Engage a search engine marketing agency
Some entrepreneurs try to save money by taking care of their own online marketing activities. This may seem advantageous, but it is counterproductive. Online marketing is complex. It is not for nothing that there are so many different search engine marketing agencies. It simply takes a lot of time to keep your knowledge up-to-date. It is also difficult to have the right skills and tools at your disposal. Therefore, in most cases, it is wiser to engage a search engine marketing agency. They have sufficient knowledge and skills to successfully set up and execute your campaign.
This does not only ensure that you can lean back with peace of mind, but also results in enormous time savings. Thanks to a search engine marketer, you can focus on what you are really good at: doing business!
Do you want to hire a search engine marketing agency, but have no idea how to choose from the enormous selection? Here are some tips on how to make a choice easily:
- Talk to different marketing agencies. The wide range of offers is only a great advantage for you. This way, you can request quotations without obligation, make contact in the meantime and ask for tips. Bear in mind that costs are not everything. A certain agency may cost you a little extra, but you will earn this back time and again. A good marketing agency is worth its weight in gold. Think of it as an investment and not as money that is lost forever. The price is not the most important thing. It is the click with the company and the expertise.
- Preferably choose a company with a diverse team. That way, you know that there are several people present to get your marketing campaign going. It is of course impossible for one person to have all the knowledge and skills. When a diverse team is present, they can reinforce each other and get the best out of your online marketing.
- Look for the so-called 'click' with the company. After all, you are putting an essential part of your company's success in the hands of strangers. That is quite exciting. That's why it's nice if the contact is good and feels right. Check out how the communication is going beforehand. Do they respond quickly to your messages, for example? Is there always someone there to talk to you? And is the team really knowledgeable? These are already good indications of how the company works.
Remove low quality pages
This is often the subject of discussions. Is it really useful to remove pages from a website? Or does it have a negative effect on the ranking? After several updates by Google, most marketers agree that real low-quality pages should be removed or at least merged. Google filters even more and better on pages with relevant content and a high quality score. Low-quality pages can drag down the entire website in the ranking. Even when these pages are placed on a very high quality website.
That is why it is good to regularly check your website and to check every page. Do they still meet your current quality requirements? This is especially true for blogs and articles. Remember that blogging is something you have to learn. Your first blogs were probably of a lower quality than the blogs that are published today. It can't do any harm to improve these blogs or to combine all the outdated blogs and publish one high-quality article. That way, you ensure quality on your entire website. And that pays off in Google!
Stay active
There is little point in running all kinds of campaigns if you are not active on your own website. Google considers it important that websites are updated regularly. New content should be placed and the information should be as relevant as possible for the searcher. If you only run a website and do not work on it anymore, you can drop in the ranking. Only because nothing more is done. Therefore it is important to think of a way to be more active on your webpage.
A method used by many other website owners is to create a blog. This gives them the opportunity to post weekly updates and thus be more active. This is good for Google, but also for the visitors. After all, with the help of blogs you show your expertise and the personal side of the company. And that ultimately brings in more customers. A blog also helps to create a natural link profile. For example by using internal links, but also by offering other websites content that may be shared. When you post good, qualitative and above all unique content, the chance is greater that you will also get some qualitative external links. This will make your website more relevant to Google.
Pay attention to link building
Link building is the pivot of online marketing. Thanks to link building, you are able to build a good reputation within Google. But what is link building exactly?
Link building is collecting as many quality links to your website as possible. Each link is considered a 'vote' for the quality of your website. The more votes, the better. Of course, this is not entirely true. Some comment should be made. In the past, it was indeed the number of votes that was important. Nowadays, however, something more important comes into play. Namely, the quality of these links or votes.
It is particularly important that the right anchor texts are used and that they are placed in a relevant context. For example, do you want to place an external link to your company as a webshop for children's clothes? Then let mommy-bloggers do it. In that case, the link to your shop is clear. A bad backlink is usually caused by placing the link without any care on all sorts of different websites and blogs. With this, however, you run the risk of it being more about advertising than about informing the reader. In that case, it is usually punished by Google. This does not only have a negative effect on your website, but also on the website where the link originates from.
But how do you collect quality external backlinks? We list a few tips:
Outsource link building
Many entrepreneurs nowadays choose to outsource link building. This involves hiring a marketing agency that has a lot of contacts with quality blogs and other sites. They have contacts in all branches, so they are able to spread your content and thus obtain backlinks in a natural way. Please note that buying backlinks is not allowed by Google. If it is discovered, it can even have very negative consequences for your ranking. Therefore, try to avoid this as much as possible. A marketing agency will do everything in its power to obtain qualitative backlinks in a natural way. This is by far the most profitable way.
Publish press releases
Are you launching new products in your webshop soon, or do you have innovative ideas about important issues within your sector? Then publish newsworthy press releases. You can then not only place these on your website, but also make them known in digital newspapers and magazines. When your press release turns out to be really newsworthy and is shared on many channels, it will generate a lot of extra qualitative backlinks in one go.
Keep in mind that a press release should really add value to your business. Newspapers receive press releases every day. There is little chance that they will publish a press release that is not of the best quality. Therefore, only share new, true and above all newsworthy messages. That will generate the most revenue.
Address friends and family
A natural link profile also includes links from less qualitative sources. That does not matter. As long as the ratio between quality and less quality is right. That's why you can also appeal to friends and family to place a link to your website. This can be done via your own social media channel or your own blog or website. In this way you collect different links from various channels. Something that also contributes to a higher quality score.
Send a request to directories
A directory is an online list that links to other websites. This means that it is actually easy to obtain backlinks here. That may sound very easy. However, it is not that easy. Directories receive hundreds of different requests every day. Therefore there is a big chance that your request will be refused. Even when it would fit perfectly with the site. It is therefore a good idea to approach several directories, because probably less than ten percent of the applications will actually be accepted.
However, it is not the intention that all your backlinks come from directories. It is debatable whether such requests can be considered as 'bought links'. After all, they are not actually earned, as Google would like to see. You can easily earn some backlinks here, but make sure you have the right proportions. That way, your website will remain high in the ranking.
Also invest time in technical SEO
Technical SEO is still far too often forgotten when optimising websites and search engine marketing campaigns. Even though the website is the basis of your campaign. Without a good website, you cannot set up a successful search engine marketing campaign. That is why it is essential to keep the website as technically sound as possible. This way you also increase the findability of your page.
The Google robots move through your website several times. It is up to you to make sure they can understand your website as well as possible. For this, the technique of your website has to be adapted to Google. In addition, the loading time should not be too long in order to optimise the user experience.
Let a search engine marketing agency analyse your website on the basis of the technical SEO. When your website is easy to read, this will also give results in the search engine optimisation. In addition, it also offers the reader a better experience. Be aware that there is no point in investing in SEO if your page loads badly. In that case, people will quickly choose to click through anyway. And that in turn has a negative impact on the ranking of your website. Enough reason to tackle your technical SEO.
Note: technical SEO does not mean that the website should be especially beautiful. The technology behind it has to work well. Only then will it be successful. Anyone can build a beautiful website. A well-functioning website that can also be read by Google? That is a whole different story. But essential for a good SEO campaign!