SEO

Best practices for on-page and external SEO, marketing and PR strategies to boost search engine rankings, e.g. backlinking, keyword research, online business listings.

"Just think about what the users want and think if you were in the shoes of the search engine, would you feel comfortable sending users to your own website?" - Frédéric Dubut, senior program manager lead for Bing

- Search Engine Land SEO Guide

"The underlying principles stay the same: Don’t try to trick search engines. Instead, provide your visitors with a great online experience. To do that, follow search engine guidelines and fulfill user intent."

- MOZ Seo Guide

"High-quality and unique contents are the nuts and bolts of landing among the top 10. Google wants to provide the most useful possible answers to their users' search queries. Consequently, they put all their efforts into programming their algorithms so they'll filter for the most relevant websites for their users and show them at the top."

- Karrierebibel.de

"SEO makes sense when enough qualified staff, time and budget are available. In some sectors, competition is extremely high."

- E-Mail Marketing Forum

Information

 * Very good, short intro to SEO and SEA (together: SEM) in German
 * Full SEO guide (English) by Search Engine Land
 * Feb 27 2019: Google launches Domain Property in GSC
 * In-depth SEO whitepaper, Feb 2019 (in German)
 * SEO: the Moz SEO guide is highly popular and useful for laypeople

SEO Testing/Monitoring Tools

 * Google Search Console is essential to analyze site's SEO problems, rankings and keyword performance, etc.


 * SEO Tester Online (in English)
 * Neil Patel's Ubersuggest SEO audit
 * SEObility audit, but in German
 * Google SEO Tools: huge tool suite!! but in German
 * Seorch (pretty much all you need, but in German!)
 * They also have several SEO tools, like SERP checker

Other test tools
Various Speed Testing
 * Find backlinks that point to a website: Backlink Tool
 * Accessibility: A11y color contrast checker
 * HTTP security check: securityheaders.com and Mozilla Observatory
 * Observatory's results aren't trustworthy, they contradict securityheaders.com and give false negatives
 * Code integrity: W3 Validator
 * SEMRush to identify strong keywords
 * Google Analytics by Yoast: analytics, also speed test
 * GeoPeeker: view your site from various geographic locations
 * Gzip encoding checker
 * Load Impact (simulates massive traffic)
 * GTMetrix (includes service for compressing images!)
 * WebPageTest (allows setting location to test from)

Code tweaks, WP plugins

 * Speed optimization: Breeze
 * Tutorial video: how to set it up
 * HTTP Security Headers ready-made for .htaccess

Intro, Terminology, General Knowledge
(Moz's SEO Guide, Search Engine Land guide)
 * Search engines reward genuinely useful content and punish attempts to manipulate SEO!
 * SEO Factors in order of importance
 * Crawl accessibility
 * Compelling content that answers queries
 * Keyword optimized
 * Great user experience (load speed, ease of use, UI)
 * Share-worthy content
 * Title, URL, description
 * Snippet/schema markup to stand out in SERPs
 * ...can also be categorized as:
 * On-Page SEO - content, architecture, HTML
 * Off-Page SEO - trust, links, user
 * Toxins
 * SEO should benefit websites and search engines, who want to deliver quality
 * Toxins are attempts to fool search engines, can get you penalized or banned
 * e.g. black-hat techniques, spam
 * Emerging verticals
 * Voice, local, image, video search
 * Organic search results vs. advertising
 * Organic: earned through effective SEO
 * SERP features like pizza recommendations, weather forecast can be organic
 * Organic results are more credible. Only 2.8% of people click on ads in US!
 * Really good content can generate traffic for a long time through word of mouth
 * Guiding principles
 * (From Google, Bing)
 * Make pages for users, not search engines
 * Create deep, engaging, easy-to-find content with clear, relevant titles
 * Don't deceive
 * Avoid tricks and manipulation! Ask: "Does this help my users?"
 * Consider what makes your site unique, valuable, engaging
 * Search engines notice:
 * Links - they're a sign of popularity
 * Social sharing
 * Page speed
 * Alt attributes on images
 * Abusive link tactics: buying links, link schemes
 * Thin/automatically generated content
 * Clean, concise URLs with keywords and no non-letter characters
 * Avoid automatically generated content
 * Avoid keyword stuffing
 * Chaining keywords to each other instead of writing engaging, helpful content
 * Avoid duplicate content
 * Avoid pages with little to no original content (e.g. copied)
 * Avoid cloaking (showing search engines different content than users)
 * Avoid hidden text and links
 * Avoid "doorway pages" created to rank well and funnel people to website
 * Google My Business for local businesses (sees customers face-to-face)

