Q. Everybody is talking about SEO in the emails for large and small business, YouTube, freelancers etc, we are seeing it everywhere. So please tell us what is this rush all about?

Sure, I will get into it. When I started SEO back in 2010, nobody knew about SEO then. I used to get asked a lot about what I did and I use to tell them that I do SEO.

And they didn’t understand what SEO what was and they used think it is something that was not easily available. There was no common knowledge about SEO back then.

As you know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and talking about the Search Engine when you think about it, the first thing that comes to your mind is Google.

So SEO basically means optimizing your website for Google.

SEO started somewhere around 2010 or a little before than that so since then people started learning about SEO, how it works, how it can help your website.

And other things like how it can help you get traffic, reach on top of Google and how the traffic is going to be useful for the website, etc.

The traffic that you get from SEO is genuine and real and can help with sales.

People started to discover that SEO is nothing like Google Ads, Facebook Ads where you just put money and it benefits you for a particular period of time as long as the ad is running.

Instead it is something where you invest money and stay continuous with it and see long-term results like people will come to know about your brand, intent audience, etc.

I would say SEO if not a gold rush, it is at a place where it deserves to be there. It is getting value which is should be getting. 

When you are putting your money in SEO instead of ads you will get better and long-term ROI..

Small business who do have big budget to run ads, SEO and multiple campaigns but are looking to beat bigger brands then SEO if the thing for them.

There are over 1 Billion website son the internet and if you see Google SERP, only top 10 website can be on Page 1.

SEO is the thing, every marketer, every individual should peek into this that how it works and how it can generate amazing results.

Q. Small business, consultants on small level, especially those who just set up their business, are worried that is SEO that important? Should they be focusing on SEO instead of marketing their product or focusing on daily operations?

Because if you look 3 years back, SEO was still not that popular but things have changed over and SEO has completely taken over. Is the internet for bigger brands? Will Google not recognize smaller brands?

SEO is not a problem, instead it’s a solution to so many problems you might come across when you run a business.

Let’s talk about doctors. A doctor is getting patients but if he is also investing in SEO, he will not only get normal audience that he was getting but also he will start getting more leads through online.

So it will be beneficial for him as more will come to know about him online and can reach him out.

This same goes for other small businesses too. Offline people will come but there is scope that through SEO more people will get to know about the business.

It will be an addition to the business already existing income.

Secondly, I will get into basics of SEO. It is not necessary that you need to put in $1000s into SEO. You can always start small. Or if you do not have enough to hire someone then you can do it on your own as well.

There are two types of SEO, they are On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. 

On-Page SEO as the name suggests it is about on the page. If you have a website, let’s take my site Samblogs.com, every changes that has to be done on the website such as changing the Title, Content, H1 Tags etc, it all comes under On Page SEO.

For example, if a dentist wants to target local people in Jaipur then his title would be “Best Dentist in Jaipur”. Then in content he will have “Quick Remedy for Root Canal”.

So this will give Search Engine an idea about that he is targeting Jaipur audience and providing dental services.

This is what On-Page SEO is.

Then comes Off-Page SEO, it includes building links on a different site that links back to your website.

For example, I will go to a Press Release site, submit an article related to dental services and then link it back to my client’s website, which is about dental services.

That way, he will get referral traffic from the Press Release website and improve his search engine rankings.

So when somebody goes and types on Google “Best Dentist in Jaipur” then his website will appear on top and then the audience from Jaipur in need of a dentist can reach out to him.

And as he stays continuous with SEO, his traffic will improve, that would lead to more sales and revenue.

SEO is more like a solution to helping small owners build their business.

It is not must, if you are doing offline business. But as the things are changing, a lot of things are going online, especially we saw things going digital during pandemic.

So, it is better to have that online mindset and have your presence online that includes having a website, Facebook Page, LinkedIn Page so anyone looking for a service that you provide can easily contact you.

As it will help you build your brand and way to compete with big brands and businesses.

Q. Can you tell us the myths about SEO that are going on around people?

There are so many myths about SEO as there are not fixed guidelines about it. There is nobody you can go to and will surely tell you the fixed rules and tactics you can follow.

Different people have different tactics, strategies, ways to reach on top when it comes to SEO. And this is why we have so many misconceptions about it as it is a vast field.

I will cover the basic conceptions here:

1. SEO is a one-time thing.

So many webmasters come to me saying that they have a very limited budget so they want to rank on top of Google SERP in one month.

