Some people when they first start engaging with SEO services or they’ve been in internet marketing for a fair amount of time, tend to know some basic rules, terms, and generally some critical things regarding this matter. These things though can be a bit blurred as time goes by and due to the fact that we live in evolving times where you need to keep up with everything to stay ahead of the game!
To help you out and for things to get more clear, we’ve gathered 10 of the most commonly asked questions about the SEO basics. If you believe you know some of the most basic stuff you can hop to the next question! Let’s dive in.
Q.1: What is SEO?
SEO is the abbreviation of “Search Engine Optimization”, which very simply stands for the process of helping websites stand out when someone’s searching for them (i.e: on Google, Bing, and Yahoo).
Example: If you’re the owner of a website selling luxury cars and people are interested in buying one, it is more likely they will type for “luxury cars Cyprus” in the search tab. The algorithms of these search engines will provide them with the most relevant results based on what they are looking for.
SEO has become a vital marketing channel for all the businesses in Cyprus. Utilizing an SEO Agency in Cyprus will not only result in increased organic traffic but also in increased authority and credibility in the eyes of the consumers.
Q.2: What is “organic traffic” and “paid traffic”? What is the difference between these two terms?
Organic traffic refers to your website visits coming from a search engine’s organic results (Google, Bing, Yandex, Baidu, etc), in comparison with paid traffic where results/visits are generated through paid ads (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, etc). You can learn more about this subject by visiting our organic vs paid traffic article.
Q.3: How much does SEO cost in Cyprus?
There’s no clear answer to this question, due to the fact that it depends on the outcome you want to achieve, your approach, your company, and even the status of your website.
However, companies offering relatively cheap or “within budget” SEO services are most likely to be using illegal tactics called “black-hat techniques”. Sounds like something’s shady? Well, it is, because it can damage your organic ranking credibility, which you might end up paying a fair amount of penalty (which you could have spent for a proper SEO service).
Therefore, we suggest advising a professional SEO services agency in order to get better and legit results! You can navigate to our SEO Cyprus page and learn more about what we can offer to you!
Q.4: How long does SEO take to work?
Again, this depends on your company’s approach and your goal. You should have in mind though that this is not a sprint race but a marathon, and results are not achieved overnight to be ranked better on search engines. To answer this question though, if one of your goals is to see a decent increase in organic website traffic and sales, it would probably take about 3-4 months! For that reason, there’s only one thing you need to do in the meantime… and that is patience!
Q.5: What is “Crawling” and “Indexing”?
If you’re a pro at SEO we’re sure you came across these terms before (so for now you can scroll down to Q6). If you’re a newbie and never heard of these terms before, you might stay a bit more to this question. “Crawling” is when a search engine goes through the content of your website and the content appearing in the searches is “indexed”. Still, the search engine will not be crawling through all your website’s content. Basically, it’s like the “skim and scan” technique but for websites!
Q.6: Does SEO guarantee good rankings?
If you ask this question to the SEO company that used the “black-hat technique” the answer would be “Yes”. But if you’re asking an ethical SEO company then the most legit answer to this question would be “We can’t really control the outcome, nor guarantee any results”. Just for one simple reason; algorithms in search engines are updated and evolved regularly, therefore rankings keep changing based on the changes in the algorithms.
Q.7: What is “on-site” and “off-site” SEO?
On-site or else “on-page” SEO refers to the practice of optimizing all the elements found on a website. These can be from meta title, meta description, meta image data, header tags, URL optimization, etc. You can learn more here. On the other hand, off-site SEO deals with aspects outside of your website to impact the rankings within. These are through other reputable sites, or pages, social media, influencers, etc. You can find out more about this in our on-site vs off-site SEO article.
Q.8: What is better, “on-site” or “off-site”?
Is your right hand better than your left hand, or vise versa? Well, even if you’re right or left-handed, both hands help each other! Therefore, in this case, both “on-site” and “off-site” SEO is important! However, as per the latest 2021 updates of Google’s algorithm, on-page elements of a website will have a higher impact on Google Search Results rankings.
Q.9: What are “backlinks”?
A “backlink” is the process of creating a website link to link to another website.
Backlinks are considered to be super important factors for search engines when they’re about to rank a website. Understanding why backlinks are important is key to your SEO success. So make sure you have a backlink somewhere in cyberspace!
Q.10: Is SEO important for e-Commerce websites as well?
YES! We couldn’t be more firm with this answer! Why? Because of the increasing online competition that’s going on nowadays!
SEO will not only lead your customers to your online shop but will also simplify research on handheld devices as well as is a cost-efficient way to improve your weaknesses! See the importance now?
In summary, we strongly believe that SEO is vital for your website and business. People that search for something specific usually have an intent to either research or purchase it, hence if your website ranks at the top of search results you will gain authority, credibility, and sales opportunities. Use it wisely. Let’s do it together!
