9 Questions About SEO - Which One Is Most Important To You?

If you had a chance to sit down over coffee and chat casually with a Google engineer (in this case, Matt Cutts) - what would you ask him/them?

Well, recently, on Google Moderator, hundreds of questions were submitted from around the world about Search Engine Optimization and Google's insights.

The below shows the responses to some key questions and answers you should consider for your search engine optimization campaigns.

Which one has top priority for YOU?

1. Will redirecting (301) many domains to one get me banned?

This one comes up often in my business as well, and I normally don't see a problem with this, but scope and timing can be a factor. But, the truth is - if you are not doing it for spam, and you are merging for brand purposes, you're probably ok. See what Matt says.

2. Ranking reports service - when will you make it available?

I use many different ranking tools, from SEO Firefox rank checker, to Web Position Gold (not so much anymore), Advanced Web Ranking, and other web-based tools. I like to look at trends for this more than actual weekly (daily, anyone?) rankings. Clients still like to see ranking reports, but I personally view analytics and logs as more important. Great too - this question came
from a countrymen (Oslo, Norway). See what Matt says.

3. Anchor texts are important to ranking among other things. Will I still get the quality passed via 301 redirects?

Transitioning of sites and merging of pages can be affected, and there is a concern that this quality indicator will be lost. See what Matt says.

4. Keywords on the page are important - "early and often". But with path/file, how important is the position of the keyword in the URL?

I have found that a normal balance of all factors, will have the best results.

With that said, I've seen sites that do well with careful attention to keywords use in the path or filename. However, the focus is always higher on clickability and non-spammy URLs. See what Matt says.

5. Does Google consider factors from links with nofollow from authority websites?

Google is a search engine, but it's not just software and hardware. Humans are involved, and more than you might think. You hear about the dreaded "hand-edits", and why wouldn't humans edit or manage quality indicators from top sites like Wikipedia? Therein lies the rub -- rel=nofollow tag is a strict tag that acts as a editorial no-vote. It still applies, but there are some considerations. See what Matt says.

6. Google recently made a change on how to handle brands and ranking. How does Google weigh on ranking of brands?

It may affect how brands are ranked. See what Matt says.

7. On page factors are important. But, is more than one H1 tag going to hurt me?

This is scrutinized at so many levels, from webmasters and business
owners, content writers, etc. The rule should be to use tags in a natural way, and not obsess over it. See what Matt says.

8. AJAX is being tested in search engine results pages (SERPS). This will break referrers and analytics. What gives?

I personally freaked a little when I first saw this (heard of it rather), but quickly realized it was a small set of users, and part of Google's ongoing committment to testing, but perhaps not full-scale rollout. Will this affect you - and when?
See what Matt says.

9. Should I use the new canonical tag (rel=canonical) on every page and do it now?

This is a new tag made available for search engines to help alleviate the canonical issues that exist. Great idea, but should you use it, and when?
See what Matt says.

Consider subscribing and bookmarking this site and watch for more updates from "your" Google engineer.

Now - which one(s) will you take action on, and how do you think it will impact you?

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