SEO Basics

Some concepts (i.e.: search intent, targeted pages, main content, QC) need the context of my book “Understanding SEO”. It’s as short as possible, I tried to skip all parts that people do not read. Get it on Amazon (DE / US / UK) or as PDF & epub on Gumroad.

SEO is the business of getting found online

SEO - Search Engine Optimisation - is all business activities with the goal of getting found online. On all western online markets that means Google.

SEO is a choice, nobody is forcing you. But if your value proposition should get found online without depending on chance, SEO is the way to go.

SEO works in four parts of an organization

None is optional:

Part	Why
Development	If the website is not technically optimized (i.e. Google can not render it), the content side hardly matters.
Content	If your content does not fulfill the search intent of the user, you will never perform long term. Content might be part of the product (i.e. a newspaper, a real estate listing website) or of the marketing (i.e. company blog, landing pages).
Marketing	If users hate you and do not click you in the search results, you always underperform. Work on your positioning and marketing.
Data	Systematic SEO is system and data driven: you need to know what happens.

The SEO platform: targeted pages, distribution, startpage

The SEO platform, the so-called website, must consist of:

• Targeted Pages: pages that you want to get found for something specific
  • Detail pages show one thing (one article, one job listing)
  • List pages show a list of things (articles, job listings)
• Distribution (Sitemap.xml)
• Startpage
• Everything else is Ballast / dead weight.

SEO business cases and the processes they lead to

An optimized SEO platform makes these business cases possible. Each leads to a process, formulated as a question because the answers differ per company / organisation.

SEO business case	SEO process
If we add x% more targeted pages, we gain y% more traffic.	How do we create x% more targeted pages (detail and list pages) with valuable, unique content?
If we update x% of our pages, we gain z% more traffic.	How do we add content to / update x% of our targeted pages?
If we make the user experience better, our traffic gets more sustainable.	How do we assure that our site gets better usage values?
If we gain more brand recognition, our traffic gets more sustainable.	How do we assure that our site gets more brand recognition?

What an optimized targeted page must fulfill

Onpage

• an HTML page
• targeted at one site-wide unique dominant phrase: “something” we want the page to get found for
• fulfills the “job to be done” search intent of the person who searches for that phrase
• fulfills a business utility
• reachable via exactly one URL (see URL rules)
• hosts unique content or a unique collection of content
• content fulfills a pre-defined quality criteria (the QC)
  • the QC is your internal metric for a good page, defined per page type
  • do not create pages that you think are bad
• uses exactly one language
• links to other targeted pages
• gets linked from at least 1 other targeted page
• all rendering resources (js, css, images) are accessible
• everything above fold and the main content is HTML delivered by the server: content and links visible without user interaction
• listed in the sitemap.xml

URL rules

1. Unique: 1 URL == 1 resource, 1 resource == 1 URL
2. Permanent: they do not change, no dependencies to anything
3. Manageable: equals measurable, 1 logic per site section, no complicated exceptions, no exceptions
4. Easily scalable logic
5. Short
6. With a variation (partial) of the targeted phrase

Each rule is more important than all following rules combined. Rules 5 and 6 are a trade-off, 6 is the least important. A truly search optimized URL fulfills all six.

My preferred URL structure is https://www.example.com/%short-namespace%/%unique-slug%:

Part	Meaning
https://www.example.com	protocol, subdomain, brand, general TLD or country TLD
%short-namespace%	one or two letters that identify the page type, no dependency to any site hierarchy
%unique-slug%	only a-z, 0-9 and -, no double - and no - at the end. “Speaking slugs” only under your total editorial control

Examples:

• https://www.example.com/a/artikel-name
• https://www.example.com/c/cool-list
• https://www.example.com/p/12345 (does not fulfill the least important URL-Rule 6)
• https://www.example.com/p/12345-product-name

Internal interlinking

1. Every targeted page has at least one link from another targeted page.
2. Every targeted page is reachable through a click-path from the startpage.
3. More important targeted pages have more links than less important ones.
4. The most important ones have a static link from the startpage.
5. Every targeted page must have the chance to get a startpage link at least once.
6. We only link systematically to the canonical URL.
7. We do not link systematically to dead weight.
8. Hidden links (i.e.: after user interaction, drop-downs) do not count as votes.

