Strategies for More Online Traffic

The internet and Google search are increasingly becoming a shark tank where only highly professional sites will survive. No matter what the search term, if you look at the search results, you only see SEO-optimized content whose goal is to make a big profit.

Google claims that it can distinguish good content from bad, but that is not true. The search engine cannot distinguish whether information is true or false, or whether it contains factual errors. It only recognizes, based on on-page and off-page factors, whether something meaningful is written there and whether people like it. However, this is not always in the interest of the users, because I often encounter pages with factual deficiencies that the unsuspecting visitor does not even notice.

For example, recently I searched for „Paul Watzlawick“ (a psychologist). One would think that university and college websites would provide the best content for this. Far from it. These are only found on the second or third page, because unfortunately, precisely the best ones do not invest energy in search engine optimization. And what I found often contained misinformation.

This is how it goes throughout the entire web. The professionals have more or less understood Google’s algorithm and usually end up at the top. The worst are those sites that have either „Test“, „Comparison“, „Buy“ or „24“ in their domain. They suggest to people that products have been seriously analyzed there. In reality, they just compile reviews from Amazon and then earn money with the affiliate program. These sites are the absolute death of the internet. Inferior content, which unfortunately dominates the search listings.

One person’s joy is another’s sorrow, because I too earn my money on the internet – at least partially. I always try to strike a balance between commerce and quality here. That is, high-quality information combined with SEO. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to assert oneself in such a market, because the competition never sleeps. So what to do?

Added Value Through Software Applications

Anyone can run websites nowadays. Buy a domain, upload WordPress, create text, and buy backlinks. That’s how it usually works, that’s how you get to the top today. Those who are a little more capable also create images. Or they make some videos, offer downloads as PDFs, etc. With a few nicely made goodies, you can position yourself relatively well in the upper ranks of the search results. But if the competition catches up, then a top 5 position could be tight.

For this reason, I have stepped up my game. For example, there’s my page about light microscopes. With the help of a friend, we programmed a tool that allows students to memorize the structure of the light microscope.

The software is free, web-based, and ultimately replaces worksheets on the structure of the light microscope. Since most website operators do not have the necessary programming skills, I have now left 90% of the competition behind for this important search term.
This method can at least be part of an adapted strategy to assert oneself against the competition in lucrative markets in the future.