in the next step:
1. what do these pages have in common? So what MUST your website definitely contain?
2) How do some of these competitors manage to stand out from the crowd?
3) What are your USPs (unique selling points) that none of your competitors can offer, and which you should therefore emphasise?
When asking these questions, one should always keep in mind who among the competition is the most successful, because of course it does not make sense to adopt what those who are hardly successful are doing.
So, in summary, do more of what works; do less of what doesn't work.
Much can already be seen from the analysis of the competition.
Also part of the customer needs, because what the successful competition puts in the foreground has to deliver added value to their potential customers and thus of course to themselves, otherwise they would emphasise something else.
However, this information can still be supplemented:
1. through information that one has found out oneself in the course of time:
Which products run best?
Which actions / information always went down well with your customers?
What do your clients tell you they particularly appreciate about you and your service?
What do your customers want?
At this point it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive Keyword research to operate.
With this you can find out which terms your potential customers are searching for and for which terms there is a lot of demand but little supply.
These niches are a key to success - if you are able to offer something that many people are looking for, but none of your competitors have jumped on the bandwagon yet, you can gain an advantage that is not easy to catch up with.
1. at the top of your website there should be a so-called hero section. This is the first thing the visitor sees on your website.
Here, the topic of your website must be summarised in a few words and understandable at first glance. What is the core of the topic and how can I arouse curiosity and interest in website visitors that will make them stay on your website?
Ideally, this hero section should be supplemented with a call-to-action button. This button leads the visitor directly to the place where he finds the information that is most relevant for him. This usually means: this button leads to the best-running products or the most impressive projects you have worked on - preferably recently.
2. directly under the hero section, these most successful products / biggest projects are presented, because they offer the greatest chance of keeping the interest of the potential customer.
3. a contact area should be available and easily accessible from every point on the website so that your new customer, when he decides to use your service, does not have to search for a way to contact you and ends up dropping out even though he actually wanted to become a customer.
4 An "About me" or "Our company" section is also almost always advisable. The information provided there can further build trust, as visitors to the site can enquire about your experience and expertise. A personal touch further builds trust here: for example, if your company is a family business and/or you have supported charitable projects, you should definitely mention this here. This shows that you are not only professionally competent, but that people can rely on you and that you are trustworthy.
5. blog: In order to appear as high as possible in search engines, it is important to offer added value to the visitors of the site. So if you write an article on a subject that might interest your target group, this will lead to more people seeing your page.
In order for your website to rank high despite increasing competition, the following points are crucial in terms of structure:
- Clarity in saying who you are and what you do
- First impression of new visitors: focus on the key features of your products/services and your USPs
- Short and easy paths: the quicker your visitor gets the information they want, the more likely they are to become a customer.
In times of increasingly fierce competition, a high-quality corporate design can give you a decisive advantage over your competitors. In addition, it gives you the opportunity to position yourself as a clearly defined brand on the market in the long term.
The term corporate design (CD) describes the appearance of all aspects of your company. It is the visual part of your corporate identity.
A uniform CD is crucial for the recognition value of your brand and also reinforces the professional impression you leave behind. Coupled with a high-quality service or a unique product, it lays the foundation for your entrepreneurial success. In addition, with a good corporate design you clearly stand out from your competitors and stand out from the crowd.
These aspects of your business concern your corporate design:
In order to develop a good design for your company, you should first ask yourself the following question:
What is the core of the industry in which your company operates?
What do your competitors look like?
And what kind of appearance does your target group expect?
It should be obvious to everyone that one expects a different appearance from a lawyer than from a kindergarten. Many aspects - especially design aspects - are perceived more subconsciously than consciously by visitors to a website. You can take advantage of this to emphasise certain characteristics of your company. If you sell luxury watches, for example, you probably want to appear classy in order to give the corresponding clientele the impression that they are in the right place with you. If, on the other hand, you want to advertise a fitness studio, contrasting colours such as red and black are good; they convey strength and stability.
But what are the aspects that make up a good corporate design in general?
A colour scheme is a palette of colours that go well together and are in certain relationships to each other. Two popular examples are a monochromatic colour scheme, in which mainly different shades of the same colour are used, and a complementary colour scheme, in which the colours contrast with each other.
The colour scheme is an essential part of your corporate design. As already described with the example of the fitness studio, it is possible to address certain subconscious emotions with a colour scheme.
For this reason, you should ask yourself the question: What are the emotions you want to evoke, for example, when looking at your website?
For this, it is important to analyse the industry at its core. Do you want to appear elegant and classy, intellectual, down-to-earth or neutral and clear?
In this context, it often makes sense to take a look at the other successful companies in your sector. How do they present themselves? How do they present themselves, have they adapted to their target group - which is also your target group?
From this, you can read the basic emotions that will convince your target group.
Next to the colours, the fonts are the second piece of the puzzle of your corporate design. A basic distinction is made between serif and sans-serif fonts. Serif fonts have small horizontal strokes at the top and bottom of each letter, which make it easier for the reader to read. The oldest serifs were found in Greece and serif fonts were also very popular in ancient Rome; examples of these fonts can still be seen on preserved temples today.
Because of their long history, serif typefaces are associated with time-honoured, complex, but also elegant products and reliable partners.
Sans-serif fonts, on the other hand, appear modern and clear.
To bring some variety into the appearance, there are also several options for fonts. On the one hand, you can create contrasts through the thickness of the font. But you can also use different colours, font sizes and so-called "font pairings". The term font pairing describes the use of two fonts that go well together, usually one is used for headlines and the other for body text.
With all the possibilities offered by the combinations of colours and fonts, it can easily happen that you use too many different design elements in your corporate design. However, this is not advisable, because recognition value comes primarily from a clear concept.
As a rule of thumb, the use of more than 3 fonts and main colours (without accent colours) is usually not recommended.
By analysing your target group and your competitors, you can get a good idea of what emotions you need to arouse in your specific case in order to have even greater success with your company's presentation.
It is very helpful if your professionalism is already expressed in your corporate design, because this is decisive for the first impression.
Although previous studies on the question of how long it takes to form an initial opinion about something have produced somewhat different results (see: https://sylviedigiusto.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-form-a-first-impression/), one commonality is nevertheless clearly discernible: it takes only seconds, if not fractions of a second, to form this opinion.
According to another study, the share of design in this first impression is 94% ( see https://cxl.com/blog/first-impressions-matter-the-importance-of-great-visual-design/)
Due to the many possibilities offered by the internet, the inhibition threshold to go directly to the next search entry is also very low if the current one does not appeal to you.
These facts show that a good corporate design is of central importance for the success of your website.
