What is SEO?
SEO is a set of online marketing activities, aimed at sustainably increasing the number of relevant website visitors, through search engines.
SEO is called search engine optimization in the Netherlands and consists of the following main focus areas:
- User experience
- Content
- Authority
- Technique
The purpose of SEO
There are two important nuances in the above definition of SEO:
Relevant visitors
The end goal of SEO is to increase the number of relevant visitors to your website, through search engines. The word "relevant" is very important here, because you only achieve the desired results with SEO when you attract the right visitors. Only potential customers constitute valuable leads.
Goals, such as improving rankings/positions, or increasing visibility in search results, are only sub-goals. What ultimately matters is the amount of potential customers search engines send to your Web site. Thus, CTR is also an important factor in SEO.
Sustainable
Also very important is that this is done in a sustainable way. After all, you don't gain much from a temporary spike in visitors, which then quickly declines again. A subgoal of SEO is therefore also to maintain rankings in the long term, so that they provide a sustainable and consistent flow of traffic.
Google vs other search engines
Google has a market share of about 96% in the Netherlands. Bing is the second "largest" search engine in the Netherlands with a market share of only 2%.
Google's market share is so high that search engine optimization is actually Google optimization. We therefore always talk about Google on this page when it comes to search engines. The competition is so small that it is not worth the SEO energy.
The basics of SEO: comprehensive explanation
SEO is a very dynamic and extensive field with constant new developments and changes. In this article you will find everything you need to know to get a good start. Bright updates this article regularly with the latest SEO trends.
Main focus areas: ranking factors
As you have already read in the intro, there are four main focus areas in SEO. These areas are also called the SEO pillars. The pillars are important because they include several factors that are considered ranking factors in the SEO world (factors that directly affect the rankings of websites).
You may think of the SEO pillars as the foundation of SEO. When you have these pillars in place, then you are going to get results!
The pillars are:
- User experience: the experience of visitors on your website.
- Content: the content of your website, i.e. texts, images, videos, etc.
- Authority: the authority of your website in the eyes of Google.
- Technology: technical preconditions, set by Google.
Overlap in the pillars
As this article makes clear, the pillars are not separate. In fact, there is overlap. For example, many technical prerequisites Google sets for websites have to do with user experience. And your website will never reach high authority without good content.
User Experience
User Experience (UX) is at the top of the list for a reason. It is -by far- the most important SEO pillar there is. It is also the most all-encompassing. After all, you have to get a lot of things right to provide your visitors with an outstanding user experience.
What is user experience?
Nielsen Norman Group, a well-known international UX agency, defines user experience as follows:
"All interaction aspects an end user has with a company, its services and products."
To this, they place two requirements that you must meet for an outstanding UX. Translated to a Web site, these requirements are:
- Exact satisfaction of the visitor's needs, without pain or effort.
- Simplicity and elegance, so that your website is used with pleasure.
In other words: visitors should be happy with your website. In the first place happy from what you offer on your website (content). But also from using the website itself. The latter has a lot to do with usability. In technical jargon, this is called usability.
Why is user experience important for SEO?
What Google offers its users is information. That is, in fact, their product. Users are looking for information and Google provides that information.
Users search Google with a certain intention. Google wants to meet that exact intention. This could be:
- Answering a question.
- Looking for information about product.
- Looking up an address or phone number.
- Etc.
Google tries to satisfy the user's search intent as efficiently and effectively as possible. Increasingly, Google is trying to do this in the search engine itself, but they still need third-party websites (information) for this, such as yours.
So Google needs you to help its users. In fact, you are providing Google with a service with your website. Not surprisingly, Google wants to know to what extent you deliver what users are looking for.
The user experience plays a crucial role in this. Because if we go back to the requirements of an excellent UX, then your website exactly meets the needs of your visitors and also ensures that your website is used with pleasure.
How does Google measure the user experience?
