If you are a business owner who is paying for digital marketing, chances are you have signed up for SEO at some point or another and likely had a lot of questions about how it works, what you’re seeing, and what you aren’t seeing. 

Get Found First talks to our clients all the time about SEO strategies and expectations, but SEO can be complicated and its easy to run into misinformation about SEO online and inside the business world. 

Here are 5 SEO questions we get asked all the time by our clients and how we respond:

Why Isn’t My Website Ranking on Google?

First, slow down a bit. Just because you are searching on Google and can’t find yourself, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t ranking. But before we get into that – clarify on WHAT you are looking for, what TERMS you are searching, and WHERE you are trying to find your website. Are you looking for a Google Business Profile? Are you trying to find your company in Google Maps? Are you looking for where your website is ranking for keywords relevant to your service? 

Google has a lot of different algorithms that they use to determine when and where to show your website pages in search results – but make sure you clarify exactly what you are looking for so that you can get the best answer. 

But, Still – Why Is My Website Not Ranking?

Yes, there are typical reasons why your website isn’t ranking yet. 

• If you just started SEO and have never done it before, it’s going to take time to build rank against competitors. 
• If your website is new – you have no domain authority. Domain authority comes after having a site live and having history. Do not expect to outrank competitors who have been working on building their website rank for years. It’s going to take some time. 
• Your pages might not be indexed. That means that they are blocked from Google’s search engine. 

I Was Ranking For ____ And Now I Have Lost Rank. What Happened?

Losing rank can happen for a number of reasons. Competition could be jumping in, Google could have had an algorithm update, no-index tags could have accidentally been added, your site could be affected by Malware – the list can go on. Certainly, you should have a website management and SEO team to help you resolve these issues. Not all of these are preventable and you can lose rank with SEO – that’s why it’s important to keep pushing SEO all the time. 

Should I Do SEO, Run PPC Ads, or Both?

This question comes up ALL THE TIME. Ideally, a company would have their stake in both. SEO is necessary to build organic rank, but pay-per-click can bring faster results. I wouldn’t choose one over the other – they work well together. 

What PageSpeed Score Is Good?

PageSpeed is Google’s measure of your site’s speed and is included in how your website is ranked. But everyone is mostly interested in what the PageSpeed should be and oftentimes, people have different answers. Honestly, your PageSpeed should be as high as you can get it. But, it can take a lot to get a high-high score. Check your competitors site speed and compare it to yours. If you are doing better than your competitors, then you’re doing excellent.