I want to answer all of your SEO questions. Just leave a comment below with your question and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours!
(And if you find this helpful, would you mind ReTweeting this on Twitter?)
What’s The Catch?
There is no catch.
No strings attached.
No orangutans to wrestle.
Common PageRank questions
Does PageRank matter anymore?
Not really. Worrying about PageRank is a waste of time.
Should I be concerned if my site’s PageRank changes?
No. You have very little immediate control of your site’s PageRank and frankly, worrying about PageRank is a waste of time. There are tons of sites with PageRank 0 ranking high in Google.
How often does google update my site’s PageRank?
I have no idea and I don’t pay any attention to it. Seriously, stop worrying about PageRank.
Common link building questions
I recommend Fast Attack Backlink Building Tutorial because you will learn a ton of simple creative ways to build free one-way DoFollow backlinks to your site.
Are link exchanges beneficial?
Reciprocal link exchanges (I linked to you and you link to me) are marginally beneficial. One-way links or having a link ring is far better.
Should I do 3 or 4 way link exchange?
Sure, give it a try. Google is constantly getting better at detecting stuff like this but a lot of sites still do it successfully. If you are paying for a service make sure you can verify that your backlinks will be built and that their sites actually rank.
What are DoFollow & NoFollow, and why do I care about them?
I have a good explanation of this here.
Where can I find a list of DoFollow blogs?
I have put together a huge list here.
Do article submissions really bring traffic or are they just a means for getting a dofollow backlink?
I usually use them to build DoFollow backlinks. Other people write high-quality articles with awesome resource boxes to get maximum clicks. The success of these strategies may depend on your niche.
Do .gov & .edu backlinks help and how do I find them?
Yes, they can help. Check out this video to learn how to find them.
What link building methods from the past, still work today for ranking?
Getting back links from blogs and creating awesome content that people want to link to. I recommend checking out my Back Link Bible.
Do backlinks from whois lookup and value my site sites help improve my site’s rank?
I haven’t tried it myself but I don’t imagine it will help very much.
Is better to leave comments on a few quality sites rather than many sites(quantity)?
I think it’s important to leave comments on websites that are going to be re-crawled by Google in the near future. And judging if the site will be re-crawled by Google can be difficult. But I recommend commenting on as many of these sites as you can.
Common on-page optimization questions
Should my title be split with commas?
I don’t see any point in having your titles split with commas or any other delimiters. I recommend just putting your keywords in your title tag.
Common ranking questions
I recommend Fast Attack SEO Tutorial because because it will show you all of the ins and outs of ranking high in Google.
How can I get my site to rank higher in Google?
I have a lengthy post that covers this here.
How can I get targeted traffic to my site from Google?
Excellent question! You need to figure out exactly what you’re selling, target the 1%, do some keyword research, and read my awesome tutorial on raging high in Google.
Do meta-tags matter?
Yes, but not in the way you think.
My site has achieved a high ranking in Google, it gets lots of traffic, but nobody buys anything. What should I do?
Sounds like you built a site, did a lot of work to get traffic to it, but you didn’t understand exactly what you’re selling. I recommend going back to square one and figure out exactly what you are selling.
Is the sandbox real and how do I avoid it?
It’s not real (at least anymore) but there’s no guarantee your site will rank for the keywords you want. I have a lengthy post that covers this here.
What’s the best SEO trick that I can use daily to maintain all keywords in the top?
There is no magic trick that will work every time and there’s no technique that guarantees results for every niche. You have to go through the same thing that everyone else does. You need to figure out exactly what you’re selling, target the 1%, do some keyword research, and read my awesome tutorial on raging high in Google.
Common keyword research questions
Do I need my keywords in my domain name?
If you want your site ranked high in Google then it will be a lot easier (or less hard) if your keywords are in your domain. It’s certainly not a requirement but I do recommend it.
How to anticipate which keywords others will use to search for my product? Sometimes we might have a favorite “keyword” and we think that’s how the world searches for our product, when, in reality, some people type in something totally different.
Awesome question. The only way to really do this is to actually talk to your target audience and ask them.
Other common questions
How does Google’s Panda algorithm work?
I don’t know precisely how it works but I found a brief explanation on Wikipedia:
Google’s new Panda machine-learning algorithm…look[s] for similarities between websites people found to be high quality and low quality.
Basically, if Google thinks your site is low quality then it will rank you much lower or not at all. The solution is to create a high-quality site and not get punished by Google.
What do you think of the new Google Authorship, will it catch out the dodgy websites out there?
I think it’s an ongoing game of cat and mouse. Google will keep improving its ability to detect dodgy websites, and dodgy websites will continue to improve their ability to fly below Google’s radar.
Where do you see the SEO industry as a whole going in 5 years from now?
Yogi Berra said:
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
Five years from now I predict that Google will still be around. Beyond that I can’t say anything with any confidence.
Do you really think that automated traffic generators really work? Are there any negatives in using it? Is it as effective as they say it is?
You really need to read the 1% rule and my post about how to get traffic that actually buys your product. I despise automated traffic generators because they send you traffic that does NOT convert.
