Search Engine Optimization SEO FAQs

Search Engine Optimization - Frequently Asked Questions

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be confusing - we know this and that is why we try to explain our services in easy-to-understand concepts. Please use the below frequently asked questions as a reference to expanding your knowledge on SEO and how search engines work. Please contact one of our SEO Specialists for more information.

Basic SEO Questions:

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Why doesn't my web site rank very well in the search engines?
How does a search engine find websites?
How long does it take for my rankings to improve?
What are the key factors that control site rankings?
Why wasn't my website designed with search engines in mind?
Does every page of my website need to be optimized?
Can SEO be performed ourselves?
Can you guarantee a number #1 position in the search engines?
It's been several months and my website still does not rank good for some keywords - why?
My website did not get accepted when it was submitted to the search engines - why?
Why should I choose 1100 Broadway as my SEO provider?
How does 1100 Broadway choose the best keywords for my market?
Will you need access to my website hosting server?
Do you have to make changes to our website?
What should I look for when choosing a SEO consultant?
What's the right time for me to start a search engine marketing campaign and how long will it last?
How often will I receive search engine ranking reports
How often do you resubmit my site to search engines?
How will I know if my business increases as a result of your SEO efforts?

General SEO Answers:

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of increasing the amount of exposure a website receives in search engines. Typically, the earlier a website shows up in a search engine's results, the more traffic that website will receive from the search engine.

Search Engine Optimization, commonly known as SEO, is an Internet marketing strategy that takes in account how search engines work and how people use the search engines to find websites. Search Engine Optimizers will make necessary changes to a website that will allow a search engine to "like" the website better for the keywords that it has been optimized for, thus giving the website a chance for the search engine to improve its ranking in the search results.

Another important part of optimizing a website for good search engine rankings is the process of link building. Link building is essentially acquiring a link to your website on someone else's website. In theory, search engines will have more respect for your website, if other webmasters have enough respect for you to publish a link to your site on theirs.

2. Why doesn't my web site rank very well in the search engines?

There are many factors that would cause a website to rank, or not to rank in a search engine. These factors include the website's programming code, the content and text copy that is on the website, the domain name, and also the links to the website. One, or many of these factors could be keeping your website from ranking well in the search engines.

Here are some elements of the programming code of a website that are important to having good SEO:

The TITLE tag
The keyword density of the text copy
Header tags
Image ALT tags
META tags
The overall programming structure

3. How does a search engine find websites?

The easiest way to have your website added to a search engine's database is to submit your website's address to the search engine through their method of requesting an addition.

Another method is to allow the search engines to locate your website naturally. This process may typically take longer, but is sometimes worth the wait. Search Engines can find your site naturally by scanning other websites that contain links to your website. When a search engine is scanning a website and it finds links to other websites, it will also scan the website that is linked.

4. How long does it take for my rankings to improve?

The amount of time it takes to start seeing results from an SEO campaign can vary highly. Factors such as the frequency of scans that a search engine does to your website and other factors may affect the time. Typically, it will take 3 months of optimization before you start seeing good traction in the SEO efforts. 6-12 months is a good length of time for an SEO campaign from start to finish before re-evaluating your strategy for future optimization.

5. What are the key factors that control site rankings?

Site ranking depends on quite a few factors, including:

The specific keyword phrases that have been targeted.
The competitiveness of your market.
The size of your market - whether you are targeting a local, regional, national or international market.
The progress of your inbound linking campaign.
Your competitor's optimization efforts.

6. Why wasn't my website designed with search engines in mind?

Most website designers have not put their focus on designing search engine friendly websites from the beginning of the development process. Plus, most programmers are not knowledgeable on the marketing techniques of SEO. Although, more and more website design companies are making sure that their programmers and design staff are trained in the standards of SEO-friendly designs.

1100 Broadway's programming and design staff are fully trained in SEO-friendly design and programming and the website that we design for you will be up to snuff with all SEO standards. Plus, if you already have a website built that is not SEO-friendly, then we can take a look under the hood and see how we can adjust the site to be more SEO-friendly.

7. Does every page of my website need to be optimized?

We could just optimize some of the pages of your website, but why would you only want to turbo-charge only half of the engine? Every page of your website needs to be optimized for the search engines. Internet users may not always enter your website through the homepage, by optimizing the sub pages of your website you will maximize your opportunity for users to find those page in the search engines and enter your site on the specific page of your website that covers the subject of their search.

8. Can SEO be performed ourselves?

SEO optimization is an art more than a science. It takes tremendous amounts of time to learn the intricacies of search engines. Plus, technology is always changing and the search engines are constantly updating their algorithms. It takes dedication, and more importantly, at least one dedicated person to stay on top of the changing SEO market. 1100 Broadway employees SEO Certified experts that are dedicated to providing results to our clients SEO efforts.

