Top Questions For Search Engine Optimization Consultants

As search engine optimization consultants, we are barraged with a wide variety of questions. I am sure that our most asked questions vary across the industry and from account to account. Below, I will cover three of the most commonly asked questions that I have received over the course of my experience in the search engine optimization industry.

How Does The Indexing Process Work?
Why Are There Historical Discrepancies In My Ranking Results?
Why Did My Keyword Rankings Drop?

How Does The Indexing Process Work?

At the beginning of a new search engine optimization campaign and many times throughout the duration of the campaign I find that I have to explain this one.At first it all seems like some kind of black magic; however, there is a fairly simple explanation. Many have the idea that the indexing is a one step process and that the Googlebot does it all.

Not quite.The Googlebot crawl is the first step in the process. This bot, as well as other search engine spiders, simply gathers data. It crawls your web pages, gathers the code on the page and puts it on a queuing server. That is all it does.

This queuing server stores your web site’s .html web pages and that is all. It is simply a part of the indexing process. The indexing process begins when the search engine algorithm runs and evaluates the data on the queuing server. The ranking result is how your stored code meets the specifications of the algorithm. All kinds of things can happen when this process begins and through to completion. Not happy with your ranking results when your web site pages get indexed? Maybe you should get in contact with a search engine optimization expert to evaluate the situation.

Why Are There Historical Discrepancies In My Ranking Results?

This question applies to the discrepancy in ranking results when you move from one month to the next or even discrepancies that appear throughout the month.Funny that this actually happened to me this morning for one client in a matter of minutes.

Every morning I review the status of all my accounts’ ranking results/keyword performance comparing our net keyword movement from the beginning of the month against the previous day’s performance, and an all time, from the beginning of tracking our keyword movement. This simple process takes about five minutes per client and can save hours of troubleshooting work and providing answers.

At exactly 8:42am this very morning I saw in our keyword net movement report that we had reached an all time high for a client that has been with us since February 2017. This was a milestone moment as we have been fighting some negative factors that hit the site beginning September 2018 which bottomed out December 2018 when recovery began.

At 8:56am I shared this information with a search engine optimization department associate and found when sharing these results that the keyword net movement report had updated and set us back to being only the third highest result over the course of the campaign. All in less than a 0:15 minute time period! So, how does this happen?

First, gathering keyword ranking result data is done at a point in time. That point can shift within hours and as seen this morning, within minutes. Not every ranking result is gathered at the same exact time. One keyword ranking result can be gathered 24 hours ago and the next keyword on your ranking result tracking list could have been gathered less than an hour before you pull your data. The next day when you review your ranking result, that ranking result from the past 24 hour time span gets re-evaluated and can be given a different ranking result for the previous day. This will impact the historical reference of your keyword ranking results over time. Understand it, and be prepared to answer this question.

Why Did My Keyword Rankings Drop?

(server issues; changes without consultation)

Keyword ranking drops can happen for a variety of reasons. You will need to pull out all the stops to find out why.

Some of the reasons are outlined below:

• Server issues
• Website changes without search engine optimization consultation
• Accidentally or purposefully blocking the Googlebot in the robots.txt file
• Nefarious and malicious links recently built pointing to your site
• Removing pages and not properly re-directing with the use of a 301 redirect
• Accidentally or purposefully removing or revising your search engine optimized page titles
• Accidentally or purposefully removing or revising your search engine optimized metadescriptions
• Accidentally or purposefully removing or revising your search engine optimized h1 tags
• Accidentally or purposefully removing or revising your search engine optimized inbound links
• Accidentally or purposefully disavowing your valuable search engine optimized inbound links
• Posting duplicate content and not using the canonical tag
• Stolen content creating duplicate content
• Shift in the ranking algorithm

You will note that I have placed algorithm shifts last in our list as we have experienced that most ranking drops are self-inflicted.

Two of the tools that you will need for troubleshooting ranking drops are listed below:

• Google Search Console
• A Dependable Site Audit Tool

In an upcoming blog I’ll be addressing additional questions that I have been asked over the course of my experience in the search engine optimization industry, such as:

• Why Do We Need To Change Metadata?
• How Long Does This Search Engine Optimization Process Take To Achieve Results?
• What Are Internal Anchor Text Links?
• Why Are Page Titles So Important?
• What Are The Basics Of Search Engine Optimization Campaign Management?
• How Long Does It Take For The Indexing Process To Happen?

Founded in 2007, That Company is one of the largest agencies, by staff size, in the United States dedicated to specializing in digital marketing: search engine optimization campaign management, pay per click advertising campaign management, social media marketing advertising campaign management, online reputation management  campaign management and organic campaign management, white label search engine optimization campaign management, white label pay per click campaign management, and white label social media marketing campaign management.

Mark has been with That! Company since the day that we opened the doors in May 2007, starting as a commission only, subcontracted website salesman providing website development and hosting services to SMB’s (small to medium sized businesses). As the company neared its first 6 months in business a fourth employee was added, and Mark became the fifth full-time employee. Aside from the company’s CEO, Mark was the first employee to manage PPC campaigns. As the business’ Search Engine Optimization client base grew, Mark added Search Engine Optimization content curation and on page optimization implementation and testing to his resume. As the company neared its first year in existence, Mark became a Search Engine Optimization consultant with a full load of clients to manage. Mark’s strengths include: On page Search Engine Optimization implementation and testing, backlink disavowal discovery and data evaluation, Google Search Console use and data evaluation, Google Analytics use and data evaluation, client communication, reliability, accountability, and Search Engine Optimization content curation on an ‘as needed’ basis.