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| 1 | What is the difference between HTML sitemaps and XML sitemaps? | XML sitemap is a file that lists the primary web pages of a site for search engines to crawl and evaluate for ranking. It also helps search engines understand the site’s structure. HTML sitemaps are generally designed for users (not crawlers and bots). HTML sitemaps list every subpage of the website, which are often found in the website’s footer for user visibility. |
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| 2 | Can we give customers access to our Google properties (Analytics, Search Console, Tag Manager, etc.)? | No, we cannot grant customers access to our Google properties. However, customers can create their own GTM and Analytics codes that we can implement alongside our own. By doing so, they can track the same data we are collecting and using for their SEO campaigns. Reference this resource for GTM terminology and how to help customers set up GA/GTM codes: /wiki/spaces/DSCS/pages/3937501799 |
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| 3 | How important is the URL structure of a webpage? Does it need to be Search Engine Friendly to gain higher rankings? | While clear and concise URLs are the most readable for both humans and search engines, it is one of over 200 ranking factors that search engines use to evaluate a website. Depending on the context, having optimized URLs can be slightly beneficial in competitive searches against massively authoritative websites. For example, trying to rank for "nike shoes for sale" in the midst of Nike, Amazon, and other well-known vendors. However, beyond that marginal benefit, optimized SEF URLs by themselves will not lead to top rankings. In short, the impact a SEF URL has on SEO performance is minimal. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that optimized URLs generate high rankings. What does offer greater value for rankings is quality on-page optimization. Examples SEF: Non-SEF: |
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| 4 | How soon can a website reach the front page of search results? | With SEO there’s no such thing as a guarantee. It takes time for search engines to crawl and index sites and for the work that we do to begin to make an impact on rankings. Typically you will begin to see some positive movement in ranks in the first couple months as search engines begin to associate the pages that we have optimized with the keywords we were targeting. |
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| 5 | Why do we need a list of a client's competitors? | Looking at your competitors provides us with more data so that we can better gauge how your SEO campaign is performing and progressing. We also look to your competitors to see how they are ranking and for what search terms or keywords which gives us a better idea of the audience in your geography. Additionally, of course we would love to see your site ranking above your competitors so we do also reference their campaign to see where there is opportunity for your site to outrank. |
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| 6 | Can we rank for a target location 5 hours away? What about ranking for the entire nation? | Target Locations 4+ Hours Away With SEO being a localized marketing strategy, we tend to work within about an hour to two-hour driving radius. That said, once we have established a solid ranking authority in your immediate local areas, we can absolutely begin to push out that radius and focus on further away locations, however the results are not always as reliably effective due to the distance. Nation SEO focuses on improving your organic rankings in your local area. The best strategy is to start out local and then as we continue to make progress in your local area, we can continue to push our radius out further. Google and search engines know where your dealership is located and there is no such thing as tricking it into thinking you’re located somewhere that you’re not. So for example, if you’re trying to target California but you’re located in Texas, Google is going to provide users searching for keywords related to your inventory in California with generally California results because Google is always trying to give users the best possible search results and in this situation if there is a dealership down the road from the user vs. a dealership a few states away from the user, Google is going to typically suggest that dealership that is down the road. That said, there has been some success with targeting statewide searches a bit further out and that is something we can definitely explore down the line but we absolutely want to focus on your local area within about an hour to two hours drive first as we start your campaign. |
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| 7 | The report says XX keyword is ranked number 1 in search results, but appears on the 2nd page when I search? | Our reporting tools are average ranking over the course of the month - a lot of times search results are customized for the person searching based upon search history Search engines aren’t stable, they are constantly changing. We set our rankings based upon mobile rankings, if they’re searching on a desktop these results could differ. |
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| 8 | When can I change my content focus? | Ideally, content focuses should be discussed on monthly reporting calls and made in advance of the month the content is proposed for. Current reporting covers the content plan for the next 3 months. If a customer would like to make a content changes please submit that change via an SEO Support case. |
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| 9 | Can I change a content request during the month it is planned for? | If we received a content change request during the month it is planned to be written, the SEO and Content teams will attempt to accommodate the request. If we have not already completed the piece we will make the swap for the customer. When the customer asks it is best to answer that we will attempt to swap it for the month, but it has already been written we will schedule the request for the following month. Then work with the SEO team to attempt the swap via an SEO Support case. |
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| 10 | Will we write customer requests instead of our content plan? | Short version, our content plan is based on keyword research and designed to drive SEO improvement for the customer based on our data analysis. We will absolutely honor customer content requests in place of our current content plan. However, that will likely be at the expense of long-term SEO improvement as the customer request likely will not have the same level of SEO impact. |
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| 11 | What is the typical content calendar over the course of an SEO campaign? |
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| 12 | Why do we focus on adding content to SRP(filtered inventory list pages) over blog posts? |
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| 13 | Can we share full keyword lists with customers? | No, we cannot share full Can we share full keyword lists with customers? | No, we cannot share full keyword lists with customers. The keyword lists reflect our proprietary process and hours of research and cultivation. It’s our secret sauce to running our SEO campaigns and we are therefore not able to share full keyword lists with customers. Additionally, we track potential focus keywords in these lists. Some of which we may never focus on. These keywords will have low rank and convey a potentially inaccurate and negative impression of our SEO campaign progress. If the customer has specific concerns regarding keywords please ask for details and pass them along to SEO via and SEO Support case. We can provide performance context for keywords. Add additional keywords to focus on etc. There is one exception. If a customer is able to co-op their SEO campaign we can share a keyword list, likely focused on just keywords relevant to a single OEM. That said, SEO co-op is extremely rare and this is very unlikely to occur. |
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| 12 | What is the typical content calendar over the course of an SEO campaign? |
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| 13 | Why do we focus on adding content to SRP(filtered inventory list pages) over blog posts? |
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| 14 | Can we add customer requested keywords to our tracking list? | In progress… We can…. but they may not be valuable doesn’t mean we’ll focus on them. |
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