Website and Search-Engine-Optimization (SEO) FAQ

Contractor 20/20 has Created a Brief List of SEO Strategies & FAQ on Websites and SEO Marketing to Benefit your Business.

We feel that there is a need to answer questions that we've been asked over the last few years on internet marketing, websites, and SEO.  Frankly, I could write a book on website and SEO FAQ's, it's better to share information with you that is already out there and is guaranteed to do a good job.

Q: What elements are necessary for strong organic rankings?
A: Here are 47 of the top 219 SEO strategies/tactics
(Not necessarily ranked by importance)
1. Keyword in URL: It helps to have the keyword(s) in your websites URL. The first word is most important, second word is second most important, etc.
2. Keyword in Domain: This is referring to internal site pages with keyword(s) in it.
For example, candwplumbing.com/ draincleaningservices or
3. Keyword in Title Tag: This is what text you see on top of the websites explorer bar. Look above your place to type in websites on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.
4. Keyword in Description Meta Tag: Shows theme of page. Not as important as it once was, but a necessary evil.
5. Keyword in Keyword Meta Tag: These are keywords that your site is showing to the search engines. Just like number 4 this isn’t as important as it once was, but still necessary evil.
6. Keyword Density in Body Text: This is the amount of times all your keywords are used within the content of your website. Search Engines, especially Google, look to see if your site is spamming. For instance, as a plumber you don’t want to use your keywords like, “Plumber”, “Plumbing”, Water Heaters”, etc. less than 5% or more than 20% of words within your site usually.
7. Individual Keyword Density: This is referring to the individual keyword within the content of your site. You don’t want to use it less than 1% or more than 6% of all content text. For example, as a plumber don’t use the word “Plumber” too little or too often because it will either show low relevancy or your website as spamming.
8. Keyword in H1, H2, & H3: These are your header tags within your site. It’s important to show a search engine what you do.
9. Site Map Built Into Site: This is the blueprint of your website to the search engines. Bottom line is you want to show anchor keywords with all the pages in a map to the search engine. Important to have this.
10. Robot File Built into Site: This is a text file for search engine spiders. It instructs them how to read your site so your website can be indexed.
11. Hosting Server Reliability: A websites server needs to make sure the website is up at all times. More importantly, it is important that it can handle the amount of traffic coming into the site. A good example is a bottle neck. The larger the diameter of the opening the faster the contents can be poured out or in.
12. Keyword in Font Size: It helps to bold your keywords within the websites content. Refer to size, bold, and italics as a way to easily pick up what content is saying if you were skimming over it.
13. Keyword Proximity: The spacing between keywords within the website. Adjacent is best.
14. Keyword Phrase Order: There are different ways consumers search for a product or service. Imagine the end-users most popular search phrase. Try to match this within the website. For example, “Air Conditioning Repair Buffalo”.
15. Keyword Prominence: How soon in the websites content is the keyword(s) showing. Sooner than later is best.
16. Keyword in Links to Site Pages: Within the websites content it’s good to have links within
the text to another page on the same website. For example, if the paragraph is talking about
“Water Heaters” it is good to have that word link into the “Water Heaters” page.
17. Website Traffic: This is included in the Google Patent. High number of visitors = trend. This shows you
are relevant to the end-users search and Google wants you showing sooner than later because
it creates a friendly experience for the end-user.
18. Page Traffic: Same as number 17, but to individual pages within the website. Becoming an authority to the search engines requires many elements, but website traffic and individual page traffic go hand in hand.
19. Page CTR (Click-Thru-Rate): This is how often the page within the website is clicked on.
20. Time Spent on Page: If the end-user is spending longer amounts of time on the page then it is capturing the end-users attention. Google Patent.
21. End-User Bookmark Website: It is very good to have people bookmark, save as favorite, your website.
22. Efficient Site Structure: The website should have a tree like structure to it. Easy to navigate.
23. Internal Site Linking: Make the site easy to navigate. Have linking to other pages within the site, lower level pages, throughout the site. Helps end-user and search engine spiders to index.
24. Keywords in Outgoing Links: Links to outside websites should have anchor text and descriptive.
25. Link Stability Over Time: Have links within site show some tenure. Avoid “churning” your links.
26. Linking to “Authority” Sites: The links going off the websites should go to another credible and relevant website. This helps to get the website crawled by search engine spiders and shows credibility.
27. Page File Size: Search engines want to be fast and make it easy for pages to load. If the websites pages are too large it slows loading time. This is one reason why flash isn’t search engine friendly.
28. Domain Age: The older the better. This tells the search engine you’ve been around.
29. Domain Registration Time: The longer the domain is registered for the better. This tells the search engine you’re serious.
30. Updated/New/Fresh Pages: Google loves when there is new content being changed or added to a website. A stagnant site shows that it’s not worked on enough.
31. New/Fresh Links: Same as number 30 but in the reference in linking.
32. Frequency of Updates: Too many updates too fast looks like the website is spamming if it is a newer site. Too few updates shows that it’s not worked on enough.
33. Website Size: Same as number 27 but in reference to entire website.
34. Age of Page vs Age of Site: New Pages on an old existing site is good and will get looked at sooner.
35. Page Rank: This is the number and the quality of links linking into your website.  Google will usually only record a fraction of them, but back-linking is very important.
36. Number of Back-links: The more backlinks the website has the better, but it can also damage the websites organic rankings if it has links coming in from bad sites.
37. Number of Back-links from High-Ranking Pages: It is important to know the ratio of links coming from authority sites compared to good back-links that aren’t authority sites but relevant material.
38. Speed of New Back-links: Too fast could flag the search engine as you’re buying links or they aren’t real. Too slow means you’re losing the race.
39. Age of Back-links: Older the better.
40. Keyword Anchor Text of Inbound Link: The link coming in from a referring website should have the keyword as an anchor text in the content. This helps get the website indexed to the referring keyword.
41. Number of Outgoing Links from Referring Back-link: The website linking into your site should only be linking to relevant websites, and must not be a link farm. This means it’s a site solely designed to link back to hundreds/thousands of other websites.
42. Keyword Density of Referring Back-link Page: The same way it is important to have a good ratio within your website with your keyword(s) compared to the content, it’s also important for the linking site to have the same.
43. Position of Back-link in Referring Page: Sooner the better.
44. Back-link from Expert Site: An expert site is a true authority to the search engines. For example, having a link from Wikipedia.
45. Registered with DMOZ: DMOZ is a directory site. It’s good to have a link to your website from it.
46. Website Listed in Yahoo Directory: As stated.
47. Website Listed in LookSmart Directory: As stated.

