FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions about SEO

How to choose an SEO agency Choosing the right SEO digital agency requires some careful thought and research. You are going to be sharing a lot of information and putting your trust in someone, knowing that it might take 6 to 9 months to see the optimum results that you want. The SEO consultancy will not only optimize the visibility of your website, it will also build out backlinks to improve the authority of your site in Google’s eyes and therefore increase the chances of appearing at the top of the search results. The agency will also need to build your social profiles and citations to increase your Internet presence. For more details check out “Choosing the right SEO agency“.

How will SEO improve the visibility of my website? If you have never had your website optimized it is likely to have a number of areas that would benefit from improvement: in other words it’s not “SEO friendly”. Optimization will check the quality of your content to make sure that it complies with current best practice. It will also review the technical side, internal and external links and the key meta tags.  These are all areas that Google considers important and, once they are properly optimized, your website will steadily improve in the search engine results pages.  For more details click here.

How much does search engine optimization cost? It is not possible to determine the price of optimizing a website without a detailed review of the current level of optimization and an assessment of competitors’ sites to determine how difficult it will be to outrank them.  It will also be dependent on the complexity and popularity of the keywords for which you want to rank and the level of competition in your industry and your locale. Learn more about the factors that influence the cost of an SEO project.

How do you measure return on investment (ROI) with SEO? The calculation of the return on investment is relatively simple as long as you have access to the relevant data. The initial goal of SEO is to increase your traffic from the search engines and bring qualified prospects to your website. However, increasing your traffic is of no value in itself, unless the traffic convert into paying customers. Thus it is your conversion rate that is important and improving that will increase your sales and your profits. Click here for a fuller discussion.

How long will it take to see results? The timescale for seeing the results of optimizing your website for the search engines is highly variable. It can range from a few weeks to several months. There is no way to be specific about timing because the variables that influence the delay are related to the procedures of Google, the profile of your website and your business sector. Click here for a more detailed discussion.

Do you guarantee a #1 ranking in Google? It is not possible to guarantee a specific position in the organic results of Google. The goal of SEO is certainly to improve your rankings in the search engines, but a definite position or a specific percentage increase can never be forecast accurately. Google is constantly looking for ways to improve the value of searches to the people using its engine, so the algorithms that it uses are frequently updated.  Many of the changes are minor and may make little difference to your position, but perhaps twice a year, a major update comes out and it is not possible to predict in advance what effect that will have on your website.

What are long-tail keywords and why are they important? The long-tail keyword is a phrase used to describe for searches by Internet users. These queries, share similar characteristics; they have a low search volume but are narrowly focused, they have the advantage of being highly targeted and will drive qualified traffic to a site. These keyword are often the best source of relevant traffic to a website.

Is it worth investing in Google Adwords as well as SEO? The short answer is “possibly”. SEO and PPC (pay Per Click) are two complementary techniques to maximize the visibility of a website in the search engines. Organic SEO takes time to be effective but provides a long-term ROI. Adwords has a much more immediate impact and return on investment.  In combination, Adwords can provide cover until the traditional SEO techniques have time to be effective.

How can I monitor the results of your service? We make a point of keeping you up-to-date with progress, by providing regular traffic and ranking reports. It is your choice as to whether you want them daily, weekly or monthly. We can also provide you with external analysis tools to monitor the progress of your site.  Of course, the real measure of success is increased business and a return on your investment, but as we move towards those goals, the interim reports will show the rate of progress.