SEO myths, on-page strategies and best practices

We had the opportunity to create an international SEO concept for one of our clients. The task was to optimize the client’s website to improve its ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., for each country-specific index.

The website has grown over many years and has become quite extensive, covering content in over 10 languages. The result was a 30+ page analysis and strategy document. For us, it was a fascinating and interesting project, one that continues to offer learning opportunities.

Although search engine optimization is not magic, it can quickly become scientific and complex.

SEO is generally a popular topic. In many conversations, when we talk about what we do at gravima, we often hear: "Oh yes, search engine marketing—we’ve wanted to do something about that in our company for a while."

We’re fascinated by the assumptions and opinions people have about what goes into improving search engine rankings:

"SEO is magic!"

"Good positions can simply be bought!"

"You can’t really influence Google rankings anyway!"

"SEO professionals only use shady tricks!"

But the core of SEO is truly neither magic nor dark arts; rather, it’s the right combination of many factors, which we’d like to briefly and simply summarize here.

First, you have to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience: What terms (keywords) are they using to find a company or service?

Generally, SEO measures are divided into actions you can take directly on your website (on-page SEO) and those that take place outside of the website (off-page SEO).

Here are the most important factors for improving ranking through on-page optimization in brief:

At the forefront, of course, is the quality, structure, and relevance of a website’s content.

It’s also good if you manage to repeat key terms and keyword combinations a few times per page—just don’t overdo it! 😉

• Content quality: High emphasis should be placed on quality, structure, and relevance in the content on the website.

• Keyword integration: Incorporate the most important keywords into the text.

• SEO-friendly URLs: Web addresses should be search engine friendly.

• Unique title tags: Each page should have a title containing the most important keywords.

• Meta-tag "Description": This tag plays a key role in SEO, as it’s often used by search engines.

• Internal linking: Good internal links help search engines understand the website’s structure.

• Meta-tags: Especially for international websites, cleanly implemented meta-tags are essential. For example, each page should specify the language code. The meta-information should be unique for each language and tailored to the specific page content.

Once you’ve done your homework on the website itself, the real task begins: off-page optimization. With Google and other search engines, it’s similar to real life: only those who receive recommendations from many sources on a particular topic are given corresponding importance, leading to top rankings in search engine results.
In SEO, recommendations are equivalent to links to your website, known as backlinks. These recommendations carry significant weight if they come from relevant, authoritative websites.

It gets even more exciting when you follow the principles of gravitational marketing. Modern social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and others open up not only opportunities for direct and viral engagement with customers and prospects but also significantly contribute to improving online visibility and rankings.