So, before we get into the main article, we’d like to talk a little bit about why we’re shaping the article in this way. Generally, everyone reading this will probably know what SEO is. Besides, if you’re writing some piece of content, you are going to end up accidentally adding a few keywords in without even realizing it. Due to this reason, we’re not going to go over what is SEO, what are the benefits, etc. Instead, we’re going to transform this article into a type of an FAQ that will list all the frequently asked questions people have about SEO and keyword research in general. If you are just starting off with SEO and need some clarification regarding a few of it’s domains, this blog should clear them up.
What is SEO?
Yeah, we did say that we won’t tell you what SEO is, but that was just a rhetorical statement. We’re obviously going to give SEO a proper introduction. So, basically, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of utilization most searched keywords, incorporating them in your website and simultaneously rising through the ranks of Google’s first page.
Google is a pretty crowdy place. No matter what you’re doing, there’s probably fifty other people providing the same services. In order for your business to surpass theirs, you needs to use something called keywords. These keywords will give you a better ranking on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and end up bringing more traffic to your website.
Do I Really Need SEO?
Well, let us put it this way, if you’re a small business and you’re not using SEO, you’re not going to succeed. It’s that simple. The thing about SEO is that everyone is using it. It’s so important that that every new startup is using its SEO. There’s reason behind this is that SEO is so different from other forms of marketing such as newspaper advertisements, billboards, social media marketing, etc. Some companies still use newspaper advertisements on the other hand other companies think that it is a waste of time. However, SEO is something that every new business absolutely adores. There’s a 100% chance that the local competitor is using SEO, and if you don’t do the same thing, you’re never going to possibly get an edge over your rival.
How Much Does It Cost?
Well, basically, it could go from costing absolutely nothing more than your time to costing an insane amount of money. The bill at the end of the month is totally up to you and how you optimize the service for your website.
How Do I Do it for Free?
It’s fairly simple. You need to do some research and come up with viable keywords that people will search while looking for services similar to yours. There are more than a few ways to do this including some free online tools that will give you pretty decent keywords for free. However, there are some cons to this as we will discuss them later. Once you’ve conducted the research, the next step is to start implementing them. This job is for the person that is taking care of the content for your site. But, you’re probably the content writer, the SEO expert and the CEO at the same time, so you’re going to have to do it yourself. The trick is to spread the keywords throughout the content evenly in a way that the keywords doesn’t seem forcefully interested. This is not an easy thing to do as keywords such as “Cheap Dog Walker in New York” aren’t easy to implement. And, this is why some people resort to professionals to get this task done.
How Can I Get Keywords Without Using Tools?
This whole process will require a fair bit of digging on your part. So, basically, there are hidden ‘tools’ incorporated in Google and popular ecommerce sites like Amazon. So, if you search for something on Google, the site displays a small list at the end labelled ‘relevant searches’. You might be seeing that list for years and not realizing the fact that that list is actually a bunch of high traffic SEO keywords. Use them and voila! You’re good to go.
This is just one small way of doing keyword research and it’s probably the simplest method out there. There are much more challenging ways out there too that will probably provide more productive keywords. It’s all about time. If you spend more of it, you’ll get much better keywords.
Who Can I Pay for SEO?
You have two options. The first option will take off all the work from your shoulders and drop it onto the hands of a much more experience personnel. There are SEO companies that can completely take over your website and rid it with high traffic and low competition keywords. Meaning that all you need to do is just sit back, relax and watch the buyers stream in like you’re a Best Buy on Black Friday.
The second option will require a bit of work on your part. You will need to pay premium SEO tools to come up with the keywords for you. Personally, we prefer this option a lot since these sites also give you a bunch of cool added statistics for the keywords themselves as well as for the companies that use them. However, you should note that subscription to these toys is difficult and could end up costing you a couple hundred dollars.
Where Do I Use These Keywords?
The answer is, everywhere. Each portion of your site should have a significant number of keywords in order for the campaign to function properly. However, in order to make our SEO FAQ slightly more precise, titles, meta tags, headings, intros, subheadings and conclusion (in descending order of importance) are the best places for keywords. You can also spread the words through the body of content too. This is slightly trickier to implement appropriately, but you can use some free online tools like Yoast to check how well you’re going about your SEO.
I Tried SEO, Why Isn’t My Site Ranking?
There are two reason why a company using SEO could fail to get results. The first is obviously that they’re not doing it right. The best way to do SEO is to get keywords that don’t have extremely high traffic and not too much competition. It’s tough to do, but that’s the only thing that works. Often small business owners just use high competition keywords and they never work. The reason behind this is that there are already bigger and better companies using those keywords and for much longer than you have. It’s practically impossible to beat them at their own game.
The second reason is that you were penalized by Google for abusing the SERP algorithm and you won’t be able to rank by just using the same old strategies.
What is the Google Penalty?
Back in 2012, Google launched it’s Penguin Project to counteract the amount of people abusing organic results for their own benefits. In such cases, Google’s Algorithm puts a penalty on those websites that are violating it’s guidelines. If your business does get penalized, you’re going to have to appeal to Google, otherwise no matter how much money you spend on marketing, you won’t get any major benefit off of that.
How Long Does It Take?
SEO is so perfect, obviously there’s going to be some catch that comes along with it. The catch is that you can’t put a clock on SEO and it’s results. You could start seeing a significant increase in your traffic the first day, after a month, after a year, or just never. You have no way of knowing how long your current keywords will take to start showing results.
Is SEO Dead?
No, SEO is not dead and it never will be. Search Engine Optimization is basically just a way to get a higher ranking on Google and till the time we have Google, SEO will not be buying out. This is the one form of marketing that is going to be here for a long, long time.
Does Blogging Help SEO?
Yes, tremendously. In order to make your SEO effective, you need to be as diverse as possible. Though this can be a little difficult if you’re just working with a few ‘Our Services’ pages. If you really want to step out of the ordinary and take your SEO to the next level, high-quality blogs will help you do just that. You’re going to be able to use a lot more keywords in the blog as compared to any other section of your site which gigantically boost your traffic.