Odds and Ends
 * Meta keywords have long been a thing of the past!
 * There is no magic switch to get to the #1 spot in Google!
 * Google constantly adapts and develops its algorithm and doesn't reveal how
 * SEO experts always have to stay up to date! The landscape changes!
 * 2 areas of focus: external and on-site optimization
 * External: improving traffic generated to site (social media, blogs, search engines, aggregators: Slideshare, syndication: Business Insider)
 * On-Site: engage and keep visitors. Load times, useful content, responsiveness, ease of conversion
 * Interesting: IP/server location doesn't matter for SEO and target audience!
 * Google has a Geotargeting tool in Google Webmaster Tools


 * Social Media rankings (likes, retweets etc.) influence search results
 * Pack my articles with keywords to generate traffic
 * Search engines need to understand the text (clearly readable, not metaphors or such)
 * Don't sacrifice human readability and flow in favour of it, though
 * Apart from that: create quality content that people will enjoy and share!
 * Consequently: please both search spiders and people

OpenGraph for Social Media

 * Introduction and Beginner's Guide
 * In-depth research on the subject by Yoast (Apr 30, 2018)

Is SEO worth it?
''(source) Is it profitable? Ask yourself:''
 * Want to be found in the short term? Use Google AdWords
 * Ask yourself
 * How important are better rankings and more users really? Are there other avenues?
 * How important will SEO be compared to other marketing techniques you use?
 * Do I have a clear SEO goal?
 * Target audience? Product focus: how to reach them? Customer benefit?
 * Use this knowledge for keyword research: terms to aim SEO at
 * Clicks are just the first steps. Conversion needs to follow!
 * Are we allocating enough time?
 * Unpaid (organic) rankings take weeks to months!
 * If there's no time for patience, other marketing methods may be required
 * How does competition look?
 * Competitors should become visible during keyword research
 * Comparison portals, online marketplaces, review platforms etc. count among these too
 * Will we be able to kick a competitor out of the top 10 rankings?
 * How can existing marketing strategies work with SEO?
 * e.g., use keyword research from existing ad campaigns
 * Tie into IRL events (e.g. expos) e.g. using newsletters, social media
 * Who will be responsible for SEO?
 * Has to have the necessary knowledge and be willing to evolve
 * If outsourcing, this person needs to be an interface to third party
 * Is there a sufficiently large budget?
 * Staff, timeframe, training, coaching, consultation, SEO agency - these cost money
 * Easily 1,000 € or more per month whether agency or DIY - can you justify this much? Does your projected increased income make this sustainable?
 * You might get faster results through AdWords, Facebook Ads

Navigation menu: Best Practices
(Article by Neil Patel) Worth reading for details and explanations!
 * Follow placement standards: menu in top bar or vertical at the side
 * Use descriptive labels: "Websites | Branding | Photography" instead of "Services | What we do"
 * Avoid drop-down menus - they're annoying
 * Ideal: less than 7 menu items
 * Order of menu items: most important left, "Contact" at the right
 * Never use buttons (graphics), always use links

Search Engine Advertising
See also: Google Ads chapter on page Google How to do it:
 * SEA means buying ads in search engines which are shown and labeled at top of SERPs
 * An ad is shown when a user searches for a chosen term (e.g., "business plan")
 * You only pay when somebody clicks on the ad
 * That way, only people who are actually interested see the ad!
 * Pick one or more keywords
 * Once user looks for them, they see the ad
 * Pick how much you want to spend
 * Once monthly limit is reached, ad disappears
 * Unless you adjust the budget

Understanding Keyword Research
Sources:
 * Instruction article on blogmojo.de
 * Keyword Tools article on blogmojo.de
 * Keyword research guide by Yoast

General questions

 * Can be done with free tools, but it's more efficient with e.g. KWFinder, ahrefs, SEMRush (100€/month)
 * It's time-consuming, can take several days to find, whittle down and sort ideas, additional 1-3 hrs to cluster

What is it, why is it necessary, what's needed?

