SEO FAQ 8

Should I buy numerous keyword rich domains?

The guy who fixed my roof told me to purchase a minimum of 10 keyword-rich domains for various aspects of my business. What's the best use of these for search engine optimization purposes?

Unfortunately, there's no good use for those when it comes to the search engines. If you try to gain an unfair advantage in the engines by blanketing them with lots of different sites, you will then be into that "deceptive" territory I'm always talking about.

In my opinion, your best bet is to simply park them all at one domain, and then forward the whole lot via a permanent 301-redirect to your main site, while telling your roofer to stick to roofing. ;-) (See "How To Redirect Multiple Parked Domains.")

The only other viable option for the domains would be to truly build completely different sites at some of the domains. There's nothing wrong with having a few sites, but they really should each provide different info in order for them to be effective. Just remember that keeping and maintaining many sites is a lot more work than just having one site that is the best it can be!

What should I do about competitors who spam the search engines?

My competitors are spamming the engines with multiple sites for the same company. [Can I have them killed? ;-) ] What can I do about this?

You can try reporting them to the search engines either via their spam report email address, or through the "dissatisfied with these results" link that most engines have on their results pages. If you decide to do this (and I generally don't bother) be sure not to complain that "it's not fair," and that your site is better or that you're losing money, etc. Simply mention that the search results for the particular search query you tried is bringing up multiple domains for essentially the same product, service or company, and that you thought that the engine might want to know about this.

The results may or may not change over time, but at least you can feel good that you tried to help them to improve the quality of their results. They really do want that info, but it's unclear as to whether they will agree with you and also act upon your report.

(For the record, I don't recommend having the competitor killed!)

Why doesn't my Web site rank very well in the search engines?

Having your website rank high in the search engines is a science and the rules for search engine optimization (SEO) are always changing. Here are some reasons why you may be having poor ranking:

• Incorrect usage of the TITLE tag or no TITLE tag content.
• Too many occurrences of the same word in a page (spamming).
• Missing H1 and H2 heading tag content.
• Missing ALT tag content in your graphic links.
• No meaningful content in the first 250 characters on each page.
• Less than 200 words per page.
• Very few pages on your website.
• No links from other websites to your website (link popularity).

Also, you should always submit your site to any search directories manually. Please do not use automated submission services.

How long does it take for SEO results to kick in?

The amount of time required to see results of search engine optimization work range anywhere from 30 days for existing sites in local or niche markets to 24 months for new websites in a competitive of national/global market.

What is my site ranking dependent on?

Site ranking tends to be "cumulative" and is dependent on the following factors:

1. The specific keyword phrases (search terms) that have been targeted
2. The overall competitiveness of your industry - how many players are there
3. Whether you are targeting a regional, national, or international market
4. How well ranking is monitored and the site tweaked over time for SEO improvement
5. The progress of your reciprocal linking campaign
6. number of competitor sites achieving new ranking themselves

Does every page of my website really need to be optimized?

In a word - yes. Every page of a website can be a potential entry point for visitors. You can't predict which page or pages will be ranked the best for specific keywords. As such, each page must be individually optimized to for optimal ranking. Collectively, all pages of your website reinforce the common "theme" of the site, which also can help boost ranking. Don't assume that your home page is the most important page on your site.

Why are SEO services so expensive?

SEO is a highly-specialized craft requiring much research, forethought, skill and can be extremely time-consuming to implement correctly. However, compared to offline and print advertising, SEO is quite cheap. The cost of having your website SEO optimized is by far the best advertising dollars spent and the return on your investment (ROI) can be very great.

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

Nobody can guarantee a number #1 position or specific ranking for your site for a given keyword phrase. There are simply too many factors beyond anyone's control - the search engines changing their ranking algorithms, efforts made by competitors, and new sites being added to the Web.

Obtaining a specific ranking is analogous to managing a portfolio. Your financial advisor will do their best to monitor the stock market and other indicators and to make sure your portfolio is managed to the best of their abilities. However, your advisor cannot guarantee that your portfolio will be at a specific dollar value or even that the amount will be up at all by a given date.

Do I need to make sure my files are not buried deeply in multiple directories on my server?

I read an article from 1997 that said all my files should be in the "root" directory on my server so that they are not buried deep within the site. Is this still true?

It actually was never true, although I may have been one of those spreading that myth back then! This is one of those things that many people confuse because it's sort of half true.

It doesn't actually matter where a page physically resides on your server, but it does matter how difficult it is for a search engine to find it. So when we talk about not "burying" pages on your site, we don't mean that you shouldn't have it 10 directories/folders deep on the server; we simply mean that it shouldn't be 10 clicks away from the home page. The fewer clicks it takes to get to any given page, the more important a search engine (and your user) will deem it to be. And of course, the more important they deem it to be, the more apt they are to find and index it.

Beyond just having a link to it from the home page, pages that are in the main navigation will be naturally given more weight by the engines, as you are essentially telling them that those pages are the most important in the site.