At the top of Google? With these 8 SEO tips, you can increase your chances!

Huh? What is SEO?

All right, let's get to the basics first. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Or in normal Dutch: Search Engine Optimization. So you are going to ensure that your page is optimized for Google, for example. There are a number of things you can arrange to help Google understand even better what your page is about. And while these tips are no guarantee, we promise they will help you rank. Here we go!

9 practical SEO tips for better visibility

1. Long texts? Using subheadings

You've written a nice (long) article about the tastiest apple pie recipes. Google likes structure and likes it when you divide your article into paragraphs and also use subheadings for the different parts. And of course, you can also use your keywords in those subheadings where possible. But, as with everything, please in moderation. Having your keyword appear 86 times in your article is not only annoying for the reader, but Google is not a fan of it either. This gives you penalty points rather than bonus points. After all, it shouldn't be a spam session. Just a good article in terms of content, that reads well, has a headline (introduction) and a tail (conclusion) and is well divided into parts. Then suddenly Google is your number one fan.

2. File name of your image

You've just taken a fantastic picture of an apple pie with your iPhone, and you want to use it in your article. Images that you pick directly from your camera or iPhone are often called something like IMG2332.jpg. Do you see the word apple pie in there? Neither do we! If you include such an image in your article, give it a good name that — you guessed it — your keyword will return.

Well: de-lekkerste-engelse-appeltaart.jpg
not: IMG3456.jpg

3. Alt* text for your image

In your CMS, you can also enter an Alt text with your image. Search engines use your image's Alt text to understand what an image is about. By using it properly, you also help Google's photo search engine and you can ensure that more visitors come to your website that way too. Make sure the Alt text actually describes what's in an image and don't fill it with an excess of keywords, as Google sees that as spamming.

So for the apple pie picture Alt text:

Well: Delicious freshly baked English apple pie
not: apple pie cakes recipes apples baked goods

4. Backlinks

The more the merrier! Backlinks are links from other websites to your article. If many other sites link to your article, Google (of course, rightly) thinks that your site is important. That also provides points for SEO. So you could ask if sites would like to link to your site or article. What is important, however, is to only ask sites that are relevant to your site and target group. When it comes to apple pies, it's not relevant to let a car dealer post a link. A recipe site, on the other hand, might be a good idea!

5. Internal links

Internal links are also important on your website. Internal links are links that link to other content within your site. These links are important for Google to determine the structure of your website and which pages are important on your website.Internal links provide Google with information about:It's easy to add internal links to relevant places in your text. In addition, websites often also have the option to add related content at the bottom of the page, so that readers can easily be redirected to, for example, a subsequent article. Please note that the content you add here is indeed relevant, so choose posts or pages that really match the topic you're writing about.

• The relevance and value of a page
  If there are many other pages pointing to a page, Google thinks this is an important page.
• The relationship between pages

6. Write great content

The following also still applies to Google: content is king! So make sure that your article is also in order in terms of content.
A good article:

• is interesting to read
• is well written (and divided into sections with subtitles)
• is easy to share

7. Post your articles to your social media channels as well

Sharing is caring, or caring is sharing. That's why spread the word and share your article via your social media channels as well. If you have a corporate social media channel, be sure to share a link to the article on your website there. The principle of small effort, long reach certainly applies here.

8. Expert tip: meta description

You took a closer look at your fantastically written article, taking into account the above tips. Top! Now you're ready to post it. But... you have to do one more little thing. Just like the title, the meta description is also displayed in the Google search results. The meta description is the text you see in the search result, which looks like this in the Google search result, for example: