SEO FAQ: 70+ Beginner & Advanced SEO Questions Answered

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving your website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google and Bing. The goal of SEO is simple: Increase your visibility and attract more qualified traffic to your site.

SEO is how your business gets discovered online. When people search for products or services like yours, strong SEO ensures your website shows up at the top of search results. That means more clicks, more leads, and more revenue (without paying for every visit like you would with ads).

SEO works by helping search engines understand and rank your website, so it appears in search results. It’s helpful to think of how SEO works in three parts:

• Crawling: Search engine bots “crawl” your site to discover new pages. 
• Indexing: Pages are “indexed” or stored in a search engine’s database.
• Ranking: Search algorithms “rank” pages to decide what to display when people search.

Organic traffic comes from people who find your site by searching and clicking on links in Google, Bing, or other search engines. Paid traffic comes from people who click ads you pay for via Google Ads or social media campaigns, where you pay per click or impression. SEO builds long-term brand visibility, while paid ads help you earn immediate exposure, as long as your budget lasts.

Yes, SEO delivers long-term ROI by increasing your site’s online visibility, traffic, leads, and conversions. SEO can take a few months to see results, but you’ll see the results of SEO for years to come, unlike paid ads that stop driving results when your budget runs out. Leads from SEO typically convert at higher rates too, since they are actively searching for your brand, products, or services.

SEO can take 3-6 months to show results, but the exact timeline will depend on your website, competition, and goals. New websites or highly competitive industries can take longer to drive rankings, do don’t be discouraged and remember that SEO is a long-term investment with results compounding over time. 

SEO keywords are the words or phrases people type into search engines to find information. “Targeting” SEO keywords strategically in your website content, titles, and meta tags helps search engines understand your page content, so they can rank in relevant search results.

SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush can help you find keywords people search related to your brand, product, or services. Look for keywords that balance strong search volume (number of monthly searches) and competition levels that give you the best chance of ranking. 

Keyword difficulty or competitiveness refers to how difficult it is to rank on page one of Google results for that particular keyword. Ahrefs’ keyword difficulty score averages the number of unique referring domains linking to the top 10 pages ranking for a keyword, then maps that number on a 0–100 scale, with higher scores meaning tougher competition. 

There is no “ideal” keyword density or rule for how many times you should use a target keyword in content. Search engines, like Google, focus more on context and relevance, so focus on using keywords naturally in your titles, headings, meta tags, and body copy instead of aiming for a certain percentage or keyword density.

Search intent refers to the goal of a search or what the searcher is expecting to find. We can group search intent into several categories: 

• Informational: The searcher wants to learn something (“what is seo”)
• Navigational: The searcher wants to find a specific website or brand (“webfx.com”)
• Transactional: The searcher is ready to take action or buy (“hire an seo agency”) 
• Commercial: The searcher is comparing options (“best seo company”)

Understanding search intent allows you to create relevant content that meets the needs of searchers and ranks at the top of results. 

Short (“seo”) and long-tail keywords (“seo services for small businesses”) both have value, but a lot of businesses prioritize long-tail keywords since they are often less competitive and usually convert better due to matching specific intent.

On-page SEO refers to optimization you make “on” your website — including your content, URLs, titles and metas, headings, and more — to help search engines (and visitors) better understand your site, so it ranks higher in search results.

SEO-friendly content helps people and search engines understand and find the information they’re looking for. It targets relevant keywords, answers search intent, uses clear headings, includes internal and external links, and follows best practices like optimized title tags, meta descriptions, and fast-loading pages.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formula like “if my content is x words, it will rank on page one.” 

Many top-ranking pages fall between 1000–2,500 words, but page quality, depth, and relevance matter more than word count. A good rule of thumb — make your content long enough to adequately answer search intent and anticipate a searcher’s next question.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — a set of quality signals Google uses to evaluate content credibility. Pages with strong E-E-A-T signals are more likely to rank at the top of results, especially for topics related to health, money, or safety (YMYL pages).

• Title tags: Keep them under ~60 characters, include your primary keyword (near the front if you can), and make them unique and descriptive.
• Meta descriptions: Aim for ~150–160 characters, clearly summarize the page, and add a call to action or value proposition that encourages clicks.
• Headings: Break content into logical sections using H1/H2/H3/H4 headings, and include your target and related keywords where they fit naturally.

