Large platform
With 26 regions, Go-Kids provides almost all of the Netherlands with child-friendly tips and ideas for nearby activities. Think about:
- Blogs with up-to-date tips
- Calendar of current activities in the area
- Restaurants with play corner
- Children's parties in all themes
- Everything for growing children, from childcare to swimming lessons
Multiply this by 26 and you get a nice impression of the size of this platform. At the head of Go-Kids are Riette and Titia. They supervise the 20-plus franchisees who each provide their own region with up-to-date local information.
Analysis of regions
If we see that a certain region is doing very well in SEO and another is lagging behind, we put this side by side. What are the differences? What can one region learn from another region's approach? We also look at regional differences. After all, some regions are more densely populated than others. In a sparsely populated region, the search volume is smaller than in a region in the Randstad, for example. We immediately found it an interesting case and were happy to provide Go-Kids with SEO advice.
Take for instance the theme 'Sinterklaas'. If we look by region at the number of times there is a display with a search term containing 'Sinterklaas', we see big differences. Some examples:
- Haarlem: 70,000 impressions, with searches like Sinterklaas entry Hoofddorp, Heemskerk and Haarlem
- Breda: 57,000 impressions with searches like Sinterklaas incht Breda, Etten-Leur and Zevenbergen
- Zwolle: 32,000 impressions with searches like Sinterklaas entry Hardenberg, Zwolle and Ommen
- Twente: 9,000 impressions with searches like Sinterklaas intocht Oldenzaal, Boekelo and Nijverdal
- Drenthe: 4,000 impressions with searches like Sinterklaas into Meppel, Emmen and Havelte
So a region with smaller towns will have to put in more effort for the same number of visitors than a region with larger cities.
Attention to duplicate content
Regions can use general blogs and guest blogs in addition to their own regional blogs. However, this creates duplicate content: the same page appears at multiple regions. Google only indexes the URL of the first blog found. Therefore, we are now working on national pages for general blogs. This way, we avoid duplicate content and all regions benefit from general search terms.
Automate
Such a large platform naturally takes a lot of time to set up and manage properly. Automating certain onder parts simplifies work and reduces errors.
- For local findability, region names are essential
- Each category has one or more key search terms
Both the name of the region and key search terms are automatically reflected in the meta title and description of category pages and regional homepages.
The alt tags of images on main pages are also automatically populated with the onderwerp they refer to.
Results
Go-Kids certainly felt the effects of the lockdown this spring. Children's parties were postponed, days out were not planned for a while yet. We saw parents' requests change to activities to do at home and holidays in corona time. This is where Go-Kids actively responded with new tips. With my personal favourite, the Go-Kids diary.
- Despite the dip this spring, we achieved 12 % growth in organic sessions
- In the last 4 months, there are 54% more impressions in Google and 27 % more clicks
- We also have nice top 3 positions on search terms with different types of children's parties, child-friendly eating out and playgrounds.
Collaboration
It's nice to connect quickly. We are in regular contact with Riëtte Mulder and Titia Bijker of Go-Kids. Whether it is about current onderwerpen or a franchisee's question. For technical adjustments, we can turn to Rutger Heijmerikx of the dutch lab. In this way, we ensure that everyone in the Netherlands can easily find the best child-friendly outings, overnight stays, children's parties, children's activities and growing-up tips.
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