Having a SEO strategy these days has become absolutely essential for any business to have a good presence on the web. Just getting a website made is not enough. You need to find out ways of getting people to know about (and use) that website, in order to generate more business for you.
Very often, a perfect SEO plan that is giving good results, suddenly stops working after some time. The first reaction in such a situation that most people have, is to start thinking of Google going mad. However, the truth is, there are various other factors that come into play, and Google is not be blamed for everything.
Here are some things that you need to check:
1. How Good Is The Website?
Before pointing your finger out at others, check whether you’ve done your homework properly or not. Is your website good enough for people to actually come and check it? There are several things that you need to keep in mind, such as high-quality content on your site, along with good presence on various social media platforms. That helps new people to know how the user engagement was in the past, and all of that will define the success of the inbound links.
2. Keyword Problems
Having keywords that are extremely niche causes a huge problem, as if the phrases are too narrow, then their reach will be lesser too. Moreover, some keywords do not get enough search volume, which in simple terms means that regular users do not search with those keywords. Hence, the scope needs to be broadened a little, in a way that it matches the regular search patterns of the users.
3. Building Links The Wrong Way
When we talk about building links, we are very often, NOT referring to the quantity, but to the quality. There are two things that can possibly go wrong here. One could be that the links being built are just too ‘spammy’ in nature, and are thus, not giving as good results as natural-looking quality links do. For the latter, one needs more time and patience. The second problem could be that the anchor text is over-optimized, which makes one suspicious of the whole campaign being manipulative in nature. It’s best to spread out links and keywords naturally, to help focus more on quality. You must know that users, after all, are not stupid, and can judge what’s good or bad.
4. Lack of Social Media
Social Media these days has become a very important part of any campaign. The share of social media activities in Google algorithms is much higher than before, and you could be losing out on a lot of things if your social media promotions are not in place. Making use of Facebook and Twitter has become mandatory, in a way, these days. Apart from that, there are also newer avenues such as Pinterest.
5. Lack of Consistency
Doing the activities right for a little while, and then forgetting all about it is the wrong approach towards things. To make sure that the rankings are constantly good, the campaign needs regular checks and follow-ups. There has to be a consistent effort, in order to see good results. Moreover, if you’re not in the game for sometime, then chances are that you could be losing out on the latest updates and tactics. By the time you come back, those tactics could have stopped working, and would no longer be useful and effective in nature.
6. Lack of Patience
Patience is really important in this game. There are too many factors affecting the campaign, and it takes time for new things to show results. One cannot see instant results, and it often takes months and months of hard work, before one can see good rankings. Of course, that hard work too will give results, only when the latest and recommended tactics are being followed consistently.
7. Forgetting Your Customers Completely
In terms of trying to understand your customers, there are two vital things to consider. The first thing to keep in mind is to figure out what target audience you are aiming at. Accordingly, you will be able to figure out their usage and search patterns and behaviors. The second thing to understand is the kind of keywords these users are using to describe or look for your brand on the Internet. That way, you can narrow down on the kind of keywords that are mostly floating amongst your potential customers, and have higher chances of giving good results. In other words, listen to what your customers are saying, understand them, and you’ll see your results coming out right.
8. Not Trying Other Methods
Sometimes, just SEO plans don’t work for certain brands. For some, Social Media Marketing works more, while for others Content Marketing and related strategies work better. These alternative routes for increasing website traffic need to be tried out, especially when the brand’s competition is tough, and the market is a niche one. One must know and understand that SEO plans alone cannot do all the magic. At times, they need the support of other things alongside to help the whole campaign succeed.
9. Complexities of A Competitive Niche
Yes, there are chances that you come under a ‘niche’ sector. What do you do in such a case? You need to work really hard on your SEO plan, that’s for sure. However, even after that, chances are that you don’t see as good results as you want. In that case, you either identify the problems in your plan, such as that of keywords, consistency etc., or you include some other methods in your entire campaign, such as Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing etc. In either case, DO NOT leave the campaign in the middle, and maintain consistent efforts. Sooner or later, you will see the results.
10. Having No System In Place
Do you have a proper website analytics system in the first place? Without that, you will never be able to know what works for you and what doesn’t. It also helps you to understand when to make changes to your strategy, and what plans/ steps are giving what kind of results.
Checking on all of these factors can help one to understand and know what might be going wrong in their SEO plan. Spending a little time on improving the quality of the campaign, and not focusing on the quantity, helps a lot.
What other factors do you check when your SEO strategy is not working?