 * Keyword: a word or set of words somebody enters into a search engine, e.g., "seo" or "best seo strategies"
 * Keyword research: the process of finding out which keywords potential clients enter on Google
 * Find out if target audience looks on Google for solutions to their problems or ways to achieve their goals
 * If so, which keywords they use
 * To analyze whether it's worth creating contents optimized for those keywords: are they looked up often enough? How high is competition? Do searches imply commercial interest? etc...)
 * Also, to find out what people's search intent is, i.e. what exactly audience looks for
 * Why is it important?
 * SEO techniques like back-link building, speed optimization help you to appear in search results
 * Keyword research helps determine for what you appear and dramatically increases your chances
 * Use it to find subjects for your content schedule, to structure content, for market research
 * Determine focus keywords or key phrases to create specific content around
 * Understand your clients' desires, concerns, problems better
 * Learn which language your clients use
 * Assess how well your blog content will work

Required/recommended research tools
Topical Research (more here!)
 * Google Trends to see how often keywords are searched over time
 * Google Suggest and suggestions from other engines to find ideas
 * Either use Google's own autocomplete
 * Google Suggest Checker at seorch.de is very good
 * A keyword tool to find ideas, and for analytics: search volume, competition, CPC
 * Recommended: kwfinder (costs money), also offers competitor analysis, keyword monitoring...
 * Free: keyword-tools.org provides SV, CPC, competition, CSV export
 * Also good: Neil Patel's Ubersuggest, which finds keywords matching your search terms and thus provides content ideas and inspiration
 * TermExplorer: great bulk tool, SV/CPC/competition, CSV, 5 free jobs / 6 hours, sign-up required
 * Karma Keyword Tools: SV, CPC, competition for 1 KW at a time, no export
 * Google Search Console offers much functionality, helps find alternate keywords
 * Another free tool to determine search volume: searchvolume.io
 * Thesaurus for synonyms
 * German: synonyme.de | OpenThesaurus | Woxikon | Wie sagt man noch?
 * AdWords Keyword Generator to assemble (mix together) longer keywords
 * Disclaimer: WP plugins such as Yoast SEO aren't the best-suited for keyword research, since they all revolve around single main/focus keywords
 * A focus keyword or keyphrase is the word or phrase you want a certain page on your site to be found for
 * Read customer reviews to learn people's vocabulary
 * Amazon
 * Tripadvisor
 * test.de
 * HolidayCheck
 * Suggest tools or question platforms to find long-tail-keywords, search intention
 * e.g., Answer The Public
 * Also: Question Generator at seorch.de
 * In German: W-Fragen-Tool
 * Also German: Gute Frage - see what people ask
 * This reveals:
 * Which questions do people ask?
 * What are their backgrounds, situations, skill levels, intentions...?
 * Look on Quora: what do people ask?
 * Forums, mailing list, meetup groups, Blog comments, LinkedIn/Facebook groups, Industry Twitter replies, support forums, Github, product / Amazon reviews (3-star!)
 * Forums, mailing list, meetup groups, Blog comments, LinkedIn/Facebook groups, Industry Twitter replies, support forums, Github, product / Amazon reviews (3-star!)

Keyword strategy

 * Find out your audience's search intent, then devise strategy:
 * What content will you create first?
 * What kind of content? Writing, post, product, video, infographic?
 * Will you focus on head or tail of keywords (see below)?
 * How and where to publish?

Analysing and picking keywords

 * Specificity (# of words)
 * "short-head" (short-tail): just one word | overarching subject | high search volume | high competition | low conversion rate
 * "laptop"
 * "mid-tail": 2-4 words | more specific subject | medium competition | medium conversion rate
 * "gaming laptop dell"
 * "long-tail": ≥ 4 words | very specific | low competition | high conversion rate
 * "gaming laptop dell review 2020"
 * Main keyword: pick a mid-tail or short-head keyword
 * Aka "focus keyword". The one subject around which an article revolves. Should be in the most important places in the article, e.g., H1, meta title & description.