Q: What do I get with the monthly Maintenance & Hosting fee?
A: The monthly maintenance and hosting fee that the client pays entitles them to monthly hosting, unlimited changes to their website (within clients website specs), and complete Google analytics set up and reporting.

Q: What are the levels of Search-Engine-Optimization (SEO)?
A: We like to make things simple for our clients. The first level (package 1) of SEO can be referred to as Passive website SEO structure. This means that the website will be built and optimized for natural growth in organic rankings. It is slower and will be more volatile to algorithm changes with the search engines.
The second level (package 2) of SEO includes a passive SEO designed site and incorporates basic monthly SEO work to the website. This includes page updates, refreshes, articles, blogs, and additions. The third level (package 3) we present to a client is aggressive SEO and link-building. Link-Building is crucial for fast and strong results. Aggressive SEO includes everything included in the basic SEO level with the additions of the link-building, social media, and a deeper analysis of sub keyword phrases for an increase in website traffic.

Q: What level is right for me?
A: The right level of SEO can be compared to building the right home. In Florida, you want a design and structure capable of withstanding strong hurricane winds, and in New York, you want the design and structure to be able to hold heavy snowfall.
We do a deep analysis of your website and of the market you are in. Through this brief research we can make a strong recommendation to give you and your website the leverage needed to grab market share online from your competitors. Furthermore, if we determine that your market and the strength of your competitors online is minimal, then we will present a proposal that will reflect minimal SEO that we can safely say is exactly what is needed to get your rankings.  “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.”

Q: What are the advantages of allowing my websites SEO to be handled by Contractor 20/20?
A: Contractor 20/20 is one of the industry experts for marketing and advertising.
We represent clients in over 40 states and growing. Contractor 20/20 not only staffs some of the best talent in the industry, but surrounds themselves with other result-proven firms. When it comes to website development and search-engine-optimization, Contractor 20/20 provides the exact same service and results as highly recognized SEO firms. However, based on Contractor 20/20’s credibility, tenure, and economies
of scale, Contractor 20/20 is granted a group discount to provide these services to our Contractor 20/20 clients. This allows the client to have top notch service with top notch return-on-investment. We encourage interested parties to go to www.contractor2020.com and “Take our clients’ word for it”. You can find these clients on the right side of the home page.

Q: What are the Group Discount Packages offered by Contractor 20/20?
A: Contractor 20/20, a division of Multimedia Advertising Services, offers 3 basic packages. Any additional projects beyond the scope of these packages will be quoted. Please see the next page for package options.

Please Note: All clients that work with Contractor 20/20 always have their own URL’s as well as the completed website. It is their property to take with them if they ever choose to end our services. We will purchase them on their behalf, but the URL and website will always remain in their company’s name.

Contractor 20/20
Phone: (607) 770-8933 • Fax: (888) 217-2743 • Email: Multimedia@stny.rr.com • www.contractor2020.com