Search Engine Optimization

Anyone who types something into Google gets a long list of results. Almost all clicks go to the first results, while the rest are barely noticed. Search engine optimization refers to all the measures a website operator uses to try to land as high up in this list as possible. This includes writing texts for the matching search terms, making the site technically fast, and getting other sites to link to it. Nothing is paid to the search engine for this: purchased ad placements at the top of the results list are a different matter. The English technical term is Search Engine Optimization, abbreviated SEO.

Why rank one is worth so much money

For many companies, the search engine is the most important way to be found at all. An online shop for running shoes depends on someone typing in “buy running shoes” and seeing it. Studies have shown a similar picture for years: the first result often gets more clicks than positions two through five combined. Almost no visitor lands on page two of the results list.

This has given rise to an entire industry. Agencies, consulting firms, and specialized tools all earn money by improving rankings. Large publishers and retail corporations employ their own teams dedicated solely to this topic. A drop in search results can cut revenue in half, and that within just a few days.

This is precisely why SEO is also an economic risk. Anyone who builds their business on Google visitors depends on rules set by another company. If Google changes its evaluation, no one can object. Experts call this dependency platform risk.

What Google evaluates and what editors make of it

Search engines use automated programs to download countless pages and store them in a large directory. This directory is called an index. When a search query comes in, the system searches through it for matching pages and sorts them according to hundreds of criteria. Google keeps secret exactly which criteria these are and how much weight they carry.

Still, the main groups are roughly known. In terms of content, what counts is whether a text truly answers the user’s question and uses the searched terms naturally. Technically, what counts is whether the page loads quickly, works on mobile phones, and is structured in a way that programs can read. And reputation counts too: if many reputable websites link to a page, it is considered more trustworthy. Such links are called backlinks.

You can think of it like a job application. The content is the professional qualification, the technology is the format of the documents, and the links are letters of recommendation. A common misconception is that it’s enough to repeat a search term as often as possible in the text. Search engines have long since learned to recognize such keyword stuffing, i.e. bluntly cramming in search terms, and penalize it with worse rankings.

SEO in the age of AI answers

You encounter SEO constantly in everyday life without noticing it. Recipe pages with long backstories before the list of ingredients are one example: the longer text is meant to make the page more interesting to search engines. Titles like “The 10 Best Budget Laptops of 2025” are also usually tailored to specific search queries.

What’s new is the pressure from artificial intelligence. Google and chatbots now often answer questions directly in the answer field instead of just showing links. The user then reads the answer and doesn’t click through any further. Publishers are therefore reporting declining visitor numbers and speak of zero-click searches, meaning search queries without a single click to a website.

This has given rise to a new variant known by names such as Generative Engine Optimization. It asks: how do you write content so that an AI system cites it as a source? These terms show up in financial news when discussing the advertising revenue of media companies or Google’s market power. The basic principle remains the same: whoever controls attention at the search interface controls a large part of the internet business.