Q: Are your optimization recommendations changed after each major Google update? How often do you update your knowledge base for optimization?
A: We monitor the major search engine rankings of several sample sites daily - this tells us when important changes take place. It takes us time to study the impact of such changes, so as a rule we update our knowledge base after two to three weeks, maybe even longer if long-range patterns are revealed.
Q: Can I analyze the local copy of my page?
A: Yes, just click 'Local Copy' on the Setup tab and then follow these steps:
Click 'Manage list ...' to open the List Manager window.
Select the folders that contain the local copy of your site.
Check the folders containing the pages that you want to optimize and press OK. Use 'Import From' to select a list of files from a text file, clipboard, or another project used in Optimization or Editor (in this case, use the 'Advanced Import' menu).
In the Pages list, checkmark the needed pages, and click OK. You can also use 'Compare To Competition Analysis' for a locally selected page.
For more details, refer to the help manual (Help > Help Topics > Part I. How to Find Your Niche and Optimize Your Site > Step 2. Get optimization advice).
Q: Can I run an optimization report for all selected pages?
A: No, the program performs the optimization check for only one page highlighted in the list. To run a report, go to 'Optimization Advice and Analysis' tab, verify that the correct page is highlighted, select keywords, and click Start. SmallBiz and Professional users can also optimize for a specific search engine group and compare their pages to the competition.
Q: Can I run the optimization report for more than three keyword phrases?
A: No. If you wish to analyze the page for more than three keywords, you can get back to the 'Setup' tab after the report is completed, and enter alternate keywords into the boxes. Then, select 'Get Optimization Advice', and run a new report for these keywords.
Q: Can I use the keywords from my meta keywords tag?
A: Yes. After you indicate the path to your page, click 'Retrieve Keywords From Page'. The program will read your page code and obtain the keywords from your meta keywords tag. The first three words/phrases found will automatically be placed in the first three boxes.
Q: Even if I check several pages in the list, the optimization analysis is only done for one page. Why?
A: The program always performs the optimization check for only one page that is highlighted in the list. The option to check two or more pages manages your page list; you can view the selected pages only. This is convenient if your site has many pages, because you don't wish to scan the folders each time to add a page for analysis.
Q: How can I change cache settings?
A: To speed up analysis, the Optimization tool can save data about off-the-page factors for your website and/or competitors' sites.
You can turn this setting on or off using the 'Cache' tab in the Optimization settings (File > Settings > Optimization tab > Cache). Select the parameters you wish to save (by default, all options are selected). You can also specify the period to keep the cached information (default is 3 days).
Q: How can I change the settings for density analysis?
A: On the 'Density Analysis Report' tab, click the small button near 'Search Engine'. In the settings window, you can verify which page areas are analyzed for keyword density and set the minimum density value.
Q: How can the SE View report help me optimize my pages?
A: Often, the way that search engine spiders view your page significantly differs from how human visitors view it. Visitors see the visual presentation of your page, while search engine bots examine its source code. You may think that your keywords are placed at the top of the page, but search engines will locate them in the middle or at the bottom due to controls, java scripts, or navigation menus that precede your visible text.
In addition, if your links were created with the help of java scripts, search engine spiders will not be able to follow them. This means that some pages of your site will not be indexed, if there are no text links or graphical links pointing to them that search engines may follow.
To help optimizers understand the search engine spider's point of view, the Web CEO Optimization Tool offers the Search Engine View report. This report shows what page elements are visible for search engines, so you can decide to modify code if necessary.
Q: How do I analyze another page of my site (not the index page)?
A: If you want to analyze the local copy, follow these simple steps:
Click 'Manage List', and select the folders that contain the local copy of your site.
Check the folders containing the pages that you want to optimize. Make sure that the box is checked, not just highlighted. Press OK. You can also import the list of files containing the local copy of your site from a text file, clipboard, or another project.
In the Pages list, checkmark the needed pages, and click OK.
If you want to analyze your web copy, click 'Web page' on the Setup tab. Add the URL of this page by clicking 'Manage List'.
To add a single page, click 'Add Pages Manually', enter the page URL, and click OK. You can enter an absolute URL (http://www.yourWebSite.com/yourpage1.htm) or a relative URL (yourpage1.htm). Note that the root URL of your project (http://www.yourWebSite.com) is already prefixed before the address field. Therefore, you only need to type the path (e.g. products/product.htm).
To add several pages from your site, click 'Import From' and select My Site. You can specify how many page levels the program is going to scan. You can also import from a text file, clipboard, or another Web CEO project.
After the page list is generated, check the pages that you would like to be shown in the list, and select the page that you wish to preview/optimize.
Q: How do I analyze my site against competition?
A: In the SmallBiz and Professional editions, you can compare your site to another competitor's URL or to some of the top 10 ranked pages. On the second tab of the Optimization tool, check 'Compare to competition' or 'Compare to top-ranked sites' option if you want to perform such an analysis.
There are two options available with this feature: You can compare your page to another webpage of your choice (in this case, enter the full URL beginning with "http://"). Pro users can compare to any page occupying the top positions in the search engine's rank. Note that you cannot select more than 5 pages at a time.
Q: How do I analyze my site rather than the Demo site?
A: When you run Optimization or any other Web CEO feature for your site, you should choose your site in the Project Selector. Be careful to always select the right site.
If you are using the classic style of Web CEO, you should indicate your site project in the Project dropdown box in the top right corner of the Optimization screen, after the Optimization Tool opens.
Q: How do I get advice that is specific to the search engine I am interested in?
A: The second tab in the Optimization tool is used to configure the optimizer. Click on 'Search Engine' in the bottom left-hand corner to select the search engine group that you wish to target. You can optimize for Google, Windows Live (formerly MSN), or Yahoo.
