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CHAPTER 5

5. How to optimise your website

Website optimization is done by SEO companies. They are the specialists who know exactly
what you need to do to rank high in the search results and how to create a high-quality web-
site. However, many aspects of SEO can be carried out very well by yourself. More and more
companies are choosing to do this. Only a small part of the SEO activities is then sometimes
outsourced to SEO specialists. Companies have different motives for this. Firstly, the cost plays
a role. SEO companies easily charge hon- third parties up to thousands of euros per month for
their services. You can save a lot of money if you do it yourself, at least in part.

Another consideration is of a more strategic nature. For an increasing number of companies,
the website is a critical factor for achieving the company's objectives. From a business point
of view, you always want to be in control of the critical processes and fac- tors, and this is only
possible if you have sufficient SEO knowledge in-house. Moreover, you know your own product
or service like no other. This is important when you are engaged in optimization. Think about
your target groups, your product or service and what makes it so unique. This is knowledge
that an SEO company does not have.

The SEO factors
5.1 Preview copy

The optimization of a site is based on the aforementioned SEO factors. There is something pecu-
liar about these factors. Google has never released a list of these 200 factors. It is also only partly
known which factors are really important and which are not. The list of 200 factors is compiled
by leading SEO companies and is the subject of continuous discussion. By the way, it is very dif-
ficult to find complete lists. Most of the lists you find on the Internet do not go beyond about
100 factors. There is reasonable agreement on the list and the position of the factors in this list,
but no one knows for sure whether this list is correct. For strategic reasons, Google does not
release the list itself. However, Google does regularly provide information on the importance
of the various factors via its various blogs, the Google channel on YouTube and via other media.

There are about 200 factors that determine your position on the SERP.
There are 500 changes to the algorithms every year.
.

Major changes in rating factors and trends are usually announced. Please note that each list
published is a snapshot, as Google makes about 500 changes per year. New factors are added,
factors are removed or factors are given a different value. As a result, SEO companies do not
always agree on the value of certain factors.

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