Before I answer what an SEO specialist is, I would like to give a brief explanation of search engine optimization (SEO) first. SEO is a field that is part of online marketing and stands for optimizing a website for search engines such as Google or Bing. By optimizing, the website will be more indexable (understandable) for search engines and will eventually rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

After optimization, a website can, for example, be placed higher up in Google . This will for example result in more leads, sales or visitors. An SEO specialist is an expert in the field of on / off-page and technical search engine optimization of the website. He helps to make indexation as good as possible by applying SEO in all elements that can influence the rankings. With the ultimate goal being higher in Google.

What can an SEO specialist do?
SEO specialist
A SEO consultant ensures that the website will rank for the important keywords related to the brand or product. For example, if you want to rank on the keyword "SEO specialist The Hague", you need several optimisations ( J. Zilincan, 2015 ). These can be technical optimizations in the backend (code), for example to make the page speed faster, send less request between server and user or simply reduce the code considerably so that Google can find and display the important information more quickly.

In addition to technical SEO optimizations, there are also on-page optimizationneeded to increase the commitment. Anno 2018 the engagement metrics for an SEO specialist are very important to rank in Google. Some examples are Bounce Rate (BR), Average time spent or click through rate (CTR). This is because algorithms such as Google's Rankbrain and other machine learning updates make the search engine smarter, so that a position in the search engine can be determined by several factors. This makes SEO a very diverse field in which knowledge of different coding languages ​​(HTML, Javascript, JSON, PHP, MySQL, etc.), User Experience (UX), User Interaction (UI), Conversion Design (CD), Content Marketing also a certain analytical capacity is required. By applying a combination of all these competencies, an SEO specialist will be able to perform his work optimally.

An SEO specialist ensures a higher position of a website in the search results of Google or other search engine for specific keywords that are important for the person or organization.

How does an SEO expert work?
SEO The Hague
Suppose you want to rank on the term " SEO Den Haag " then first a keyword survey is needed. This can be done, for example, using Google Keywordplanner . Then you soon notice that terms like SEO expert The Hague, SEO specialist, SEO consultant, online marketing, search engine marketing The Hague and many more are related to the keyword "SEO Den Haag". With the help of these terms, we will actually make a page exactly as I did here. A clearly written piece of content with here and there a search term on which I want to rank, obviously not too spammy as that will only work negatively. Therefore write the text for a person and not for Google.

If the content is optimized then it is useful to optimize the page. Add H1, H2 and H4 headings, internal links and other text formats in the right places. This ensures that the text gets body and becomes readable for the user but also for Google, see the web page as a kind of book with chapters and paragraphs. After that it is important to implement technical optimisations by adding rich snippets to the page via a JSON, allowing the server to cache the HTML, to implement browser caching and other technical aspects. Or how about a complete website in AMP ? This will make the page super accessible to readers, which of course improves the user experience and brings down the bounce rate.

Once the page is finished, you can start with link bulbs. Try using the link text occasionally to use the anchor text "SEO Den Haag" or "SEO specialist The Hague" but not too often. This gives Google the impression that you are cheating, so a penalty is not far away. But on the other hand, with multiple links you will also start to rank faster. As a SEO specialist, it is therefore important to find the balance and to manipulate the search engine. You can use tools such as Majestic , SearchMetrics , Ahrefs , Moz or other SEO tools for analysis. For more information about SEO, I refer you to Search Engine Journal or Search Engine Watch, both nice blogs full of knowledge articles and case studies. Because this story is actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Why did I write this article about SEO?
This text may be a bit boring for most online marketers to read. But I want to investigate on the basis of a case study how quickly my page will rise in Google on the term SEO specialist The Hague. As you can see, my website consists of Dutch and English written texts. This too is a test. Because I suspect that in the future websites will become so universal that a domain extension no longer has any effect on the ranking of the website, provided that the code on the back is correct. If you have any questions about SEO, I can help you so ask them. If you are looking for an SEO Specialist in The Hague then I am unfortunately not the right person at the moment, as I work fulltime at Takeaway.com. There are certainly enough other SEO agencies that can help you come up in Google or fulfill an open SEO vacancy.