No one knows exactly how Google measures the user experience on your website, but most SEO experts agree that there are a few KPIs that Google considers very important:
Bounce rate or pogo sticking
Bounce rate, or bounce rate is the percentage of visits, where the visitor views only one page and then leaves your website. This KPI is available in Google Analytics at the website level and at the page level.
Generally, a high bounce rate is seen as a negative signal for the quality of your website. Google's Avinash Kaushik highlights this in the video below, in which he mockingly defines bounce rate as:
"I came in, I threw up, I left again."
According to Avinash, the average bounce rate of a website is between 40% and 60%. So anything below 40% is considered above average and anything above 60% is considered below average. So a nice ambition for your website is to achieve a bounce rate below 40%. Every web page below this contributes to a good bounce rate!
Whether Google takes your bounce rate into account to determine your rankings is debatable. Indeed, Google stated at a search event that it does not use Analytics data when it comes to determining rankings.
For this reason, many experts believe Google is measuring pogo sticking instead of bounce rate. This is slightly different, but the idea behind it is the same.
Pogo sticking is the percentage of visits where a visitor searched in Google, clicked to your website, and (almost) immediately clicked back to Google. Such an action by a visitor almost always causes a bounce on your website, and it's easy for Google to measure without using Google Analytics. So you can almost compare pogo sticking to the bounce rate of Google traffic (rather than total traffic).
Time on site or dwell time
Time on site, or average session time is the time visitors spend on average on your website.
As a user signal, this is an obvious one: the longer visitors stay on your website, the higher the likelihood that it will make them happy and fulfill their needs (i.e., good UX).
Time on site, like bounce rate, is a KPI in Google Analytics. So as with bounce rate, there is also doubt as to whether Google measures this to determine rankings. But again, there is an alternative that Google measures much more easily without using Google Analytics data. This alternative is dwell time.
Dwell time, like "time on site," is the time someone spends on your website. The difference is that with dwell time, someone starts his/her search in Google, then clicks through to your website and returns to Google after the visit. This way it is easy for Google to measure how much time the visitor spent on your website. Dwell time may thus be compared to the time on site of your Google visitors, but only those who return to the search engine after their visit.
How do you ensure a good user experience?
So how do you improve the user experience? Let's look again at Nielsen Norman's two requirements:
Exactly meet the needs of the visitor
This is an easy one: on your website, you do this with your content. So your content must exactly meet the needs of your target audience. Read more about this at the SEO pillar Content.
Simplicity and elegance, so your website will be used with pleasure
Simplicity and elegance for a website are mainly related to:
- Graphic design: how appealing is it to the eye?
- Usability: how easy is it to use?
- Technology: how correctly does it work?
The disadvantage of design is that it is trend-sensitive and subject to taste. Usability is not. There are several maxims on website (and software) usability that have been in place for many years. For tips on usability (and user experience), please refer to Nielsen Norman's website.
Content
Content is perhaps the most important aspect of your website. In fact, it is the only reason people visit your website. Any way you slice it, the content is what they come for.
Meet the needs of your target audience exactly
In this article, you've already read that for UX excellence, it is first and foremost important that your content meets the needs of your target audience. To make this happen, you need a deep understanding of exactly what those needs are.
There are two online marketing surveys that identify the needs of your target audience. For SEO, the first is keyword research, which is a quantitative form of research. In addition, there is buyer persona research. Since this research is precisely qualitative in nature, it complements keyword research perfectly.
Take it from us: these surveys are the most important, first steps in inbound marketing as well as in SEO. So always start there!
Unique content
Content should not only meet the needs of the target audience. Your content must also be 100% unique. This means that your texts, and preferably also your images and videos, do not appear anywhere else on the web.
Do you copy a text from another website? Then Google sees this as duplicate content. One or two sentences (for example, a quote from someone) is not a disaster, but never copy entire paragraphs of text from another website.