Internal links are links between pages on your website. Adding links to relevant content on your site helps search bots understand your site architecture and discover, “crawl,” and rank your content. When adding internal links, use descriptive anchor text, link to relevant pages, and create a logical hierarchy that connects key content.

Yes, duplicate content can hurt your SEO rankings because it confuses search engines about which page to rank and can weaken the power of your backlinks. Google usually doesn’t issue a manual penalty for accidental duplicate content, but it can still cause problems like lower rankings, indexing challenges, and wasted “crawl budget” that prevents important pages from being discovered.

Image SEO involves optimizing images, so search engines like Google can “read” or understand and rank them in image search results. Best practices for image SEO include:Using descriptive file names

• Adding alt text that clearly describes the image
• Compressing image size to improve page speed
• Using responsive images that load properly on mobile and desktop

Yes, search engines and readers love freshly-updated website content. Use tools like GA4 or Ahrefs to identify and optimize underperforming pages. Content refreshes are also a great way to keep your top pages performing well in search. A few ways to refresh content include: Expanding thin content

• Refreshing stats and examples
• Tightening up keyword targeting
• Adding fresh visuals 
• Improving UX and formatting

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken “off” your website — like earning backlinks from reputable sources, securing reviews, and building strong social signals — to power your site’s authority and search rankings. 

Link building is earning “backlinks” from other authority websites to your own. Backlinks act as votes of confidence that your site is reputable, and they can improve your site’s authority and rankings.

Creating relevant, citation-worthy content will earn you natural backlinks to your site. Certain types of pages — like original research, guides, or tools and calculators — are “link magnets” that automatically attract links to your site. You can also “outreach” journalists or industry experts and ask them to share your content with their audience via links.

It’s important to focus on backlink quality — earning links from credible, trustworthy sites — over quantity. A single backlink from a high-authority, trusted site can carry more SEO value than dozens of low-quality links that may hurt your reputation and rankings.

No, you should not buy links as you’ll risk violating Google’s guidelines. Paid links from low-quality sites can result in penalties, lost rankings, and even deindexing. Instead, focus on earning links naturally with helpful content. 

PageRank is Google’s original algorithm for measuring the importance of web pages based on the quality and quantity of links pointing to them. While Google no longer updates public PageRank scores, the concept still influences rankings. Domain Authority (DA), created by Moz, estimates how competitive a website is in search results by analyzing its backlinks and overall site strength.

Yes, SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz let you analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles. You can discover which sites link to competitors, evaluate link quality, and identify opportunities to earn similar backlinks for your own site.

Technical SEO involves optimizing your website’s infrastructure, so search engines can crawl, index, and rank it effectively. It includes factors like site speed, mobile-friendliness, secure HTTPS, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, and structured data.

PageSpeed Insights is a free Google tool that analyzes page performance on desktop and mobile, while Core Web Vitals are Google’s set of metrics that measure user experience. They focus on three things: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) for loading speed, First Input Delay (FID) for interactivity, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) for visual stability. Google recommends aiming for:

• LCP: under 2.5 seconds
• FID: under 100 milliseconds
• CLS: under 0.1

Robots.txt is a text file on your website that tells search crawlers which pages or sections of your site to crawl and skip. It’s not required for every site, but it’s helpful if you want to block bots from wasting crawl budget on duplicate pages, staging or test environments, or other non-public content.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is the secure version of HTTP, which encrypts data exchanged between a website and its visitors. It protects user privacy and builds trust by showing the padlock icon in browsers. For SEO, HTTPS is a confirmed ranking signal — Google favors secure sites in search results.

Schema markup, also called structured data, is code added to your website to help search engines better understand content. It uses a standardized vocabulary (Schema.org) to tag details like reviews, products, events, or FAQs — and it can enhance your listings with rich results like star ratings, event info, or expandable FAQ boxes.

A sitemap is a file that lists the pages on your website to help search engines crawl and index them more efficiently. There are two main types of sitemaps: 

• XML sitemaps: Designed for search engines like Googlebot and Bingbot and use machine-readable XML code. 
• HTML sitemaps: Designed for human visitors as webpages with links.  

