With our SEO tutorial, we'd like to guide you when it comes to optimizing your website for search engines. From important terms over the necessary tools up to the more advanced topics, we'd like to try and cover all the relevant subjects.
Of course you don't have to read all four parts at once and put them into action - SEO is a vast topic and should be compared to a marathon, rather than a sprint.
Note: SEO requires extensive research, as well as knowledge very specific to search engines. Therefore, we unfortunately cannot offer support on this topic. With our tutorial, we'd like to help you gain a better understanding for the SEO topic and show you how you can improve the search engine ranking of your website by yourself.
Please note that this article only provides you with helpful tips and advice that could help improve the ranking of your website. However, with SEO there's no guarantee that your website will achieve a better ranking after you've implemented all of the mentioned improvements. Furthermore, it can take several weeks or even months before the changes on your website come into effect. Patience is key!
What is SEO?
When typing a search request in Google, you'll receive a list of websites that Google deems relevant in relation to the words that you've used in your search - the so called Keywords. Google sorts these search results for you and shows the most relevant results first. Apart from websites, that's also where you can find images, videos and maps.
As a website owner, you'd like your website to appear at the very top for certain search queries. You can optimize your website so that it comes out on top as often as possible for relevant search queries. This process is called Search Engine Optimization - or SEO for short. These optimizations influence the organic search results. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got Ads that are marked as such and always appear at the very top of the search results.
The following article in our blog provides you with a first overview of the SEO topic. It explains the basics and familiarizes you with the most important terms:
How do I get my website to appear in Google?
Your website first needs to be indexed before it can be found using the Google search. Google searches the internet for new websites at irregular intervals, so this happens automatically. This is generally referred to as Crawling.
You can accelerate this process by making use of the Google Search Console. Find out more in our help article:
Additionally, you can submit your Sitemap using the Google Search Console. Your Jimdo website already generates the sitemap automatically. All you need to do is submit it via the steps described in the following instruction:
You can easily check whether your website was already indexed by Google. Type site: into the Google search field, followed by your website URL (i.e. site:https://www.jimdo.com). This will show you all pages that have been gathered by Google so far. Further information and tips regarding your website's visibility on Google can be found here:
Basic starter questions
Before you start optimizing your website, you should ask yourself a couple of essential questions. These will help you align your optimizations. For this research, take this advice to heart: the more precise and extensive your research, the better!
- Who am I? / What makes my business special?
- What is the exact purpose of my website?
- Who are my (direct) competitors?
- What do my competitor's websites look like? (Structure, design, content, text)
- In which ways do my services differ from what my competitors are offering?
The answers to these questions will help you create and align the content on your website and they will serve as a cornerstone for the Keyword Research that is up next.