Search Engine Optimisation Questions
Search Engine Optimisation Questions
Saturday, 30 September 2006 20:27 | 
Written by Administrator | 
SEO FAQ's
- Should I use automated submission websites?
- How long will it take to be listed in search engines / directories?
- If you had to list the basic important factors in seo what would they be
- Should I submit all of my website pages to search engines?
- Should I have a site map?
- Should all pages of my site be Optimized and have the same keywords?
- Pay Per Click or Organic Seo?
- If I use a Website Marketing Company to develop a Online Marketing Strategy for my online business can I guarantee a Number one Position in Google Yahoo and MSN?
- What is Black hat and White hat Seo?
- My website is not ranking well in search engines, Why?
- Should I do my own Search Engine Optimisation?
- How many Keywords should I use?
- Which Keywords should I use, should I just copy other sites keywords?
- Do search engines still use Meta Tags
- Whats the different between SEO and SEM?
- Do I need both SEO and SEM?
- What is off line SEO?
- My site is ranking well should I put my feet up and enjoy the increase in business?
No. It is wise to submit to search engines and directories manually also, some of these sites sell your email address for the purpose of email marketing therefore, I recommend setting up a separate email address for search engine submission
Listing times can range from two weeks to a year.This all depends on many factors including how competitive the websites market is, if the site is new or an existing site, if the site is aimed at a global or local market.
- Keyword and key phrases research
- An easy to navigate design structure
- Good quality informative and unique content
- High quality reliable Hosting
- Relevant intelligent Reciprocal linkings
- A XML Site map
No, submit your home page only. A well designed site should allow spiders etc to access all of your site. If in any doubt make sure you have a site map correctly configured and submitted
All sites should have a site map. Site maps are a great tool for indexing your websites pages. Make sure that it is Google, MSN and Yahoo compatible.
You website pages should all be optimised individually for the content that they provide, hence should have their own meta tags title keywords etc to reflect their unique content. Search engines index pages that they think are useful and relevant to others.
Your online strategy should always include increasing your websites organic placement in major search engines, however Pay Per Click has its role in providing a quick and relatively low cost advertising opportunity. Its true advantage can be seen in situations such as the development of micro sites for product launches or trade shows where it would be impossible to reach a reasonable position in any search engine in a short time period.
If I use a Website Marketing Company to develop an Online Marketing Strategy for my online business can I guarantee a Number one Position in Google Yahoo and MSN?
The days have gone when we could spend a small amount time after building a web site to get it listed in search engines. Today SEO is a time consuming research dependent science. Which can never be guaranteed due to search engines changing their ranking algorithms, aggressive competitor techniques, and the continued liquid state of the Internet as a whole.
A good Web Marketeer can, after some research give an idea of how high your site will be after a given amount of time, expect at least 3 months for any lasting results.
Black Hat is a term to describe the use of bad or unethical search engine optimisation techniques, these can include adding page text containing keywords that are the same colour as the background colour or duplicate pages. These techniques quite often get results in the short term but you risk getting your site banned. White hat Seo is of course the opposite of Black Hat. Ethical Web Marketeers use ethical techniques to get long term successful results for their clients.
Some of the reasons why:
- Not submitted it correctly
- You have submitted it to many times
- Your site has been banned or penalised for some reason usually for using Black Hat Techniques
- Missing headers or titles. This should not stop indexing but will certainly not help. Remember Content is King!
- The structure of your site may be stopping Crawlers from accessing it
- You may be using too much Flash or Javascript in your web page. Flash is only just becoming acceptable to SE's though there are ways around it I recommend keeping Flash to a minimum.
- Keyword Spamming – the use of keywords too often
- Low quality content or no content, try to get at least 200 words per page
- No forward or backward links
If you are a keen Computer and Internet user and have the time, then there is no reason that you cannot DIY SEO. You should have some knowledge of website design, CSS and all things that go with it. Otherwise you can risk damaging your site especially if it is complex.
Many experts will give you a different opinion on this but I recommend keeping Keywords to a minimum. Make your Home page specific to the content of your site and product or service you provide. Explain in the first paragraph about your business and include your keywords both in your title and paragraph. Use your other pages to include other keywords that are directly related to that content.
It is a great idea to look at other site similar to yours to copy successful keywords, but remember the key words may not be of use if the site owner has not done their own research.
Research your keywords using software or site tools such as Google Keyword tool.
It may sound obvious but don't try and use keywords such as Microsoft to get high for your software development company be realistic, use key phrases to target searchers. Remember that you only want high quality traffic to your site anything else is a waste of your bandwidth and could slow down your server.
Search engines are putting less weight on the importance of meta tags but I recommend that you still use them and make the relevant to each page.
SEO (Search Engine Optiminsation) is the process of optimising a website improving the quality of traffic in order to increase the efficiency of the site and the quality of traffic that it receives from search engines
With SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the study and development of all aspects of search marketing including PPC, E-mail marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, social media campaigns, etc.
For SEO you need a long term strategy that will reap good lasting rewards if carried out correctly. There is also evidence that you receive a 40% increase in conversion rate with SEO over Pay Per Click hits.
Per Per Click can cost a small fortune if not done correctly. You also have the possibility of competitors fraudulently clicking on your adverts to cost you extra money. The advantage is that you can change your keywords instantly to see results and click throughs within minutes. A well thought out campaign can prove very successful. There is also a possibility that Google considers PPC fees as evidence that your keywords are valid. So a small spend on PPC may help in your organic listing.
Off-site factors:
Try and get good quality incoming links to your site from other web sites. Especially important is that they are reliable well respected sites especially Government /college sites but the links need to be relevant to your site and page. High traffic site are great too
Do not use 'Link Farms' sites that exchange links with anyone. Business directories are OK but do not often carried much weight
You should always be looking at improving your websites content if relevant. Search Engines love new or updated information. The more you update your site the more likely search engines will revisit and increase your ranking.
Last Updated (Friday, 21 May 2010 10:09)