9. Can you guarantee a number #1 position in the search engines?

No one can guarantee top ranking positions in the search engines. This is because of many factors including the changing of the search engine algorithms, your competition's own SEO efforts, and the fact that the search engines are very secretive in their efforts to provide the best search results to their users.

10. It's been several months and my website still does not rank good for some keywords - Why?

There could be many reasons why your website is not ranking good for some keywords. If your website has been optimized by a professional and there is no structural programming reasons that would stop the engines from ranking your website good, then the most likely cause will be the competitive marketplace. Analysis of your competition in the search engines will be key to putting together a strategy to combat their own SEO efforts. We will identify your competition's SEO efforts and put together a strategy that will help your website overcome their top rankings.

11. My website did not get accepted when it was submitted to the search engines - why?

With the billions of webpages on the Internet, search engines have a lot of work to do. Their spiders crawl the Internet every second of every day. Even if you have submitted your website to the search engines, and have links to your website on the Internet, it may take a couple of passes from a search engine's spider before it will get spidered and added to their index. Once your website has been added to the search engine's index doesn't mean that your efforts are over. Almost all search engines have a portion of their index typically called their "sandbox". This "sandbox" is an area of their index that is like a staging area. Your website has to gain respect from the search engine before it will be released from the "sandbox" area and added to the engine's normal index and start gaining in rankings.

12. Why Should I Choose 1100 Broadway to be my SEO provider?

To achieve high search engine rankings you first have to start with a strategy. Each of our customers will require a unique strategy based on their own website, their target market, their business goals and needs and finally their competition (both offiline and online). 1100 Broadway has SEO trained and certified employees who are dedicated to providing our clients with search engine ranking results.

13. How does 1100 Broadway choose the best keywords for my market?

The first step in our SEO program is to generate a list of keywords that will provide the rankings and exposure in the search engines, and most importantly, will provide your website with a targeted audience. Our SEO experts will first start with tools and resources to research the keywords in your market. After the initial list of keywords is generated, we will narrow that list down to the group of keywords that will provide your website with the most exposure in the search engines possible. Lastly, of course we want our customer's to weigh in their opinions and knowledge on their own business's marketplace.

14. Will you need to access our web hosting server?

Yes, we will need access to your web hosting server if you choose to have 1100 Broadway complete the on-page website optimization needed. Of course, we would also be happy to provide you with written instructions on these on-page website optimization tasks that you can then pass on to your own website developers to complete.

15. Do you have to make changes to our site?

In most cases, yes. Typically we will want to make changes to your website on a monthly basis. These changes our typically behind-the-scenes programming changes that do not affect the appearance of your website, but we may also work with you on minor changes to the text copy on your website to further adjust your keyword density. In extreme cases, major structural changes will be needed to make your website search engine friendly. Although these cases are not typical, they do come up from time to time.

16. What should I look for when choosing a SEO consultant?

The most important thing to think about when hiring an SEO consultant and company is to locate an SEO expert that only provides ethical SEO techniques and strategies. There are many blackhat SEO techniques that are tried, but ultimately fail in the end with detrimental results for the website. Once a website is known for blackhat techniques, it is difficult to recover its standings with the search engines.

You may also choose to find a company that employs only expert, dedicated SEO companies that either are already certified, or were the company offers a certification program. Having dedicated SEO employees will ensure that your Website gets the expert attention needed to succeed.

Lastly, like most of the companies you choose to do business with, you want to make sure the company you hire is economically stable and will be around to complete the long-term SEO strategy that is set forth when you first hire them.

17. What's the right time for me to start a search engine marketing campaign and how long will it last?

Because Search Engine Optimization is a long-term marketing strategy and it takes time to generate ranking results in the search engines, 1100 Broadway recommends a minimum of 12 months of SEO service. Of course, if you are dedicated to including your website in your marketing strategy for your business, then on-going SEO service for the lifetime of your website will be necessary.

18. How often will I receive search engine ranking reports?

Each month you will receive a search engine ranking report. You may also request a monthly consultation to review your ranking report and your SEO marketing strategy.

19. How often do you resubmit my site to search engines?

If your website is already in the search engine's index, then there is no reason to resubmit your website. As new web page are created, we will submit the new pages as necessary.

20. How will I know if my business increases as a result of your SEO efforts?

There are a few ways that you can measure your SEO performance including tracking your website's traffic via an analytics program. As your rankings improve, you should notice an increase in traffic coming directly from the natural search engine rankings. Using advanced analytics tracking techniques, you will be able to track lead/sales conversions from your natural search engine traffic, thus being able to measure an ROI on your SEO investment. And, of course, you will also be able to track your rankings with our monthly ranking reports.