SEO FAQ

1. Is it worth the money to hire a professional SEO company to do my SEO work for me?

2. How should I be sure the SEO company I hire will do a good job for me?

3. Which search engine is the most popular in the U.S.?

4. What is PageRank?

5. How long does it take to see the results of my SEO work?

1. Is it worth the money to hire a professional SEO company to do my SEO work for me?

My feeling is that, if you have the time to work on your website, it's a good idea for you to do the SEO work yourself, as it is an excellent learning experience, fun, and, best of all, it is free! (other than the time and energy you need to put in to your site -- but if you are very enthusiastic about your topic, chances are that you are already spending a lot of time on your site anyway).

Having said that, there are some cases when professional SEO companies are worth the price. For example, if your website is your business, and you have to spend your time working on other tasks for running your company -- finance, marketing, and so on (anyone running a small business can give you a long list), it would make sense for you to turn your SEO efforts to a professional Search Engine Optimization company.

2. How should I be sure the SEO company I hire will do a good job for me?

There is a simple way to find a good SEO company: Do a search on "Search Engine Optimization" or "SEO." The companies that appear at the top of the search results are the ones worth looking into. After all, you are looking to hire a company to move your search engine rankings higher. If that company cannot rank high itself, you should probably not pay for their services.

3. Which search engine is the most popular in the U.S.?

As of December 2006, Google is #1, Yahoo is #2, and MSN is #3.

4. What is PageRank?

PageRank is Google's way of putting a numerical value on the popularity of the site, primarily based on the number of links. PageRank goes from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best. PageRank is a complex calculation that takes into account not just the number of incoming links to a site, but also the PageRank of the pages linking to you, among others. You can find a more detailed description of PageRank here.

5. How long does it take to see the results of my SEO work?

You should see your site being indexed into the search engines within a few days of submitting your site. If you are an established site with quite a few incoming links to start with, you should be able to see the effects of your initial efforts show up in about one month. If you are a brand new site, you should expect to wait 2-3 months to see respectable rankings (say, top 50 -- this could vary based on the query term. It is entirely possible that you are ranked in the top 10 for two query terms, and out of the top 100 for the ten others that you are interested in).

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