XML sitemaps are the standard recommended by Google for SEO, but HTML sitemaps can enhance human experience and accessibility. 

Mobile SEO is optimizing your website for mobile devices to provide a fast, user-friendly experience on smaller screens. Mobile-first indexing — first announced in 2016 — means Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site (not desktop) when evaluating and ranking content. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it will undermine your site’s rankings and visibility.

You can identify technical SEO errors by running audits with tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush, or Screaming Frog. These tools flag issues like broken links, crawl errors, missing metadata, slow-loading pages, and mobile experience problems that impact your rankings.

Local SEO involves optimizing your website and online presence, so your business shows up in location-based search queries like “hvac company near me” or “mechanics in harrisburg.” It focuses on strategies like: 

• Google Business Profile optimization 
• Earning local citations
• Managing reviews
• Ensuring NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency

Local citations are online mentions or listings of your NAP details (name, address, phone number) on directories (like Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and Yelp), website, and apps. These citations build trust with search engines, improve local rankings, and help customers find updated information about your business.

Google uses online reviews as trust and relevance signals. Earning consistent, positive reviews can boost your visibility in the local pack and Google Maps, so more people can find and visit your local business.

The local pack, often shown with a map, is the group of three business listings that appear at the top of Google results for location-based queries. To “rank” or show up in the local pack, you’ll need to optimize your Google Business Profile, earn local citations and business reviews, and ensure consistent NAP details across the web.

NAP refers to name, address, and phone number. It’s important to maintain consistent NAP mentions across directories, listings, and online mentions to avoid confusing search engines and customers and damaging your credibility and local rankings. 

Local SEO is a valuable investment for companies that service customers in a specific geographic area, including brick-and-mortar retailers, restaurants, healthcare providers, law firms, home service companies, franchises, and more. With local SEO, businesses with physical locations can increase foot traffic by showing up in “near me” searches and Google Maps.

Your website may not be ranking for a number of reasons, including:

• Targeting high-competition keywords 
• Weak or “thin” content that doesn’t answer search intent
• Lack of authority backlinks
• Technical problems like crawl errors or slow page speed 
• Google penalties or manual actions

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of time, especially for new websites. Remember, SEO can take 3-6 months for results. For more information, check out our troubleshooting guide for website rankings. 

Organic traffic can drop for several reasons, including:

• Google algorithm updates
• Technical issues that block crawling and indexing
• Increased competition
• Outdated content
• Seasonal trends and shifts in search behavior
• And more 

Check out our website traffic troubleshooting guide to diagnose and fix your traffic drops.

A Google penalty, also called a manual action, happens when Google’s review team determines that a site violates Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines). This can happen due to manipulative link practices, thin or duplicate content, keyword stuffing, or other spammy tactics. A manual action can cause specific pages or an entire site to lose rankings until the issues are resolved and a reconsideration request is approved.

To recover from a Google penalty, start by identifying the cause. Use Google Search Console to check for manual actions, audit your backlinks for spammy links, and review your content for quality or duplication issues. For manual penalties, you’ll need to submit a reconsideration request after fixing the problem(s). If your rankings dropped due to algorithm updates, focus on improving site quality, content relevance, and overall user experience.

Google makes small changes to its search algorithm every day (thousands of updates per year). Most updates are minor, but a few times each year, Google rolls out broad core updates that significantly impact rankings. When this happens, sites may see gains or drops depending on content quality, relevance, and technical health.

Most times, it’s best to keep your content housed under one main domain vs. dividing it across multiple domains. A single domain makes it easier to build backlinks, concentrate domain authority, and manage SEO. Multiple domains may make sense if you operate in different countries with unique content or have distinct brands or separate franchise locations. 

Rich results, also called rich snippets, are enhanced search listings that include extra details like star ratings, images, prices, FAQs, or event information. You can optimize for rich results by:

• Creating relevant content
• Adding schema markup (and testing with Google’s Rich Results Test)
• Following Google’s’ structured data guidelines
• Optimizing user experience

Your website’s organization or architecture should make it easy for search engines and visitors to quickly navigate and find information. To optimize your site architecture and linking (especially on larger sites): 

• Use clear URL structures. 
• Keep your hierarchy shallow (no more than 3-4 clicks from homepage).
• Create strong internal links between key sections of your site.
• Make breadcrumb trails short, logical, and consistent.
• Update your XML sitemap.