Search Volume (SV)

 * One of the main criteria when looking for a good keyword
 * Bear in mind: don't optimize for one keyword, but a cluster of related ones
 * Indicates how often (usually on average per month) a given search is performed on Google
 * Higher volume = higher chance of people landing on one's website if ranking well
 * Ergo: use a keyword research tool that shows this metric
 * You could use a filter to exclude terms with low volume (<500)
 * However, optimizing for <500 can also be useful - depends on situation
 * Note that these clicks will also go to competitors!
 * Free tool to determine search volume: searchvolume.io

Competition and CPC

 * Search volume alone is worthless if you're not among top search results!
 * So do a competitor analysis
 * Most traffic is on first 4 places in Google, so and only a part of the people who see you will visit your page
 * See table here (in German) for an example
 * e.g., KWFinder comes with a competitor analysis, calculates Landing Page Strength (LPS)
 * From that, it deduces Keyword SEO Difficulty (scale from 1-100)
 * This indicates how hard it will be to land on page 1 for a given keyword
 * LPS and SEO Difficulty aren't always accurate, but give you an idea which keywords to pursue
 * You also have to compete with SERP Features! » Example
 * Text ads via Google AdWords, references to related apps, Google Maps, Shopping, News, Flights, images, YouTube vids, direct answers/knowledge graph, featured snippets


 * Cost per Click (CPC):
 * Average price for a click if making a Google Ad for a keyword
 * Higher CPC means more advertisers means this keyword is worth money!

What do my competitors rank for?

 * Use SEORCH Google Ranking Check to find out who's in top results for your keywords
 * Analyze those websites to find which keywords they use (also works with seorch.de)

Search Intent (aka user intent)
''This concept was first introduced by Andrei Broder in 2002, in the article "A taxonomy of web search". His original breakdown:''


 * Transactional: intent is a transaction, e.g. to purchase, sign up for a newsletter, make a dinner reservation
 * Informational: to gather information, e.g. highest building on Earth, easter bunnies' mating habits...
 * Navigational: to find a specific website whose URL you don't know, e.g. Nike, Amazon, Mercedes Benz

More details:


 * Understanding search intent is how you make sure you get valuable visitors (that will engage, convert, buy...)
 * Which goals or problems do people who search have?
 * Which kind of results do they expect?
 * Which aspects of a subject interest them?
 * Analyse Google's Top 10 and create a keyword cluster to determine this
 * Analyse this to keep your Back-to-SERP rate low (people who return to SERP after visiting you)
 * Search intentions:
 * "I want to do something"
 * Do (transactional)
 * Do Commercial
 * "I want to know something"
 * Know (informational)
 * Know Simple
 * Know Commercial
 * Know News
 * "I want to visit a certain website"
 * Website (no/navigational/brand)
 * "I want to visit a location"
 * Visit-in-person (local)
 * "Do" and "Do Commercial":
 * Buy, download, register, book...
 * "book hotel berlin", "movie tickets star wars today", "personality test online"...
 * "Know" and "Know Commercial":
 * 50-80% of all search queries
 * People looking for information or solution
 * How-tos, advice articles, "why" articles, reviews, encyclopedia/knowledge, collected ideas/knowledge ("50 ways to...")
 * More complex problems mean you can be more helpful! (and gain top positions)
 * So: niche or long-tail keywords!!
 * "know commercial": "led TV", "vacuum cleaner comparison"
 * "know": "learn guitar", "baby won't sleep"...
 * "know simple": easy to answer by a stat, table, simple information (height Angela Merkel: 1.65m)
 * Normally not worth optimizing for, since Google provides answers themselves
 * "know news": information with current relevance, "apple stock", "war in syria"...
 * "Website":
 * Irrelevant for your SEO, since people don't want to visit your website, but e.g. Toys 'r Us, eBay...
 * "Visit-in-person":
 * People look for cafés, gas stations, ATMs...
 * "restaurant hamburg", "nearby gas station"

Customer Journey

 * How far along is a customer in their journey?
 * Awareness (inspiration): aware of product (intent: know)
 * Favorability: heightened interest (intent: know commercial)
 * Consideration: considers buying (intent: website/know commercial)
 * Intent to purchase: becomes concrete (website/do commercial)
 * Conversion: customer buys product

Trends and seasons

 * Also consider search trends to see whether a keyword is profitable right now (or when/in the future)
 * Easter, summer, April fool's...
 * Other keywords are popular during certain periods, e.g. GDPR in summer 2018
 * Anticipate this!

