So you’ve implemented what you think is the perfect SEO strategy. The keywords are there, the content is coming in and your site structure is the best it’s ever been. After all that work, why aren’t you seeing the results you anticipated? There could be a lot of reasons, but here are a few of the common problems that could be holding your SEO back:
The Content Isn’t Hitting Home
Maybe the content you’re sharing isn’t resonating with readers. Perhaps it isn’t exactly what your audience is looking for. Fine-tune your content and track the results, because creating good content is key for a strong SEO strategy. Your content should create demand and be sharable to strengthen search engine results. This isn’t an easy fix but it is a critical one.
Broken Links
A bundle of broken links notch your site down a peg to search engines, as it shows your site is unreliable. Take inventory of any broken links and fix them. There are free and easy solutions for this: Some websites are designed to scan your site and report back on any broken links.
Too Slow
If your website loads too slowly, it’s not just visitors that are impacted. Search engines will also dock a slow site, as it’s not the type of site someone wants to visit. Perhaps optimize for the web any large images in order to speed things up. Or check the code to see if anything’s wrong.
Either way, a slow website is something that hurts your SEO even if all other aspects are working well.
You’re Looking at the Wrong Numbers
When you’re monitoring your site’s traffic and users’ experiences, you need to know what numbers you are trying to boost. Is the volume of traffic most important? Is it completed sales transactions? Or is it people who stick around and read everything?
From the start, you need to figure out your goals so you can best track how effective your SEO strategy is. It’s possible that your analytics software isn’t comprehensive enough, so if you’re into sales you might want to consider premium software.
The Plan Is Outdated
Google is often tweaking the search engine algorithm that determines how it ranks websites. These updates can happen several hundred times a year and can leave your SEO strategy outdated if you aren’t paying attention.
The changes are often small, but sometimes they’re enormous — like the recent Mobilegeddon that punished sites not optimized for mobile. Keeping an eye out for these updates — both big and small — ensures that your website is ahead of the competition.
Your Expectations Are Too High
You have to be realistic. Even a flawless SEO plan won’t pay immediate dividends. SEO is a useful tool that makes a big difference, but it’s far too common for expectations to be out of line with what’s actually possible. Success is usually incremental, so keep your eye on the analytics and keep on providing strong content to readers before thinking your plan is ineffective.