Would you recommend seo moz tools over other free one out there? What tools do you use?
I currently use the Google keyword tool and I am experimenting with several others. I will keep you posted when I find new awesome tools.
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
How to build backlinks for secure sites that use protocol https?? Do we just need to replace http with https in our backlinks?
For eg: Can we use like this? Dog house.
Is that ok to use as such?
Academic writing recently posted..Academic paper citation styles
When building back links you should always link to the exact URL of your site. In your case you just need to replace http with https.
Wow. Thanks for collating all the frequently asked questions about SEO and your corresponding answers. I must confess that there are tons about SEO and SEM that I do not coprehend yet but I am learning quite a few things just by reading your posts. Hopefully, this will help me become SEO-savvy eventually.
Reese recently posted..Buying a Winter Jacket
this is interesting. I have a question what services does the wordtracker offer, and how do they relate to seo? I am looking forward to visit here again and hope to see your reply.
Beth A. Forrest recently posted..The Contour Can Be Used At Anytime!
I don’t know what services they currently offer. I haven’t used them in a while. Go to their website and look up their services.
my question is that, is custom domain crawl on search engine than a .blogspot one?
and what are the benifits of a custom domain?
Actually, having a .blogspot website might get you indexed a little bit faster since Google owns it is immediately notified of any changes.
The downside of a .blogspot website is that Google owns it and they can shut you down without warning if someone complains about your site. When you have your own domain and you pay for your own hosting you have a lot more control.
Nick, how do you feel about the impact of link anchor texts. Example…. lets say I get a lot of links with the anchor text saying one thing about my homepage, but yet other links that say a totally different thing. How do the two impact each other? Does the home title on my page give preference over the anchor texts that link to me?
-Jean
used tires recently posted..How to stay safe while driving on wet roads
Generally speaking, the more links you get with the anchor text “dog training” the higher you will rank for that keyword phrase. And if you have that keyword phrase in your title tag it will help you rank even more.
Let’s say that you had a bunch of other back links with the anchor text “dogs ballet”. You would begin to rank for this keyword phrase but it would have no impact on your ranking for “dog training” .
Does that make sense?
Yeah that makes sense Nick, in that regard too though, my guess is the only overlap is that maybe also quantity of links help but only to a very smal degree.
-Jean
used tires recently posted..Things to remember before buying Used Tires
I need to ask you something about SEO (Search engine optimization) . What is SEO ? . And how it really helps us to increase traffic on our website. Will it be useful to invest on some of the seo techniques for my blog ?
abegail recently posted..penny stock trading
It stands for search engine optimization. Google is a very popular way to get traffic to your website in search engine optimization is the process that helps you make sure that your ranking high in Google for specific keywords that people are searching for.
Good day! i would just like to ask why is there a no follow blog when in fact all aims to generate traffic? and one thing too, how can we generate income on adsense and hot do we place it on our blogs?
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Not everyone wants their blog to be DoFollow because it often encourages spammy comments.
This may answer some of your AdSense questions:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/4660_7-ways-to-maximize-your-google-adsense-profit/
The actual process of putting the AdSense code on your blog depends on your blogging platform. What is your blog?
I’ve seen alot of times I rank down to 2nd or 3rd page for few keywords I’m rank at 1st page, Why does it happen? and How do I go about fixing this?
Funny Siri Responses recently posted..Aluminium iPhone & a Fat iPad With Higher Resolution Display? Apple’s Summer 2012 Line-Up.
Google is constantly shuffling the rankings for any keyword. In the short term there is nothing you can do to change your rank. In the long-term you can build more back links to your site.
Also consider some traffic sources besides Google.
Hi Nick!
I am just a new in this SEO world, as I called it and I have a question regarding Social media and its impact on my website. I also would like to add if I should aim for Do Follow blogs or also a No Follow one? Thanks
Lester Smith recently posted..TriLastin SR Review
> I have a question regarding Social media and its impact on my website
What is your question?
As for making your blog DoFollow or not, it is really up to you. DoFollow will probably attract more comments but many of them will be spam comments. If you go this route I recommend using a couple WordPress plug-ins to fight it: Akismet & GASP
Panda filters lots of websites after it was published. Some people say it kills all of the websites which have duplicate content more than %50 of all posts. i wonder what is the percentage of duplicate content permitted by the Google?
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I don’t know what the threshold is for duplicate content, but I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. Read this:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beat-google-panda
Does changing title of a website after affect SEO. And do changing a blog from dofollow to nofollow affect SEO.
Isha Singh recently posted..Escrow for Safe and Secure Transactions
Changing the title may affect your rankings for some keywords. I don’t think changing to NoFollow will affect your ranking for keywords.
What steps would you recommend to help move a single post higher up the google SERP?
For instance, I do my research, write an article employing a long tail KW, I do on page optimization, I socially book mark it, I get a bump up in traffic as I tweet it, but then the page still ends up on pp 5 in the SERP.
Are there a list of steps you specifically take to move the page up in the results?
Thanks!