Performing Keyword Research

 * Always do this before writing a blog post (or creating a site). Take enough time.
 * Helps to structure and plan content
 * Insert keywords strategically after writing the article

Foundations

 * Think about your mission: goals, unique identity, target audience, promises
 * Mission helps you to compete in market. More difficult in competitive markets!
 * Creating a niche makes it easier (cruises to Hawaii with great facilities for children?)
 * In competitive markets: start small, build cult following, expand

Brainstorming

 * Criteria #1: Empathy. Understand the ideal customer behind the search query!
 * Come up with an exhaustive list of subjects that might interest them!
 * Their problems and goals
 * What causes them to look it up on Google?
 * What solutions do they seek?
 * Which products/services do they want?
 * What questions do they have?
 * This works even better if you have your customer avatar
 * Collect the main keywords that came from this

Find keyword ideas

 * Start researching the keywords from Brainstorming phase
 * Use Suggest for a first rough overview
 * Google your keywords and note autocomplete suggestions
 * Also, similar searches at bottom of Google SERP
 * Recommended: Seorch Suggest Checker
 * Resulting suggestions then go into keyword tools for analysis
 * e.g. Answer the Public
 * Collect interesting ones in Google spreadsheet. Possible columns:
 * Keyword | Search volume | Competition | Existing URL | Subject | Comments
 * Use KWFinder or Ubersuggest for more keyword ideas incl. additional metrics (volume, CPC...)
 * Look at competitors' keywords!
 * Google your keywords, see who and what comes up
 * Who do you compete with? Can you beat them? Are you similar?
 * Do they have good content? Can you do better?
 * Do they advertise?
 * Type their domain into Ubersuggest ("SEO Keywords" at bottom), SEORCH
 * Write all this down in your spreadsheet

Avoid head keywords mistake!

 * Short "head" keywords are most likely taken by competition, esp in competitive markets
 * Hence, add long-tail keywords to spreadsheet/collection (e.g. in their own columns)
 * More long-tail keywords go further down in site structure

Whittle down and cluster keywords

 * Time to tidy up the big mountain of data: remove duplicates, irrelevant keywords
 * Export results of all the above checks into Excel/CSV etc, dump into one big spreadsheet
 * Sort out this spreadsheet, add search volume/competition and group by subjects
 * e.g.: meditation for falling asleep > subject "sleep"
 * Find the best main/focus keyword for any keyword group:
 * e.g., beginner's guide for meditation
 * Look at all keywords categorized as subject "what is this?"
 * Find keyword with high search volume and medium/low competition

Keyword Cluster

 * Now, build keyword cluster around main/focus keyword
 * Thematic extension of a keyword group: supplemental keywords closely related to focus keyword
 * Includes synonyms, long-tail keywords
 * Higher chance of ranking for supplemental keywords
 * Increases rankings for focus keyword by covering more search intentions and expressions
 * More keywords to use in content instead of focus keyword, shaking things up
 * »» write longer articles so you can cover more ground, facets of a subjects, user intentions

Synonyms, long-tail keywords, "w" questions

 * Make your article less boring and open up its language to a larger user group.
 * "meditation for beginners", "meditation for dummies", "meditation for the inexperienced"
 * Long-tail keywords: KWFinder, Ubersuggest or Answer the Public
 * AtP collects Google auto complete suggestions and presents them graphically
 * Categorized into questions and prepositions, also provides alphabetical list
 * "w" questions: what, when, where, who, why, how, what for. Subcategory of long-tail keywords
 * Can also be found with AtP, KwFinder, Ubersuggest
 * Weave into your content

Keyword analysis after publication

 * Keep tracking the performance of your content/site/article
 * See which keywords it's ranking for, learn from that and optimize (other/same) contents

Keyword Research Tips
Yoast's ultimate guide

Prioritize keywords list!

