11 Reasons Your SEO Campaign Isn’t Working

Are your SEO efforts not working?

The vast majority of people don’t click past the first page of search results, so it’s not enough for your site to simply be indexed by Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Making SEO mistakes happens, but not fixing them can have a domino effect on your online marketing strategy and a larger marketing plan.

Here are 11 mistakes that can make your SEO efforts impossible:

#1: You’re not giving it enough time

These days people are accustomed to seeing instant results. Unfortunately, SEO works the complete opposite way. The work involved in ranking websites is tedious and time-consuming. Additionally search engines are not as fast to index websites as they are at instantly serving up search results.

#2: You don’t have an SEO Strategy

Having an SEO marketing plan will help you better understand your online presence and identify steps you can take to improve your traffic and search ranking. If you don’t have one its hard to measure if your efforts are failing.

#3: You’re not targeting the right keywords

Your business needs to determine which keywords are most desirable and best fits your business. Just because you could sell your services all over the world doesn’t mean its the most effective initial focus. Find a way to differentiate your branding, marketing, and business from your competitors in a localized space. Then widen the net.

#4: Your hosting is horrible

Cheap hosting is really cheap for a reason and its not because they are investing in top-shelf hardware. Having your business in an unstable hosting environment opens you up to a host of problems you don’t want to deal with.

There many factors contributing to the speed of your website. Fast loading websites start with clean code, awesome hosting, and using plug-ins by developers who adhere to a clean code philosophy. But it all starts with quality website hosting.

#5: Your website is horrible

Website builders are optimized to get your credit card information. historically companies like Wix, Weebly, and GoDaddy’s services are slow because they are free or greatly reduced in price. Also, free website builders can have millions of users running unoptimized websites that hold up the entire server grid.

#6: You’re not leveraging social media

As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites. The rise of smartphones has made social networking just a finger tap away. Don’t put your marketing plan in the penalty box by not leveraging social media.

#7: Your content is poorly written

Often the website is what forms the first impression of your company. This is why good content is essential. It can make or break a sale, and possibly the success of your company. It takes ongoing effort to ensure that your website converts and meets the ever-changing needs of your ideal customers. To get the most out of online marketing make sure to write content that people want to engage. Information is what people are searching for and the foundation of your entire search marketing campaign.

#8: You’re not tracking conversions

Don’t know if you’re getting sales leads? Time to implement more tracking capabilities into your website like Google Analytics. Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about your website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. It’s the most widely used website statistics service. And the best tool to monitor website traffic and website performance.

#9: You’re not blogging

It’s no secret that blogging can boost your website traffic. It takes time to build up credibility with search engines…but when that trust point has been reached you will begin to see greater reward with less effort. Just because your business has a blog doesn’t mean you will get targeted traffic.

#10: You lack quality backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most important aspects of any business SEO strategy, large or small. Your business needs to create a positive collection of backlinks in the minds of search engines. An effective backlink and marketing strategy gives you a major edge. Leverage your competitors backlinks to get the ball rolling.

#11: Your website is not responsive

Americans use their mobile devices to access the internet every day. Sales of mobile devices and tablets are rising, and desktop computers and laptops is falling. Having your business accessible on a mobile device is important for connecting with customers.

Run a Free SEO Report and use that as a starting point for improvements.

When to Hire Help

It’s time to hire when your time becomes more valuable. As an entrepreneur, we try to do everything ourselves to save money. But at some point your time becomes more valuable than hiring somebody.

Conclusion

SEO does not have to be hard. I hope you can gain some insights from my experiences and grow your online presence. Remember there are a ton of free resources out there that can help you grow.

What other reasons do you think cause an SEO campaign to fail?