AI and LLMs are transforming the information discovery process, with 25% of search results now containing an AI Overview. Google’s AI Overviews help match results more closely to search intent, rewarding clear, relevant content. At the same time, LLM tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot now answer questions directly, which can cut into website traffic. 

In today’s AI era, it’s no longer enough to optimize for search engines. At WebFX, we recommend a holistic approach we’re calling OmniSEO™️ that focuses on discovery across traditional search, AI answers, chatbots, social media, and more.

Zero-click searches answer queries directly on the search results page — through features like featured snippets, knowledge panels, and AI Overviews — without users needing to click a website link. Often, zero-click searches result in lower organic traffic, but you can adapt your SEO strategy by optimizing for rich results, targeting longer-tail queries, and building brand visibility across discovery channels from traditional search to LLM citations, social search, and more. 

• Google Keyword Planner: Get search volume and keyword ideas straight from Google Ads.
• Keywords Everywhere: See search volume, CPC, and competition metrics, directly in Google results (Chrome extension).
• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator: Compile keyword ideas from Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon, along with difficulty scores.

• Google Search Console: Monitor your website’s indexing, performance, and crawl errors. 
• Screaming Frog: Crawl your site to find broken links, redirects, and metadata issues.
• PageSpeed Insights: Test site performance and speed on desktop and mobile devices.

• Ahrefs Backlink Checker: View backlinks (and domain rating scores) for links pointing to your website pages. 
• Moz Link Explorer: Review linking domains and authority scores.
• Semrush Backlink Analytics: Analyze backlink profile and discover new link opportunities.

• Google Business Profile Manager: Optimize and update your business listing details and share important updates. 
• Whitespark: Discover and claim local citation opportunities. 

• Google Trends: Track keyword popularity and seasonal search patterns. 
• Ahrefs Content Explorer: Get SEO content ideas on any topic. 

• Google Analytics 4: Tracks user behavior, traffic sources, and conversions, so you can measure SEO ROI.
• Google Search Console: Monitor your website’s indexing, performance, and crawl errors. 

• Surfer: Research and write SEO-optimized content. 
• ChatGPT: Assist with drafting blog posts, FAQs, meta descriptions, and brainstorming content ideas. 
• TeamAI: Collaborate and easily share prompts across your team.

Google Analytics 4 lets you track how visitors find, interact, and convert on your website. For SEO, you can use GA4 to: 

• See traffic sources: Identify traffic from organic search vs. other channels like paid ads or email. 
• Monitor content performance: See your best and worst-performing SEO pages to guide optimizations.
• Track engagement metrics: Measure time on page, scroll depth, and bounce rates to understand user behavior.
• Set up conversion tracking: Tie organic traffic to leads, sales, or other key actions.
• Compare content performance: Spot your best and worst-performing SEO pages to guide updates.

For more information on GA4 setup and usage, check out our GA4 guide for beginners. 

Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that lets you monitor and troubleshoot your site visibility and performance. You can use GSC for SEO to:

• Check indexing: View which pages are indexed and fix coverage errors.
• Monitor keyword performance: Evaluate impressions, clicks, CTR, and average ranking for your top keywords.
• Inspect URLs: Test specific pages to see if Google can crawl and index them.
• Identify technical issues: Spot crawl errors, mobile usability problems, or Core Web Vitals issues.
• Submit sitemaps: Help Google discover your most important pages faster.

Check out our Google Search Console guide to learn more. 

Some of the best blogs for staying up-to-date on SEO include: 

• Google Search Central Blog
• Moz Blog 
• Search Engine Journal 
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Backlinko Blog
• WebFX Blog 
• SEO.com Blog 

An SEO agency helps clients manage visibility in search results, so they can earn more qualified leads and revenue. SEO agencies can help manage: 

• Competitor audits 
• Keyword research
• On-page optimization
• Technical SEO fixes 
• Content strategy 
• Link building
• Website performance & monitoring
• And more!  