Error-free content
Also make sure your texts are error-free. That is, with as few spelling and grammar mistakes as possible. After all, Google is getting better at fathoming spelling and grammar, and texts with mistakes Google sees as low-quality content.
Readable content
Texts should be as easy to read as possible. Better to have too simple language, than too difficult language. This certainly applies to the Internet!
There are several tools on the Internet that measure readability. Even Word has a function for it. Most tools use the Flesch-Kincaid formula, developed by Rudolf Flesch.
On page SEO
On page SEO means optimizing certain content elements on the Web page for the search engine. This is still necessary to give Google the best possible idea of what the page is about and its quality.
The most important on page SEO ranking factors are:
- Meta title: title of the page 'behind the scenes' (in the html code)
- Body text: main text of the page
- Meta description: description of the page 'behind the scenes' (in the html code)
- Heading 1: title of the page
- Heading 2: (main) headings of the page
- URL: address of the web page
- Alt text: description of an image 'behind the scenes' (in the html code)
How do you deal with on page ranking factors?
To let Google know what the text is about, incorporate keywords strategically on the page.
Always do extensive keyword research before starting this! Don't assume one keyword per page, but form a keyword topic. This is a group of keywords that are so strongly related to each other that together they form one and the same topic.
Only one of these keywords is your main keyword; the rest are topic keywords: supporting keywords that are in-depth on your topic.
Incorporate the main keyword and topic keywords naturally on the page. That is, put the visitor's need and interest #1. Make sure your text reads naturally and feels natural to the visitor. This is the most important thing in on page SEO.
Authority
The authority of your website is the control or supremacy your website has in the eyes of Google.
Authority is something you build up over years. So it is truly a long-term strategy. Authority in the eyes of Google is formed by the number and quality of backlinks, also called inbound links. This means: links from other websites to your website. Google sees every -good- link as a vote of someone else on your website.
What is a good link?
A good backlink meets the following conditions:
- You have not paid for the link
- The link comes from a website in your field of expertise, or a related field of expertise
- The link comes from a strong website with the highest possible authority
- The link is in a prominent place on the website, for example not in the footer.
- There are not (many) dozens of other links on the page that link to your website.
Link earning
The SEO activity that is linked (pun intended :-) ) to increasing authority is called link building. At Bright, we prefer to go by link earning. Why? You don't have to request a link, you have to earn it!
Google values links that come about naturally and condemns links that are requested and/or bought. Now you may be thinking: Google will never find out? Take it from us: it does!
Earning links has a strong relationship to providing the right content for your target audience. When your content stands head and shoulders above the rest, your chances of link earning increase dramatically. Of course, you can take action to give this process a helping hand. Consider blogging on websites that are important to your target audience and sharing your outstanding content on social media.
Technical prerequisites
This is actually the easiest SEO pillar to get right. All you need is a web builder who knows his stuff and a good CMS system.
The requirements that Google places on the technology of your website almost all have to do with providing a good user experience.
We mention the most important ones:
- Reachable, this means: reachable for visitors and crawlable for Google.
- Without technical errors, look at Google Search Console for this
- Mobile-friendly
- Fast loading time
- Without duplicate content
- Correct HTML structure
Latest SEO trends
User experience is what it's all about
This SEO trend started in 2018, but is becoming increasingly important. This is because Google is getting better at determining the UX on your website. Among other things, they use Artificial Intelligence for this (self-learning algorithms).
So read the user experience part of this article again carefully and offer your visitors the best UX there is!
Mobile first indexing
Google started converting indexing to mobile-first in 2018. This means that Google approaches the mobile version of your website using the so-called "smartphone agent" (the mobile version of the Google bot).
So your website must be mobile-friendly, but your website must also show the exact same content on mobile as it does on a computer. For example, are you leaving out information on the mobile version of your website, such as a sidebar? Then this information will no longer be indexed by Google in 2020.
