SEO FAQ – Frequently asked Questions and Answers

Search on Google, Yahoo and MSN using a keyword phrase that you would expect your site to rank highly for. Cannot find your site on pages 1-3 of the results? Then you definitely need to optimise your site for the search engines or secure some professional SEO consultancy services. The keyword phrase should not be a broad, general word or term, but one that you, in particular, should rank for. For example, if you sell a particular product or service in a set location such as a motel based in Riccarton, Christchurch, your search should be specific:

• “Motel Accommodation Riccarton Christchurch”
• and not a general “motel accommodation.”

Equally, it could be your “motel name+location.” If your site does not appear on pages 1-3… contact The SEO Guy!

If you wonder why it does not appear in a search on Google, check that it is actually being indexed… try the following search; site:www.yoursite.co.nz” and of course, replace “yoursite” with the URL or YOUR site! This should produce a list of all pages that Google has found and decided were worthy of indexing. If no pages were found, contact us for an SEO audit!

Sometimes quite quickly. If your site has been around a while and has good incoming links, search engine optimisation can deliver very rapid ranking improvements. However, if it’s a new site with no links, it can take several months. This is especially true of Google rankings, due to the “sandbox” tactic Google employs. New sites seem doomed to suffer a “probationary” period of 6 months or more before Google allows them to rise up in search engine rankings.

I can write all the changes for you, and you can then insert those amendments into the correct locations on the site, following the instructions I will supply.

Q.1.) How Do You Actually Do The Work On The Site?

A.1.a) For a modern CMS site (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc. You provided me with Administrator-level access – User ID and Password. I log in and make the changes required. If additional plugin software is needed, I may need FTP access to upload that. I am a WordPress SEO specialist.

A.1.b) For a static HTML site, ZIP the site and send it to me, I work it over, send it back for review and you upload it when happy with amendments (I keep a backup of the original for at least a few weeks)

A1.c.) The client supplies me with FTP access login ID and PWD, I download and work on it, and publish it when finished. (Again, keep a backup of the original for a few weeks.) Where I do this, there will be an additional 2 – 3 hours of work (at $85 per hour) in inserting all the changes. From my point of view, I really do not mind who does it – me or you!

A.) Yes. A.1.) In terms of site changes, this maintenance would usually be things like minor edits, search engine ranking reports, checking the latest links found in Search Essentials responding to link enquiries from a variety of SEO practitioners, link builders, and site owners.

A.2.) In terms of enhancing SEO, this would usually be checking incoming links and trying to remove any that may count against you. This usually amounts to another hour’s work. So, most of my clients who want ongoing SEO site maintenance will budget for 2-4 hours ($160 – $320) per month. More details on SEO management services

Q.1.) Is the Domain Name important?

Yes, the selected domain name is very important – you should take any advantage this can give you!

Q.2.) Do you believe it is best to have a .co.nz address or a .com  does this affect in any way the search engine ratings?  We have been selling to a lot of American clients, do you think they would remember a .com address easier than a .co.nz address?

If marketing a specific NZ product in NZ, then a .CO.NZ or a .NZ country-level domain is best.

However, if you have a global market, a Dot.Com site may be better…

Q.1.) I want a really fast-loading site!

A.1) The important thing is to avoid a site constructed in JavaScript and/or Flash format – these can look really great, but are both slow to load and impossible to get good Search Engine rankings for at present. I only build CMS-based sites (HTML/CSS) for those reasons, and I would never use JavaScript or Flash to build menus etc…. It is a good rule of thumb to ensure pages load in less than 3 seconds on standard broadband or WiFi internet connection. I do page load speed optimisation as part of all SEO projects.

Q.2.) Page Load Speed is such a key for us, we looked at a friend’s site but thought it was a little slow to load.  We are on dial-up so really notice the different loading speeds.

A.2) Most of your potential clients will have broadband internet access regardless of country of origin. In some ways it’s a trade-off – you could reduce image quality on advertising material to make it load faster, but lose customers because it does not not look good enough! A WordPress speed boost is easily done

Q.3.) I am also aware that the more fancy the graphics the slower the site will load so don’t mind having a plain-looking site.

A.3) Yes and no – there are ways to streamline this e.g. segmenting images, file compression, lazy load etc. With the availability of cheap broadband access, this is no longer much of an issue.

Q.4.) I know that the speed of your site can depend partly on which Web Hosting service you use and that it can be difficult to change your host after you have built your site so I know how important the right host is.

A.4) Well, this is probably not the issue it once was – most hosting companies have plenty of bandwidth these days, and relocating is a relatively minor issue – I’ve done it with my site/s several times! The important thing is to make sure you have ready access to all your domain registration access details etc!

Q.5.) Disk Space – Do you think that 100 MB of space is enough for all the photographs we will have in the shopping cart part of our site?  What happens if we need more, do they just not let us load anything else until we upgrade?  Is the 4 GB per month traffic enough – I have no idea about that sort of thing but does it just not let anyone else view your site if you have reached that limit?  How much does your site use on average per month?

A.5) I think 1 GB is a good start point these days! If space becomes tight, you start getting auto-generated “Warning, Disk Space Low” messages at about 85% full, and it’s just a matter of emailing your hosting company that more is required – which they allocate and charge you a little more per month.

Q.6.) We also want to achieve really good search engine results page listings.

A.6)  Build a site with lots of good informational content, properly optimised for carefully researched keywords, and with text links that point deeper into the Shop portion of the site. That way, you get a good ranking on the Home page and informational pages, and individual Shop pages should rank well for specific search terms e.g. “photograph of Queenstown” etc. I have affordable SEO services for small business websites that resolve all issues for you.

Q.7.) I Want to get this up and running as fast as possible, what would your time frame be to get our site built?

A.7) Usually I can make a start within a week, and complete it within 15 – 30 days, depending on how quickly you can  assemble the required material;

• Business Name, your Name, business address, phone, email etc
• Logo – if you’ve got one?
• Brochures etc. – if you’ve got promotional material, especially in text form
• a bunch of images in digital format e.g. on CD.
• A list of Products / Services with a full explanation of them
• Profile details – qualifications, experience
• References, testimonials

When you need to find and hire a web designer who works fast, provide me with the materials and I will create a miracle with it!

Q.8.) In what form do you want the files for the photographs, or would you prefer if we supplied the original sizes and resized them as required?

A.8) Provide me with 20-30 original images, in JPG format. I will resize / crop as/if required to fit the space available.

Q.9.) We are really aware that we need to protect our work online so would want to have some kind of strategy for this.

A.9) Because PC screens can only display 72 dpi, all images should be at this maximum resolution – which immediately reduces their usefulness. By following a strict rule of image size – e.g. absolutely no bigger than required for the page, there are limits to what anyone can do with them.

Overall, a determined thief can steal content as they wish, but you can make it irritatingly awkward to do so!