1. This is how important search engine marketing (SEO) is
Search engine marketing is popularly known as SEO. SEO is the abbreviation for Search Engine Optimisation. Freely translated, this is the abbreviation for search engine optimisation. But why is this so important?
It is clear that online visibility is important in today's world. But the role that search engines can play in this is often less clear. With a simple comparison, we hope to clarify this.
Think about how often you enter a query into a search engine. Often this is even several times a day. For example, to obtain information, but also to look up products and services. Very few people try to look it up via the newspaper or a telephone directory. Traditional ways of searching for products or services are therefore almost a thing of the past. It has therefore become necessary to rank higher in the search engines. If you do not do this, you will miss out on the majority of your target group.
A search engine marketing agency does not focus on one specific branch. Search engine marketing is very complex. It depends on many different factors. Not only the technical level is important, but also the way in which the content is shared and on which platforms this is done. A lot of knowledge and experience is needed here.
Do you want to know if your website is doing well in search engines? Let an online marketeer check it out. With the help of some online tools he can check how high your website ranks in the search engines and whether this is done in the right way.
2. Who is your target group?
To make sure your website ranks higher in search engines, you also need to know which keywords you want to be found on and who these keywords are for. As an entrepreneur, it has always been important to know your target group. After all, the target group determines to a large extent how you present your products and services and how you can optimise them. This knowledge is also important when optimising your position within the search engines. When you know your customers, you also know what they search for in Google.
Did you know that the way in which the target group is addressed nowadays is also very different from a few years ago? In the past, there were mainly passive consumers. This is no longer the case. Consumers are able to access a lot of information within minutes. As a result, they know exactly what your company stands for, what their customer experiences were before them and what the competition is like. Therefore, you will have to stand out in a different way.
In addition, nowadays it has become more important to talk to the customer. So don't just talk to the customer, but with the customer. This dialogue ensures that you have a more personal relationship and that the company is labelled as authentic and reliable. In this way, you will be able to reach your target group in a much better way. Something that is also important for your SEO.
When you know who your target group is and what they are looking for, you can also have a keyword research done. This can be done by a search engine marketing specialist. Also think about what your target audience would search for. What question would you - if you belonged to this target group - want to get an answer to? What search question would you enter into a search engine? You include these questions in your keywords. Write down every possible keyword and build a collection.
It is especially important to choose the so-called 'long tail keywords'. These are keywords with a lower search volume, but which are very relevant. Of course, there are words you would really like to score on. For example, on the word 'hairdresser'. But remember that this word already appears very often in search engines. Therefore, scoring higher on this word is almost an impossible task. By using longer keywords that are relevant to your target audience and company, you will reach the right people and you will rank higher in search engines.
3. Have a good website built
It is not only important to do search engine marketing. Your website will never be visible if it's not technically correct. It makes no sense to invest a lot of money in SEO if the basis is not right. Therefore, every online marketer will first look at the website together with you.
Many entrepreneurs mistake the importance of a good website. Moreover, a good website is not just a beautiful website. Almost everyone is capable of building a beautiful website these days. Certainly with programmes like WordPress. Beautiful, however, does not mean much about the visibility of the website. Nor about the functionality. There are enough beautiful websites.
That is why it is good to determine whether your current website is working optimally, before you start with search engine marketing. Check if the loading time of the pages is good and if all pages work. Of course you don't want to score very high with one page and then have it not load properly or not appear at all. This is a reason for visitors to click away and this also affects your position in Google.
Do you want to be sure that your website works in the right way? Have it built by a professional and then work together with an online marketeer to optimise the content on the site as well. After all, search engine marketing should be something you immediately think about when building a website and not something you only do afterwards. That way, you save a lot of time and you don't lose any visitors.
4. The importance of link building
Link building is one of the most important branches of search engine marketing. Yet not every entrepreneur is aware of this. The entrepreneurs who are aware, do not always apply it well. This has several reasons. First of all, the fact that link building nowadays looks very different than a few years ago. Link building is actually collecting links to your website. In the past, the quality of the link made little difference. The more links, the higher your position within Google. However, this also meant that many links were obtained unjustly. At the same time, this was at the expense of Google's reputation. Therefore, Google's algorithm has changed a lot in order to use link building in the right way.
