Reasons Your SEO Might be Failing
If you aren’t seeing results from your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts, there’s a chance you could be undermining your work without even realizing.
Are you guilty of any of these tactics?
1. You aren’t writing with your clients in mind
SEO can only be as good as the content it’s showing off. If visitors don’t love the information on your website and social media channels, you won’t be getting much traffic.
Every piece of content you publish, from blog posts to About Us pages, should be written with the reader in mind. What do they want or need to know? What will make their lives easier? How can you help them make a decision, choose a product, or be entertained?
The first step to successful SEO is establishing a solid content plan. Do that, and then worry about more specific optimization for the search engines.
2. You’re using outdated SEO “tricks”
SEO has been around for awhile now. Even if you created your website in 2011 using all of the latest and greatest methods and techniques, you’ll still have to modernize based on today’s best practices.
For example, years ago, keyword-stuffed content was enough to get eyeballs on your website. Then the search engines realized that this was leading to a lot of pointless content online. Nowadays, Google prioritizes useful and unique content, and penalizes keyword-stuffing.
3. You use the “set it and forget it” method
There’s no way around it — SEO is hard, and it takes time to do correctly. The Web is a constantly changing organism and there’s no shortage of content available for consumption… and Google changes its search engine algorithm regularly.
Successful SEO takes time and expertise, and the results tend to snowball over a period of time. It takes consistent work to do it correctly, which is why so many companies give up or don’t give it their all. It’s also why so many businesses hire outside consultants to help.
(Virtual assistants can even help with basic SEO.)
4. You don’t care about the numbers
Even if you have a long-lasting, up-to-date SEO plan in place for your website, and a roster of useful content, you aren’t done quite yet.
If you aren’t getting the results you expect from SEO, do you know what you’re measuring and why? The only way to assess the success of your online marketing is to track your metrics on a regular basis using a tool like Google Analytics.
5. Your SEO tactic of choice is to have no concrete plan
Like anything else in business, you need to have a plan when it comes to SEO. It’s not enough to say, “We’ll post on the blog three times per week.” And a content plan isn’t a fully-fledged SEO plan.
If you don’t know how to make an SEO plan or what goes into one, this recent guide from the Content Marketing Institute will help you get started off on the right track. Once you’ve identified your own SEO weaknesses and pain points, be sure to read it and follow the sage advice.