Note that this advanced option is only available for SmallBiz and Professional users.
Q: How many keywords shall I use to optimize one page?
A: We recommend using two or three key phrases at most. Targeting too many keywords will make a page less focused and search engines will not rank it as highly as you want.
Q: I accidentally added an unnecessary page URL. How can I delete it from the list?
A: Open List Manager by clicking 'Manage list...', select the page URL that you wish to exclude, and click 'Delete'.
Q: I want to analyze my page on the Web - how do I do that?
A: If you want to analyze your web copy, click 'Web page' on the Setup tab. Add the URL of this page by clicking 'Manage list'.
To add a single page, click 'Add Pages Manually', enter the page URL, and click OK. You can enter an absolute URL (http://www.yourWebSite.com/yourpage1.htm) or a relative URL (yourpage1.htm). Note that the root URL of your project (http://www.yourWebSite.com) is already prefixed before the address field. Therefore, you only need to type the path (e.g. products/product.htm).
To add several pages from your site, click 'Import From' and select 'My Site'. You can specify how many page levels the program is going to scan. You can also import from a text file, clipboard, or another Web CEO project.
After the page list is generated, check the pages that you would like to be shown in the list, and select the page that you wish to preview/optimize.
Q: The tool doesn`t see my keyword at the beginning (end) of my page.
A: Our program considers the first 50 words as the beginning of the page and the last 50 words as the end (within the opening and closing <body> tags). If your keyword does not occur within those limits, Web CEO will not locate it. The keyword you are optimizing should appear among the first or last 50 visible words on the page. Please try to rewrite your copy so that your keyword appears in this range.
You can see how search engine spiders view your page if you run the Search Engine View report on the last tab in Optimization. You can set up the program to highlight the keywords, so you can easily see where they appear on the page from the search engine's point of view.
Q: The tool says I have 0 words on my page but there are plenty. Why?
A: The most probable reason why Optimization cannot analyze your page properly is that you have some errors in the code syntax. An example would be if you have two <body> tags in your page source. This means that search engine spiders might not be able to read the content of your webpage, and therefore this page will not be indexed.
Our optimization tool imitates the search engine's way of understanding HTML codes, which is why it didn't find your keywords in the <body> tag of your page.
If you are having this problem, please check to make sure your HTML code is correct, and then try running the optimization report again.
Q: There are no keyword boxes on the `SE View Report` tab - where can I enter or select keywords?
A: Before running the report in the search engine view, you should enter keywords in the boxes in the 'Setup' tab. On the 'SE View' tab, you can set the program to highlight only the exact phrase or any word contained in the key phrases.
Q: What is intelligent analysis? How do I change its settings?
A: In the current version of Web CEO, you can perform an intelligent analysis of your key phrases taking morphology and syntax into consideration. The tool finds all forms of the targeted keywords (e.g. dance, dancing, dances) and accounts for the word order (e.g. ballroom dance shoes, shoes ballroom dance, dance shoes ballroom). Morphology and syntax analysis is available for texts in English, French, Spanish, and Russian.
Intelligent analysis for the English language is enabled by default. You can choose to disable this feature by deselecting 'Use Intelligent Analysis' for optimization in the Optimization settings (File > Settings > Optimization > General), or check additional languages there. Note that intelligent analysis requires more time for the report to complete, so only select those languages you really use in your pages.
Q: Where can I change the settings for the advanced off-the-page analysis?
A: You can modify the settings for analyzing the advanced off-the-page parameters in the Optimization settings (File > Settings > Optimization > General).
If 'Backlinks Analysis' is enabled, then Web CEO can count the presence of the keyword in the title, meta descriptions, body, and link texts on the referring page and/or the PR for linking sites (Google PageRank of the referring pages). You can also adjust the maximum number of backlinks to include. These options are enabled by default, as these parameters are important for in-depth analysis of factors influencing your website's rankings.
Q: Where can I find the optimization reports that were generated before?
A: You can select a report to view in the report dropdown menu (top right of the `Optimization Advice and Analysis', 'Density Analysis Report', and 'SE View Report' tabs). Or use the last 'Reports History' tab to select a page for which you wish to view reports, and click on a report to view it in the right pane.
Q: Why can`t I analyze off-the-page factors? Is this option disabled in my edition of Web CEO?
A: Off-the-page factor analysis is available for all editions of Web CEO, but it can only be used if you run a report for the webpage. If this option is unavailable, then you have selected to analyze your local copy. Off-the-page factors analysis examines link popularity, site theme, and page presence in worldwide directories - ODP and Yahoo! Directory. Select 'Web page' in the top left corner of the Optimization screen to analyze all these parameters.
Q: Why do I need caching the analysis data?
A: To speed up analysis, the Optimization tool can save data about off-the-page factors for your website and/or competitors' sites.
You can this setting on or off using the Cache tab in the Optimization settings (File > Settings > Optimization tab > Cache). Select the parameters you wish to save (by default, all options are selected). You can also specify the period to keep the cached information (default is 3 days).
Q: Why doesn`t the program recognize my CSS formatting?
A: CSS formatting is a convenient way to designate styles for your pages and is not considered an illegal SEO tactic. However, please keep in mind that our Optimizer imitates the behavior of search engines, which can only recognize text size, bold text, text color, and background color applied in CSS. Other formatting styles are not recognized by search engines, because they can only understand HTML tags. This means that you can use styles to improve your page design, but you should mark formatting elements such as headings or underlined text using HTML tags.
Q: Why don`t you provide recommendations on how to improve rankings in my favorite regional search engine?
A: Search engine monitoring takes time and resources. We find it more important to focus on major search engines that will deliver most of your web traffic. Our general optimization recommendations will help with the on-the-page factors that affect your page rankings. This approach will optimize the page for almost all search engines.