SEO doesn’t work like that, it is a continuous SEO process. You need to stay regular with SEO as it can help you generate huge ROI as compared to Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc.

Business owners should have a separate budget for SEO and keep in mind it is a continuous process. This is one of the biggest myths.

2. Link Quantity is more Important than Link Quality.

People think that if they 2000 links and their competitor has only 200 backlinks then they are ahead of their competitors. But it does not work like that.

In fact it is about quality of links you are getting. If you have a high quality link coming from high authority website then it can be more effective as compared 100 links coming from average websites.

For example, a link coming from facebook can be more beneficial as compared to a link coming from an unknown website.

So it is more about link quality not link quantity.

3. SEO is dead.

It is common that people think SEO is dead since search engines are getting smarter, algorithms have changed and have updated to a new level so there is no scope of SEO.

But that’s not true, it is very much alive. The tactics and algorithms may have changed but if you apply proper SEO strategies and upgrade them as per the algorithms so you are bound to see results.

Q. Can you tell how many websites can be ranked on Google because if you go any expert he will say that he will rank you on top of the Google? So can you clear it for us?

Yes, it is a very interesting, common and funny thing going around in the online world.

So I would say before you hire an SEO Agency/Consultant, you should get your SEO basics knowledge and do your proper research about the agency and services they will be providing.

Because SEO has become very common and a lot of people are claiming to be SEO experts and since there are no certifications from Google about SEO you cannot vouch that the respective person can actually get you on top.

So if you are getting mails from such people you can skip them. If you are looking to hire someone then get a proper research done regarding them.

And best way to know is how well their website is ranking in Google for their industry like if they are ranking for terms like “SEO company in India” then they will be genuine.

Apart from that you can check out for certifications, reviews and awards they have got so that can be helpful.

Q. How long does it take for SEO to work and how do we know if it is working? And any tips for small businesses?

There are tools that can help you understand if your SEO if working or not.

Here are top two tools that I trust and I would recommend to track your SEO progress:

1. Ahrefs.com:

It is an all-in-one tool paid tool (third party tool), that will provide you overall stats and data of your website. So when you are just getting started in terms SEO.

You can take a note of your website’s initial stats using Ahrefs.com so that you can know where you stand as of now.

Take a note of things like your Domain Rating (DR), Backlinks, Referring Domains, Organic Keywords, Organic Traffic, etc.

Let’s say the DR is 0, Organic Traffic is 10, you have 100 Backlinks as the initial stats.

So once you have them and then once your SEO is done you can go back to that tool and analyze your website again, the stats would improve if you are doing good SEO.

That’s how you can know if the SEO campaign worked for you.

2. Google Analytics.

It is free tool by Google itself. You can verify your ownership when you are getting started with the tool.

It can help you analyze all the traffic sources of your website. You can know how much traffic you are getting from different sources like LinkedIn, Google Search, other social media handles, etc.

So that you can know what part of marketing is working for you and what is not.

It can also help you compare data for a particular period to its previous period.

These are free and paid SEO tools that business can use if they want to track the progress of the SEO.

Q. When you are doing SEO then is it only for Google that the websites are getting optimized or are there any other Search Engines that get taken care of?

If you know your audience and target keywords then you are not just optimizing for Google, you are optimizing for others like Yahoo, Bing YouTube etc, especially talking about the services I provide.

There are some people who optimizing for Amazon, Flipkart etc as they are selling their products on those platforms so they want to be on top.

So it is not just about Google Search, it is about optimizing for all the search engines.

But there are small differences in terms of techniques and strategies when you are optimizing for other search engines mostly because 80% of the traffic that people get is from Google.

As 20% of the traffic comes from these other searches so when we optimize we take care of all of them.

Q. How do people get on Snippets? Does SEO help in ranking on the Snippets? Because I have seen websites featuring/ranking on snippets on top even though they are not ranking anywhere in Google top results.

If you see the trends in 2008 or 2010, there were no featured snippets back then. But it is something new and people are dominating it because of Structured Data.

If you can optimize each page for structural data then you are signaling Google that you are answering for this particular query.

But it is not about just question, you need to take are of all the aspects like location.

Because if you search for “restaurants in Jaipur” then it will provide you with searches closest to your location.

Optimizing for Structured Data is quite difficult and complicated. You will have to have the right expert and techniques to rank for these featured snippets.

And even for these there is a huge competition and Google is very picky about this when it comes to ranking on top for the snippets.

But for these you will have to optimize you website well enough in terms of SEO especially locally which includes having a map, good reviews, etc.