The transition has been phased in to give webmasters a chance to get their websites completely ready for mobile-first indexing. Until now, websites are only transferred to the mobile index when an evaluation by Google shows that the website in question is ready for it. But our advice is: don't wait too long to get your website ready, because in 2020 Google will most likely impose mobile-first indexing with increasing urgency.
Keyword topics with semantic relationships
Google relates keywords to each other through so-called semantic relationships. These are, in short, content-based relationships. Google does this by analyzing tens of thousands of websites that are about the same topic. Google then measures which other words appear on these pages and how close they are to other particular words.
With this analysis, Google fathoms exactly what pages are about and establishes relationships between topics. Therefore, never optimize a page for one keyword, but for a group of keywords that are related in content and together form one topic. We call this topic clusters.
HubSpot has a functionality that helps you form topic clusters:
Voice search with virtual assistants
Virtual assistants are becoming increasingly popular and the possibilities are rapidly increasing. Apple has the popular Siri, Google has the Google assistant and Amazon has Alexa (the latter assistant is not yet available in Dutch, by the way).
The functionalities of the virtual assistants are increasing, but so are their applications. For example, you can already control your home with Siri and the Google assistant, and virtual assistants are also increasingly being built into cars.
Virtual assistants are also changing human search behavior, because with voice search it is much more natural to pronounce complete sentences. In addition, more searches are being made in query form. So make sure you take stock of what questions are being asked in relation to the topic you are writing about. At Bureau Bright, we use SEMrush for this (paid tool, but free to try with registration).
Direct answers in the search engine itself
This trend is making SEO experts very nervous. Google provides more and more visitors with answers to their questions in the search engine itself. So without them having to click through to a website like yours to do so.
Google does this in two ways:
- With featured snippets
- With the knowledge graph
Featured snippets
You don't have to worry about featured snippets. In fact, it offers opportunities! With featured snippets, Google offers users answers to questions by extracting one or two paragraphs from a third-party website (such as yours). The link to that website is prominently displayed (for now). SEO research shows that featured snippets often have a positive effect on the CTR (click-through rate) to your page.
For the above reason, you would do well to research whether there are featured snippets on the keywords you rank for (or want to rank for). In fact, there are SEO techniques to significantly increase the chances of the featured snippet!
Knowledge Graph
About the Knowledge Graph, you may be a little concerned. While featured snippets give you a good chance of (extra) visibility in search results, this is unfortunately not the case with the knowledge graph. The knowledge graph is maintained by Google itself or is created through (data) collaborations with Google's partners.
Knowledge Graph items are always prominently displayed by Google and often literally push the rest of the search results down, dramatically reducing CTR. This effect is by far greatest on mobile because screen space is limited here. With this, the Knowledge Graph pushes the organic results down even further.
The Knowledge Graph comes in many forms, for example as:
- Graph
- Calculator
- Panel (on the right side of the screen)
- Carousel
- Recipe
Watch this video in which SEO expert Rand Fishkin talks about the negative effects of the Knowledge Graph. He even calls Google's free traffic the Trojan Horse!
The EAT principle
Google updated its search quality guidelines in 2018. One notable change is the focus on the E-A-T principle.
E-A-T stands for: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Freely translated, this means:
- Expertise
- Authority
- Trustworthiness
To put this in context, Google emphasizes, for example, that medical advice should be written by organizations that have proven medical expertise. The same goes for advice on finance, taxes and law, for example.
So-called YMYL pages are put under a magnifying glass by Google. This stands for: Your Money or Your Life. This is because these pages can have an impact on:
- Happiness
- Health
- Finance
- Safety
N.B. Google also sees the transaction page of an online store as a YMYL page.
Google emphasizes that extra high quality standards apply to these pages because a low-quality YMYL page can cause a negative impact on a person's quality of life. Do you have a YMYL page on your Web site? If so, read this SEO tip.
Diversification in devices is increasing
We see more and more devices appearing that are connected to Google. The computer, tablet and smartphone have been around for a while, but we may add to this these days:
- Smart speakers like the Google Home.
