FAQ

Your SEO Questions… and the Answers That Matter

Content

How important is content?

SEO experts agree that highly relevant web page content (also called copy) is crucial to your overall success in page ranking. While other factors certainly come into play, simply having wonderful, targeted, easy-to-navigate content on your website can be enough to increase page rank and conversions.

What if I only updated my content and didn’t do anything else?

According to Internet marketing guru Seth Godin, “Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't.” Visitors to your website are there for a reason. Even if they stumbled upon your site accidentally, they’re looking at your web site with some amount of interest.. Great content gives them a reason to stay…and to buy. Since your customers don’t (or shouldn’t) recognize the SEO efforts that went into creating your website and its copy, the best optimized content simply provides a more satisfying customer experience, and that’s your true overall goal.

Keywords

How can I determine the very best keywords?

Software like WordTracker allows keyword analysis that digs deep to find common keywords and phrases to boost page rank, as well as less common ones you should be incorporating to differentiate yourself. You can also ‘spy’ on your competition to find out what’s working for them in order to determine what might work for you. But the process can be time consuming and tricky, depending on your industry and how deeply you want to dig. Although you can analyze your own keywords, individuals and companies serious about Internet success generally turn to an SEO professional for assistance with choosing the best keywords.

What’s the best way to use keywords throughout my content?

First, you want to avoid ‘stuffing’, or the practice of using keywords too frequently throughout your page in an attempt to stuff as many keywords as possible into your content for better ranking. Not only does this practice backfire with the search engines, but your visitors will be highly distracted and annoyed by it, and that’s certainly not the response you want. Well-chosen keywords used correctly and adequately throughout your page copy will do the trick. Some experts suggest a ratio of one keyword for every 20 words of content. Some use a percentage, such as 4%-8% keyword ‘density’. This is where the services of a skilled SEO content writer are very important.

Can I ‘spy’ on my competitors and use the same keywords they do?

Absolutely! And it’s not as clandestine as it sounds. Determining the keywords your competitors are successfully using to build their business is a common SEO practice that is completely legal and very useful.

Meta and Other Descriptive Tags

What is a metatag and how can it help my page rank?

The Meta tag is sometimes used by search engines to more accurately index your website. The title tag, description tag and keyword tag are three of a number of metatags that can potentially be used for better ranking. While experts disagree about whether metatags are necessary, you won’t be penalized for using them, so take every advantage you can for better ranking.

If Meta tags are being used, put them on each page of your site and make them relevant to your page, so each page will be indexed individually.

What is a description tag and how can it help my page rank?

The description tag should describe the page, not simply restate the page title. The meta description tag is a description of your site's content, providing search engines with an accurate summary of your website filled with multiple keywords that correlate to your content. The description tag is supported by more search engines than other metatags.

Here are a few rules about meta description tags:

• Some engines will display the description tag as a summary of your website on the search results page, which is one reason why it’s important to write a meaningful description.
• Include multiple keywords in your descriptive sentence, placing them at the beginning of the description and near each other for the best rankings.
• Write a description that is between 150 and 250 characters long. Some results pages will cut off descriptions longer than 150 words.
• Don’t repeat your keywords more than 3 or 4 times throughout the description as it may be viewed as spam.
• use a unique meta description for every page for a better chance of individual page ranking.

What is a title tag and how can it help my page rank?

SEO experts agree that the title tag is one of the most important factors you can implement in your quest to achieve higher page rankings. For some clients, simply fixing their title tags shows a boost in page rank and generates higher click-throughs.

Title tags are just as important as your content and the links that point to your pages. Some experts think they may be even more important.

The title tag can include your company name, specific keyword phrases, using your page content as a guide. For example, if your company name is “Jones and Decker, Inc.,” a certified public accounting office in Philadelphia, PA, your title tag could be written as: “Jones and Decker Inc. Certified Public Accountants in Philadelphia, Pa.” This is just a basic example, and there are other tricks of the trade that can be used for better optimization.

Links

What’s the difference between inbound and outbound links?

Inbound links (links into your site from the other sites) can increase your page rank. You can also add more pages to accomplish a similar increase. It doesn't matter where the links come from, since Google knows the webmaster doesn’t control sites that link to your site.

Outbound links, however, can drain your page rank. To avoid this, ensure the links are reciprocated and be careful when choosing the sites with whom you will exchange links.

Conversion and Abandonment (Bounce) Rates

Why do people leave my site so quickly?

Studies show the average site visitor leaves after 8 seconds. Not much time to get to know each other, is it? Without a comprehensive analysis of your site, it’s impossible to determine why this is happening. Many factors can ‘turn off’ your site visitors, despite doing many things correctly to drive people to your site to begin with. Although there are many different reasons why this might be so, SEO experts agree that 8 seconds won’t do anything to grow your business, so changes must take place to get your visitors to visit the site, stay on the site, and buy what you’re offering. This is where the talents of a good search engine optimization company can really help.

What is the most important thing I can do to decrease my bounce rates?

The reasons for high bounce rates can include:

• Unappealing or difficult-to-navigate site layout
• Pop-up boxes
• Too much advertisement- not enough real content
• The ‘look’ of the page doesn't match the visitor’s personality
• Your site is ranking for some phrase that doesn’t relate to what you do, so large amounts of untargeted, unqualified traffic is landing and then bouncing out.

There are many other potential reasons. However, the most important thing you can do to decrease bounce rates is to make sure the first words they see fit exactly with what they’re looking for. If you sell widgets, and people come to your site to buy widgets, but the first words that hit them when they land on your home page have nothing to do with buying widgets, it’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to lose that visitor. Make your content relevant.

Why do I have high traffic but almost no sales?

This is an indication that you’re doing some things half right. High traffic is a goal for many website owners, so some of the strategies you’re using are driving lots of traffic. But if no one is buying, it is a bittersweet accomplishment at best. Your site needs a thorough analysis of many factors to determine why your products or services are not selling despite lots of attention.

Page Rank

Why isn’t my page rank improving?

There may be a number of factors involved, including:

• The quality of your page content
• Keywords
• Links
• Metatags, particularly the Title tag
• Page structure
• Typos, grammar problems
• User friendliness of your site
• Shopping Cart Issues
• Your site’s overall trustworthiness
• Product Descriptions
• Too much or too little information 

A thorough site analysis is needed to determine why this is happening on your site.

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