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SEO FAQ
Do I need an SEO specialist?
Does the whole idea of Search Engine Optimization leave you confused? You’re not alone. SEO is a simple concept but it consists of many, many different strategies to boost your website’s ranking. It’s not one-size fits all and it’s a constant process, based on changes within the SEO industry and Google’s ranking algorithms.
Based on many things – site loading speed, content length, keywords used, title tags, sitemaps, robots.txt files, and so much more – there’s a good reason why business owners hire SEO specialists. It’s a full-time job keeping your site in great standing and on Google’s good side. SEO is basically the rulebook for all websites, everywhere. Bad SEO companies won’t get you the results you’re after (higher traffic, higher sales, better visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and they could even get your site penalized. You’re busy running your business, so for best results, we recommend consulting with an SEO professional.
Should I have an SEO campaign AND a PPC campaign?
Whether to do SEO or PPC has been debated for as long as digital marketing has been relevant. Today, we say it’s best to have both. In the same way that a salesperson keeps multiple “hooks” in the water, SEO and PPC combined casts a wider net, reaching more highly targeted people. Even for smaller businesses, a small, dialled in PPC strategy can make a big difference alongside a carefully implemented search engine optimization strategy.
Does social media help with SEO?
Social media doesn’t affect your SEO ranking in and of itself, but the links you and others share can have a positive effect on your brand’s exposure. The more shares, the more your target audience is aware that you’re out there. This leads to more site visits and more leads / sales. Social shares (i.e. how much someone shares a page on your site) have been shown to help in rankings as it shows that the content is popular and shareable.
How can SEO pros tell how my site is doing?
Using site audit tools and SEO analysis, SEO experts can dig deep into all kinds of innovative reports, errors, warnings, notices, comparison tools, data and basically anything that paints a thorough picture of your site’s health. It’s like a full body checkup for your website that highlights the good, the bad and the ugly. These audit tools let SEO pros spot the red flags and take care of them, asap.
Does my content need to be a certain length for my site to rank well?
This is another constantly changing factor in site performance. The only real answer to this one is that your page content / blog posts only need to be as long as it takes to cover the topic well. For some topics, this could be feature-article length (1000’s of words) for other topics, it might make more sense to keep it short, so it stays relevant and isn’t just being purposely stretched out to hit an arbitrary word count.
Search engines (aka. Google) are getting more intelligent all the time and can spot keyword over-use (keyword stuffing) immediately. The key with page content is to write what needs to be written while incorporating keywords and key-phrases in natural ways. Increasingly, you’ll also want to directly answer the questions that your potential customers are asking whether it’s by voice search or typing their questions into a search engine.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, aka SEO, aka how to get your website seen in the search engines, is not so much magic but the implementation of a set of tried and tested optimization tactics.
The best way to help you understand search engine optimization is to think of SEO like a rulebook – a rulebook that Google has which explains what a perfectly SEO optimized website looks like. If you got your hands on that rulebook, you’d be able to make all the necessary changes to your site to make Google show it some serious love in the major search engines.
We’re masters of that rulebook and at IdeaZone, we’ve been implementing highly successful SEO projects for our clients since the 1990’s.
Did you know there are three types of SEO?
As SEO has morphed over the years to become what we know today and what it will be tomorrow, it’s split into three different channels. All three combined work to influence your website’s rankings in the search engines.
1. On Page SEO
Apart from site content, On Page SEO is made up of the elements you see on the site. Internal links for users to explore, optimized images (tagged, relevant, properly sized for optimal site speed), title tags and more are all part of what we focus on with On Page SEO.
2. Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is just like it sounds – everything that’s off the page – your podcasts, links to your site from other sites (i.e. backlinks), your social media channels, content marketing and customer reviews are some of the largest pieces in the Off Page SEO framework.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO is contained in the core of your site. It’s the things that you don’t see, like site speed, sitemaps, robots.txt files, how data is structured and more. Essentially technical SEO deals with the crawling and indexing of a site as well as a site’s website architecture. Google lets webmasters know of technical issues with their site through the Google Search Console which helps site owners understand how Google sees their site and whether there are any issues to deal with.
Knowing that there are three types of SEO that need to be implemented and maintained with every single website, it can definitely be intimidating. At IdeaZone, the most common thing we find is that business owners start out making their own sites, setting up their own content strategies, but quickly fall behind because they’re too busy running their own business. If this sounds like you, it’s completely normal and it’s why we’re here!
There are many things to know to be effective with SEO and as Google is constantly updating their algorithm, that rulebook has grown by leaps and bounds. It doesn’t help that the internet is teeming with tips and tricks that can, quite often, conflict with what you’ve read or seen somewhere else, whether it’s on YouTube or a free beginner’s SEO course. The simple fact is that SEO changes constantly as we adopt new technologies and rely on new algorithms and content marketing tools and techniques.
As Digital Marketing experts with over 30 years of combined experience, we spend a lot of time upgrading our knowledge and adapting to the latest changes. We painstakingly research not only what your site needs, but how your closest competitors are ranking too. By fixing technical issues, optimizing your on-page SEO and implementing a strong off-page SEO strategy, we’ll boost your organic search traffic to bring in more potential customers!
You’re consumed with running your successful business and more than likely don’t have time to learn the detailed ins and outs of how to create and maintain a successful SEO campaign. That’s where we come in. At IdeaZone, we’re a local SEO company out of Victoria, BC, Canada but we love working with clients from all over the globe. If you’re looking for search engine optimization experts and help with internet marketing strategies, get in touch and let’s talk about getting your site ranking on the 1st page of the search engines!
