SEO Questions
SEO Frequently Asked Questions
What is SEO?
What is involved in SEO?
Why are links so important?
How long does it take to do SEO?
How long does the SEO work remain effective?
What is “Organic SEO” or “Natural SEO”?
What is “Black Hat” SEO?
Should I use Black hat SEO?
Why is my site not showing up in the search engines?
Why does my site show up in search results, but not for the keywords I want?
What is keyword research?
Do search engines still use meta tags?
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SEO, or “Search Engine Optimisation”, is the process of increasing the visibility of a website in the natural results of search engines. The number of visitors to a website increases with the visibility of a website in the search engines.
SEO is a combination of onsite and offsite work. Onsite work involves optimising each of the components of a website which affect its rankings on search engines. The most important among these are content, site structure, tags, titles and page names, but there are more than 100 components on our checklist! Offsite work primarily involves acquiring contextual, relevant links from other websites to the site being optimized.
Links are a major aspect of today’s search engine algorithms. It is easy for webmasters to manipulate onsite aspects of a website, but far more difficult to control offsite aspects such as inbound links. Each link to a website is like a vote of confidence for that site; after all, you wouldn’t link your website to a bad site, right? Keep in mind that not all links are created equal; the quality and quantity of links is part of the algorithms of search engines for calculating relevancy.
How long does it take to do SEO?
The duration of an SEO project can depend on the keywords (the search terms) for which a site is being optimised. It also depends on the current situation of the website. Many of the onsite techniques can be put in place quickly (within one month) but the benefits of which may take two to three months to realize. An average SEO project can range from four months to eight months.
How long does the SEO work remain effective?
Again, it depends on the keywords for which your site is being optimised. Generally, attaining a high ranking takes a fair amount of time and effort. Therefore, you tend to reach a top rank and stay there for some time. Just remember, when you get to the #1 position, you’ve knocked someone else of that position who will certainly want to get it back. That said, it is far easier to retain a position than it is to get to it in the first place.
What is “Organic SEO” or “Natural SEO”?
Organic SEO is the process of optimising a website for the search engines so it achieves good results naturally, without resorting to paid inclusion or unscrupulous “black hat” techniques. A site that has good organic placement is likely to be more stable in its long term search engine positions. We always strive for strong organic placement.
“Black Hat” SEO techniques involve using techniques that the search engines frown upon in order to achieve unnaturally high rankings. For example, you might create a web page that displays a visually pleasing experience for visitors, but when the search engines spider your site, they see ugly – but extremely search engine friendly – code.
Black hat techniques generally work well in the short time, but you run the risk of getting your entire website banned from the search engine indexes.
Conversely, “White Hat” SEO involves using genuine methods (as per search engine guidelines) to obtain better results.
We recommend you never use Black Hat techniques for your flagship website; the risk of getting banned is just too high for the short term benefits. However, these techniques can be employed effectively in advanced SEO strategies.
We do not employ Black Hat techniques for our clients.
Why is my site not showing up in the search engines?
There can be many other reasons a web site doesn’t show up, or display well, in search engines results: the search engines may not even know about your site yet, your site might not be readable by the engines, it may be missing critical information or it may be banned or penalised.
Why does my site show up in search results, but not for the keywords I want?
This is probably our most frequently asked question. The short answer is because your site is likely not optimised for those keywords! Generally, the keywords you want are already heavily contested, which is why you need our SEO services.
Keyword research has a huge affect on web traffic, without knowing what the public search for and what search phrases they use, how can you expect to capitalize on potential web traffic? We research all your most important keywords for each page you want indexed, and highly listed in engines. From there we now know what keyword phrases are most searched for, and which are a waste of time. Obviously, there is no point being #1 for a search term that no one searches for!
Do search engines still use meta tags?
SEO experts are in disagreement on which meta tags are used by which engines and how much weight the engines place on meta tags. The best advise we can provide is to always include meta tags, but do not abuse them by attempting to stuff them full of keywords not present on the page. There is never any harm in including well formed, relevant meta tags.
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do meta tags still work