Germany SEO

German SEO - Expert Advice and Quality Services

German marketing services offered

SEO Strategy in Germany

SEO strategy

We can offer you a detailed SEO strategy, specifically drawing on our company’s extensive experience in the German market. Analysing the very latest trends and data, we will put together a tailor-made package that will boost your SEO in a variety of ways.

“Suchmaschinenoptimierung”, to give it its rather lengthy German name, requires a specific awareness of users’ traits in the country. We couple this knowledge with our understanding of the ways in which Google ranks different sites, bringing in all its many elements and including all the recent changes to its algorithm. 
 

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Website Optimisation

On-page SEO strategy

Finding ways to improve the amount of traffic to your site begins with a close examination of your website itself.

This includes the SEO basics – optimising the Metatags, h1 titles and URLs to include keywords and attract relevant visitors to your site.

It also includes creating content that sounds natural to native German speakers and converts visitors to customers. When optimising sites, we also include semantically related keywords so each landing page ranks for multiple keywords, not just one or two.

Additionally, we improve site speed and ensure sites are mobile friendly.

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English to German Translation

English to German translation

While machine translation can be useful when perusing a restaurant menu, glaring (and sometimes comical) mistakes don’t leave a good impression on visitors to your website.

Our team of professional German translators ensures your content is translated carefully and with precision. They understand the nuances, connotations and cultural appropriateness of individual words and phrases – this is well beyond the capacity of Google Translate. These aspects of language are all necessary when it comes to forming a relationship with your new clients, not to mention when choosing the most relevant German keywords.
 

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SEO Audit

SEO Audit service

A full SEO audit will be carried out by a fluent German speaker. This helps pinpoint how well your website is meeting the needs of its users in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. It covers technical SEO, content and backlinks.

This combines automatic analysis using several different SEO tools and a manual, expert review. Our SEO audit highlights areas for improvement by order of priority and, crucially, offers solutions too.

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German Link Building

Link building in Germany

Link building is a highly effective way of boosting your SEO. This comes with an important caveat: It is vital that these links come from high-authority, reputable sites.

We have connections with a high number of sites in Germany, which we can liaise with to link to your site. This then signals to Google that you are relevant to users throughout the country.

What’s more, all the German-language editorial content we generate for you will be high-quality and only posted to reputable blogs.

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German Copywriting

Copywriting and content marketing

If you would like us to write unique German content for you, we will pinpoint what type would prove to be most beneficial.

Your content will then be written by a native German copywriter. This means it will be engaging and culturally appropriate – with no chance of something being misconstrued by the reader.

All our copywriters are educated to at least degree level, and we guarantee that all your content will be engaging and unique.
 

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"The German language is a dozen fragments of words flung into an octagonal cylinder - take a good look at them before you begin to turn the machine, for you will never see them in their simplicity again … Turn! - up spring your fragmental elements with Ver's & Be's & Ge's & Er's & lein's & chen's & ung's & heit's & keit's & zu's and a thousand other flashing and blazing prefixes, affixes and interjections broidered on them or hung to them. - Turn and turn! The combinations will be infinite, bewilderingly enchanting and magnificent."

Mark Twain

Language rubiks cube

German is one of the most complex European languages, and the language varies depending on whether you're in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

This is why it's so important to have a native speaking team when completing German SEO.

Don't be tempted to use poorly translated content. Work with an SEO company who use native speakers.

  • Language use in Germany, Switzerland...

    The German language is one of the oldest, most spoken languages in the world. More than 130 million people speak it daily. It’s the first language in 6 countries and a minority language in 10.

    These numbers lend credibility to your website as it caters to a massive group of people. It is also one of the challenges that you will encounter when writing German SEO content for your website.

    Did you know the name for a “train ticket” in Germany can be Zugfahrkarte, Bahnfahrkarte, or Bahnticket? All three words are recognisable to German speakers and can be used as search terms. However, any Swiss website visitors would not search for these terms. They would search for the Billett, which has French origins.