Currently, quality is more important than quantity. It is no longer directly about collecting as many links as possible. It's more about the quality of those links. It is better to have only ten good links than hundreds that are of poor quality. We speak of link building when several websites link to your page. Every time a link to your website is placed on an external page, Google will consider this as a 'vote' for your page. The more often your website or a page within it is mentioned, the higher the quality of your page is considered by Google. This will also improve your position within the search engines.
With link building it is necessary to build a natural link profile. You do this by collecting both internal and external links:
Internal links are links you place on your own website. You use these to create a kind of spider web and link all the pages within the site to each other. With this you help your website visitors to navigate through the pages more easily, but you also give more value to certain pages.
External links are the links that come from other websites.
There are different ways to collect external links. In general, it is not recommended to buy large quantities of links online. These so-called bulk offers are often of poor quality and when this is noticed by Google, it will be punished. This can even lower the position of your website in the search results.
It is therefore better to really earn the links. You do this by writing interesting content and making this content visible to your target group. The more unique and interesting the content, the greater the chance that it will be shared by others. It is also possible to subscribe to so-called directories or to occasionally do a link exchange. However, these last options should not be used too often. With a natural link profile, you collect links in different ways. This way you enjoy the best link building for your page.
5. Good content marketing
Content is the core of every online marketing campaign. You cannot run an online marketing campaign without the right content. Content can be created in different ways. You can make interesting videos, record podcasts, but also write (guest)blogs. Of course, you should also think about the web texts on your website.
In recent years, we have seen more and more unique forms of content appearing. The podcast, for example, is becoming increasingly popular. More and more companies are also using social media to share content. Think for example of the Stories-function on Facebook and Instagram. This allows you, for example, to share unique designs, products or services or to give the target group a glimpse into an ordinary working day.
Content should not be taken lightly. The success of your website (and therefore your business) depends on the right content. By posting one wrong message, the reputation of your entire company can be ruined. That is why good content marketing is so important. You take the target group into account and ensure that it is fully in line with their wishes. The content is pleasant to look at or read and contains the necessary keywords to be found better.
Content marketing has changed over the years. In the past, it was very difficult for Google to read the text as a human would. As a result, it only picked out keywords. The more keywords, the better. Nowadays, however, things have changed. Google's robots are so advanced that they can read texts like you and me. This makes it more important to pay attention to the readability of the text. Offer good content and build up real authority within your target group. This way, you will also score higher in Google.
6. Start a blog
Blogging has been one of the most popular forms of marketing for many years. It is a fun way to share interesting content and reach your target group. Moreover, with a blog, you also ensure that the chance of gathering links to your website increases. The chance that other websites will link to your homepage is small. Here you share little relevant and unique information that other pages can really use.
With a blog, you are able to share unique and relevant information about your products or services. Think for example of blogs with tips or 'how to's'. It is a good way to show how knowledgeable you are in your field. It also makes it easier to keep your website up-to-date. It provides a lot of new content, so Google notices that the website is very active. This is also good for your online visibility.
In addition, with a blog it is easier to score on important keywords. This is a perfect way to attract more visitors to your website. You can also easily incorporate internal links into the blog, so that important pages on your website will receive a higher quality score.
Do you have something to say that is completely unique to your target group? Then it might be smart to share this information with other people within the industry. Think for example of a press release that will appear on your blog. When you share this with others (and of course include a link to your website), it can do a lot of good for your online visibility.
7. Use Google Analytics
One of the biggest advantages of online marketing is that the results are measurable. This allows you to adjust and improve your tactics. You will never spend a lot of money without any effect, because you can still adjust your strategy if necessary. Very different from offline marketing, where you always have to guess how effective the campaign has been.
There are various ways to measure the results, but Google Analytics is the most important one. This is a fantastic programme with which you can easily measure web statistics. It not only shows you how many visitors come to your webpage each day, but also where they come from and what keywords they use. So you don't only see how the website is performing, but also how you can improve it.