Technical SEO for Dutch websites

What technical SEO covers

Technical SEO is the work that lets search engines reach, read and trust your pages. Good content cannot rank if the page is blocked, duplicated, slow or broken on a phone. Dutch sites often run on WordPress, Shopify, Magento or a custom platform, and each has its own typical faults.

We start with a crawl, add Search Console and server log data when available, and deliver a ranked list, with the fixes that matter most placed at the top.

Language versions and hreflang

Many Dutch companies publish Dutch and English pages, and some also serve Belgian visitors who use Dutch in Flanders. Hreflang tells Google which version belongs to which audience. Codes such as nl-NL, nl-BE and en must be reciprocal, each page must point to itself, and the URLs must return a normal page. Errors here are common and quiet, so we check them page by page. See the hreflang generator and the international SEO checklist for the full list.

A country domain such as .nl, run by SIDN, is a strong local signal. If you serve more than one country, decide early between separate domains, subfolders or subdomains. The choice affects migration cost later.

Belgium adds a wrinkle. Flemish visitors read Dutch but use some different words and expect Belgian delivery and pricing. If you sell there, a separate nl-BE version is worth it only when the content really differs; otherwise a single Dutch page with correct shipping notes is simpler and avoids duplicate content.

Speed, mobile and Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure loading, response to taps and visual stability using data from real visitors. We read your field data in Search Console before testing in a lab tool, because a page that scores well in a lab can still be slow for real users on mobile networks. Typical fixes include resizing images, loading scripts later, removing unused plugins and moving to a faster host in the EU.

Third-party tags are a frequent cause of slow pages. A consent tool that loads chat, video and tracking scripts only after a visitor agrees helps both speed and compliance. Rules for non-essential cookies sit in the Telecommunicatiewet, and the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens supervises their use, so have your lawyer confirm the banner wording.

Consent and measurement

When visitors decline cookies, analytics sees fewer sessions. Search Console is not affected, so use it as the baseline for organic trends. We can also set up consent-aware measurement that records anonymous page counts without personal identifiers, if your privacy lead approves the approach. Server logs give a third view that does not depend on scripts at all.

We also review the robots.txt file, XML sitemaps and status codes by template. Soft 404 pages, expired product pages that return a normal response, and sitemaps that list redirected URLs are common on Dutch webshops. Cleaning them gives search engines a clearer list of pages worth visiting and saves crawl time for the pages that earn money.

Migrations and relaunches

A new design, a new platform or a move from .com to .nl can erase years of work if it is done carelessly. We map every old URL to its new page, keep titles and content that already perform, test redirects before launch and watch Search Console daily for the first weeks. Our website migration checklist shows the steps. If you are redesigning, see website redesign in the Netherlands.

Pricing and working hours

Projects start at $1,500, and our rate is $30 an hour. An audit with a prioritised list sits at the start, and the fixes are quoted separately once we know the platform. See the technical SEO service and the SEO audit cost guide. The Netherlands is 3.5 hours behind India in summer and 4.5 in winter, so reviews with your developer fit in your morning. For the wider picture, read the Netherlands SEO overview.