- Smart home devices such as those that work with the Apple HomeKit. Think thermostats, lights, doorbells, cameras, etc.
- Android Auto that fully integrates with the entertainment system in your car.
- Phablets and other hybrid devices such as hybrids of laptops and tablets.
Fast, faster, fastest: AMP
2020 will be the year when 5G is introduced in the Netherlands. A mobile network that is faster than many Wifi networks (and from which, according to some, birds fall dead from the sky;-) ).
Nevertheless, Google still focuses on the loading time of websites on mobile.
Now there are several factors that make your website faster. A relatively newcomer in speed optimization is AMP. This stands for: Accelerated Mobile Pages. With this initiative by Google, pages are stripped of elements that cause longer load times, such as a header, footer, sidebar, fancy fonts, etc.
You can recognize AMP pages in search results by an AMP icon (lightning bolt). In addition, Google lets you know that AMP pages may appear in the mobile search engine as carousels or other forms of enriched search results.
Do SEO yourself or with the help of an agency?
At Bright, we believe that SEO should never be completely outsourced. This is because you and your colleagues know your field best.
As you've read in this article, content needs to meet your target audience's expectations exactly. This requires the knowledge of your organization. This does not mean that you have to do all SEO activities yourself.
We give you some considerations that may help you in your decision whether or not to enlist the help of an online marketing agency, such as Bureau Bright:
Do you have time to keep up with SEO developments?
SEO is a very dynamic field. This is mainly because Google is constantly adjusting its algorithms. Sometimes these adjustments have a big impact on your website and SEO activities. To keep up, you need to read SEO content at least on a monthly basis.
In addition, of course, you need to apply what you have learned in practice. Sometimes this means redoing work you've done before (but following new guidelines).
Do you have technical affinity?
SEO is a field that we describe as semi-technical. You will get a long way without technical knowledge, but it helps tremendously if you know your way around HTML language and structure. To perform technical optimizations, even more advanced knowledge is desired, such as knowledge of PHP and CSS. You often do not have to implement technical improvements yourself, but you must understand the impact of certain changes and be able to recognize technical problems.
Are you analytically minded?
The SEO profession is all about continuous measurement, analysis and improvement. SEO analyses such as keyword analysis, backlink analysis and SERP analysis enhance your understanding, but you must be prepared to make them on a regular basis. In addition, you have to be able to get the right insights from them and turn them into actions that benefit your findability.
SEO tips & tricks
Never write for the search engine but go for added value.
This is perhaps the best tip we can give you in terms of SEO and you may take this tip very literally. Never (but never) write for the search engine! Go 100% for adding value for your visitors. So always write for your target audience and "only" consider the search engine when doing so.
The word "only" in the above sentence is in quotation marks because it is important to take SEO into account from the very first moment (idea phase of content).
However, the starting point should always be to fulfill the needs of your buyer persona. Therefore, always do research on these needs and think carefully about the intent someone might have when typing in a particular keyword.
A good finger exercise is also to closely examine Google's top 10 results. What value do these websites offer the visitor? The goal should always be to add more value than they do.
Do keyword research
SEO starts with keyword research. Such research gives you SEO insights, but it offers much more. You gain insights into:
- Audience demand.
- The buyer journey (change in demand during the buying process).
- The terminology used by the target audience.
- The content strategy and SEO results of the competition.
- Your website's current SEO and UX results.
With the above combination of data, you will identify important opportunities and threats for SEO and also learn much more about your target audience and your competition.
Use Google Ads as a test lab
Google Ads is an excellent test lab for SEO. The big advantage of Google Ads over SEO is that it is fast. If you want, you rank for a desired keyword within minutes.
This allows you to test what works and what doesn't work for your website and target audience. For example, you can easily test which keywords convert and which don't. In other words, which keywords generate leads and customers and which do not?
