Inspiration for blowing your competition out of the water by analysing what works well for SEOs in The Netherlands. In order to understand why the Dutch do SEO the way they do, we need to go back in time and look at their history.

1. Doing SEO in .nl
Inspiration for blowing your
competition out of the water.

2. About me
contentkingapp.com

3. About me
Steven van Vessum
Dutchman living in Brno.
Co-owned a digital marketing agency in The Netherlands for 8
years.
Three years ago co-founded ContentKing, a realtime SEO
auditing and change tracking platform.
contentkingapp.com

4. About me
ContentKing
SEO is realtime. So your tooling should be realtime too.
ContentKing enables SEOs to do 20-30% more within the same
time while increasing the quality of their SEO work.
Because ContentKing:
- Continuously crawls websites to find issues and changes
- Reports actionable information rather than data
- Sends weekly reports and alerts
contentkingapp.com

5. About The Netherlands
contentkingapp.com

8. About The Netherlands
But they also known for
contentkingapp.com

12. About The Netherlands
DNA
- Multi-lingual. Forced to speak other languages.
- Think big. The world is their market.
- Cultural differences. Understanding that every country has a
different approach.
contentkingapp.com

13. About Dutch SEO industry
contentkingapp.com

14. About Dutch SEO industry
Crowded
contentkingapp.com

15. About Dutch SEO industry
Crowded
contentkingapp.com

16. There are a lot of companies offering SEO services. Estimated:
- 500 Medium-Large agencies
- 5,000 - 15,000 Small agencies / freelancers
(but probably more)
About Dutch SEO industry
Crowded
contentkingapp.com

17. Business owners know they need SEO. Often they have a (very)
basic understanding of it.
Up until the 2012/2013 it was common to completely outsource
SEO. This lead to lots of burned relationships and penalties.
SEO agency market consolidated.
Anno 2017, SEO is often a tight collaboration between a
business and agency. Lots of time spend in business’ office.
About Dutch SEO industry
Understanding
contentkingapp.com

18. The Dutch are a little behind the US and UK in terms of
knowledge and innovation when it comes to SEO, or Digital
Marketing in general.
It doesn’t help that Google experiments and launches first in
the US and UK.
About Dutch SEO industry
Innovation
contentkingapp.com

19. The Dutch aren’t bound to Dutch tool providers. They care
about quality, and they’re fine with using an English tool like:
- Screaming Frog
- Ahrefs
PS: local data has long been an issue though: competitive
intelligence and backlink data.
About Dutch SEO industry
Tools used
contentkingapp.com

20. The hourly rate for a SEO specialist is between
About Dutch SEO industry
Let’s talk money
€ 75 - 150
(Kč 1,250 - 3,750)
contentkingapp.com

21. Increasing amount of acquisitions and mergers in agency space.
The idea behind it:
- Integrated marketing approach (offline + online)
- Multi-lingual approach
Google’s algorithm updates roll out faster to NL.
About Dutch SEO industry
Trends
contentkingapp.com

22. Doing SEO in NL
contentkingapp.com

23. Search engines: Google has 94% marketshare. Bing has 4%.
Devices: desktop: 55%, mobile 34%, desktop and tablet 11%.
Sources:
http://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/netherlands
http://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet/netherlands
Doing SEO in NL
Some statistics
contentkingapp.com

24. The basics of SEO apply also in The Netherlands:
- Great technical foundation
- Great content
- Strong, trustworthy links
Doing SEO in NL
The basics apply
contentkingapp.com

25. When doing keyword research, you’ll find the Dutch use a lot of
English words when searching.
This happens for two reasons:
1. English words are commonly used in the Netherlands.
2. Dutch expat community size is estimated to be ± 500,000.
Doing SEO in NL
English words
contentkingapp.com
Sources:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/01/so-just-how-many-expats-are-there-in-the-netherlands/

26. Interesting things about earning links:
- Link directories are still going strong
(and some still pack a punch).
- People are open to outreach, a lot more than in English
markets. It’s rare for them to get a outreach request by phone.
Doing SEO in NL
Earning links
contentkingapp.com

27. If the US and UK are innovators, make sure to be an early
adopter.
Examples:
- Google Shopping
- AMP
- Rich Snippets
Doing SEO in NL
Chance to be early adopter
contentkingapp.com

28. SEO industries: Dutch and Czech
contentkingapp.com

29. - Both small countries, forced to look beyond borders.
- Both crowded spaces.
- The Netherlands + Belgium vs. The Czech Republic + Slovakia.
SEO industries: Dutch and Czech
Similarities
contentkingapp.com

30. - Search engines: Seznam (16,6% market share).
- Desktop vs mobile vs tablet: mobile revolution yet to come.
- SMB business owners: not yet willing to invest much in online.
- Orientation: mostly Czech and Slovak markets.
SEO industries: Dutch and Czech
Differences from NL
contentkingapp.com
Sources:
gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/czech-republic
gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet/czech-republic

31. Agencies and businesses:
- Look beyond Czech Republic and Slovakia. What about
Germany, Austria and English speaking markets?
- Be early adopters.
Agencies only:
- Multi-lingual approach for SEO offering.
- Educate businesses on how SEO works, specifically how
collaboration works best and what they can expect.
SEO industries: Dutch and Czech
Opportunities
contentkingapp.com

32. Opportunities
Discount and vacancies
contentkingapp.com
Discount for those here:
- 20% life-time discount on ContentKing
- Send email to steven@contentkingapp.com
Vacancies:
- PHP and JavaScript developers (both Junior and Senior)
- Content Marketer
- Visual Designer

33. Questions?
www.contentkingapp.com