Chat OnlineNot Getting Desired Results From Your SEO Strategy? Here Is What You Need To Know
Below are some of the obvious reasons that hint towards an ill-performing SEO strategy.
Suppose you have a great looking website, you are off to a wonderful start. But, a great looking website is of no use to your business or the organization if no user visits it. We have collected for you some major signals that indicate a change in your SEO strategy or an updating to the least.To your surprise, a large majority of business and companies do not have an SEO strategy in place. This tells that if you are doing something in this domain, you are clearly ahead of a lot many. However, you should not compare your achievement and performance in search engine optimization with a competitor having no strategy at all.
What’s the reason behind this statement? A competitor without a solid SEO strategy in place is not worth comparing or competing. You can prepare a solid strategy with the help of a professional SEO company. For that purpose, you can get help from Winnipeg SEO. In the advanced world of search positioning, your website needs to compete with strong and leading competitors in the market. Or at least he in particular with these major entities.
The search engine giant, Google, and other search engines like Yahoo and Bing compare, seek out and rate websites that fall in the same category. To achieve a position of substance in a certain category, you ought to be better than your competitors that are currently enjoying higher ranks. The owners and managers of these leading websites surely have a well thought out SEO strategy in place. Now let’s come to the main part of the writing where we are going to discuss some obvious reasons for restrategizing your SEO planning and tactics.
Organic traffic is decreasing steadily
The main purpose of going for Search Engine Optimization for your website is to achieve a reputable position in the search engines in return for those queries that bring sure traffic to the website. Then comes the stage of maintaining that cherishable top spot in the search engines.
In case, you are facing a decline in the organic traffic, then you need to make some adjustments the way you perform SEO. There is also an exception to this. For instance, very few people are searching for the keywords that you have optimized. Or your way of doing SEO isn't according to the latest algorithms of Search Engines.Here, you should perform a proper market analysis. If the market isn't experiencing any decline but your organic traffic has dropped significantly, then it’s a worrisome factor for you. Check your SEO strategy and make sure that your site is being optimized according to the updates. Also, make sure that whatever you are doing, it is making the users happy.
Beware of all the major updates in search engine algorithms. These updates are based on how your content is searched by a search engine, what ideally do they want and how the grading is done once that have found the desired content. One main reason for decreasing organic traffic could be the changes in your competitor's site as well. Have they upgraded their sites? Are they more inclined towards blogging? Have they initiated blogging with the purpose of stealing search position from you through some great blog posts? It may also be the case that a new and strong competitor has entered your specific niche. Check for your website traffic stats of last 6 months or a whole year through Google Analytics account. Take a close look at what the graph shows you. If the results are declining, then you need to check for the latest Google Trends for keywords that are significant for your business. A thorough assessment of the market is required in case you are experiencing a decline in results. On the other hand, if Google Trends are displaying an increasing graph, but your traffic is still decreasing, then you need to restrategize your SEO practices.
Begin by finding the reasons behind the decline of your traffic.
Meanwhile, you will notice that your competitors have improved and secured top spots. Their improved rankings mean that you are pushed down in the search results. This is a clear giveaway that their Search Engine Optimization techniques are better than yours.One of the better tools in the market that can be helpful here is SEO Quake. Through this tool, you can have basic SEO analysis of your pages and also the pages of your competitors. You can make a list of those competitor's pages that have outclassed your equivalent pages and then examine them by the help of SEO Quake. With this tool it becomes easy to index pages in google.
A large majority of people make use of SEO tool named, Majestic. Majestic is one of the leading backlink analysis tools. It guides you in learning about your backlinks and where you are placed versus the competition. If you are unable to find a clear on-page difference through SEO Quake, then the chances are that your competitors are outsmarting you through backlink. Backlinks have been stated as one of the most important aspects of being competitive in the search results. Now that you have sufficient info in order to compete better with your rivals, update your SEO strategy according to it.
The organic traffic declines suddenly overnight
Suppose you see a dramatic decrease in your traffic in one day. What does that mean? That means that your SEO strategy isn't working the way it was meant to be. The sudden drop in the results and traffic may suggest that you have taken a shortcut for the manipulation of search results. It may end up in Google knowing what you are up to and adjusts your position in search. This action by the search giant would definitely have a negative and immediate effect on your traffic.
