SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is an industry that was created out of necessity, and was really made popular as a result of Google’s search engine although people were doing SEO long before Google. In this context a search engine can mean anything from Google, Yahoo, Bing or even other search engines such as Amazon search or even Facebook search. The majority of the time the search engine we refer to is Google.

The definition of optimization is “an act, process, or methodology of making something as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible.” Within the SEO context, that is exactly what happens, we try to make your website as perfect and functional as possible.

There are two main aspects of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing elements on your website for search engines. This includes but isn’t limited to content on your websites, images on your website, blogs, and HTML. On-page SEO encompasses many different disciplines such as website speed, blogging, content, user experience and so much more. Any area of your website that Google “sees” is subject to on-page optimization.

Off-page SEO is the practice of optimizing elements off of your website for search engines. Probably the biggest example of off-page SEO are backlinks, however there are lots of other elements such as social media, external blogs and many other factors that might come into play.

When we “do” SEO on a website, we simply improve the on-page and off-page factors of your website so that Google will see your website in a more favorable position.

From the moment we speak to you on the phone to the 3rd month in, we are fully transparent with all of our services.

No, not at all. As a matter of fact Google has not only written guidelines just for SEO’s, they employ SEO’s in-house as well. Google also does SEO on their own companies and products as well, so they will be more visible in the search engines. Practically every major company in the world that has a website does SEO to some degree, some more than others. For instance both ebay.com and amazon.com have huge departments of people dedicated to making sure they show up in the search engine results pages.

Some SEO’s attempt to foil the search engines by doing blackhat SEO which some people do consider cheating, but this is not a tactic that most SEO’s employ. SEO is all about making your website, your content and your connections better.

Simply put, blackhat SEO or sometimes referred to as “webspam” is the practice of using tactics outside of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Much like email spam violates a number of laws by sending unwanted emails to people, blackhat SEO’s will place thousands of shoddy links on 3^rd party websites, hide keywords within your website and other methods to make Google think you are more authoritative than you actually are.

Whitehat SEO or what we like to call “SEO” is simply the process of doing SEO within Google’s guidelines. There is a very fine line between blackhat and white-hat and there can be many grey areas.

For example, if you ask your friend who owns a website to give you a link to your business, did you know that that is actually against Google’s guidelines?

Through constant research and understanding, we are able to navigate this complex system of rules and regulations Google has put into place and help your website rank better.

A Google penalty or “action” is put into place when Google has caught your website violating its guidelines. This might come as a result of you placing too many links, too many advertisements or a number of different reasons. A penalty can be handed out automatically via Google’s algorithm, or manually via a Google employee who has deemed your website spammy.

There are a few popular penalties that people talk about within the SEO community that you might have heard of. One of them is Penguin, the other is Panda. Penguin deals with spammy backlinks, and Panda deals with on-page factors such as low-quality content.

If you do get a penalty, there are ways to get them lifted, but they are not easy. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a year to remove

In short, there is no quick way to see if you are at risk for a Google penalty. We employ a number of people, tactics, and tools that can create a “risk profile” to see if your website is at risk for a penalty.

Being that there are many different types of violations of Google penalties, there are also a number of different types of penalties you can receive.

If you do think you are at risk for a Google penalty the best thing to do is give us a call. We’ll dive in and see what your situation is and give you an honest opinion based on our experience.

This is a loaded question but we’d like to start with a simple analogy.

Think about taking violin lessons: within a few lessons I am sure you might be able to play a few notes and maybe even a short song. However after many years of practice, you can perform in front of people and captivate an audience with your skill. If you stop taking lessons, you will gradually lose your skill set.

SEO is very similar, within a few days of doing SEO you might see some initial results. Maybe you will rank on Google for some very obscure keywords. After a month, you will see even more and a few months after that even more.

Remember, SEO is a process, not an event.

If you are interested in immediate results you may be interested in advertising or PPC marketing. If you want to build your business and gain exposure over a long period of time for your brand, SEO is the way to go.

The cost of SEO comes down to two main factors factors:

• The industry you would like to compete in e.g. the roofing industry in Nashville or Skinny Jeans nationally
• The size and quality of your website. e.g. 9 page service company vs a 2000 page eCommerce website

There also may be a number of other factors into consideration as well such as previous SEO done to your website. There are times when other SEO companies did some good work to help us, and other times when other SEO companies did so much bad work we are going to have to spend time and money to remove that work.

At most SEO agencies the cost is generally broken down into a down payment and a monthly retainer. The down payment is generally more expensive because it is the most laborious part. The monthly retainer is put into place because work must be done on the website on a consistent basis to remain competitive in your industry.

Think about this analogy: a billboard in Times Square Manhattan vs a bus bench add in Schenectady, NY. One of them is going to cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, the other one will probably cost $99. The difference is both the location of the ad and the demographic exposure.

If you’ve attempted SEO in the past and can’t seem to rank, this could be due to a number of reasons. The first reason could be you have a Google penalty. Sometimes people are working with an active Google penalty and don’t even know it.

Other reasons might be that you just haven’t done SEO correctly or you are in a super competitive niche. Think about the industry “auto insurance.” In Delray Beach alone there are dozens of insurance agencies. Tens of thousands or more nation wide. Some of these such as Progressive and Nationwide have multi-million dollar budgets dedicated to SEO. Now imagine a small mom and pop insurance agency trying to compete with them in any city. These larger companies not only want to rank on Google nationwide, but they want to rank in every major city from Charlotte to Sheboygan.

We highly recommend that SEO is implemented during the creation of
your website. It is might easier to build SEO into your website during
the creation phase than to build it in after the fact.

Imagine the first time you go on a date with someone. You want to be
sure you have the best manners, smell great and look ravishing.
Similarly with SEO, the first time Google sees your website you want to
make sure it loads fast, has the right keywords implemented, and looks
great.

You don’t want Google to see an un-optimized version of your website the first time it crawls your website.

There are two schools of thought on this matter. The first one is a very tactical approach that involves utilizing a number of tools to help identify the most important keywords to rank for. This will produce a list of keywords that not only are relevant to your industry but are searched enough times by potential customers on Google. This is the more popular method used in eCommerce, service industries and local SEO ranking.

The second method takes a more theoretical angle. Instead of choosing exact keywords to rank for, you come up with a list of topics, categories and industries you want to rank for. So instead of you choosing what to rank for, you let Google choose for you. This is more useful in blogging type websites.

We use a number of tools to help find the best keywords to rank for. The main tool that most people use is Google’s own “keyword planner.” This tool will not only tell you which keywords have the most search volume, but which ones are the most difficult.