In addition, with advertising on Google, you are also able to test the effectiveness of your meta title and meta description. After all, an ad in Google Ads looks (for obvious reasons) almost exactly the same as a natural (unpaid) search result. So what works in Google Ads will also work in organic search results.
By testing "what works," we mean primarily the click-through rate. You want that to be as high as possible for several reasons. First, it will get you more visitors. Second, Google will see a high CTR as a positive signal. If relatively many people click through to your website, you are offering what the user is looking for (i.e., if they don't click right back to Google afterwards).
The CTR is mainly determined by the combination of your meta title and your meta description. And let these two now "coincidentally" correspond one-to-one with the ad title and description!
Optimize images
Want to improve the load time of your web pages? Chances are, the biggest gain is in image optimization! You do this by making the images exactly the same size as they are displayed in the browser, but also by compressing images.
For example, try this free compression tool and watch your images shrink (in MBs) to a fraction of what they were!
Use actuality
There is a factor of timeliness in many search queries. In some searches this is obvious, for example "web design trends 2020," but even when it is less obvious, topicality can play a big role. This is especially true for topics where there are many trends and developments.
A good example is this page on SEO. What is an important development now, or a best practice, may be outdated tomorrow. Therefore, make sure pages that need it are regularly updated with new or revised information. Google will notice and reward this!
Go for ranking #0: take advantage of featured snippet opportunities
As you have read in the SEO trends, the Knowledge Graph poses a threat to webmasters. However, the opposite is true for featured snippets, as they often actually boost CTR! A featured snippet is called rank #0 because the snippet is at the very top of the search results.
There are different types of featured snippets. Sometimes they contain a listing or list, but more often they simply contain one or two paragraphs of text that answer the question.
By the way, this question does not have to be explicitly typed in by the user. For some (short) keywords, Google assumes that a "what is" question is being asked. For example, for the keyword "seo," Google shows a featured snippet that answers the question "what is seo?".
The key question now, of course, is: How do you get the featured snippet?
- It is required to be on page 1 of Google with the keyword in question. Note: You certainly don't necessarily have to rank #1. Every search result on page 1 has a chance, but the higher you rank, the higher the chance of getting the featured snippet becomes.
- Answer the question, or implied question, as briefly as possible. Do this in one, or a maximum of two paragraphs. Only go for a list or enumeration when it makes sense in context with the keyword. A recipe is a good example.
- Answer the question as quickly as possible. Preferably do this in the first paragraph of the text.
Tip: Use an SEO tool, such as SEMrush to see in bulk which keywords Google is showing featured snippets for.
Use video
Earlier on this page, you read that Google measures user signals to determine how good the user experience is on your Web pages.
One of those signals is time on site, or dwell time. An effective way to increase the time visitors spend on your website is video.
Video stands out, attracts people and keeps them in. So use video embeds to increase time on site and give Google the right user signals!
Tip: did you know HubSpot offers options for full video integration? Generate leads using video and, for example, trigger lead nurturing workflows for leads who watch videos to the end (or to a certain point).
Go for link earning
Google doesn't like requested or purchased links. In fact, this is considered a violation of webmaster guidelines.
For the above reason, link building in the traditional sense is passé. In any case, links should not be exchanged or bought. A better alternative is to earn links instead of requesting them.
You do this, for example, by writing a guest blog on an online platform in your field, or by creating content that webmasters like to link to because it is unique and valuable. In such a case, think about content that cannot be easily reproduced, such as a tool.
Pay extra attention to YMYL pages
Do you have YMYL pages on your Web site? If so, follow these guidelines:
- Do you give advice to readers on the YMYL page? Make sure this advice comes from a certified or qualified expert. Mention his/her name, position, degrees, work experience, etc.
- Make sure the information you give is 100% accurate, in-depth and complete.
- Give the visitor enough signals that your website is trustworthy. For example, show on a transaction page of your webshop that you are a member of a trade association and that you have a webshop seal of approval.
