You have a website. Nice. But does anyone actually find it?
Search engine optimisation is still one of the best ways to be found online in 2026. No advertising budget needed, no dependence on social media algorithms that change every month. Just this: people look for something, and your website shows up.
But SEO keeps changing. AI search engines are here to stay. Google's algorithm keeps getting smarter. And meanwhile you hear contradictory advice from every direction. Link building is dead. No, link building is essential. Content has to be long. No, short and punchy works better.
Time to take a sober look at it. In this article I share what we at Green Creatives see working for clients in accountancy, law and e-commerce. No theoretical waffle, just practice. What really works, what is a waste of time, and how do you decide whether to do your SEO yourself or hand it over?
What is search engine optimisation, exactly?
Let's cover the basics. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of making your website easier to find in Google and other search engines. Someone searches for "accountant Amsterdam" and your firm appears at the top. That is the goal.
The difference with advertising? You do not pay per click. Once you rank well, you keep getting traffic, even if you do nothing to your website for a month. That is what makes SEO so valuable. It is an investment that keeps paying off, month after month.
SEO rests on three pillars: technical work, content and authority. Most companies focus on the wrong one. They throw money at link building while their website is slow and their content helps nobody. That is like advertising a shop with the door locked.
How do you optimise for search engines? The three pillars
Technical SEO: the foundation nobody finds sexy
Technical SEO is about the back end of your website. Loading speed. Mobile display. URL structure. What your sitemap looks like. Not the most entertaining topic to read about, but crucial all the same.
Why? Because if Google cannot crawl your site, you do not exist. It really is that simple.
Check these things first:
- Loading speed: under 2 seconds is fine. Under 1 second is excellent. Test it with Google PageSpeed Insights: free, and done in two clicks.
- Mobile: more than 60% of all searches come from phones. Your site has to work perfectly there. Not "reasonably", not "acceptably". Perfectly.
- HTTPS: no SSL certificate? Google labels you as unsafe. Goodbye rankings. In 2026 this really is not optional any more.
- Sitemap: do you have one? Can Google find it? Is it up to date?
This is not rocket science. But you would be amazed how many websites already go wrong here. Only last month I looked at the site of a law firm that was wondering why it was not ranking. Loading time: 6 seconds. Six. Worse on mobile. You can have the best content in the Netherlands and you will still go nowhere.
Content: the pillar that really matters
Here comes my most important point. Content is the foundation. Not link building, not technical tricks. Content.
Too many business owners think SEO is about clever tricks. A few keywords here, a couple of links there, maybe some technical magic. But Google is not stupid. The algorithm wants one thing: to show the best content for every search. If your page answers that question best, you win. That is how it works.
What makes content good for SEO?
Relevance. Answer the question somebody has. Is someone searching for "what does it cost to have a website built"? Then they want to see prices. Not a story about your company history or your passion for web design. Prices. Give them what they came for.
Depth. A 300-word article rarely beats a thorough page that covers every aspect. Not because length matters in itself, but because more space lets you answer more questions. Answering more questions means more value. More value means higher rankings.
Structure. Headings. Paragraphs. White space. Bullet points where they help. This helps readers and search engines alike. Nobody reads a wall of text with no structure. And what nobody reads does not rank.
Originality. Your own perspective. Your own experience. Your own mistakes and lessons. Nobody can copy that. AI can write a perfectly generic article about SEO. But AI cannot tell people what you have learned with your clients in your market.
With clients in accountancy and law we see it again and again: the firms that rank are the firms that genuinely offer value to their audience. No shallow sales patter, but substance people can use. Articles that answer questions before a prospect even picks up the phone.
Authority: the most overrated part
Authority is about how trustworthy Google finds your site. Backlinks play a big part here: other websites linking to you. The more quality sites point at you, the more trustworthy you are in Google's eyes.
Now I have to get something off my chest that you will not read everywhere.
Too many SEO agencies sell link building packages while their clients' on-page basics are a mess. They build links to pages that are badly written, load slowly and help nobody. That is like trying to sell a house with a leaking roof. Pointless. You can put a hundred signs in the garden, but nobody buys a house with a leaking roof.
Yes, backlinks matter. But only once your foundation is in place. Content sorted first. Technical work fixed first. Only then think about link building.
And even then: quality over quantity. Always. One link from a respected trade publication is worth more than a hundred links from obscure websites nobody has heard of. Google sees the difference. And Google remembers it.
The 80/20 rule: focus on what works
The Pareto principle applies to SEO too. 20% of your effort delivers 80% of your result. The art is knowing which 20% that is.
This delivers the most:
- Keyword research: understand what your audience searches for before you start writing
- On-page optimisation: titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links
- Valuable content: articles that answer real questions
- Technical basics: a fast, mobile-friendly site that indexes properly
This is where business owners waste time:
- Obsessively counting keyword density (Google understands perfectly well what your page is about)
- Collecting hundreds of low-quality links
- Checking rankings daily instead of improving content
- Following every Google update as though it were breaking news
Measuring is knowing. But measure the right things. Look at traffic, conversions and revenue, not at your position for one obscure keyword that three people a month type in.