 * How many altogether? More than 1000 are probably too many
 * Expect a couple 100 if being a small business
 * Content for all these can be added bit by bit
 * Which ones do you want to rank for right away?
 * Perhaps long-tail ones first?

1 page per focus phrase + synonyms

 * No need to make specific pages for any term
 * Google is smart enough to know synonyms
 * i.e. Google caters to search intent, delivers relevant results even if not the exact word is typed in
 * Do use synonyms in your copy > better flow, related keyphrases help paint complete picture

Singular or plural?

 * Check out SERPs for singular and plural
 * How does Google interpret singular and plural search terms?
 * Tailor your keywords to that

Use keyphrase only once!

 * Several pages with same keywords/phrases can hurt rankings
 * Because of duplicate content, keyword cannibalization

Try, evaluate, try again

 * Cos that's how you learn and improve

Backlinks, Local Citations
Good article from 2017 (German)

Local citations are mentions of a company's address and contact data on the Internet, with or without a website link. Their core is the NAP (name, address, phone #). Ex.: Local Success, Daimlerstraße 6, 61449 Steinbach, Tel.: 06171 9610073.

Structured Citations Unstructured Citations General info
 * In business directories, review portals, also e.g. Facebook.
 * Companies can create their own entries with NAP and e.g. photos
 * Can appear anywhere
 * e.g. on blogs, forums, job postings, event pages...
 * Google keeps an eye on local citations to draw information for their search results
 * More well-maintained entries on such platforms can improve rankings in Google
 * NAP consistency is important across platforms!
 * Profit from platforms' high domain authority

Platforms

 * Business/mercantile directories (Branchenverzeichnisse)
 * Registers of companies (Firmenregister)
 * Review platforms (Bewertungsplattformen)
 * Trade associations (Fachverbände)
 * Chambers of commerce (Handelskammern)
 * Branch-specific and local directories (branchenspezifische und regionale Verzeichnisse)
 * Map providers (Kartendienste)

What to consider before registering

 * Quality, not quantity! Find a good selection of relevant platforms to register on
 * Check if your business is already listed to avoid duplicates (somebody else might have listed you)
 * Some companies might call you and try to sell you a plan. Evaluate if this makes sense for you!
 * Some will only list you in exchange for a backlink. Avoid, unless they're high-ranking / high-profile
 * Avoid platforms that don't link right to your website, but use a redirect instead
 * Keep company name, address etc. consistent across platforms

Other ways to build backlinks

 * Blogs, magazines (e.g. guest posts)

On-Page SEO

 * Tailor your contents to your audience's needs: page title, depth of research, keyword depth...
 * HTML headings, anchor text etc. should provide clues to search engines
 * Architecture should facilitate crawling

Good Content
(source) Research & Keywords Freshness Answers Depth Multimedia
 * Have a good content strategy!
 * Informational content: be accurate, comprehensive, original, professionally presented
 * Artistic: original, unique, high degree of skill
 * News: in-depth, well cited, accurate, original reporting
 * "E-A-T signals": authoritativeness, expertise, trustworthiness
 * Find keywords your audience uses so you can answer their questions
 * Understand your audience's language
 * Refer to keyword research sections above
 * Include keywords in text body, headings, titles - but naturally!
 * Search engines are getting better at understanding natural language, so no more need to cram keywords in for "density"
 * Keep it timely, up-to-date
 * Update old content (with value and substance!), or retire outdated content
 * Consider creating content re. trends, upcoming events, holidays, breaking news for temporary boosts
 * Explicitly answer users' questions
 * Search engines try to show answers on SERPs ("featured snippets")
 * This way, you can raise brand awareness, though not necessarily website clicks (cos the answer is already displayed on the SERP)
 * Provide substantial, complete, comprehensive answers
 * Provide more value than competitors, but don't overdo it with the length/depth. Stay appropriate to the question asked.
 * Consider images, audio, video, other formats
 * Consider serving from a CDN
 * Remember descriptive text
 * Don't overdo it (e.g. by too many GIFs)