Some agencies specialize in SEO optimization, while full-service SEO agencies — like WebFX — can help clients unify marketing efforts across channels like search, paid advertising, social media, email, and more to maximize revenue from digital marketing. 

Check out our guide to learn more about what SEO companies do and how they can help you grow.

SEO service deliverables vary depending on the provider you choose. Some common SEO services include: 

• SEO audit and strategy: Audit your existing website and SEO strategy to identify opportunities and create a custom optimization plan. 
• Keyword research: Identify the most valuable keywords for your business and map them to content.
• On-page optimization: Improve title tags, metas, headings, and internal links. 
• Content creation and optimization: Create and refresh pages to target keywords and match search intent. 
• Technical SEO: Fix crawl errors, speed up your website, optimize for mobile users, and manage your sitemaps and robots.txt.
• Link building and off-page SEO: Earn valuable links to your site from reputable, relevant sources.
• Local SEO: Update your Google Business Profile, manage citations, and earn reviews to boost your visibility in local searches. 
• Analytics and reporting: Track your website rankings, traffic, leads, conversions, and SEO ROI.

The decision to hire an SEO agency or do SEO in-house depends on factors like your budget, goals, and resources. Agencies bring specialized expertise, access to premium tools, and the ability to scale quickly. In-house SEO offers more control and brand knowledge, but it often requires hiring multiple specialists to cover content, technical, and strategy needs.

You may want to hire an SEO agency if:

• You want access to a full team of experts to assist with everything from SEO content to link building and analytics. 
• You want enterprise-level tools and reporting
• You want proven expertise and cutting-edge insights that keep your SEO current  

You may want to do SEO in-house if:

• You have the budget to manage a dedicated SEO team.
• You work in an industry with specific regulations or insider knowledge agencies may struggle to grasp.
• You want more control over daily tasks and project execution. 

To learn more, check out our full guide on agency vs. in-house SEO.

Choose an SEO agency by evaluating their experience, case studies, and industry expertise. Look for transparent reporting, realistic promises (no guaranteed #1 rankings), and a strategy tailored to your goals. A good agency should communicate clearly, provide ongoing support, and demonstrate proven results through client testimonials or measurable ROI.

SEO agencies work with clients across a range of industries, including ecommerce, home services, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, SaaS, legal, education, real estate, and more. While some agencies are more general, others focus on specific industry niches. Choosing an SEO partner that understands your industry and unique business is paramount for driving results tailored to your goals.

When choosing an SEO agency, look out for these red flags that signal unreputable providers: 

• Guarantee #1 rankings 
• Offer “cheap” SEO pricing
• Rely on buying links or spammy tactics
• Have bad reviews
• Don’t publish case studies or client results 
• Lack transparent pricing & reporting
• Don’t rank at the top of search results

In 2025, most businesses pay $2,500 per month for SEO services. 

SEO pricing varies based on a number of factors like:

• Scope of work: Full-service, monthly SEO is more of an investment compared to a one-off optimization project or campaign. 
• Business size and industry: Larger, more competitive businesses and industries require more resources and funding. 
• Goals and timeline: Aggressive, quick-turnaround campaigns cost more than long-term growth strategies. 
• Provider: Hiring an SEO agency is typically cheaper and gives you access to a full team of experts vs. onboarding and managing multiple in-house employees. 

Visit our SEO pricing guide to learn more. 

SEO KPIs or key performance indicators help you monitor campaign progress and make updates to maximize ROI. Some top KPIs to watch include: 

• Keyword rankings 
• Organic traffic
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversions & leads
• Cost per lead (CPL)
• Bounce and engagement metrics 
• Backlinks (growth and quality) 

SEO ROI = (Organic Revenue – SEO Costs) ÷ SEO Costs × 100

To measure SEO ROI, compare the revenue generated from organic search with the total cost of your SEO investment. This means tracking conversions in GA4 (form fills, calls, purchases), attributing revenue to organic sessions, and calculating cost per lead or customer lifetime value against your SEO spend. You can track SEO ROI with tools like GA4 custom goal tracking and RevenueCloudFX.