Can you do SEO yourself?
Honest answer: it depends.
When doing it yourself works
You can handle SEO yourself perfectly well if you:
- Have time to get into it (count on 4-8 hours a week, consistently)
- Are consistent, which is the crux, because SEO is a marathon
- Are willing to learn and keep up
- Have a relatively simple website with no major technical problems
A local physiotherapist who wants to rank for "physiotherapist Utrecht"? You can do that yourself. Optimise your Google Business Profile, write good content about your treatments, make sure your site loads fast and looks good on mobile. A few hours a week gets you a long way.
When outsourcing is smarter
Outsourcing makes more sense if you:
- Are in a competitive market where the big players have been investing for years
- Have no time for consistent SEO (and be honest: that time often never appears)
- Have complex technical problems on your website
- Need results faster than you can deliver them yourself
A law firm that wants to rank for "employment law solicitor Amsterdam"? That is a different story. The competition is brutal. Large firms have been investing in SEO for years, have dedicated marketers and work with agencies. Without the right tools and experience you will be months, sometimes years, behind.
The middle way
What we see more and more often: a hybrid approach. We do strategy, technical work and complex content. The client writes the simpler articles and pushes through updates. Cost-efficient, and the client builds up knowledge too. Win-win.
What does SEO cost per month?
Let's be honest about money. Budgets vary, and that makes sense: no two markets are the same.
€400 to €800 a month: for local businesses with limited competition. Basic optimisation, content for a handful of important pages, monitoring of results.
€800 to €2,000 a month: for smaller businesses that seriously want to grow. A broad content strategy, technical optimisation, consistent link building.
€2,000+ a month: for competitive markets. E-commerce, legal, financial: sectors where the fight for positions is fierce and the stakes are high.
The ROI? Hard to predict, but with clients we see serious results after 6 to 12 months on average. The big difference with advertising: stop your Google Ads and your traffic stops immediately. That same day. SEO results keep working, even if you invest less for a month.
SEO and AI search engines
A question we get weekly in 2026: what about ChatGPT, Perplexity and other AI search engines? Do we need to optimise for those separately?
After more than a year of experimenting, our view is this: traditional SEO is still what leads. The content that ranks well in Google also gets picked up by AI tools. That is no coincidence.
It makes sense, really. AI models train on web content that already performs well. They value the same things: clear answers, reliable sources, structured information. No tricks, just quality.
What does help for AI findability:
- Answering questions directly and concretely in the first paragraph
- Using a clear heading structure
- Offering factual, verifiable information
- Keeping your content up to date
At Green Creatives we work actively on AI optimisation for clients. But the basis stays the same: make good content that helps people (and machines).
Tools you need
Free:
- ChatGPT or Claude for keyword ideas and content outlines
- Perplexity for research and competitor analysis
- Google Search Console: indispensable, genuinely indispensable
- Google Analytics for traffic and conversions
Paid:
- Ahrefs for serious keyword research and backlink analysis (from €99 a month)
- Ubersuggest as an affordable alternative if you are just starting out
The most important thing? Not which tool you use, but that you actually look at the data and do something with it. An expensive tool without action is money thrown away.
Common mistakes
After years of working with clients I see the same slip-ups over and over. Recognisable, avoidable, but stubborn.
Treating SEO as a one-off project. This is the biggest one. SEO is not a job you tick off. It is a marathon. Companies that optimise once and then stop lose ground within a year to competitors who keep investing.
Following the wrong metrics. "We are in position 3 for that one keyword!" Lovely. But does it bring in customers? Does it lead to revenue? That is what counts.
Writing for search engines. Stuffing copy with keywords makes it unreadable. Google is clever enough to work out what your page is about, even without repeating the same word twenty times.
Ignoring the technical side. A brilliant article on a slow site loses to mediocre content on a fast site. Every single time.
Buying cheap links. Do not do it. Really do not. Google recognises unnatural patterns and can penalise your site. Then you are worse off than when you started.
First steps
Want to get going? Here is your plan.
Week 1-2: set up Google Search Console if you have not already. Analyse where you stand now. Look at what your competitors are doing: who ranks for the keywords you want?
Week 3-4: do keyword research. Prioritise which pages you are going to tackle. Plan content for the next three months.
Month 2-3: optimise existing pages, so titles, headings and meta descriptions. Write new content for your most important keywords. Fix technical problems.
Month 4+: keep publishing. Monitor results. Adjust where needed. Repeat.
Finally
Search engine optimisation is not a quick fix. It is a long-term investment in how findable your business is. The companies building good content and a solid technical foundation now will reap the rewards for years.
Whether you choose to do it yourself or outsource it: the key is consistency. No tricks, no shortcuts. Just create value for your audience and make sure search engines can find that value.
Curious what SEO could mean for your business? We are happy to think along about an approach that fits your goals and your budget.
