Denver, Colorado & Austin, Texas – As an advertising agency, one of our main responsibilities is to act as a marketing partner and consultant. We get asked questions about all things marketing, but the most frequent questions are about Search Engine Optimization and online marketing. So, without further ado, here are some frequently asked SEO questions, and more importantly, the answers!

Question: Can SEO Companies guarantee SEO results?

Answer: No. No company, or individual, can guarantee a #1 or first page ranking on Google. If they do…run! Beware of claims to guarantee rankings or tell you they have a “special relationship” with Google. Creative Options will never guarantee results; we only guarantee our hard work to get you high ranking keywords and results.

Question: What is the best way to choose targeted keywords for an online campaign?

Answer:  There are several methods people use. Creative Options employs are own tried and true keyword analysis that has been proven successful over and over again. We not only use industry-known best practices for keyword research, but also specific long-tail keywords search analysis ratio.

Question: How long will it take for a site to rank?

Answer: One important reminder, search engine optimization is an on-going process.  You just don’t attack it once and you stay ranked high. There is no way to predict or estimate how long it will take a site to rank. A safe timeline is 6-12 months to rank on a local search term, depending on the amount of competition. Search engines may not even recognize changes to a site or links to a site for a couple of months. It is common to see no movement in rank for the first 2 or 3 months. The more competitive a keyword is, the longer it will take to rank.

Question: Our website ranks high on Yahoo and Bing, but not as high on Google, why?

Answer:  Each search engine is different. And each utilizes a different algorithms; therefore, each one ranks a site differently. However, a good solid search engine strategy and executed plan affects all search engines. By the way, Google has the largest market share of all the search engines, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only that attracts new customers. Bing and Yahoo still are valuable search engines, and should be a part of your online strategy.Question: There’s no guaranteed placement for SEO? Why shouldn’t I just do PPC?

Answer: PPC can provide great results quickly with a healthy ROI. However, SEO (organic listings) are more trusted and receive more clicks. Even though it takes time to rank, the ROI and long term value are higher than PPC.

Question: Why do we only optimize for a few keyword phrases in SEO? With PPC you can target as many keywords as you want.

Answer: The focus should be on the words that will bring the most relevant traffic and value. Many keywords receive so few searches that it does not justify SEO efforts. In addition, when a website is optimized for its most relevant keywords, there is a spillover effect for related keyword searches. PPC advertising on keywords that rarely get searched makes sense because you only pay for each visit; with SEO, time and effort is lost if a page is optimized for a low-traffic keyword.

These are just a few of the most commonly asked SEO questions. Search Engine Optimization is a must in today’s marketing efforts. Improving your rankings is not an overnight process. It takes diligent work every day; month after month, year after year. If you don’t have that person on staff, we can certainly help. If you would like more information about increasing your search engine rankings, contact us today for a free mini-evaluation and we can help you rankings.