Why choose SEO marketing?
SEO is one of the most important marketing strategies of our time. All other strategies are strengthened by the use of the right SEO techniques. There are various reasons for investing in SEO:
- The competition also uses SEO techniques. This is perhaps the most important reason for choosing SEO marketing. When you do not invest extra in this and the competition does, this means that you miss out on a lot of potential visitors and therefore customers. When filling in search requests, the competition will end up higher, so your company will not be found. A shame, because you will lose a lot of sales. Even the biggest name companies need to continue to invest in SEO to remain visible. Otherwise, they are guaranteed to lose this luxury position to others within their niche.
- SEO is a relatively cheap way to make your company more findable for your target group. There are many different ways to attract more visitors. Think for example of placing advertisements, but also of distributing promotional gifts, and so on. All this costs a lot of money and the results are usually difficult to measure. Whether such a marketing campaign is truly successful is therefore difficult to determine. SEO costs little to no money. Moreover, it delivers much more and you can easily see the results. So you know for sure that your marketing budget is being spent in the right way and that it is actually yielding the necessary results.
- The use of search engines has become extremely popular over the years. In fact, research has shown that more than 95% of Dutch people use search engines when searching for the right products and services. People pay much less attention to offline marketing, but go their own way and follow their own search queries. It is also striking that they often look no further than the first two pages of search results in search engines. Sometimes they do not even look beyond the first three results. This makes it necessary to rank high in relevant search queries in order to increase the findability of the company, attract more visitors and subsequently bind them.
- By investing in SEO, you are not only investing in better findability, but also in a more qualitative website. Most SEO techniques go hand in hand with improving the content on the website to ensure a better user experience.
SEO organic search marketing: generating more growth step by step
Google's algorithm is constantly changing. It is estimated that Google has more than 600 different algorithms. Many algorithms are not known to the general public. All these algorithms have only one goal: to improve the user experience of the search engine. It is therefore not surprising that SEO techniques are also constantly changing. The techniques that were used a few years ago are now much less effective. It is therefore important for an SEO marketer to constantly keep his or her knowledge up to date and at the same time follow the SEO trends.
All SEO techniques are based on three basic pillars. Together they form the so-called SEO triangle. When you score on all three of these pillars, you know that your SEO is in good order and that you have the best chance of achieving good organic business growth. SEO organic search marketing looks at the following pillars:
1. Qualitative website
If you have little understanding or experience of SEO, you might make the biggest beginners mistake: thinking that scoring on keywords is the most important thing. Of course, this is also important, but if the foundation is not good, it will be of little use. That is why the quality of the website should always be looked at first. Are you using the right data applications, URL structure, headings, a clean HTM code and other aspects that influence the user experience?
You don't want a page to rank high in the search results and then have to wait an incredibly long time for the page to load. If that is the case, they will quickly click back to go to a competitor. Moreover, this is also disastrous for your position within Google, because Google does not only look at the relevance of the website, but also at how long visitors spend on it. When Google's algorithm notices that they click away quickly, the website will be considered of lower quality. This is a huge detriment to your Google ranking.
When setting up a good SEO organic search marketing campaign, the foundation of the site is therefore examined first. A technical scan. This is necessary to identify possible barriers and resolve them if necessary. If the website is on point, nothing will stand in the way of the growth of your website.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing is also considered the heart of SEO marketing. Writing content is complex. It is all about relevance. Does the written content match the search intent of the user? The better your content matches, the higher your website will rank in the search results.
With content, we quickly think of text. Although this is a natural and very effective way to create content, it does not mean that it is the only way to place content. Content is simply a collective name for all the information you can put on a page. This can be text, but also images or even podcasts.
When placing valuable content, it is important to know what to look for. What search results do they want to score on? What has the most effect? To find this out, an SEO marketer will always perform a keyword analysis. This maps out how the content can be presented and which keywords will be most effective.
Choosing the wrong keywords is the biggest mistake you can make. People often make the mistake of using very broad keywords. Think, for example, of 'baker'. There are thousands of bakers in the Netherlands. Scoring on this keyword is therefore almost impossible. The competition is simply too fierce. That is why it is important to optimise such keywords. Think for example of 'Bakker Amsterdam'. The number of search results will then be much smaller. Moreover, in this way you also reach the target group who will take action more quickly, because they are actually looking for a bakery in their neighbourhood. With the help of a keyword analysis, it is easy to determine how content can be optimised and created in order to realise optimal growth.
3. Higher authority
Google is always looking for valuable companies. Websites with a high authority. In other words, websites that share useful information and are knowledgeable about relevant topics. It is therefore not only about the content that is shared, but also about uniqueness and to what extent the information can be considered valuable. But how does Google determine the authority of a website? It is impossible to search every website. That is why robots are used to scan the websites. A website is considered authoritative when it meets a number of conditions. Backlinks play a very important role in this.
The more people link to your website, the more valuable it is considered by Google. However, you also need to be careful with this. In the past, there have been many stories where people bought a lot of links and had them placed. However, this was soon considered as spam, which actually damaged the authoritative position of the website.
It is important to place backlinks on other authoritative websites. For example, under articles with information that may be relevant to your business. Think for example of an article about shopping for a new winter wardrobe for an online clothing shop. The more unique and valuable the article is, the more it will benefit the ranking of your website.
4. Quality of backlinks
In SEO organic search marketing, the use of backlinks often plays a very important role. However, this must be done in the right way. Only quality backlinks have a real effect on the Google ranking of your webpage. There are a number of factors that need to be taken into account.
First of all, it is important that the backlinks are placed on a relevant webpage. A link to a bakery on a DIY blog will not do much good. However, if you place a link to the same bakery on a housing blog, this will have much more effect. Therefore, SEO marketers often have a large amount of blogs and other qualitative websites where backlinks can be placed. This makes finding a relevant website easier than ever.
Secondly, the authority of the website on which this backlink is placed must also be considered. You will be seen as an authority much quicker if the links to your website are also placed on valuable web pages. Has a very well-known blog or website placed a link to your website? Then this will guarantee more visitors and a higher position within Google.
And finally, the way in which the link building is applied must also be considered. The right balance between quality and quantity is of vital importance here. So you don't just randomly sprinkle links, but you really conduct a valuable link building campaign. This will prevent Google from considering the links as spam and your position within Google will not be at stake, but nothing will stand in the way of a good organic growth.
This is how you roll up your sleeves
Do you want to get started with SEO? Or do you simply want to take some of it into your own hands? Good idea! It is always nice to gain new experiences and the necessary knowledge. Moreover, it is also possible to work together with professional SEO marketers. They help by, for example, carrying out a keyword analysis and giving advice and you can then make the necessary changes to the website.
Do you really want to roll up your sleeves and have no idea where to start? Then first ask yourself if you have the time to develop new skills and to keep up with the SEO of your website. When it comes to SEO, it is not the case that, if you are completely successful, you are finished once. Google's algorithm keeps changing. So does the way in which campaigns should be run. It is therefore necessary to keep up to date with SEO trends and make changes where necessary. Only then will it be possible to maintain a good position in Google.
Investing in SEO takes time. Time that you could have spent on improving your products and services. Or the contact with the customer. If you are willing to do this, it can not hurt to learn from an SEO marketer so you can eventually pick it up yourself. If you would rather spend this time differently, it is smarter to leave the SEO organic search marketing to a professional. This way you can be sure that your website will be found better by the potential target group and you will not have to worry about it anymore.
