Technical SEO Frequently Asked Questions

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), like any other specialist industry, uses many terms that may be confusing to the general public. Our website provides visitors with rich and interesting content that may leave you with some technical questions about our SEO Specialist services. This page was created to answer technical questions that are commonly asked, especially by those in the early stages of understanding the field of SEO.

If you are interested in seeing some of our client successes you can visit our SEO Rankings page.

Technical SEO Questions:

What is a Search Engine?
What is a Directory?
What are Spiders, Crawlers and Robots?
What's the difference between Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click methods?
Will using dynamic pages harm my rankings?
Do filenames and directory structure matter?
What is a "reciprocal link"?
What are "inbound links" and how important are they?
How can I find how many inbound links I have?
What is link popularity?
How do you increase my site's link popularity?
What is "PageRank (PR)"?
Is it OK to use Flash?
How does Strategy Internet Marketing keep up with what search engines are looking for?
What is cloaking? Does Strategy Internet Marketing use this technique?
How can I contact you?

Technical SEO Answers:

1. What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is an online database of websites that allows Internet users to search by "Keywords" for information contained on websites that are contained in the database.

Keywords are words that Internet searches are likely to use when looking for information on a specific topic. For example, the words "universities" would likely be used when looking for information on continuing post-secondary education. Each search engine has slightly different behaviours and characteristics and so will show different results for the same search.

2. What is a Directory?

A directory is a search tool much like a search engine but with a few major differences. Directories tend to employ human editors to review and rank websites submitted to their database. Yahoo! is the most well known example of a directory. Most directories catalogue websites based on a variety of topic categories such as Business and Economics, or Arts and Culture. Many directories demand payment before assigning a website review to one of their editors; others are free.

3. What are Spiders, Crawlers and Robots?

Search engines work by sending out what are called spiders, crawlers, or robots. Whatever the name used they are essentially just computer programs that follow web links looking for pages to index. When they get to a page, they take a sort of picture of the page, indexing the information on it, and integrating it into their giant database of millions of websites.

When you type a keyword into the search engines looking for websites with content on that topic, in a split second they go through billions of web pages that the spiders and robots have visited. Web pages are typically revisited every few weeks by these programs.

4. What's the difference between Search Engine Optimisation and Pay-Per-Click methods?

Search Engine Optimisation is a long, carefully planned and executed method for generating more visits to a website. It involves maximising your website's structure, content, code, and links. When done properly, various pages within a website bubble up to the top of the search engine results pages (frequently called "SERPs"). Ideally a top 10 placement will be achieved.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (frequently called "PPC") is a form of marketing that involves paying for each visitor to your site. It typically begins at about 10p per visitor but can go up to several pounds. This gets visitors to a website instantly, not over time as in organic optimisation.

The two most popular PPC methods involve placing ads with Google's AdWords program and Yahoo! Search marketing. In the long run, when Organic Search Engine Optimisation is done properly it is much cheaper and can be more effective, although these two approaches can be used together as part of a larger marketing campaign.

5. Will using dynamic pages harm my rankings?

If the pages are in .php or .asp extensions they wont harm your ranking. Spiders find it very difficult to crawl a link having query strings e.g., "test.asp?param1=yes&param2=no", such urls might get dropped from crawling by spiders. It is better to create straightforward .php or .asp links.

6. Do filenames and directory structure matter?

Yes, it does matter. Put your keyword or phrase in your filename, this will give a little push in ranking. The filename should also be no longer then 15-20 characters. If you have vast amounts of data and need to organise it in different directories please add at least one keyword within the name.

7. What is a "reciprocal link"?

If your site has a link to another site and that site has a link back to yours, this is called a reciprocal link.

8. What are "inbound links" and how important are they?

Inbound links are nothing more than links coming to a given website from an external website. For example, any links on this website to Google.com are considered to be inbound links to Google.

Over the past 2 years or so, search engines have placed a lot of importance on inbound links. Inbound links are a good way to judge the popularity of a website i.e. the more inbound links a website has, the more important it is considered to be. Many people use words that describe a website in order to link to it, so the words used to the link have become very important. Ideally, all of the inbound links to your website should use your targeted keywords as the link text. Our link building services use many different methods to increase the number of inbound links to your site.

9. How can I find how many inbound links I have?

In reality there is no real way to calculate the exact number of inbound links in. The best way to find inbound links to your website is to use either Google or AllTheWeb / FAST. With Google, it is possible to search for inbound links by using the search query "link:www.example.com", this will search for all links to the site www.example.com. On AllTheWeb, you can check for inbound links to a site by using "link.all:www.example.com".

10. What is link popularity?

Link popularity is a measure of how many other sites contain a hyper link to your site. Some search engines, most notably Google, use link popularity as one of their most important criteria in determining page rank. A further component of link popularity is the quality of sites linking to yours. A link to your site from Yahoo! web site will be regarded as more important than a link from your friend's Wedding web site that's hosted on a free server.

11. How do you increase my site's link popularity?

You might think that logic dictates that you can increase link popularity by undertaking an effort to get as many links to your site as possible. Having links to your site from "link farms" or "free-for-alls" can actually be damaging. Search engines, in their constant efforts to produce the most relevant results, are aware of and penalise any such tactics.

There are valid and effective ways of increasing link popularity. The process begins in your own backyard - proper optimisation involves maximisation of the internal linking structure of your site, having keyword-rich link text, and increasing the number of relevant outbound links. From there, Strategy Internet Marketing builds upon this internal strength to focus our efforts on establishment and cultivation of valuable external linking relationships.

12. What is "PageRank (PR)"?

PageRank™ is actually a trademarked term. The trademark belongs to Google Inc. and refers to the "rank" of a website as determined by Google's ranking system. PageRank is a grade given to a webpage determining its importance in Google's eyes. If you have a high rank website, you have a better chance of coming higher in search engine results pages, as high page rank can boost your search result. PageRank is calculated from many different criteria, but inbound links are one important factor.

13. Is it OK to use Flash?

As with JavaScript, it is too difficult to parse. Some sites use Flash introductions with a skip button. Pages with flash intros greatly reduce their rankings and it is best to stop using such intros. Sites that use Flash for navigation's and interaction etc. are encouraged to use HTML navigation instead and HTML text where possible.

14. How does Strategy Internet Marketing keep up with what search engines are looking for?

Strategy Internet Marketing is comprised of professionals dedicated to the research, technology and innovation required to stay on the cutting edge of search engine trends. We are constantly studying each search engine's rules, regulations, behaviour and processes.

15. What is cloaking? Does Strategy Internet Marketing use this technique?

Cloaking is the technique of delivering a particular Web page to a search engine, while serving a completely different Web page to the end user. Search engines commonly overlook - and in some cases even ban - web sites that employ this practice. We are aware of the search engines' views on cloaking and therefore do not employ this unethical technique.

16. How can I contact you?

Click here to contact us or call us on 0845 838 0936 for a FREE Consultation.