What to do When Your SEO Isn’t Working

Have no fear if you’re scratching your head and wondering why your SEO isn’t working! Our team of talented digital marketers compiled a list of the most common reasons why your SEO fails and what to do when you’ve hit a roadblock.

Reasons Why SEO Fails

There are many reasons why SEO efforts can fail to deliver successful results, and we want to inform you of those mistakes before we help you prevail. Whatever the reason, if SEO isn’t working, you need to figure out why.

• It Is Not A Race. When SEO efforts are made, there are many of us that would love to see the results of our hard work right away. With SEO, due to results being achieved organically, it may take a decent amount of time for quality results to show. For most, depending on the industry, a safe and solid timeline would most likely be anywhere from 4-6 months before your SEO efforts yield consistently strong results. However, results do present themselves sooner. 
• Wrong Kind of SEO. What kind of SEO do you want to target? Local? Organic? National? Commercial? Informational? Whether you know the answer or not, you need to target the proper markets to see the greatest results.
• No On-Page Optimization. On-page optimizations are an SEO effort that might just be the simplest but can have one of the greatest impacts on negative SEO performance. It is key to not overlook this part of any SEO campaign. Are your target keywords within your title tag? Do you have target keywords within your content heading? Does your content contain target keywords within your alt text? These are elements that shouldn’t go unnoticed and if lacking, can surely lead to a decline in results.
• Content Relevancy. In the world of SEO, content is king. As marketing professionals, we care a lot about content, and search engines, like Google, do too. It is essential to routinely update your content as relevancy is a strong indication of where Google and other search engines choose to rank your website. Creating a schedule of sorts to maximize efficiency and stay on top of this important practice can help your website remain fresh. 
• Links Structure.  Creating a quality SEO campaign wouldn’t be complete without a solid foundation. A well-built link structure can set any SEO campaign up for success. You need to make sure that you are utilizing the most relevant links that relate to your content. It is important to note, that using an excessive amount of them can cause search engines to become weary of your page’s intentions. “Patching” those pathways to and from your content can also help your campaign’s success.  

 How Do We Fix It?

Now that you understand some of the most common reasons SEO fails, we want to help you fix it. Below is a list of helpful tips on how to improve unsuccessful SEO.

• Technical Audit. Performing a technical audit is vital for understanding the health of a website and will identify clear areas of focus for improving the structure of the site. We’ve included a screenshot of what our technical audit objectives look like at Top Floor.

• Refresh MetaData. We all know that technology is everchanging and continues to improve with time, and the metadata of your website should be no different. In order to stay relevant and accessible to your customers, you should continually update your title tags and meta descriptions.
• Fixing Errors.  When it comes to the results of a technical audit, it can reveal hidden or even quite obvious errors within your website navigation. These can include 300 errors and even the dreaded 404 errors. Technical audits can bring these to light and tackling these efforts can improve your users’ overall navigation experience, while improving the validity and efficiency of your website. 
• Link Up. No, we don’t mean with your friends! We do recommend that you include appropriate and informative links throughout your site to improve your link authority and user experience on various pages of your website.

I Don’t Understand…Help!

This list of SEO efforts might seem a bit confusing or even a little overwhelming. If you’re not quite sure how to get started or need a little help along the way, then we encourage you to give us a call or visit our website for more information. We love forming business relationships with like-minded individuals who are driven by delivering successful results!