The rules of search are currently changing fundamentally: AI Overviews, changing click behaviour, new competitors for attention. Many SMEs are asking themselves: what should we really focus on now? Our SEO expert David Köhler provides clear answers and shows what will be decisive for visibility in 2026.
1. How did you originally get into the world of search engine optimisation?
I’ve always been interested in marketing. But things really started with an internship at a marketing agency in South Africa. That was more than five years ago. There I was able to work directly with very different companies and quickly realised how exciting I found it.
SEO grabbed me because it’s not just about writing or design, but about understanding. How does someone search? Why do they click on this result in particular? And how do you manage to stay visible in all that competition? That’s what sparked it for me. Since then, SEO has been a fixed part of my everyday work.
2. Which aspects of SEO fascinate you the most personally?
Honestly, there are quite a few. I especially like the mix of strategic and analytical thinking. No project is like another. Every website brings its own challenges, every industry works a bit differently, and that’s exactly what makes it exciting for me.
You notice this particularly when you work with more complex industries, for example in healthcare or in the iGaming sector, where many things are heavily regulated. Standard solutions are not enough there. You really have to dig in.
And something that fits me quite well personally: I am a passionate chess player and see a lot of parallels. It’s about patterns, long-term thinking, spotting opportunities – and that’s exactly what I also enjoy in SEO.
What I also find exciting: SEO is constantly changing. Tactics that worked 5–10 years ago may have little to no effect today. Search engines evolve, users evolve, and you have to keep up. There’s no standstill. You keep learning.
3. What does a typical workday at W4 look like for you when you’re working on SEO projects?
To be honest, that’s one of the things I really appreciate about working at W4. There is no real “typical” day. Sometimes I work on keyword research, sometimes I prepare a client presentation, sometimes it’s more about strategy and roadmaps.
SEO is not completely isolated for us. It often overlaps with other areas. For example, I work a lot with HubSpot topics or support our content strategy. It really depends on the project I’m working on at the moment.
That’s exactly what makes it exciting for me. You have to stay flexible, but at the same time you can keep developing your expertise.
4. What has been the most challenging SEO project so far, and what did you learn from it?
One of the most challenging but also most exciting projects was working with a dentist in North Hollywood. The site had just been migrated by another agency. Unfortunately, many things went wrong. There were massive drops in traffic and conversions.
The biggest challenge was that many important data points were simply not available. Neither Google Analytics nor Search Console were set up properly. It was hardly possible to understand what had actually happened during the migration.
So I had to work with a few workarounds. For example, using the Wayback Machine to see how the site looked before, and tools like Ahrefs to analyse changes in the backlink profile or visibility losses.
In the end, we were able to identify the biggest mistakes and set up a clean strategy. After two months, this clearly showed in traffic and leads. The project really reminded me how important clean tracking and a structured approach are – especially when you’re basically starting in the dark.
5. Which typical SEO mistakes do you see again and again with new clients?
One mistake I see very often: many companies have a very nicely designed website. Technically well built, visually strong. But the content does not reflect how their target group actually searches.
A concrete example: I recently had a project with a company from the machine parts industry. The website was well done, the texts sounded professional. But not a single one of the keywords that potential customers were actually searching for appeared on the site.
In the end, it’s about speaking the language of your target group. Not the internal language used in the company, but the words potential customers really type into the search bar. That’s exactly what’s missing on many sites.
And there is another misconception. Many people think SEO simply means placing a few keywords on the website and then ending up on page 1 of Google within a few days. Of course, it doesn’t work like that. Good rankings are the result of a clear strategy, relevant content and continuous optimisation.
6. What role do E-E-A-T, structured data and content strategy play in your SEO work?
A very big one. Especially when you look at how search is evolving – not only traditionally on Google, but also towards AI Overviews or more semantic results – you quickly see: without a clean structure, without clear expertise signals and without a coherent content strategy, almost nothing works anymore.
For me, E-E-A-T is not just a Google buzzword, but a very practical framework. Who is speaking on this site? Why can you trust this source? What experience is behind it? These are all questions that search engines – and users – want to see answered.
Structured data helps a lot here. It’s basically the translation layer for machines. For example: this is a doctor, this is their specialty, this is a review. If you implement it properly, you can build additional visibility and trust in a very elegant way – even outside the classic search results.
But all of this is pointless without a well-thought-out content strategy. Who do I want to reach? With which content? At which stage of the decision-making process? If that fits well on the content side and the tech side is not in the way, you have a very solid foundation to be found in the long term.
7. How do you adapt your SEO strategies in light of new developments like AI Overviews or Google SGE?
That’s a very exciting topic. I think there are a lot of new terms popping up right now. But in the end, many things are still based on classic SEO fundamentals.
Of course, priorities are shifting. For example, structure plays a bigger role if you want to be visible for AI. Brand mentions on other sites have also become more important. But honestly, if you do clean on-page optimisation, have your technical basics under control and deliver truly relevant content, you are already in a pretty good position.
What has definitely changed is the technical bar. It’s becoming more and more important that machines can process content as easily as possible. So, not overloaded JavaScript, clear structures, understandable individual elements. The site should be readable not only for users but also for machines.
In short: if you do your SEO homework well, you’re already on a good path.
8. Which tools or methods do you use daily – and why?
There are a few tools that are simply part of everyday SEO work for me. First, of course, the classics like Ahrefs or Semrush. I use them to analyse keywords and competitors and to get a good feel for search behaviour.
Then I use tools for a technical overview. For example Screaming Frog or Sitebulb. With those I can quickly see if there are technical issues on a site, such as with redirects, internal linking or indexing.
And what must never be missing: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. These are absolute basics. With them I can see how much organic traffic is coming in, via which pages, which keywords. And Analytics helps me better understand user behaviour on the site.
On top of that, there are many small tools: Chrome extensions, small analysis scripts or even custom automations.
9. What do you recommend to medium-sized companies that want to remain visible on Google in the long term?
The first thing I almost always recommend: try to really understand your target group – as precisely as possible. What problems do they have? What do they want to achieve? How do they search? How do they behave online? The better you understand this, the more targeted you can create content, present products and shape your communication.
Then I recommend structuring the website in the most logical and simple way possible – both technically and in terms of content. That starts with a clean URL structure and goes all the way to minimising JavaScript and having good internal linking. Search engines and AI systems need to be able to easily crawl and understand the site. The fewer obstacles, the better.
And third: learning. I recommend every business owner build up a basic understanding of SEO. Not to do everything themselves, but to make better decisions. There are good free webinars, for example from SEMrush or Search Engine Land. And on LinkedIn you’ll find many interesting voices from the industry, sometimes even directly from Google.
10. What motivates you in your work, and what would you still like to achieve in SEO at W4?
Two things motivate me the most. Firstly, the team. At W4 we have so many experts from very different fields. You can constantly learn from each other. The exchange is fun and helps me grow professionally.
Secondly, the collaboration with exciting companies. I find it super interesting to work with very different industries and challenges. That often leads to really good solutions.
For the future, I simply wish that this continues: great people, exciting projects and topics where you can feel that what you do really makes a difference.
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