What is SEO? SEO is the process of getting organic traffic from the search engines. The process often involves both onsite and offsite optimization.
What is onsite and offsite optimization? Onsite optimization is where you optimize elements which you have direct control. For example, website architecture (like loading speed, mobile-friendly), html (like meta info, headings), and content.
Whereas offsite SEO deals elements which you don’t have direct control. For example, backlinks from industry experts, and social media shares.
Which is more important? Onsite or offsite optimization? SEO is a multi-factorial game. Both onsite and offsite are important for a website to get higher rankings on search engines.
We’ll improve the onsite before putting effort on the offsite. Because we’ll get more backlinks as a result of delivering great content and user experience.
Do I need SEO? In most cases, yes. Here’s why:
92.96% of global traffic comes from Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (Sparktoro)
SEO drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media. (BrightEdge)
SEO leads have a 14.6% conversion rate where traditional marketing has a 1.7% average conversion rate. (HubSpot)
According to BrightEdge, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine like Google. Most of your website traffic would come from organic search.
SEO delivers a higher conversion rate than paid ads. This is because most searchers perceive organic listings to be more trustworthy.
Should I Stop SEO after achieving good rankings? No, SEO is a continuous process. Achieving good ranking is only half of the journey. The other half is to keep those rankings. Search engines update their algorithms on a regular basis. Also, your competitors too are trying to outrank you.
What is Black Hat SEO? Black hat SEO is a practice used to get higher rankings on search engines. This unethical practice is against the guidelines and often end in penalty.
Some of the black hat techniques are keyword stuffing and private blog networks.
I’ve heard of SEM and confused it with SEO. What is SEM? SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the process of getting website traffic from search engines by buying ads.
SEM was once used as a term to combine both SEO and paid search. Over time, the digital marketers have adopted the SEM term to refer to paid search.
PPC (pay-per-click) is also a common term to describe SEM.
What is local SEO? Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to receive traffic and brand awareness from a local search.
How is local SEO different from “normal” SEO? Local SEO is similar to “normal” SEO. When someone does a search, Google shows the best results for that person’s query.
However, Google uses a few different factors to rank the local search results. For example, the searcher’s location, Google My Business existence, and NAP (Name, Address and Phone number) citations.
How do you optimize my local SEO? TNT SEO optimize your local SEO with 2 strategies:
Optimizing the website
Optimizing Google My Business (The Map Pack)
Who is local SEO for? Local SEO is particularly important for brick and mortar businesses which provide services to specific areas.
For example, dentists, lawyers, plumbers.
What is PPC? PPC (pay-per-click) is a marketing strategy where you’d pay a fee every time someone clicks on your ads.
How is PPC different from SEO? Paid traffic is the traffic your website receives through paid ads. Organic traffic, on the other hand, is the traffic that your website receives naturally from search engines.
Which is better? PPC or SEO? Instead of concluding which is better, let’s compare their own pros and cons.
After all, why pick one when you can have both?
When you know the pros and cons of PPC and SEO, you can make better decisions on allocating your time and budget.
PPC: In general PPC cost more in the long run has lesser credibility and lesser conversion rate. However you can almost see results immediately.
SEO: In general SEO is more cost effective in the long run, has higher credibility and higher conversion rate. However, to rank your website on search result needs time.
Is mobile-friendly important for my website? Yes. In 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones. There are more than 18,437,000 smartphone users in Malaysia.
Mobile-friendly is important for 2 reasons: user experience, and higher rankings.
Since July 2019, Google has enabled by default mobile-first indexing. It means when Google looks at the mobile version first to determine how relevant a page is to the search query.
How to know if my website is mobile-friendly? You can check if your website is mobile-friendly with Google Mobile-Friendly Test. This simple tool will tell if your website is mobile-friendly.
If your website is not mobile-friendly. It will show you suggestions on fixing them.
Which form of mobile website is better? m.domain.com, or responsive design? m. design is the original solution for mobile websites.
Responsive design is a newer solution to mobile-friendly websites. Instead of creating a separate site, you can create one version that is responsive to different screen sizes.
We highly recommend a responsive design approach because it’s easier to execute and maintain.
What is HTTPS? The “s” at the end of the “http” part of a URL means the website is secure. When installed on a server, an SSL certificate enables the padlock to make the connection more secured.
Do SSL certificates affect search rankings? In short, yes. Google has stated in 2015 that https can play a role in the search rankings.
How do you check if my website has SSL? You can check through the URL bar in your browser. If you see https, it means the website has an SSL/TLS Certificate. Another way to find out is by using an online checker like this one.