One more reason could be that your SEO strategy doesn’t comply with the latest search engine algorithm changes. Search engines sometimes change the way they discover and rate content. If you lag behind and don't stay up to date then you may experience a sudden drop in traffic. Simply saying, you need to stay updated. If you aren't active then be ready for an unpleasant surprise as your keywords that were bringing you traffic before, may not do the same.
Your ranking from the first page in search results may land you in the pages two or three of search engines. And you know that being on page three is like nowhere in the search results.
A clear decline in traffic in a small period of time is a clear indication that your SEO strategy isn't according to the latest upgrades. In result of it your SEO score becomes low. Search engine positioning needs to be done extremely carefully. Getting top-ranked doesn’t happen overnight. For this, you should be aware of all the rules and must follow best and expert advised practices. This will affect your SEO positively and your strategy won't be affected by dramatic search engine algorithm updates. It is also possible that a sudden drop in search traffic and results has got nothing to do with your SEO strategy. Here, you should do a complete content and SEO audit prior to making any noticeable adjustments. In case, your site doesn't show any problem in the audit, you need to search for non-SEO-related issues that may be responsible for a decline in your site traffic.
Keyword ranking is dropping steadily
It’s important that you keep on checking your search engine position for your primary keywords. If you see that their ranking is dropping with time, this means you have a serious problem to deal with. If you are new to Search Engine Optimization, you need to know that normal fluctuation of keywords on day to day basis is normal. However, the problem is definitely there if you notice a definite drift in your rank. This could be signaling towards two things.
You can start by comparing your position in search to that of your competitors for the same keywords. Position in search is a competition. It may be possible that your rivals are coming up with great content optimized for the same keywords. Go through their content and note points that they are doing and you aren't. What special they are doing in their content? How are they going about it in making the content more fruitful?
Their content may be optimized better for a certain keyword. Make sure that you check your content in comparison to their content through great SEO tools like SEO Quake and Majestic. One SEO essential is that you include the keyword or some part of it in the title and opening paragraph. The keyword should also be used all over the content, naturally. No stuffing or overusing as it can go against you. Google is very strict when it comes to spamming. Also, H2, H3 and image file names image alt text should include the keyword or part of it for better optimization.
Go through your competitor’s content for variety, content depth and different approach for the same keywords. Depth and content variety is liked by major search engines including Google. This is because of the fact that humans like content written in-depth and that has variety. All search engines want to be sure that they display search results for humans that are more appropriate, more pleasing, more timely and more attractive. Your content should be unique and you can check it using Prepostseo plagiarism checker tool.
The reason behind it is that everyone wants to take a lead over others. They are competing to be the best and most popular. The more pleasing and appropriate the results displayed by search engines the more famous they become.
You need to detect what your rivals have done, are doing and what they are about to do to outsmart you. Incorporate these things in your strategy and make it a strong one. This is how you can outsmart them instead of them out-positioning you.
If your main keyword isn't ranking, your SEO strategy isn't delivering
Some of the keywords in your niche are supposed to win most of the times. In case, you are not ranking for those specific keywords, then it’s a worrisome time for you. Here, you need to re-energize your Search Engine Optimization tactics. In most situations, the ranking of some specific keywords is all a business wants. We often see that some SEO strategies involve hundreds of keywords while some make use of only a few to gain ranking in the SERPs and attract traffic.
In case your strategy needs you to rank only for a few keywords, then you should optimize only those keywords that are related to your business. For these specific keywords, your intention should be to rank them on top. This is how you are going to receive loads of traffic and make people believe that you are an authority in your niche.
The topmost position for a specific keyword in search can be responsible to attract 30-40% of the search volume. The 2nd position in search results may attract only 10-15% of search volume. The percentage comes down dramatically as the position lowers. For instance, a third-page position may be responsible for only decimal proportions while a third-page result position may result in a random occasional visitor (a person who is not even sure what he/she is looking for).
People searching for you on the 3rd page are not your ideal audience, more importantly, you don't deserve to be on the third page. Invent an SEO strategy that enables you to be on top of SERPs for all your key keywords. It becomes more significant in case your business relies on a few keyword phrases only.
Your conversion rate is disappointing It may be the case that your current strategy is attracting traffic to your site but after reaching your site, they are not clicking on a CTA (Call to action) which is what you don’t want from them. If the visitors aren't showing any interest while on your site clearly means that your SEO strategy lacks a thing or two. This issue hints towards a very important point. Your SEO strategy isn’t bringing the right traffic on the site. The SEO strategy isn’t effective in attracting the audience that may be your ideal customers.
