Frequently Asked Questions about SEO

Tip #1: Do not primarily select on price

Don’t fall for the “10 keywords on Page 1 at This cost per month” scams.
When you shop for price, you only get one thing: the cheapest price.
What you don’t get is Value. Because getting real value comes with a price tag.

The SEO companies that provide Value and Return on Investment, rather than “Cheapest SEO Packages” will look very closely at the specific needs of your business.
Their work will be focused on growing your business which will take a lot of analysis and research.

Here’s a quote from one of my clients, CF Lieu:

I’ve engaged different so-called ‘experts’ in the past, but all they did was band-aid solutions. Jaap also went above and beyond to fix/optimize other related areas which I overlooked or didn’t even know. A knowledgeable technical professional like Jaap deserves the rate he asks for, so while you may be able to get ‘lower’ rates from others, at the end of the day, ask yourself whether you are looking for results or the cheapest rate.   Do not think twice or thrice about engaging Jaap. I strongly vouch for him.

Tip #2: Truly Professional SEO companies give you a Free SEO Analysis

  • With feedback on the quality of your website’s content: does it entice visitors to read it, and browse more pages?
  • The User Experience (UX) factors of your website on Desktops and Smartphones.
  • The current state of your SEO and points of improvement.
  • A competitor and keyword analysis and a snapshot of your current visibility on Google.

Tip #3: Ask your social network for references and look at Client Reviews of SEO companies

Word-of-mouth references and positive client reviews (not just ‘stars’) but actual reviews are the best indicators of an SEO Company’s quality.
(In the same way you check TripAdvisor or other Review Websites before making a Hotel- or Restaurant booking)

Tip #4: Never sign an SEO contract with a lock-in clause!

Please read the small print carefully. I’ve had so many clients that had a previous engagement with another SEO agency. When they announced that they would use another SEO services provider (me) they immediately removed the client’s website from Google entirely, effectively killing the business of their clients. It takes me weeks to months to get the website back in Google’s index.
Note: I never lock in my clients. They can stop using my services at any time they want, which fortunately has never happened.

Yes, Website speed is very important for Google rankings for several reasons:

  1. User Experience: Google prioritizes delivering the best user experience, and website speed is a critical factor. Slow-loading websites frustrate users and lead to a poor browsing experience. Studies have shown that users are more likely to abandon a website if it takes too long to load. By considering website speed, Google aims to provide searchers with fast and efficient results.
  2. Mobile-First Indexing: With most internet users accessing websites on mobile devices, Google has shifted to mobile-first indexing. This means that Google primarily uses the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking. Mobile devices often have slower internet connections compared to desktops, so website speed becomes even more crucial for mobile users.
  3. Core Web Vitals: Google introduced Core Web Vitals as a performance metric set that assesses a website’s loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. These metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Websites that provide a fast and smooth user experience by meeting these Core Web Vitals are more likely to rank higher in Google search results.
  4. Bounce Rate and Dwell Time: Slow-loading websites tend to have higher bounce rates, which is the percentage of visitors who leave a site after viewing only one page. High bounce rates signal to Google that users are dissatisfied with the website, potentially leading to lower rankings. Additionally, a slow website can negatively impact dwell time, which is the amount of time users spend on a website. Longer dwell times are associated with quality content and positive user experiences.

Overall, website speed directly influences user experience, engagement metrics, and mobile performance, all of which are significant factors in Google’s ranking algorithm. By prioritizing website speed, website owners can improve their chances of ranking higher in search results and provide a better experience for their users.

A slow Website is called the Silent Sales Killer for a good reason. If you’re curious about your website speed, you can request a Free Page Loading Speed Analysis.

Yes. You definitely should. For 3 important reasons:

  1. Your visitors on smartphones and tablets (70% + of all Internet traffic in Malaysia and growing) will click away if they can’t view your website properly.
  2. Google gives non Mobile-Friendly Websites a lower ranking on Mobile devices since 2015. And this trend will only get stronger.
  3. Google has recently rolled out their Mobile First Indexing and bases its search results on the Mobile version of your website. This has a huge impact on your Google rankings if your website is not mobile-friendly.

So the benefits of a mobile-friendly website in Malaysia are higher rankings on Google, being found on Google on smartphones and more visitors that stay on your site.

If you are wondering if your website is Mobile Friendly in the “eyes” of Google, click this link and enter your website’s URL.

If your score is bad, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Bounce Rate Definition

The percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. “A rising bounce rate is a sure sign that your homepage is boring or off-putting”

A high bounce rate on Google, – as per the definition above -, means that people visit only one page of your website and then abandon it.
In our experience, this can have a number of causes:

  • You have a “single-page” website, so your bounce rate will always be 100%. Nothing to be done about that.
  • You are advertising on Facebook, with a link to a certain page of your website. This generally causes the highest bounce rate, in particular on smartphones. FB users on mobile devices in Malaysia do not have a tendency to click through, once they have reached the page that you linked them to. It’s a sad truth, but paying money for “Website Clicks” on FB Malaysia is generally a waste of money.
  • The content of your website is not interesting enough to entice your visitors to look at other pages. Alternately, your website does not answer the query that visitors asked in Google.
  • Your website is not “Responsive” (mobile friendly) so people can’t see it properly on mobile devices.
  • Your website loads too slow, so people will just abandon it without having had a proper look at what you have to offer.

If you are not sure what is the main cause of the high bounce rate for your website, you can ask for my expert opinion Free of Charge.

A robots.txt file, which sits in the “root directory” of your website’s server is used to instruct search engines (spiders or bots) where to look and where not to look when crawling your wesbite.

This prevents the “indexing” of items that you wouldn’t want to see in Google Search Results.

For WordPress Websites, a very common content of a robots.txt file is this:

User-agent: *
disallow: /wordpress/wp-admin/

Which instructs search-bots to NOT crawl the contents of the /wordpress/wp-admin/  directory.

Having a robots.txt file is generally considered to be a good SEO practice.

No.
You Should Not..
Don’t go there…
Please….

Or maybe Yes. But “Yes” only if your business has a Brand-Name that is widely recognized and remembered. So people will Google you on your Brand-Name, rather than on the services you offer.

In all other cases, a Single Page Website will hardly ever get you on Page 1 of Google.

The trouble with “One Pagers” is that they do not give you enough opportunities for “On-Page SEO“:
Too little room for relevant and captivating text, only 1 Page-Title, only 1 Meta-Description, and only one H1 heading tag.

One Pagers may look nice, but Google is not in the beauty business. Google aims to provide its users with the best possible content.
Good content generally needs more than one page. Nicely split up in a “Silo” design, in a format that lets Google understand what your business is about.

So No…..

Unless your company is called Google.