Rand Asks SEOs to Answer These Ten Questions

[incrediblehelp]

Have you guys seen this thread from SEOmoz Rand Fishkin?

Answer these Ten Questions Before You Charge for SEO Services

Here is a re-cap of the questions:

1. What four search engines comprise 90%+ of all general (non site-specific) web search traffic?

2. Explain the concept - "the long tail of search."

3. Name the three most important elements in the head section of an HTML document that are employed by search engines.

4. How do search engines treat content inside an IFrame?

5. What resource and query can you use to determine which pages link to any page on SEOmoz.org and contain the words "monkey" and "turnip"?

6. What action does Google threaten against websites that sell links without the use of "nofollow"?

7. What is the difference between local link popularity and global link popularity?

8. Why is Alexa an inaccurate way to estimate the traffic to a given website?

9. Name four types of queries for which Google provides "instant answers" or "onebox results" ahead of the standard web results.

10. Describe why a flat site architecture is typically more advantageous for search engine rankings than a deep site architecture.

11. BONUS (Answer this one and I'll be very impressed): Name twelve unique metrics search engines are suspected to consider when weighting links and how each affects rankings positively or negatively.

I went ahead and played along and answered them all here at my blog. Only took a few minutes, but not sure if all are right. The questions were confusing for a few of them. I do agree with the premise. Before hiring an SEO you should have a solid list of questions to ask the prospective employee/agency/company your looking to hire.

What does everyone think about the questions???????

[carpediem]

Looks like your answers were spot on Jaan. Kudos!

What does everyone think about the questions???????

I think Rand covered the bases for the basics and I hope that he will post another like it; hopefully a more advanced one that we can chew on. Very good link bait, I might add. With 87 comments to the post alone, it certainly created some buzz.

Danielle

[incrediblehelp]

Danielle yeah I also thought it was very basic.

Pretty much all posts on that blog now get around a 100 comments on it. Plenty of the ole "Nice post Mr. XYZ" or "Good job" or "Yeah right on"..... blaaaaah.

[kgun]

Jaan, you are coming closer to the RedCarpetRank. Great info as usual. Will look at your answers when (if) I get time.

[SemAdvance]

Too basic in my eyes.

Heres a few from advanced class.

Explain why an algorithm must be used to determine search rankings.

Explain how an algorithm works.

Explain how algorithmic aberrations and spikes effect your search rankings.

What could a site owner, developer, or SEO do, to cause the aberrations and / or spikes to filter search ranking results?

Explain why a search engine would prefer to use the algorithm to filter out black hat spam as opposed to using hand banning practices.

No one line answers as others are reading ;->

[incrediblehelp]

Explain why an algorithm must be used to determine search rankings.

The simplest answer is cost/time effectiveness. Manual edits are not effective, so having an automated process to do this is absolutely necessary. The harder answer is, currently it "should" provide better results. As we know now the combination of both works decent, but not ideal. As the SE become smarter so will the alog and the higer quality of results we shall see.

Explain how an algorithm works.

Well what algorithm? An algorithm is nothing more than mathematical formal that outputs an answer/solves problem.

Explain how algorithmic aberrations and spikes effect your search rankings.

To me I think the "aberrations" that you see in various algorithm is directly related to how the SE's fight SPAM. Of course they are trying to improve relevance of the algo all of the time so this can cause these swings in how SE's rank websites as well.

What could a site owner, developer, or SEO do, to cause the aberrations and / or spikes to filter search ranking results?

Probably making changes to your website. If your changing the URLs, content of website, backlinks or internal links...all of these can affect your ranking good or bad. When doing any of these your bound to see changes in your rankings.

Explain why a search engine would prefer to use the algorithm to filter out black hat spam as opposed to using hand banning practices.

Like said above it is basically impossible to hand edit the quantity of pages that currently exist online.

I think these questions are better answered in a forum where people can talk, instead of typing them out.

[incrediblehelp]

What does everyone think about his answers?

Answers to Ten SEO Questions & Some New Questions from Danny Sullivan

How about Danny Sullivan's new questions?

1. How do you seize control of a local listing on Google? On Yahoo? What fields can you change? How do you add a picture?
2. What elements are important to ranking well in Google Video and YouTube?
3. How do you get into Google News? In particular, what unique structure do your URLs need to reflect to even be considered?
4. Google Blog Search -- full text or indexing off whatever you put out in feeds?
5. How do you submit to Google Product Search? Yahoo Product Search?
6. Do you have to have a mobile web site to be in Google Mobile? Yaho Mobile?
7. How do you know if Google is personalizing your web results?

[kgun]

1. Explain the concept - “the long tail of search.”
   
   The long tail in its most simplistic definition is using multiple keywords to form a long phrase when searching. Instead of looking for “DVD player” a long tail search would be “Sony DVD player in Toledo Ohio”
   
   Disagree a little. Too simple answer in my view. It is also about competitiveness, context and lateral thinking.
   
   Link: AllStar Web Marketing Blog: The Long Tail: SEO Tips
2. Ok
3. Ok
4. Too easy? Note the word, treat.
5. Allinanchor: Important search operator. Is that enough? May he think of third party tools?
6. Good answer.
7. Here, as a SEO expert, you know more than me.
8. OK.
9. Same as 7.
10. Agree.
11. Impressing. What about internal linking, LSI and Web 2.0 SEO factors ? The last one is very important in my view.

I could have used more time to comment your answers. Hope other follow up on this important topic. Good enough answers to get a link in my second signature link (bait / farm).

I hope your link is a perma link, since I try to minimize the amount of broken links on my sites.

[Peter (IMC)]

What experience do you all have in selling SEO services? Most (not all) clients aren't going to study SEO before they hire somebody or a company to do SEO on their website. They know SEO can give high rankings, and that´s what they want. Throwing a whole bunch of knowledge on the table is going to confuse them more than impress them. (I know this by experience )

Does all the knowledge that is required turn into results? I've seen many "optimized" websites and even though html wise it generally is optimized, that´s about where it ends. Technically optimized is just the start.

When you do SEO that goes further than just html code and some links, you need to understand the business of the client and that is for many people, very difficult. Sure, DVD stores everyone understands, but what if a client sells the less obvious product? (Most do )

I've noticed that the involvement of a client in the SEO process is extremely important and that is so important that it can make the difference between a happy client and an unhappy client. How much involvement you get from a client depends partially on you and partially on the client of course. Asking the right questions (which depends on how well you understand their business) determines their involvement for a big part.

[janeth]

Just ask the SEO company were they rank.

I don't care how much they know, I only care about what they can do. (;