SEO F.A.Q's

The mention of SEO raises many queries in our minds. Given below are the answers to all you questions pertaining to SEO and its use.

What are search engines?

Search engines are websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL etc, where you can perform searches to acquire information, on the Internet. These searches are conducted based on keywords or phrases typed in the search box, on any of the search engines. Once the search results are ready, you can review them. To get more information about major search engines and try searches on them, you can go to http://www.freewebsearch.com/ .

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of making a website more visible and secure high ranking on the relevant search results. When the user types in a keyword which matches your website’s keywords, your site is displayed in the search results. For instance, if you are selling a specific brand of herbal shampoo, you may want to be in the top ten results when a searcher types in “best herbal shampoos” or “herbal cosmetics”. SEO services include, a search engine competitive analysis, keyword research, link building campaign, website optimization and submittal.

Why is SEO required?

Some people think that just having a good website is enough, but the truth is that it isn’t enough. Search engines look for very specific information like, the website content and its underlying code. If it doesn’t find what it is looking for, it will deem your site as irrelevant. The search engines have to search through millions of domains with each domain having dozens of pages. So they have a set of conditions which they use to sort the results. Thus you require an SEO to optimize your website content and its underlying code, so as to match the conditions of the search engine, each and every time it performs a search.

What is the importance of search engines and getting high ranks?

Search engines are the best and the easiest way, consumers find out about products and services online. Surveys conducted by Forrester shows that 73.4% of the segment surveyed, used the search engines to acquire information. They are the top information resources used worldwide when seeking any kind of information. When a consumer is looking for a product online, he is more likely to type in the product name on one of the popular search engines rather than going through a shopping channel or any other means, as per Jupiter Media Matrix.

Everyday more and more buyers are using search engines to locate what you are offering. If you don’t gain the attention of a potential customer you will lose business to your competition. So if your site does not rank high on the search results, you are at a risk of losing some of the best quality buyers which your site can attract.

What does a basic SEO package include?

A basic SEO package includes:

• a) Search engine competitive analysis
  • Present ranking of website for relevant keywords and phrases
  • The number of incoming links of all the major search engines
  • Number of pages saved as well as indexed by the relevant search engines
• b) Website Optimization
  • RSS Feed created
  • Feeds validated
  • Submit feed to the relevant search engine
• c) Standards
  • Adhering to the best practices and complying with today’s search engine standards is a necessity
• d) Website submission
  • Website to be submitted to the relevant search engines like Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc

What is the process of SEO?

The first step of search engine optimization is to analyze the prevalent search trends and extract the best keywords and key phrases for your target market. Your main objective is to outdo and be visible over all the other flashy websites by using attractive and catchy phrases. Once the right keywords and phrases have been traced, the next step is to create a search engine friendly and relevant website content for your visitor. Various SEO techniques and technicalities are used to actually optimize the website content and its underlying code, to incorporate the chosen keywords and phrases. As soon as SEO has been done, your website will begin to appear on the major search engine rankings, under the keywords selected by you.

How much do you have to pay for SEO?

Today a lot of websites offer SEO service packages that are available in all kinds of price ranges. So you have to do a bit of research and shortlist a package for yourself to meet your budgetary allowance.

Which are the search engines you should concentrate on?

There are hordes of search engines available on the net today. Amongst them, Google, MSN and Yahoo are the major players in this field. More than 80% of all the searches made on the internet are performed on these engines. Google is the leading search engine today.

Why is a keyword research important?

To develop a strong traffic generating search engine optimization strategy, you need to identify the keywords which are relevant to your website and are used frequently by your targeted traffic. There are various tools available today to identify the correct keywords, e.g. the Word tracker, Yahoo Keyword Selector tool etc.

The Word tracker provides a highly accurate picture of what is actually searched on the Internet, since it uses real query data from Dog Pile and Meta Crawler.

The Yahoo keyword selector tool also works on similar lines as the word tracker. However it uses the data provided by its retailers who frequently check their positions. It does not differentiate between singular and plural usage, even though the results yielded by the two are very different from one another.

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is technical in nature and refers to the process of optimizing the website contents to make it keyword rich, so it has higher chances of ranking high, on search engine results. SEO is a vital component of the broader picture called SEM

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and as the name suggests it has a promotional approach. It markets websites through various techniques such as SEO, pay per click, paid inclusion etc. The SEM personnel, in addition to SEO knowledge must also possess a thorough understanding of consumer behavior along with real life business experience.

Why can’t you have your website written only in Java?

Search engines can not read nor follow Java or Flash script properly. So it will not be able to see your website content and deem it irrelevant. Your website may not be included on the popular search results.

What are Information Pages?

Information Pages are those web pages which are optimized to secure high rankings for chosen keywords and phrases. In order to be effective they must be completely integrated into websites.

Why do you need to have text links on your websites?

Text links let the search engines navigate easily through your websites. Search links are required for the search engine to be able to find relevant content and index your website properly.