SEO for beginners: from keywords to analysis

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In Dutch, we also speak of search engine optimization. The name leaves little to be guessed at. SEO is a collection of techniques and strategies you can apply to improve the findability of your website in search engines.

Making Google happy

The goal of SEO is very simple: to make search engines happy. And since Google has a market share of over 90%, we especially want to make Google happy. Then, of course, the question is: what makes Google happy?

Google (and every other search engine) gets happy when users find what they are looking for quickly. Therefore, the search engine makes every effort to offer users valuable, relevant content. The websites that offer the best content are rewarded with a high position on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Content, technology and backlinks

So if you want to boost your SEO, you need to do two things. First, you need to provide valuable, relevant content. Second, you need to make sure that Google can find, read and analyze this content properly.

Within SEO, there are several strategies you can employ to make Google (and your visitors) happy. These can be divided into three pillars:

The basics of SEO

So SEO consists of different strategies that you can use to make your website more findable. But what are these strategies? And how can you apply them to your website? We list the basics for you. So you can start today with a banging SEO strategy. We cover the following topics:

Keywords

A good SEO strategy starts with a solid keyword strategy. Determine which keywords you want to be found on. Consider the popularity of the keywords and the competition you can expect.

A lot of people search for “buy car,” the search volume is high. But on such a keyword there is a lot of competition. ‘Best car for a road trip’ may be searched less, but there is also less competition.

The search volume and competition on a keyword can be found out with Google’s keyword planner. Normally, you want a keyword with the highest possible search volume with the least possible competition. But the most important thing is to use relevant keywords. So always ask yourself: which keywords is my target audience using?

Ultimately, you make a selection of keywords that you are going to use in your content. In making that selection, you always weigh up search volume, competition and relevance.

Semantics

Once you have selected your keywords you can use them in your content. You need to do this in the right places. Keep semantics in mind: what types of text does Google consider most important? Titles, headings, bold and italic text, lists and image captions weigh more heavily than normal text. So place your keywords here.

SEO content

If you create content with your keyword strategy in mind, you are creating SEO content. But keywords are not the only thing you need to pay attention to if you want to make your content attractive to Google. Here are a few tips to help you optimize your content for your SEO strategy:

Link Building

Building a network of links is called link building. That network consists of links on other Web sites that link to your content (external links) and links that connect different pages on your own Web site (internal links).

External links

External links are most important. When another Web site links to your content, it is the ultimate sign to Google that your content is valuable and relevant. But one backlink is not the other. Backlinks (links from another website to your website) from good, large sites are worth more than links from a small, meaningless website. So it’s not just quantity, but quality that matters in link building.

Backlinks can come organically. If your content is good, people will link to it. But you can partner with other companies, or use influencer marketing to get valuable backlinks.

Internal links

Internal links can also have a positive effect on your findability. This is because Google looks at how long a visitor stays on your website. With internal links you can keep visitors longer. The longer a visitor stays on your website, the sooner Google will see your website as relevant and valuable. Keep those high SERP positions coming!

Website structure

SEO should ultimately lead to more visitors. But even if those visitors are already on your Web site, you can still play SEO tricks. As I mentioned earlier, Google looks at how long a visitor stays on your website. Internal links are not the only way to retain visitors longer.

A website that is pleasant to navigate and gives plenty of reason to linger also retains visitors longer. An optimized website structure can help with that. Here are a few tips on how to do that:

SEO analysis

It’s smart to regularly measure the effects of your SEO strategy. You can do this by googling your keywords in incognito mode. Then you can see what SERP position your website is in. But there are also tools that can help you analyze your SEO.

The best-known tool is Google Analytics. Here you can follow the movements of your visitors in great detail. You can see how visitors arrive at your website, through which page they enter, how much time they spend on your website and on which page they leave. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Google Analytics is just one of many tools you can use to optimize and analyze your SEO. Want to learn more about other tools? Then read our article What is SEO? Where we go even deeper into SEO strategies and the tools you can use.

With SEO, you’re never done

Based on your analysis, you can continually adjust your SEO strategy. An extra internal link there, an extra keyword in a headline here, and bring that old evergreen article back up to date.

SEO is continuous scraping. Therefore, you will never be done with SEO. But if you do it right, it will provide you with a steady and reliable stream of visitors. Not only does that make Google happy, but hopefully it makes you happy too.

Boost your SEO with influencer marketing

A high number of visitors and backlinks benefit your SEO. Both can be achieved using influencer marketing. When an influencer links to your website, or generates so much attention that people go to your website themselves, you can see that reflected in your ranking in Google.

Hulc makes it easy to connect with influencers and publishers. You put your campaign on Hulc’s influencer marketplace and wait for the right partners to respond. Then you can make concrete agreements, for example about the backlinks the influencer has to share. Are you curious about the possibilities? Then look further on Hulc.io