How to set up SSL on my website? It requires technical knowledge to set up SSL on your website. We recommend buying the SSL certificate from your web host because you can get them to install it for free.
TNT SEO also helps clients to set up SSL professionally on their website.
What is page speed? Page speed measures how fast content loads on a single page.
How to measure my website loading speed? You can use tools like Pingdom and PageSpeed Insights. These free tools provide an overall score for both mobile and desktop page speed.
It’s important to focus on your mobile page speed as over 50% of traffic comes from mobile devices.
Why is page speed important? People have short attention spans when browsing a website. It’s important to deliver the information quickly. In addition, search engines want to deliver high-quality search results – fast.
Plus, if your page speed is slow, search engines might not bother crawling and indexing your web pages.
According to Google:
“Google will reduce the amount of crawlers it sends to your site if your server is slower than two seconds.”
This means that search engines are less likely to discover your latest content.
What is a good loading speed? Like 83% of users, you probably expect sites to load in 3 seconds or less.
How to speed up your website? Here are some of the many ways to increase your site speed:
1. Use a content distribution network (CDN)
2. Optimize images
3. Enable compression
4. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
5. Reduce redirects
6. Remove render-blocking JavaScript
7. Leverage browser caching
What are the steps that you will take to improve my organic search growth and keyword rankings? A legitimate SEO company must be able to explain their SEO process. Even though every business is different and sometimes requires a twist in their SEO strategy, a general process still applies to all.
Our process begins with Goal Settings and ends with Statistical Analysis and Ongoing Optimization.
How much emphasis do you put on content? Content can make or break an SEO project. It has a massive impact on user experience, backlink acquisition, and your conversion rate.
At TNT SEO, our property clients outrank major property platforms. This is because we create valuable content for the searchers.
What type of backlinks do you build? Our backlinks can be grouped into two types – “Fundamental Backlinks” and “Power Backlinks”.
Fundamental backlinks include social profiles and manual business directories submission. The goal is to create a solid brand identity.
Power Backlinks consists of guest posts, testimonial links, merger links, niche comments and more. These backlinks are “editorial” which are difficult to get.
If any SEO agency fails to explain what types of backlinks they acquire, avoid engaging in their services.
What reports do you provide? We provide ranking reports, organic search growth reports, and work updates on a monthly basis.
Can you guarantee keyword rankings? Most ethical SEO companies do not provide any kind of guarantee over search rankings.
I’ll explain the reason from a different angle. When a company promises you rankings, they could include irrelevant “easy-to-rank” keywords. In the end, you get nothing other than a report which “looks good”.
An honest SEO company will tell you there are other more meaningful KPIs than rankings alone.
So, instead of keyword rankings, what are better KPIs? A more important KPI you should look into is organic search growth. You should track how your overall SEO traffic grows over time.
You should also be tracking your conversions like sales or inquiries.
Having tons of keywords ranked on Google page 1 doesn’t necessarily bring you traffic and sales. Your site user experience and content play a role in turning visitors into customers.
We’re not saying you should neglect keyword rankings at all. But you should use several KPIs to make more informed decisions.
So, instead of keyword rankings, what are better KPIs? A more important KPI you should look into is organic search growth. You should track how your overall SEO traffic grows over time. You should also be tracking your conversions like sales or inquiries.
Having tons of keywords ranked on Google page 1 doesn’t necessarily bring you traffic and sales. Your site user experience and content play a role in turning visitors into customers.
We’re not saying you should neglect keyword rankings at all. But you should use several KPIs to make more informed decisions.
How are SEO KPIs tracked? You can track SEO KPIs with analytical tools like Google Analytics, and Search Console. At TNT SEO we provide monthly keyword ranking report as well.
How long does SEO take to see the results? It depends on your current website optimization level, website authority and the keyword competition.
It generally takes 4-6 months to see growth in your organic search and keyword rankings.
What types of companies do you work with? We’ve worked with companies from different industries and sizes. We also work with startups and individuals.
How much should I invest in SEO? Upon a careful SEO audit on your business, we’ll prepare a proposal including price. The price depends on factors such as:
1. Your backlink profile.
2. Your website architecture, eg loading speed, mobile-friendliness, URLs.
3. Current keyword rankings.
4. Keywords competition.
What access do you need? We’ll need your Search Console and Google Analytics access. If you don’t have one we can create for you.
We’ll also need website backend access for technical task like speed improvement, and urls optimization.
Do you work on eCommerce SEO? Yes, we do. Online stores often have more pages than a corporate website. They consist of product pages, category pages, and brand pages. eCommerce SEO requires special skills and experience to deliver optimal results.