In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), it is crucial to take the most effective measures to increase the visibility of a website. SEO is an extensive field that presents both beginners and experienced professionals with a multitude of opportunities. It can be difficult to decide where to start and which measures promise the greatest success.
The most important facts in brief:
- SEO measures should be prioritized depending on their contribution to rankings, the added value for site visitors and the effort involved.
- SEO measures can be divided into different levels that build on each other. The most important measures are those at the lowest level.
- This results in an SEO needs pyramid.
Categories of SEO measures
The various SEO measures can be represented in a hierarchical pyramid, similar to Maslow’s pyramid of needs. This hierarchy states that the needs on one level must be fulfilled before the needs on the next higher level play a role. The categories of the SEO needs pyramid include:
1. crawling and indexing – the basics
At the lowest level of the pyramid are the basics: the website must be crawlable and indexable. If problems occur here, such as an incorrectly configured robots.txt file that blocks crawling or faulty meta robots tags that exclude pages from indexing, these must be rectified before other SEO measures are taken.
2. content – the key to success
The next level up concerns the quality and relevance of the content on the website. Google considers content to be one of the most important ranking factors. A website can only perform well in search results if it offers high-quality and relevant content.
Note: The individual SEO measures are not described in detail in this article. These are explained in more detail in our other blog articles. This article serves to create a basic understanding of the various SEO measures and to create a sense of relevance for the respective measures.
In order to classify the importance of the individual SEO measures, three criteria must be taken into particular consideration:
- How do the measures affect the Google ranking factors?
- What effect does the measure have on user satisfaction?
- What effort is involved?
Recently, Google has significantly improved its ability to analyze text, which has led to points 1 and 2, namely crawling and indexing as well as content, becoming more and more interlinked.
3. backlinks – the trust signal
Backlinks, i.e. links from other websites to your own, are still important. They serve as a trust signal and show the popularity and authority of a website. However, backlinks alone are not enough to achieve good rankings.
4. internal linking – the connection of the pages
Internal linking, i.e. the linking of pages within your own website, also influences the rankings. A page can perform better in the search results through the targeted placement of internal links.
5. performance and user experience – user satisfaction
The highest level of the pyramid relates to the performance and user experience of the website. This includes factors such as loading times, mobile-friendliness, secure connections via HTTPS and the avoidance of disruptive elements such as pop-ups. Google refers to these factors collectively as Page Experience.
Conclusion
The prioritization of SEO measures should be based on their efficiency. Priority should be given to measures with a high impact and low cost. The basics, including crawling, indexing and high-quality content, are essential. Backlinks and internal linking also play an important role. Although performance and user experience are crucial, they have a comparatively small influence on the rankings. A balanced consideration of all levels of the SEO needs pyramid is the key to success in search engine optimization.