It is likely the case that your keywords aren't carrying the intent. For instance, your business is related to furniture. Keyword density is also an important factor. You must have to keep this factor in mind.
Your site should be optimized for ‘house furniture' and ‘office furniture' but, your content isn’t intended to solve the reader's problem. Or it may be the case that your SEO doesn’t entice the readers enough to buy a specific product. In this kind of a situation, you should optimize for keyword phrases like 'cheap office furniture' or ‘easy to install house furniture'.
If you optimize in this way and lure the customers, then you may see a dramatic change in the behavior of visitors and surely they will purchase furniture items from you. Make use of keyword tracking tools and notice your most important keywords that are bringing traffic to your site. Ask yourself a question: is this the set of selected keywords being used by people and potential buyers for making a purchase? If you find the answer to be in negative, the time has come to update your SEO strategy.
Your SEO strategy may not work in case you are using thin content
There are websites in the market whose SEO managers come up with a blog post of 100-150 words. What do they expect from such thing content? Don’t know about their expectations but in reality, they are going to get nothing. Their site won’t rank better in search for this content but only in one condition if this is the only content that is available on the subject.
But, if the site has a substantial competition then this weak content won’t be able to lift your site up to the first page of SERPs. The question arises here that why will a search engine rank a weak and thin content at the top of rankings? It may go against their reputation and people may term the search engine as untrustworthy. Simply saying can Google afford such kind of reputation and remarks?
Hence, make sure that your SEO strategy focuses on long articles and blog posts that are written in depth and provide variety. In case your rivals are producing content of 600 or 700 words, you can go beyond this limit and come up with rich and deep content on the same topic exceeding 1000 words and ranging up to 1200 words. If your competitors are including 1-2 images or graphics then you can double it up by including 3-4 images or graphics.
Images and graphics provide an insight into the content and strengthen your points that have been discussed in the article. On the other hand, if your competitor is using valuable video content and you are unable to do it, they have an upper hand and you are lacking behind. Make sure that your content is much better than your rivals to prove yourself as an authority on a given subject and to gain a better position than others. Your aim should be such content that is competition-beating. If you are able to do this, Google is surely going to rank you up in its rankings.
Having a high bounce rate
Check your page metrics through Google Analytics. If your bounce rate is high, re-strategize your SEO. A high bounce rate is killing all your efforts and is having an extremely negative effect on your position in the ranking. In case Google observes that a visitor quickly leaves your site after arriving, then it may conclude that either your site’s user experience is not good or the content on your site isn't worth reading. Simply saying if Google thinks that your content isn't impressive and doesn’t please the users, then it will not rank it high in the search engine.
The content on your site needs a major revamp. If Google ranks a site with bad content, people will start questioning Google's credibility. This is the last thing Google wants. The bounce rate of any site is an important metric that should be tracked regularly. Through bounce rate, you are able to check how many visitors leave your side quickly after visiting it. And how many stay on your site. Every site owner wants the bounce rate on their site to be extremely low.
Especially the landing pages of a website that are built to make the site 'sticky'. These pages are meant to bring in the visitors to let them browse around for a while and know more about your products and services. A good news for you, if you are facing high bounce rate, is that there are a number of ways through which you can lower the bounce rate. You should be willing to experiment to know what people like and what should not be presented to them. This will enable you to lower your bounce rate and consequently rank higher in search results.
Are you having a low time on your site? Your SEO strategy needs tweaking
This point has it’s roots from the point discussed above, bounce rate. The time on site can be measured on Google Analytics. If the visitors are leaving the site within a few seconds then you are not doing it the right way. This can be due to 2 reasons: either your content is not quality and relevant or you are attracting the wrong audience.
You must focus on things like right titles for your content and that snippets in the search results perfectly advertise your page content. If you do not optimize these important elements of SEO, your targeted audience will start losing interest in your site and the result will be disastrous.
You Have Too Many Low-Quality Backlinks
Importance of backlinks cannot be undermined in SEO. Quality backlinks are just like oxygen to your site; not enough backlinks, your site is going to die. However, you need to develop quality backlinks profile. Simply saying get links from relevant and high-quality websites in their niche.
If you start getting links from sites that are low in domain authority (DA) then your overall ranking is going to drop. Also, it is a clear indication that your strategy isn't well optimized for quality backlinks. If your link juice isn't flowing properly then you don’t have many chances of ranking higher or even staying on the first page of results.
