Frequently Asked Questions & Answers on SEO

What does SEO Stand for?

SEO which is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization involves making certain changes to your site design, as well as content so that it ranks on search engines.

Do I really need SEO?

Yes, if you want your potential customers to find you and have a better user experience. SEO may also come in handy if you want increased engagement, conversions and traffic.

What’s the difference between SEO & PPC (Ads)? Which is Better?

The major difference between SEO and PPC is that the web traffic, which is generated by Pay Per Click is paid while that generated by Search Engine Optimization is organic traffic and free. Both SEO and PPC are an important part of Search Engine Marketing. SEO is great for those who want to generate long term traffic on their website.

Is SEO Expensive?

Well, that depends on how big and aggressive you want to go. SEO is not always expensive. For example, if you are in car service business, your target audience are more likely to be within 20 Kilometers of your business location. So, the competition and amount of work required is less compared to the brands focusing national and international wide. It also depends on whether its service based or an e-commerce. One thing for sure is, price can be tailored based on your requirement.

Can I do SEO myself? Do I need an SEO company?

Yes, you can do SEO yourself without hiring an SEO company in case your budget is small. To do this you need to master keyword research, understand your competition, plan your work, optimize your website, and produce regular content among other SEO techniques.

How long it takes to achieve desired results?

Many SEO companies will tell their customers that they will start to see the benefits of SEO after 3 to 6 months.

What is Link building / Backlinks?

A backlink refers to an external URL which links to your website. If another site links to your web page, you will get a backlink. On the other hand, link building is a holistic process of using backlinks so that you can boost your SEO rankings.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the first thing that you need to start the campaign. It’s the list of query, words or search term that your potential customers look for and find your business on search engines. So, once you have the list based on competitor analysis, trends and monthly search volume you can proceed to next step of optimization. It is the base of the whole campaign. Optimising for keywords which doesn’t have any demand or irrelevant can be a total waste.

What is robots.txt?

Robots.txt refers to text file that is submitted to webmasters that instruct web robots how to crawl pages on their site.

What is xml sitemap?

An XML sitemap is basically a document which helps Google and other leading search engines to understand your site by crawling it. The XML sitemap gives you the opportunity to specify more information for each URL like how often the website changes and when the website was last updated.

Does SEO changes frequently?

Yes, SEO is always changing frequently, which is why you need to stay up to date with the latest SEO tactics. But remember that the end goal of SEO does not change.

What is broken link and 301 Redirect?

A broken link which is also known as a dead link refers to a hyperlink on a website page which no longer works because an incorrect URL was entered, or a destination website was removed. On the other hand, 301 Redirect redirects you permanently from one URL to another.

Are blogs important for a website?

Blogs are a great way to keep the content on your website fresh. They can be used for social media promotion, email marketing, and to draw traffic to your website.

Can I buy backlinks for my website?

No. Buying or selling links are against the link rule for search engines and can negatively affect your site ranking and visibility. You can refer to Google link schemes for more details.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is all about how you optimize your site so that it ranks highly for your local audience to find your business.

Are there any free Software for SEO?

Yes, you can find software for SEO that come with free trial such as Moz Pro and Ahrefs which are great for finding unlinked mentions and link analysis. Other free software and plugins for Search Engine Optimization includes Google Keyword Planner, Yoast SEO and Link Miner.

What is Yoast SEO?

Yoast SEO is a great SEO plug-in that helps you optimize content, meta tags, and site maps.

Most popular SEO techniques?

There are many SEO techniques you can use to optimize your website to rank highly on search engine, but some of the most popular SEO techniques include titles and headings optimization, update existing blogs, optimize images, interlink pages, go mobile, and get quality backlinks. All of it comes to on-page, off-page or link building and content optimization.

What is on page SEO?

On page SEO is a practice of optimizing individual web pages so that they rank highly on SERP and earn more traffic in search engines. E.g. using meta title consisting a right amount of words and target keywords is part of an on-page SEO. There is a whole lot of checklist you can follow. Optimising speed, responsiveness, fixing broken links, internal linking, right alternate tags for images and any optimization you perform on your website comes under on-page SEO.

Recommended Website Load Speed? Why it is important?

The recommended web page load speed should be less than 3 seconds. In case it is 2.9 seconds the site loads faster than 50 percent of the web. If your website loads in 1.7 seconds, it is faster than 75 percent of the web. This is important because users will not have to wait forever, so that they can access a website.

Does duplicate content affect SEO?

You will not be penalized when you use duplicate content unless its sole purpose is to manipulate search engines. Identical content may be filtered which may result in a loss of ranking of your webpage.

Google Penalty & Black hat techniques

Google penalty occurs when a website is adversely affected on search engines because it did not comply with Google quality guidelines. Black hat techniques are an unethical tactics that help a website rank highly in SERPs. For example, you can have cloaking, keyword stuffing and private link networks as part of black hat techniques. However, the smile on your face fades away when your website gets penalized for using black hat techniques. Be smart, be on the safe side.

Do 404 errors hurt SEO?

No, 404 errors do not hurt SEO but in case it is not fixed you may miss out a lot. Therefore, if you have backlinks which point to web pages on your site that give a 404 error, it is important you fix those backlinks as well as 301 Redirect the broken URLs to another location.