United Worx Blog

1. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ?
The acronym stands for Search Engine Optimization but by today it’s not only about search and engines! There are other sites that are used as much as google that people might use to find your business. Take youtube, facebook, twitter, linkedin as an example.
To define SEO is not an easy task as it’s changing all the time. In 2010 SEO is everything done to ensure getting found on the Internet and to make sure that the ensuing traffic converts.

2. Why aren’t we on page 1 at Google?
You haven’t done SEO yet? You have no useful content? Your site consists mainly of Flash, or simply graphics? You have asked United Worx Ltd for SEO advice? You most probably rank for your company name or long tail queries already; if not then your website is very badly written.

3. Is SEO spam?
The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, BBC etc. certainly don’t think so. They practice SEO like most of other website owners. By the numbers SEO is booming all the time for several years a in a row.

4. Why am I on 1^st page all the time but when my wife searches for me she doesn’t find me?
You probably need to disable personalized search in Google otherwise Google will serve you the results you most visited.

5. Shall I do my site now and bother with SEO later?
SEO should be part of website design not just a add on later on!. A web design firm that offers SEO can provide a good base and leave SEO later. However if a web designer that knows nothing about SEO does a website then you are in trouble. In most cases you will need to re-build your website correctly when you need to do SEO. A golden rule is to get a web design company that does SEO to do your website so they can tackle SEO as well or at a later stage!

6. When will we see results?
Generally speaking if you have no competition you should be in 1^st page in Google for your target keywords without doing SEO at all. However if you are in a very competitive sector, like real estate, rentals e.t.c. then it might take over a year to get there if proper work is done. SEO is basically a continuous process that never stops.

7. Can we rank for everything (huge list of keywords)?
If you are Amazon or Wikipedia you probably can. In all other cases you have to choose and target a few keywords that matter most for your business. Your main keywords are the most popular and profitable ones. A villa rental company in Cyprus would go after “villas for rent in Cyprus” and similar combinations.

8. How much does SEO cost?
How much does a house cost? Depends on the number of rooms, the plot size and so on! The same happens for SEO! First we need to know your target market, your website and your main keywords to target in order to come up with 2-3 plans. Everything below 1000 euro is low quality and/or automated, unless your site does not have competition and does not need SEO anyway but cleaning up the mess your web designer did!

9. Why is SEO so expensive?
It takes lots of time, resources and work to build them. Anyhow SEO makes your website actually earn money while setting up website and designing it by itself does not! So basically doing a website alone that cost 2000 euro will earn nothing back! However doing a 2000 euro website and a 2000 euro SEO plan will certainly give you a return of investment in 3-12 months depending on what you do.

10. How long does it take to get indexed by Google?
Google needs minutes to weeks depending on your site to index it or new content appearing on it. Without SEO it might even take forever.

11. How to submit my new site to Google/Bing/Yahoo ?
You don’t! You link your site from already indexed sites and search engines will discover you!

12. How do I submit to 1000 search engines?
Only idiots do. If a SEO company sys they will submit your site to a 1000 search engines then you better leave and save your money!

13. Do I need an XML sitemap?
If your website is designed correctly and Google can find your pages and read then you don’t!

14. Do I need meta tags for SEO?

Google does not read these at all! Only the Title of your site!  The meta description tag is a marketing tool since that is what people see in search results! Help them decide whether they click on yours based on the description you offer don’t stuff it with keywords!

15. Do I need a high PageRank for SEO?
Pagerank used to be something important, Google might store 20 different Pagerank values of your website. Forget PageRank there are other things more important!

16. Can’t my cousin who is a graphic designer do the SEO?
He probably can cook however he does not run a restaurant nor is a well-known chef!  Designers in most case underestimate the importance of SEO and misunderstand it.

17. Does Google hate SEO?
No, Google even offers SEO advice and a plethora of SEO tools itself. It’s an ages old myth that Google fight SEOs. In fact the Google employees and SEO practitioners speak at the same conferences and work together as business partners. Most SEO companies are big clients of Google as they also buy PPC ads from Google.

18. Does SEO mean optimization for search engines not humans?
Some people still assume that SEO is used to please search engine only! Most reputable SEO experts advocate search engine optimization for users.

19. Does site size matter?
Historically it did matter. For a period of time bigger sites by the number of pages seemed to rank batter. By now the pros and cons outweigh each other so it does not makes sense to inflate the size of a website artificially by adding low quality content.

20. Do domain extensions (like .com, co.uk) matter?
Yes they do. Especially when it comes to country based domains like .ru for local results in respective countries you should use preferably a country domain to get a small advantage. Important to note that this matters only where there is Google version showing different results for the specific country! E.G. results for keywords including Cyprus would not get a benefit on a .com.cy website!!!