Also, a poor backlink strategy could result in search engines penalizing your site even if you have a perfect on-page strategy in place. This issue can easily be resolved if you turn to quality backlinks and avoid spamming. Get links from high-quality relevant sites and you will see the results in your favor.
Only targeting search position? Your Strategy isn't well thought-out
Your main aim should be to inform and help people. Your focus should be to add value to your targeted audience. Google always prefers those sites that prioritize people. “Make people happy and Google will become happy”. Your content should be user-centric and intended towards users, not for the search engines. Here, when the search engines will find out that your people are liking your content, they will rank you higher in rankings.
Remember one thing, you can impress all search engines and especially Google by focusing on user experience and giving the public the best you can. For instance, you have come up with content that is directed towards users and ideal for your targeted audience, then surely search engines will rank you.
Usage of unchanged SEO strategy from the last 4 5 years
You have to change your tactics with time. Don’t get stuck with one particular strategy for years. Suppose you are using a strategy in 2019 that worked wonders for you in 2015, you are doing no good to your site and your chances of attracting traffic. Search Engine Optimization has evolved over the years and every year brings with it changes that are mandatory to accept.
You should always be in search of new, latest and best SEO practices. To stay informed on this subject, keep following sites like Moz, Search Engine Land, Prepostseo.com and Search Engine Watch. If you are not up to date with the latest updates while your competitors are staying current, then be ready to see a downward trend in your position against your competitors.
What you can do here is to stay updated with all the algorithm changes and new SEO strategies by following leading SEO professionals. Follow their strategy to upgrade yours.
Expecting quick results
When you are in this field, you need to be patient. There are not many shortcuts and quick fixes in SEO. If you think you will gain immediate success from a wonderful SEO strategy that was advised by a leading SEO expert a few days ago, then I'm afraid this is not going to happen. According to experts a well structured, planned and implemented SEO strategy may take six to nine months before giving you fruits higher search position and qualified traffic.
In case your SEO strategy is giving faster results in less than this speculated time, it’s time for you to reward your team. On the other hand, if you aren’t getting instantaneous results, don’t get discouraged, SEO is a long-term process and you have to be patient for results.
If you lack in a valid content plan, your SEO strategy won't work
What are your content plans? What topic are you going to focus for the next 20 days? Are you going to write in-depth content or not? If you are confused in these questions, this means you are lacking in content plan. A solid content plan is one of the pillars of a great SEO strategy. Consider it extremely important and do extensive keyword research.
Make sure your SEO strategy involves longtail keywords. Make a list of 10-15 keywords that are significant for your business and start developing title and content around these long-tail phrases. Now put every title on your content plan. By doing so, you are heading in the right direction that allows you to attract your targeted audience.
Have you gone for the cheaper SEO option? Your SEO strategy might fail
Going for the cheapest option might go against you. You may opt for an SEO agency that is cheap, it is quite understandable as you are a business and businesses, more often than not, prefer the options that allow saving of money. Looking at it from an SEO perspective, it may not be a sensible move. After all, the whole impression of your business is based on how your SEO goes. It’s a matter of building a strong online presence that lets you attract an ideal audience for your operations.
At this point, you need to consider the SEO performance and how a good strategy can impact your business in a positive way. In a bid to save a few bucks can mean you are not serious about it or are not fully aware of how beneficial a reputable SEO agency can be for you. Rather than going for the cheapest option, you should consider these following points when interviewing different digital marketing agencies.
Choose a company that is comfortable with your business and your targeted audience Choose a company like prepostseo.com that has the capability of providing what you are looking for. Go for an SEO company that understands your needs and you are comfortable with. Select that particular company which has great Google reviews. Go for an SEO services company which has already achieved a substantial position for their own website.By considering these points, you may not find the cheapest company but they will bring value to your business. And that’s what you want. Also, the value and market knowledge incorporated into your business will surely be of greater if you want long-term results for your business. One important thing to remember here is that “A proper SEO budget is a cost of doing business these days.”
You don’t have clear goals
Another clear indication that your SEO strategy doesn’t perform is that you haven’t set clear goals for yourself. If you are directionless and have no idea of where to go, you better set your aims right today before it gets too late. Devise a plan, set yourself clear goals and go all out to achieve them.
When talking from SEO point of view, these are the goals you can set:
Increase in traffic Decrease the bounce rate and increase the dwell time Enhance your brand-name awareness (brand identity) Get to reach more people, attract and inspire themBe specific about why you want a prominent position in the SERPs. This will enable you to better define what you want and whether your SEO strategy is working or not.