Business can focus on ranking for snippets but they would require expert to help them.

Q. Is SEO safe? Because when you get started into in you are making a lot of changes on the website, buying links, etc. So is there anything you need to be worried when it comes to SEO?

People have doubts when they wanted to get started with it, even new clients ask me “Are your services safe?”. Because as we discussed there are no fixed guidelines.

So I would say it is safe and unsafe as well because it depends on how you want to work and play.

When it comes to SEO, there are two types, BlackHat SEO and WhiteHat SEO.

BlackHat SEO is when you don’t care about taking risks such as penalties, you just want to reach on top and get results as fast as possible.

There are blackhat techniques that can help you reach on top like redirects, keyword stuffing, and you can reach on top within a few weeks.

But the rankings will not stay for a longer period of time. Because Google will catch the website and penalize it.

WhiteHat SEO is on the safe side, it takes time like 1 Year, 2 Years or even more than that. It depend on your industry and keywords.

If your keywords are easy then you may start seeing results from 2nd month onwards but if they are hard then it can take months or even years to rank them on top.

So if you have patience and have a legit business that you do not want to risk and build it over time then WhitHat SEO is the one for you.

Q. How can business know and make sure safe SEO is being done for their websites?

You should always ask your agency if we are doing safe SEO. It should be a question you need to ask them before getting started.

Because there are WhiteHat and BlackHat techniques, a small business won’t easily know. So it can be tricky for the business to be sure.

Second one would be if they are promising you top rankings in a very short span of time then it should be your trigger to know it will not be safe.

For safe SEO I would recommend you 3 tips:

1. Know your audience

So you should know what audience you are looking to target and how they can easily reach out to you especially what terms.

For example, for grocery shops the targeted term would be “grocery shop near me”

So every business should know what terms the audience can use to find them, prepare a list of those keywords. It is also called keyword research.

2. Create Quality Content.

You need to create content to please your audience. 

For example, I am looking for a dentist and I go on a website and see that he has only mentioned his number and address.

And no information about the services he provides, no tutorials how the procedures work, no blog posts or FAQs section to answer my general queries. I wouldn’t want to get help from him.

So once you know your audience you need to create quality content that can answer their questions.

3. Get Relevant Links.

While acquiring backlinks for your website, your goal should be getting as relevant links as you can get.

For example, if you have SEO website then you need to focus on getting links from websites that are related to SEO, not from someone selling groceries.

So these are basic safe SEO techniques that business should follow.

Q. Does the already existing or in general does the AI content impact Google SERP rankings? Because Google has had they will not be promoting content written by tools. So how can business deal with that?

You are right that there are so many AI writers that can produce 10K or 20K words of content very quickly. And the content produce is very original and genuine that if you read you cannot make out if it is manually written or written by AI.

As we understand Google, it is bound to catch it sooner or later.  As of August 2022, if you are using AI written content you are good because there are no algorithms to catch it.

But in a few years Google will probable be able to catch it. You can still use that content and do one thing.

For example, we did for our client, we were putting 10K words content 5 times, which means we were putting about 50K words content each month.

So what we did, we added a human editor between it. 

Once the content is published, we can ask an expert in writing to read the content and edit. It may take a writer to write 10K+ about 2-3 days but he can read it and edit in 3-4 hours.

So this way you can get the content writer faster but once it is edited by a person, it does not look like AI generated content and Google cannot catch.

Second thing would be there are tools like Copyscape where you can look out for duplicate content. You just need to put the content in the tool.

And it will check and show you results if it has been used by anyone on Google.

So if you get AI based content written and add human interference to it and passes through Copyscape then you are good to go.

Q. How is Web 3.0 going to change my understanding of SEO? Would I need to start all from scratch?

We will start from basics, Web 1.0 was ready only where you can go and read the information.

Web 2.0 also known as Interactive App that included user generated content like blogs, comments, social media sites like twitter, facebook, etc.

Now we have Web 3.0 that has potential to make web more personalized. It will include decentralization, blockchain technology and token based economics.

Having said that, SEO won’t die in web 3.0, it will be very much alive. Even Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller has confirmed that SEO will not die because Search Engine is going to be there.

The only thing is interaction can be different. For example, earlier you used to search “First President of India”.

But in Web 3.0, you may have alexa listening to you where you search “Who was the first President of India” so that this how things will change.

So you search term has changed but SEO is going to be there. We all still need search engines and have queries.

Web 3.0 is here but SEO is not dying it will be there forever and better!