    Another example is a “driving license” - a widespread and much-used word in daily life. You would expect it to be the same in every country. However, in Switzerland the name for a driving license is Führerausweis or Billet; in Germany and Austria, it would be a Führerschein.

    When deciding which words to use in your digital strategy, whether as part of a translation or when writing German content, we complete keyword research, taking into account search volume, SEO challenge, user-intent and semantically related keywords.

    According to studies, German customers require more information than any other European user group before making a purchasing decision. They want to know about features, comparable products, and environmental impacts during the sales process. Germany SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaigns therefore need plenty of helpful content to succeed, both on the website and in the form of backlinks. Successful German SEO strategy must also cover the more technical aspects of digital marketing like optimising web speed and creating a user-friendly website.

    These small but essential grammatic and cultural details exemplify some of the often overlooked differences that this fascinating language offers us. In-depth cultural research and local language experts are necessary to implement a successful local SEO strategy.

    Improve your SEO ranking in Germany.

    Mark Twain quote

  • German content marketing

    Building high authority, high traffic links

    It’s very important that your external links should come from another German language site and ideally from the same country as the one you're targeting. This makes you more visible to search engines and demonstrates your relevance to internet users in Germany, Switzerland, or another German speaking country.

    Links are an essential part of a digital marketing strategy for two reasons. First, they create direct traffic to your site by way of people reading guest posts, finding your site in directories, etc. Perhaps more importantly, search engines also index the links and move your site’s position up as a result of them. A quality link is seen as a vote of confidence by Google.

    When completing German link building campaigns, we focus on writing unique, well-researched content and building links from high authority, high traffic websites related to your industry. We offer a range of different links to create a natural profile:

    • Writing articles or blogs posts and adding them to related websites as guest posts.
    • Designing beautiful infographics and other German images and sharing them on a range of social media and image sharing sites.
    • Managing social media profiles and building links from popular social networks like Facebook (According to a recent study on social media use in Germany, 64% of Germans use Facebook, while only 22% use Twitter and 14% use LinkedIn. For German SEO, we therefore tend to prioritise Facebook).
    • Submitting your site to the top directories in Germany with unique content.

    We network with a wide range of German bloggers in different industries. When we provide a guest posting service, we will make the guest posts as relevant as possible.

  • Choose the right SEO agency to boost your business

    We have built up considerable experience as a German SEO agency. During this time, we have learnt how Google 'thinks' and gained a thorough understanding of its numerous algorithms (RankBrain, Panda, Penguin, et al). We will be delighted to look at your website and apply this knowledge to provide concrete recommendations on the best SEO and backlink strategy free of charge. Your project will be co-ordinated by a multilingual, English speaking Project Manager to ensure ease of communication.

    As you can see, your online marketing strategy will shift in subtle ways when you consider a German audience. In many European countries, it’s highly beneficial to have a hands-on and knowledgeable partner to guide you through the process of creating a successful SEO strategy.

    Indigoextra Ltd. is a company capable of guiding you through the entire process. Whether you require a team to design a website, create new content, take current content and translate it from English to German, or set up a reliable backlink campaign - we’re up to the task.

    We would be delighted to discuss your project with you and provide a free SEO consultation to identify the best strategy for your company.

     

    SEO for German users

FAQ

What is German SEO?

German SEO (short for Search Engine Optimisation) looks at all the factors that contribute to your Google search results in Germany. Its primary purpose is to make sure search engines have a good idea of what your company is about, and rank you highly for relevant terms, so the right kind of traffic is directed to you. There are many aspects to SEO, including on-page which optimizes aspects of your website itself; technical SEO (like page speed and mobile friendliness) and link building (external links from other reputable sites).

Do I need a .de domain to rank well?

The first question many people ask when entering the German market is, “Do I need a .de domain name?”

The short answer is no. There are pros and cons of using a sub-domain, sub-folder or .de domain name, but one is not necessarily better than the other.

