Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the best strategies a company can use to increase their sales. Since everyone uses Google for online searches, a business has a high chance for growth if they can properly implement SEO strategies. However, not everyone succeeds with SEO. At some point, you may wonder why your sales haven’t increased yet.
Don’t blame the search engine for having strict guidelines when they rank websites. Take a look at your side because you might be doing things which hurt your SEO ranking. Here’s some of the reasons why your SEO strategy might not be working:
You Hired the Wrong Person
Since a lot of businesses require SEO services, a lot of agencies popped out to offer what they know. Large companies might hire in-house SEO personnel to take care of their SEO needs exclusively, but it’s not the same if you’re a small business owner. You have numerous options, which is why hiring the wrong ones is a common SEO problem frustrating small business owners.
If you don’t have a huge budget, you might end up choosing an agency that offers their services at a low price. But, it’s not always a good idea to be cheap if the quality of work isn’t up to standard as well. You get what you pay for so make sure you’re investing the right amount of money for SEO services.
You Have No Strategy
If you’re generally a happy-go-lucky kind of person, don’t have that kind of attitude when it comes to business. Successful business owners take risks, yes, but they take calculated ones. You have to have a plan to guide you in whatever you want to undertake.
Luck isn’t the basis of success in SEO. Search engines have algorithms that guide them on how to rank the best websites. You need to create a well thought out SEO strategy that best suits your business, so you get your desired outcome.
You Don’t Utilize Social Media
Social media is one of the best tools you can use for your digital marketing campaigns. Billions of people have social media accounts on at least one platform or another. Focusing on search engine rankings is a great strategy, but people mostly go there when they’re actively searching for something. Chances are, you’ll only get visitors if people search for products or services similar to yours.
You should take advantage of social media to build your audience. Target people who are most likely to turn into your customers. Here are some tips on how you can increase your social media followers:
- Respond to comments and messages.
- Produce high-quality posts regularly.
- Hold contests or giveaways that require them to like and share your posts and pages.
- Stay updated on whatever’s viral and incorporate it into your posts if it seems fitting.
- Use relevant hashtags.
You’re Using Outdated Techniques
As mentioned, search engines have algorithms that they use to rank websites. Those algorithms change and if you don’t keep up you might end up using outdated tactics that no longer help you rank high.
If you’re doing the SEO tactics, you should never stop learning. If you’re outsourcing SEO services, you should review their strategies and make sure they’re up-to-date as well. Make sure that you’re always updated so that the measures you’re taking are as effective as they can be.
You’re Not Using the Right Keywords
Keywords are crucial for SEO. You need to target the right keywords to make your campaign successful. There are sets of keywords that are useful for every niche, so you need to do your research and find out what’s best for yours.
You can try focusing on localized keywords if you’re a small business. Target your local community first because that’s where you’ll find your most probable customers. Be specific. If you offer pool services in Santa Monica, you can try keywords like “pool cleaning service in Santa Monica.”
When you’ve decided to expand your business, you can still use localized keywords if you want to, but don’t focus on that too much. Broaden your terms so your website doesn’t appear to only your local community.
You Have A Terrible Website
If your website is terrible, then your SEO strategies will go to waste. Your site should have the qualities that a user will find pleasant when they’re browsing through the pages. Your website should be these things:
- Mobile-friendly – Your website should be able to adapt to different screen sizes. Most people use their smartphones to search online because it’s handy and they have it with them all the time. So when you build your website, make sure that you also design it to be adaptable on smaller screens.
- Fast and Responsive – Users can quickly exit a website if the page loads slowly. It’s one of the reasons why your site should be mobile-friendly so it can load fast when the smartphone or tablet user clicks on your site.
- High-Quality Content – Your website should contain high-quality content. Search engines crawl the sites to determine whether the content is high-quality, original, and useful. Also if your content is boring and useless for the readers, they won’t bother staying on the page any longer.
You Have No Quality Backlinks
Your backlink profile can add points for your ranking in search engines. You need to have links that take visitors back to your pages from other websites. Before, search engines rank you higher if you have plenty of backlinks. But now, your backlinks should be high-quality because if they’re spammy, search engines will penalize you for it.
One way you can build your backlink profile is by guest posting on other websites. Here’s how you do it:
- Find sites that are on a similar niche as you.
- Check if they allow guest posts on their blog.
- Read their guidelines to raise your chances of getting accepted.
- Contact the site owner on how you should proceed.
- Write a high-quality and unique blog post.
- Include a backlink within your article.
Final Thoughts
When your SEO strategies don’t seem to be working, find out whether or not you’re committing the mistakes above. Track down what causes your SEO failure and take the appropriate action. Remember to have patience because SEO success doesn’t happen overnight. It may take weeks or months before you see results, so keep on doing your best practices.
Qamar Zaman
Qamar Zaman is a Dallas based digital media expert who specializes in conversion based marketing. He has developed a storytelling system for small business who leverage their business to build their brand by storytelling system and distribute content like press releases and news.
