Q1) Does paying for Google PPC advertising affect my rankings in the search results?

Advertising with Google helps my listings because Google wants my site to perform better.

Advertising with Google hurts my rankings because Google wants me to pay for more advertising.

Advertising with Google neither helps nor hurts a site’s rankings.

Q2) Should I join a link exchange program to improve my rankings in the Google search results?

Link exchange programs are a great way to build lots of backlinks to your website quickly and easily.

Only join a link exchange program that you pay for, which ensures that it is done properly to help your rankings, not harm them.

A link exchange program is a very poor way to improve your rankings and will more likely do damage to them.

Q3) Will a ’rank checking’ program help me to monitor my progress on Google?

Yes. They will quickly assess your position accross several keywords allowing you to track your sites progress.

Yes. Commercial programs are the best as they use the Google API to check your rankings.

Yes. However rank checking programs waste Google resources and are against their terms of service.

Q4) Can my competitor ruin my web site ranking or get my web site removed from Google’s index?

Yes, you should monitor carefully your web stats to make sure no one is using black hat tecniques against you.

It is possible, but unlikely. ie; a competitor could set up porn site and link to you, causing your site damage in the eyes of Google.

Your site rankings cannot be affected by your competitors.

Q5) Will a monthly submission to search engines help my rankings in the search results?

Yes, a monthly submission will make Google index your site regularly and thus increase your Google exposure.

No, a monthly submission can be negative for your listings because it is seen as spamming.

No, Google does not require site sumission nor does it penalise you if you do conduct monthly submissions.

Q6) Will my sites get listed properly by Google if I use ASP or PHP programming languages?

No. You should rewrite your URL’s to be more easily read by humans. This will help your Google rankings.

Yes and No. Google can read any type of link and follows them. However a human readable link is preferable to Google for easy indexing.

Yes. The type of link is unimportant in the eyes of Google. A link is a link, and Google follows it.

Q7) Should I use a Microsoft web server, because Google has worked closely with Microsoft to understand and interpret those web pages better.

Yes. Using a Microsoft web server rather than Apache or IIS, will benefit a site’s rankings.

No, Microsoft and Google are competitors and they try not to promote each others services. Apache is the better web server to use.

No, the technology used to serve your web pages is not relevant to Google.

Q8) Does the speed that my web site pages load affect my site’s rankings?

Yes, a slow download will indicate a shared hosting environment, which downgrades your website in the eyes of Google.

Yes, the faster your web page responds, the easier it is for Google to index your entire site. Aim for about seven seconds as a maximum.

No, as long as your web page responds it doesn’t matter how long it takes to download.