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Search Engine Optimization - FAQs and Facts

SEO FAQs

Does PPC help on SEO?

PPC (pay per click) absolutely does not interfere in your SEO. And, obviously, links generated by PPC are not counted as votes.

Do keyword-rich domains help on SEO?

Keyword-rich domains have shown to be slightly helpful in SEO. Although not essential, but I am sure that crawlers don't completely ignore the possible relation between the name of a business and the products it offers.

Do the HTML heading tags help on SEO?

The HTML heading tags (H1, H2, H3... H6) are an extra option of validating keywords on a page, but not only thinking of SEO, properly using the heading tags makes your content easier to read and to spot by all viewers. As an example, there are several heading tags on this page, in orange and blue, and one H1 printed in blue atop. Learn more about the HTML Heading tags

Does the meta keyword tag help on SEO?

The meta keyword tag has been abused, and disused, about 4 years ago.

Does Duplicated content help on SEO?

Web sites or web pages with duplicated content (any content that you might have copied from another web site or from another page of the same web site) will be filter out in lieu of the original copy, and will not show on related search results.

Does Flash hinders SEO?

Flash contents are completely ignored by the search engines, simply because they can not read it. Flash content will not help your SEO but does not damage it either. Loosing content might damage your SEO, therefore, replacing regular content by flash content could severely interfere.

SEO Facts

Recent studies have shown that the organic search results pulls 250% more clicks then sponsored search results. So even if you are willing to pay for your clicks (which is not a bad idea), search engine optimization should always be considered a valuable advertisement tool. The reason why the organic search pulls more clicks is probably because a large amount of people is not looking at the sponsored area results at all and that's probably because people is trying to avoid advertisements as much as possible nowadays.

On top of that, organic search have shown to lead 30% more conversions (sales) then sponsored search.

Once a search is performed, the first page of the results (the first 10 results) gets more then 80% of the clicks. Although only 68% of users will click on the first page of results. The Second page of results (from the 11th to the 20th result) gets approx. 10% of the clicks.

Another study conducted by iProspect surveys indicates that only 8% of search engine users will review more than three pages of results before clicking on a result.

This all means that, a considerable amount of users (49%) that did not find what they were looking for on the first page, will not look the next pages. Instead, they will perform a new search with a different set of keywords.

Within the 30 first results, approx. 80% of the people find the information they were looking for on the first search. 15% of the people conducts a different search on the same search engine to find what they were looking for using different keywords and the 5% that didn't find the information at all will try on a different search engine. This shows that Google and Yahoo work well on 90% of the searches and deliver the information within the first 20 results.

Visit IProspect to view more details about how search engine users behave online, but the most important factors are already summarized herein.

I have also seen studies stating that college educated people prefer to click on the organic search area and people with high school level or below prefer to click on the sponsored results.

It is also interesting to observe the most common ways a web site is discovered as shown below:

• Banner ads - 1%

• Targeted email - 1.2%

• TV spots - 1.4%

• By Accident - 2.1%

• Magazine ads - 4.4%

• Word-of-mouth - 20%

• Random surfing - 20%

• Search engines - 46%

Recently, approximately 2000 U.S. consumers were randomly selected to participate in a survey about how people find local businesses. Search engines were rated the number one resource for finding local business information. Here's how the responses broke down in terms of professed usage:

• Search engines - 74%

• Print yellow pages - 65%

• Internet yellow pages - 50%

• Traditional newspapers - 44%

• Print white pages - 33%

• Television - 29%

• Consumer review websites - 18 %

Please note - Percentages are greater than 100 because respondents were permitted to select more than one answer.

• 86% of those surveyed say they have used the Internet to find a local business, an increase from the 70% that responded affirmatively a year ago.

• 81% said the Internet was vital to their lifestyle. Among this group, 90% had used the Internet to search for a local business

• 75% of users say they read reviews (product/service business) online. The number is higher as the audience ages. 60% of 18-24 year olds read online reviews and 80% of 34-64 year olds read online reviews.

• 69% use blogs as a source for consumer product reviews, yet only 23% have ever posted a consumer review on a blog (among this group of posters: 45% of the posted reviews were negative, while 15% were mixed and 40% were positive).

• Just over 70% of survey participants say they prefer to stay within a 20 minute drive of their homes to reach a business. And 80% of respondents say they have researched a product or service online and then made their purchase offline from a local business.

The Greatest SEO News Archive

Could Yahoo be sold?

The world's top software company could boost its online presence dramatically if Yahoo accepts a $44.6 billion bid to be purchased.

Microsoft has offered Yahoo shareholders a 62 percent premium on their shares to sell the company. Yahoo's latest disappointing earnings announcement helped to depress the stock price, making it a renewed target for a takeover.

"We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.

With online advertising projected to grow to $80 billion by 2010, Microsoft can grab a larger slice of that pie if it can pull in Yahoo, which ranks as the world's heaviest trafficked web property.

Google Testing TV Ads in California

The WSJ is reporting (behind paywall) that Google is conducting a small scale test of television advertisements in the Northern California town of Concord (east of San Francsicso), and there are additional rumors that Google is close to signing a deal with Dish Network, a satellite television provider, to supply advertising to its television subscribers.

The article also notes that the total size of the television advertising market in the U.S. is $54 billion annually, which is much larger than Google’s current $20 billion/year playground, online advertising.

There is no information on how much Google is planning on assisting advertisers in creating the ads. Their audio advertising product, also still in testing, contains basic creation tools and access to voice professionals.