I spend a lot of time hanging out with my ideal readers and there have been some prevalent SEO questions that I would like to answer. The objective of this post is to answer some of these questions and help you understand the intricacies of SEO.

1. Should I submit my site to the major search engines?

Great question! Some people think that you need to submit your site often to the search engines. Honestly, it's a one time thing. Now, it can take the GoogleBot up to 45 days to index a particular page, but there are two things you can do to speed up this process:

• Guest post on other sites in your niche to raise the PR (page rank) of your site.
• Link your site with Googlewebmasters tools and take advantage of the ability to have content indexed within 48 hours.

One note on PR: there are really only a few benefits nowadays. First, higher PR sites typically sell for more than lower PR sites. Second, higher PR sites stand a better chance at getting indexed quicker. Third, it can be significantly easier to obtain better ranking.

2. What is my competition like?

To some of us seasoned marketers, this is a no-brainer, but for others, it's a legitimate question. First, I suggest you have a very clear understanding of the search terms you're trying to have search engine visibility for. You can take this list and follow these steps:

• Use Google Chrome.
• Browse via "Incognito Window."
• Manually enter search terms and see what Google is currently ranking.

When analyzing your competition, you need to pay attention to things like PR, domain authority, links to the domain, links to the post URL, and how well the site or page is optimized for your search terms.

3. What domain extension should I have?

It sucks when you finally come up with a great domain name idea and come to find out that the .com version isn't available. Here's what I suggest: manipulate the domain idea until you find a .com version. People automatically think .com when they hear any website domain. If you absolutely love the .org or the .info or whatever, go with it. I absolutely love my blogging.org domain, as blogging is an excellent word to have in the domain name, so there are exceptions. A few more thoughts. Most domain extensions serve specific purposes. For example, if you weren't a school, then there would be no need to have a .edu extension; same goes for .gov if you're not a government. Having a .co, .biz, or .info doesn't necessarily put you at a disadvantage. Keep your ideal customer in mind and pick the one that best suits them.

4. How can I find out where I stand in the Google rankings?

Honestly, this is a total waste of time. People forget that the amount of money they make is directly correlated to specific activities. Blogging with a purpose andpromoting that content so that it ranks well is an income generating activity. Finding where you rank, not so much. Now, obviously everything has its place. I just don't want you spending too much time dinking around trying to find out where you rank. Having said that, here's a simple process you can follow, unless you want to invest in a quality ranking tracking tool:

• Follow the bullets in Step 2.
• Stop once you get to page 10 (any more than that is spending too much time).

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