Speed

• Targeted pages should reach green, but at least 80 points, on Page Speed Insights (see the 3 SEO tests).
• In the Google Search Console crawling report the average response time for Googlebot Smartphone should be 200ms to max 400ms.

The 3 SEO tests

Targeted pages must pass these 3 tests so Google can crawl and render them. Pass them and you are doing 80% of technical SEO right.

1. Page Speed Insights: minimum score of 80 (still orange), preferably 90 (green), for mobile, plus sensemaking screenshots for mobile and desktop.
2. “JS turned off” Test:
   • Above fold and main content are visible.
   • The whole site is navigable (visible links must be real links).
3. Google Search Console -> Inspect URL -> Test Live URL -> View Tested Page -> Screenshot shows the correctly rendered mobile page with the content visible.
   • No overlays of any kind, i.e. privacy / cookie overlay.
   • Images below fold (non-visible) might get lazy loaded.

Targeting: where the targeted phrase goes

Element	Rule
URL	should include a short variation (partial) of the phrase, see URL rules
Meta <title>	must include the phrase, ~80 characters + brand, should encourage click-through
Meta description	~160 characters or more, unique per page, should include a number. Pure marketing, not seen as content by the search engine
Headline 1	should include a variation of the phrase. Main headline visible above fold, best one per page
Image filenames	should include a short variation (above fold main content images)
Image alt text	should include a descriptive variation, about 5 words (above fold main content images)
Anchor text	links to this page should include a sense-making short variation (not “click here”, “read more”)

Content

Onpage content must be unique, internally and externally, or at least a unique combination of content: as a whole, the page must not be the same or damn similar to other pages. It should include:

• Subheadlines
• Structured content, tables, bullet points
• Definition lists / key: value pairs / infoboxes
• Images, infographics, videos
• Paragraphs of text or a unique combination of content
• Links to other pages (internal and external)

The rules behind it:

• The more diversity and structure within the content, the better.
• On a targeted list page, the list is the main content. It must always be a unique combination of content.
• The content must fulfill the search intent of the user (80% goal) and the business utility (the reason why this page exists for the business, 20% goal).

Schema.org structured data

If your content fits some of the Google supported structured data, fulfill these specifications using JSON/LD markup.

Meta

• canonical: a server-less implementation of the URL logic and the failsafe for what usually goes wrong with URLs. Every page must have one, created automatically, editorially overwritable.
• meta robots: default “index, follow”, editorially overwritable to “noindex, follow”.
• rel-alternate: necessary if an alternate version (i.e.: language, market specific, amp) with the same targeting exists.

Mobile

I and Google strongly recommend a mobile first, responsive setup of all pages.

Links to external resources

• Link to external webpages that help fulfill the user’s search intent, as much as you like.
• If you get direct monetary valuable consideration for outgoing links (paid links), set these links to “nofollow” or “sponsored”.
• You must not set any other links or complete pages to “nofollow”.

Ballast / dead weight is not systematically linked and not indexed

A page is dead weight if it:

• has no targeted phrase (does not want to get found for anything)
• or does not fulfill the QC
• or has no business utility
• or does not solve the “job to be done” for the user

Dead weight:

• must either not exist (HTTP 404, or HTTP 410 if it existed once)
• or must not get indexed (meta robots: noindex)
• is not systematically linked, not referenced onpage and not listed in the sitemap.xml
• no redirects before any errors

Brand searches, i.e.: [your-brand tos], [your-brand contact], are valid targeted phrases. Pages for them are not ballast.

The startpage sits in the root of the domain

• The startpage must be in the root of the domain, i.e. https://www.example.com/
• Do not redirect away from the startpage.
• The startpage is a targeted page for the brand of the webproperty and for one unbranded competitive targeted phrase.
• The startpage must fulfill the internal interlinking rules, with visible links to the most important targeted pages.

SEO data tools (list as of 2021)

• Google Search Console
  • Verify your site via Domain-Property and URL-Prefix-Property.
  • Verify all your URL namespaces as URL-Prefix-Property.
• Google Analytics or another onpage analytics alternative
• Page Speed Insights
• Mobile Friendly Test
• Rich snippet testing tool, Structured Data Testing Tool
• Google Lighthouse
• Webpagetest.org
• Franz SEO Livetest Chrome Extension
• Google Trends
• Google Autocomplete (Note: turn off personal results), Keywordtool.io (free version)
• Redirect Detective