Frequently Asked SEO Questions

1. How long does SEO take?

In terms of generating leads, some clients see results within the first month; some it takes a minimum of 3-6 months.

It all depends on the quality of your website, your overall online presence, your current rankings, and the strength of your competition.

If your competitors have been doing SEO for 10 years and you’re just starting, that’s a pretty big mountain we have to climb to get anywhere near the top where they’re currently sitting.

Most of our clients have been working with us for 12-24 months as we’ve continued to expand their presence across hundreds and thousands of keywords.

2. How much does SEO cost?

As said above, this really is dependent on your competition and state of your presence.

We’ve worked with clients from a low as $500 per month but most fall between the $1000-$2000 per month range.

3. Do You Provide A Guarantee? Someone Emailed Me That Guarantees Page 1 Rankings.

Unfortunately, the people who are emailing you and guarantee rankings will likely do more harm to your website than good. They may “rank you on page 1” but its for a keyword that has zero people searching for it that will not lead to any sales.

We do not provide a guarantee but our SEO strategy has worked for dozens of clients we’ve worked with over the past 5 years, many of which are still ranking in the Top 10 or even number 1 despite us no longer working together. Our intention is to build a presence that lasts for the life of your business where you’ll continually see new customers for months and years to come.

4. Do you rank in my business in Google Maps?

Yes and no.

Google Maps is its own algorithm which the number 1 factor is proximity.

That means for people searching nearest your business, you’re more likely to show up in their Maps Top 3 listings.

We’ve had success ranking clients in both organic search and the Top 3 in maps, but since proximity is so heavily weighted, there is only so much exposure we can get you through maps. Organic listings have more flexibility since someone can be city, state, or nationwide, depending on the keywords relevant for your business.

5. I received a call that my Google Listing is out of date, my hours are wrong, or if we’re open for the holiday. Are these real calls? What should I do?

These are not real calls from Google. This is just another company trying to scam you for a few hundred dollars.

Even if they are legitimate the service they’re trying to sell you is probably something you don’t need or it can hurt you in the long run. They’re just trying to make a quick buck, you can ignore these automated calls.

If you would like, we can scan your website for free to review your presence which directly affects your rankings. Contact us here.

6. Can I pay to be number 1 on Google?

You can pay to be in the ads above the organic listings, but no, you cannot pay Google to be number 1 in the organic section.

Organic results see over 85% of traffic so PPC fights for about 15% of all search traffic. That is why organic is more “coveted,” because of significantly higher traffic volumes and more confidence from customers clicking those results.

7. Does PPC or Social Media help my SEO rankings?

Sort of.

The more traffic going to your website the better. But these “ranking increases” from traffic are only temporary.

Once the traffic stops, your rankings will go back down if not supported with other SEO tactics.

8. I just started my business and want to rank on page one. Can you help?

There is a “starter package” we offer to businesses which is a part of our “Month 1” strategy. This helps brand out your company so you can be found easily when people are searching for your company name (duplicate business names are very common).

Will this get you on page 1 for the keywords you want? Likely, no unless you’re in a small town of ~50,000 or less.

Social Media marketing is probably where you want to begin as you can market yourself for free just by posting.  The people who are going to buy from you are people who know, like, and trust you already, which are those you’re already family, friends and colleagues with. It’s also the place you can grow the fastest because so many people are on social media.

9. What SEO Metrics do you track?

We use a few different tracking tools to grow your online presence. In SEO, we’re specifically responsible for the following metrics:

Google Analytics:

• Organic Search Traffic

Google Search Console:

• Click
• Queries
• Impressions
• Keywords

Google Maps:

• Listings on Search
• Listings on Map
• Visits to your Website
• Request Directions
• Phone Calls
• Photo views

Ahrefs:

• Domain Rating / URL rating
• Backlinks / Referring Domains
• Organic Keywords / Keyword Rankings
• Organic Traffic
• Traffic Value

10. How does SEO work?

That’s a very general statement and obviously we can’t describe every aspect of it in this FAQ.

Generally speaking, there are 3 categories of SEO we look at :

• On-page SEO – This is about the optimizing various parts of your website like your meta titles, descriptions, optimize the use of H-Heading tags, and so for.
• Off-page SEO – This is about link building and your overall web presence. Think of this as networking for your website. What websites are linking back to yours saying you are credible?
• Technical SEO – This is making sure there are no coding issues that are holding you back.

11. Which SEO factors are the most important?

There are many factors within each sub-category we mentioned above but these 4 are the most powerful.

• URL structures
• Backlinks
• Meta Titles
• H1 tag

12. Does website speed affect SEO?

Yes. Google made it a part of its algorithm starting in July of 2018. Google recommends your website should load in under 3 seconds. If it loads slower, more users are likely to hit the “back” button and you’ll lose conversions.

I’ve not seen a proven case study where increasing speed has moved someone from #8 to #3 for example, but speed is a quality metric Google looks at now.

See our post on Website Page Speed if you would like to improve the speed of your site.

13. Does blogging help my SEO?

Yes. Blogging on your website is not like blogging on your Facebook page.

We have minimum content standards we abide by to increase the likelihood of ranking for various keywords. That includes completing extensive keyword research for your industry to ensure we’re writing about relevant topics that people are actually searching for, and not just something that sounds like it would be a good topic.