Having the right SEO campaign can do wonderful things for your business. It can drive traffic to your site, build your brand, increase your exposure, and become a great lead generator.
That is, if it’s working properly.
When it’s not, you’re more apt to experience frustration and the feeling that you’ve wasted your time and money. All is not lost, however.
If your SEO campaign isn’t giving you the results you want, here are a few of the possible causes, and how to fix them.
You Aren’t Mobile-Friendly
Thanks to the popularity and increased usage of mobile devices, Google has started to implement a mobile-first indexing system. If your site isn’t set up to be mobile responsive or you simply don’t have a mobile version, then you’re going to rank lower in search results.
Another drawback to not being mobile-friendly is that your site is probably going to be slow and hard to navigate on a mobile device. This means that people are going to spend a lot less time viewing your page before they move on.
Since the length of time a visitor spends on your site is one of the top ways that Google determines ranking order, this can cause your SEO efforts to tank.
Your Website Is Holding You Back
Users expect the same experience from a desktop site as they do a mobile one: speed, security, and easy navigation. If it doesn’t meet these criteria, they’ll likely leave in a hurry. Outdated coding, large images or video files, and menus that are confusing or hard to navigate can all be culprits of bad site performance.
To help increase speed, there are a few things you can consider. Investing in a better server or hosting service, hosting large files on an external host, and resizing or compressing images can help tremendously. Minimizing your redirects can also be good.
Moving to a secure version of your site, or https instead of just http, can help give your visitors a better sense of confidence in your site. This can lead to longer visit times, and an increased likelihood of conversion.
Cleaning up your code can also do wonders for your site. This will allow you to make the site navigation simpler, and help it run smoother, for one thing. Google will be able to read your content easier and rate your relevance accordingly, for another.
Don’t forget about mobile optimization while you’re upgrading, either. You’re already there, it’ll save you time and help your SEO campaign to run more smoothly.
Your Content Doesn’t Shine
Your content is the most important part of the whole journey, and if it doesn’t stand out, you’re in trouble.
Great content is the key to making SEO work for you. In order to achieve this, what you create needs to be original, information-rich, and relevant to your industry and business. Your content should sound like you know what you’re talking about, instead of simply repeating someone else or coming across as click-bait.
It also needs to be engaging and useful to your visitors. Not only will this help your ideal customers to choose your page over other results, but also keep them coming back to you over and over. It also increases the chance that they’ll share your content with other potential leads.
Your Keywords Are Wrong
Ensuring that you’re using the best keywords can be a tricky process. Since they’re part of your content, they need to be relevant to your business as well. A lawyer wouldn’t want to rank for content about fantasy football, for example.
They also have to be the right keywords, to get the results you want. Pick something too broad or simple, and you’re facing stiff competition for ranks. Something too narrow, on the other hand, and no one will be looking for it.
Your best bet is to slip into your buyer’s persona, and create long-tail keywords based on specific problems they’d be looking to solve. For example, let’s say your business sells computers. Which keyword do you think would end up in more sales: ‘laptop’ or ’17 inch touch-screen gaming laptop’?
Your SEO Campaign Has No Plan
Another thing that can muck your SEO up is simply jumping in feet-first with no sense of plan or direction. After all, if you have no idea what your goal is, how on earth are you going to reach it?
To really get the most out of your SEO campaign, you need to have clearly defined goals. Knowing precisely what you want to achieve is going to enable you to create a strategy that knocks it right out of the park.
Breaking your goal way down into tiny steps and knowing the why of everything will also help a lot. Sure, ‘increasing traffic’ can be a great goal in and of itself, but why? What is the exact result you want from that increased traffic?
Laying out a great SEO plan can help you overcome the other problems we’ve already listed for you in this post. It will help you choose the right keywords, create the best content that fits, and overcome the obstacles standing between you and your goal.
You’re Expecting Instant Success
One last important thing to remember is that SEO isn’t like instant mashed potatoes; you won’t see results overnight. A good SEO campaign will show you results over a period of months and years, as opposed to hours and days.
When you get right down to the heart of the matter, you’re not just looking to increase traffic or generate leads. You’re trying to build a relationship of trust, confidence, and life-long loyalty with your customers.
When you take the time to build your customer base right, it shows. You’ll prove yourself to be a reliable authority in your particular field, and your customers will know it. So will Google, for that matter, and isn’t that the whole point?
Are You Happy With Your SEO?
If you’re struggling to get your SEO campaign up and running or just aren’t happy with the results, we can help. Schedule a free consultation today, and let’s work together to get your SEO in top shape!