Don recently posted..How to Build a Profitable EMA Crossover Trading System
You need backlinks. Read:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/1620_super-fast-back-links/
http://nickstraffictricks.com/4856_how-to-rank-1-in-google/
how to get a scrap website to top position on google without actually doing seo and how to get backlinks without doing seo for a website
> how to get a scrap website to top position on google without actually doing seo
You can’t. You have to do some SEO.
> how to get backlinks without doing seo
Building backlinks has nothing to do with optimizing your site. You can build them today.
I am thinking of buying a pr8 link, but it is on an https page. does that make a difference?
I don’t think it makes a difference.
Hey Nick, you have posted very nice post; it consist many Question with Proper answer.
Many Question resolved by your post, Still i have one Question in my mind regarding to Title tags.
My Question is “How many character Title tag should have?” 70 to 75 Character is best practices for Title? and 70 to75 character is Search Engine Friendly! is it True?
I’m Thanking you in advance, will wait for your answer.
Web Desing India recently posted..Google’s Recent Changes To The Algorithm
> How many character Title tag should have?
Keep it under 100. Shorter is better but make sure your title has your keywords in it and is readable.
Hello nick, i have recently commended a question here, and you also answered me,
that courage me to change ma domain name ( only domain , hosting still on blogger ),
and know i need to know , what steps should i do for keeping ma page rank alexa rank and seo same as the older blogspot domain, please help me
ma blogspot domain has 2,888,670 alexa rank , but new domain ” no data”
and is it required to submit new sitemap to search engines?
please reply me fast as you can
thank you very much
What is your new URL and what keywords are you trying to rank for in Google?
It takes time for Alexa calculates a ranking for the first time for a site that doesn’t have a ton of traffic. Also, I wouldn’t worry about Google page rank.
my new URL is http://www.seminarpaper.com/ , Key word basically is educational seminars
and is necessary to submit new sitemap to search engine?
after URL change my traffic is decreased well, why so?
If you want to rank high for educational seminars that I recommend having the words educational seminars in your domain because it will make ranking a little bit easier.
> necessary to submit new sitemap to search engine?
It appears that Google already knows your site exists and has probably crawled many of the pages on your site.
> after URL change my traffic is decreased well, why so?
It takes a while for a new URL to get traffic.
Do a quick search on Google for http://www.seminarpaper.com and your website will show up. Take a look at the listing. The text of your listing will not invite many clicks.
Does hosting a blog on blogger effects ranking than blogs on wordpress, because wordpress provides more SEO than blogger as per my thinking.?
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I don’t know that you can say that either one provides a better ranking. Blogs on either platform seem to do pretty well.
Very comprehensive listing there, thanks again for the helpful information.
Agree that page rank does not really affect rankings much.
Have a great 2012 Nick!
Hi Nick, quick question about domain names. A client has two sites, both with the same domain name except one is .com and the other .co.uk. The client is wanting to move to so that they are just using the .co.uk to focus on the UK market, however the .com one is the one used most. Whats the best way to make the changes so that no traffic or ranking is lost?
Thanks,
Dan
Hi Dan,
Transferring rank & traffic from one domain to another is a tricky business. All the backlinks scattered accross the net that point to the .com won’t suddenly point to the .uk domain. Could you just place a notice on the .com site that tells people to go to the .uk site?
for traffic you can always use redirect command. all your visitors will be redirect to the new site. however i’m not sure on the backlinks. I dont think all the existing backlinks will be credited to the new site.
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Hello Nick;
I know that my site (http://weber-q320.com) is indexed by Google. However, it does not show up in the google search results for any of my 4 keywords. It doesn’t appear on any of the 86 pages returned by Google. I checked every page. Why isn’t it listed? I know it is indexed. Why wouldn’t it show up at least somewhere in those 86 pages of results??
My keywords:
weber q320 1600 local mthly searches (exact match)
weber q 320 1300
weber q 320 gas grill 210
weber q320 review 390
The site consists of 4 “money pages” and 31 relevant posts. All of my content is original – nothing copied.
I am using Wordpress. I am currently building my backlinks – Alexa currently shows 58 backlinks to my site. I have a solid, well thought out site. I cannot figure why it is not shown in the search results for any of my keywords.
Why does Google place this website, (http://www.weberq320.com/), on page one? It is absolutely horrible with very poor grammar. It has no content, has only 36 backlinks and absolutely no traffic. So much for Google penalizing bad sites – Google has placed this inferior site right up on page one for the keyword “weber q320”. My site is no where to be seen….for the same keyword.
I just can’t get to make my website to work! What in the world am I doing wrong?
I know this can be frustrating. It takes time.
You should start by selecting the key word phrase with the least amount of competition. Focus on that one phrase and only build back links to it and no other keyword.
For your selected keyword, what kind of competition are you facing? Do you have a post with that particular keyword phrase in the title, title tag, h1 tag, and url?
This is a great starting point for many – I’m passing this post on to a few friends who STILL don’t get the idea that page rank doesn’t matter. I haven’t been able to view your video about the .gov and .edu yet, but it’s on my list of things to do – soon.
Give any Suggestions to improve my site SEO rank http://www.techlove.tk
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It depends on your niche in the keywords that you’re targeting. What keywords are you trying to rank for?