Technology, Architecture

 * Crawling
 * Problems: improper internal linking, slow loading speeds, URL errors, user access prompts, noindex


 * Responsive design
 * Website must be well usable by humans on mobile devices
 * Problems include: faulty redirects, slow loading speeds, bad font sizes, touch elements too close together, interstitials (ads)
 * Duplicates
 * Search engines will try to consolidate duplicate content into one "canonical" link
 * Use canonical tags, redirects, effective pagination
 * Loading speed
 * Site should load quickly on mobile or desktop
 * Faster sites have SEO advantage!
 * HTTPS
 * SSL encryption is a ranking factor
 * URLs
 * Having descriptive words in them helps!

Meta Titles/Descriptions
Articles by Yoast: Site/page title / Meta descriptions

Title: Description: '''Are descriptions still important? '''(source, Mar 16, 2018) ''“Good meta descriptions are short blurbs that describe accurately the content of the page. They are like a pitch that convince the user that the page is exactly what they’re looking for.”''
 * Google has a fixed pixel width for how much title it displays
 * Length checking tool on SEORCH
 * Depending on device/screen size
 * So you could have less w's but more i's
 * Try to keep the length below 60 characters
 * Put most important keywords towards beginning of title
 * Write it so it entices people to click
 * Brand name should be included in the title - Google looks for it
 * Title can be written differently for social media (e.g. w/o brand name)
 * 156 characters
 * Actionable, in active voice
 * Includes CTA
 * Contains focus keyword
 * Shows specifications (if product)
 * Matches page content
 * Unique
 * Yes! Google keeps optimizing delivery of meta descriptions on SERPs
 * But they're not a direct ranking signal. They're intended to deliver what a searches for.
 * Google wants them to:
 * be a proper representation of content
 * be unique on page-by-page-basis
 * fit within x number of characters
 * Hence: keep creating thoughtful, well-constructed, eloquent, consistent meta descriptions! Optimize for:
 * Keywords
 * Proper length
 * Specific stages of intent
 * Informational: use informational language, convey that you have answers
 * Transactional: action-oriented, purchase-driven language


 * All that said, bear in mind Google writes its own description snippet from 1st paragraph of content when it matches search better (source)
 * Also, not all pages matter equally for SEO. Focus on those that matter most.

Content
"Headings on a page are great for SEO & accessibility, but they're not going to make or break your sites rankings. Be reasonable in what you mark up as a heading, pick things that help to explain what the pages are about. See it a bit like highlighting something on a page that you hand out -- you want to make it clear what the page is about, but if you use too much of it (or don't highlight anything at all), then it'll take more effort for the other person to understand at a glance."
 * Use keyword-heavy, helpful headlines and subheadings
 * Note: headings aren't that important for ranking! (source)

- Johannes Müller, Google

File names

 * Images/media: make sure file names are descriptive and relevant

Off-Page SEO/factors

 * Include reputation, quality of backlinks, user's geographic location

Tracking/Analytics

 * Jan 2015: most important metrics
 * Hits/visits/page views
 * aka engagement
 * web traffic
 * Followers/friends
 * Sales
 * Profits/revenues per customer
 * Social media continues to be highly important

[German] Webinar: SEO/SEA (Aug 11, 2020)
Keywords
 * SEA und SEO haben technisch nichts miteinander zu tun!
 * Wer SEA zahlt, profitiert nicht in organischen Suchergebnissen
 * SEA und SEO zusammen sind SEM (Serch Engine Marketing)
 * Keywords sind die Basis für alles! Die Suchbegriffe oder -Phrasen der Bedarfsgruppe
 * Texteinheit, Wort, Kombination von Wörtern, Zahlen, Zeichen
 * Repräsentieren Menschen in bestimmter Entscheidungsphase
 * Daraus können wir eine SEM-Strategie erschaffen
 * Gute Tools: kwfinder, Google Keyword Planner
 * Wertvolles Keyweord: Hohes SV, Geringer Wettbewerb, hohe Conversion-Wahrscheinlichkeit
 * Tipp: Fragezeichen und ungerade Zahlen fördern CTR!
 * CTA: "Hier klicken!" (in Metabeschreibung und Titel!!)