The two essential items to get right are:

  • Use a different URL in German than you do in English or other languages. Do not simply rely on cookies to change language because Google cannot use cookies in this way. That means if you have an identical URL in multiple languages, it will only be able to index one language.
  • Do not use a sub-domain or sub-folder if your main domain targets a different country. So, if your main domain is indigoextra.co.uk, using de.indigoextra.co.uk would not work. That’s because the .co.uk domain extension tells Google and potential visitors that you’re targeting the UK. It’s bad for both SEO and user experience.

What qualifications do your SEO team have?

All our German copywriters and SEO experts are qualified to degree level or above and have prior relevant experience and great references.

Can you translate my website into German?

We have an extensive team of web developers, SEO experts and English/German translators, so can translate your site from start to end, or work with your own web developers, if you’d prefer.

We translate content between six European languages - English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. If your existing website is in any of these languages, we can provide a professional translation for you. Where required, this will include keyword-researched SEO translations to ensure that your translated content has a healthy keyword balance. We wade through 1,000’s of keywords to identify the best ones for your site.

Read more about our English to German translation service.

How do you approach on-page SEO for different countries?

We start each SEO project with keyword research to ensure we’re targeting the best keywords for your target audience. We take statistics like search volumes and keyword difficulty from a specific country like Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.

When reviewing your website, we approach it from two perspectives:

1. The Human Perspective

We use our 16 years’ worth of experience in SEO and UX to determine how your website will be perceived by visitors. We then take steps to improve SEO, UX and conversion rates, looking at:

  • How we can improve the site structure and menus.
  • Ensuring content is sufficiently in-depth and provides all the information your visitors need.
  • Writing additional content when beneficial.
  • Analysing if the products or services are promoted in a way that will read well to German visitors.
  • Determining how we can improve the user experience and conversion rate.
  • Proofreading spelling and grammar.
     

2. The Search Engine Perspective

We also complete a German website analysis from a search engine perspective, reviewing factors like site structure, keyword balance, 404 or other errors, the title, description, hreflang Metatags, etc.

We provide feedback after completing this website SEO audit. We can also implement all of the recommended changes if your site operates on Drupal, WordPress, or certain other CMS systems.

Google value in-depth content. So, along with an SEO audit, it’s often necessary to expand the existing content on your site with well-researched, engaging German content. This might include expanded product descriptions (particularly for e-commerce sites), or a blog that illustrates your expertise by using subtler advertising messages (particularly for companies looking to promote a service).

Which Social Media platforms do you recommend?

“Social media is the same everywhere, and we won’t change our social media strategy when entering a new country.”

Many companies have uttered variants of those words, and all were incorrect. In Germany, the social media landscape is vastly different from other European countries. Even amongst other German-speaking nations, there are differences in how social media is used.

Unsurprisingly, most local Germans feel that their data is not safe online, which is why Facebook enjoys significantly less market share (64%) than it does in the UK (73%).

Another example, and an essential tool for many companies, is Twitter. In the UK, Twitter is a popular social media platform with a market share of 45%; in Germany, this number drops to a mere 22%. There are many reasons as to why, but one common explanation is that words can often be too long to express anything useful in 140 characters, which was the original limit of a Tweet.

When doing social media in Germany, we therefore focus more on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Which industries do you cover?

We have a broad range of clients, across diverse businesses. However, we will only work for ethical industries. Our ethical policy can be found here.

Can you share some examples of your success?

Sure, take a look at a range of our European SEO case studies.

How do you approach keyword research in Germany?

We consider six factors when recommending which keywords to target:

  • Relevance to your business.
  • Likely profit per keyword (if you provide us with a spreadsheet showing this, we will merge data with our organic keyword research).
  • How frequently each keyword is searched for in the target country.
  • How difficult it will be for your site to rank for the keyword.
  • The user-intent behind it (whether it's commercial or informative in nature).
  • What semantically related words to include on the page too (this helps content read more naturally and avoids keyword stuffing).

Get in touch for a free SEO consultation.