In theory, search engine optimization is something we can all get behind. After all, your prospects and customers are using Google and other popular search engines to look up businesses like yours, so having your company website rank high in organic search results is something that should be right on top of your business plan.
Why then does it seem that no matter what you do, your competitors keep reeling in customers that were yours to begin with?
Here’s the thing: good SEO isn’t some top secret only a select few are entitled to. As long as you keep Google’s best practices in mind and gear your SEO towards logical strategies around those practices, you should see your site ranking high in no time.
In this article, we’re going to unload 15 telltale signs that indicate your website’s SEO is weak, so that you can better focus on what you really need to. Before we proceed though, it’s important to ask yourself some questions:
- What are my business goals?
- What are my SEO expectations?
- How am I going to meet those expectations?
- How will I measure results?
And without further ado, here are 15 signs your website’s SEO needs fixing:
1. Organic Search Traffic Steadily Decreases
If this is the case, head over to Google Analytics and run a six-month comparison. Go to organic search and check your traffic’s acquisition; group it into weeks or months. Now, if your organic search numbers are steadily going down, you have a problem on your hands.
Here are common reasons so as to why you’re experiencing this:
Google has recently slammed your site with a penalty.
Your competitors have upped their SEO game and outpacing you gradually.
Your keyword positions are on the decline.
Google is having difficulty crawling your website as it may have a lot of indexing errors.
There’s been a change in search trends in your respective industry.
Google has updated their algorithms making your site rank poorly.
Google dropped your ranking due to security issues on the site such as spam or malware.
You’re targeting the wrong audiences which makes for ineffective engagement.
2. Organic Traffic Drops Dramatically Overnight
If this is the case, your SEO efforts need a dramatic shift. Huge drops in search engine traffic points to one thing: shoddy ranking tactics that are finally catching up to you. You have to make sure you’re using the best SEO company Toronto has to offer.
Read this carefully: it does not pay to use unnatural or Black Hat SEO tactics to rank higher. It just isn’t worth it. What you need to do is eliminate ALL underhanded tactics such as stuffing keywords on your web pages, cloaking, comment spamming, spinning content, masking content in code, buying links, ‘link farming’ with private blog networks, doorway pages etc.
It will all come back to you one way or another and can bite you pretty hard in the rear. Enough said!
3. Plummeting Keyword Rankings
If your keyword rankings are dropping, you’re probably also losing out on organic traffic, or the other way around. While tracking your keywords is important, keeping a check on your primary keyword positions is even more important.
On one hand, daily fluctuations in keyword ranking are common, on the other, major drops in position is an indicator of a poor SEO strategy.
4. You’re Not Ranking for the Ideal Keywords
Irrespective of whether you’re working with digital marketing experts to execute your SEO or doing it on your own, you need a thorough understanding of what keywords to target. You can find many awesome keyword tracking tools, many of them free, so use them to know what keywords register the most for your website.
However, if your site doesn’t end up on Google’s first page for even localized keywords related to your specific business, you need an SEO overhaul. Consider outsourcing your efforts to a reputable digital marketing firm.
5. Your Landing Pages Aren’t Converting Prospects to Customers
When it comes to seeing prospects coming from search engines converting to customers, one should be realistic. Generally speaking, if you manage to convert anywhere between six and eight percent of search engine traffic into customers, you’re doing okay, even though this can vary ever so slightly depending on your industry.
Search engine traffic is unique because if you’re targeting audiences using the right keywords, they should click on your website with the intention of buying. The key is to put laser-like focus on your target audience, not everybody who just ‘might’ buy, but those who are 100% likely to buy from you.
6. You’re Using “Thin” and Washed Out Content
Are you saturating your web pages with brilliant and simply mind-blowing content that people love to read and share? Even if you are, it is largely useless without sound SEO strategies. A key component of search marketing is killer audience-focused content and SEO is the ignition switch that makes that content widely popular.
Drop everything you’re doing and start reviewing your website content. Is it helpful? Does it go the extra mile to inform and inspire audience members? Thin, outdated and washed out content is something that doesn’t go down well with Google. And again, stuffing run-of-the-mill content with keywords won’t effectively engage your customers, let alone gain authority on Google rankings.
7. Your Behavioral Metrics Aren’t Up to Speed
Go to Google Analytics and take a look at your site’s behavioral metrics. Look for high bounce rates, spammy traffic, less than one page for session, low average time on site, visits coming from unnatural locations are indicators of a poor SEO strategy.
Even though this particular factor isn’t something Google pays close attention to, it is still important enough to help you determine if your SEO strategy is amiss.
8. Tracking the Wrong Metrics
Are you stuck in a loop where you’re tracking metrics that don’t matter significantly to your bottom line? For instance, having followers by the thousands or millions on Twitter might seem like a big deal but that followership does not indicate how engaged the audience is with your business. Spending too much time and efforts focusing on these numbers instead of building relationships where they count the most, is a surefire way to prevent your SEO efforts from yielding fruitful results.
There are weekly, monthly and annual metrics you need to be focusing on such as organic traffic and social signals, bounce rate and inbound link quality as well as quantity, and total ROI and year-over-year conversions.
To learn more about how these metrics need to be tracked and fine-tuned in order to achieve your SEO goals, get in touch with one of the digital marketing experts at AOK Marketing for a free consultation. Call us today at 1.888.566.2577.
9. Too Many Poor-quality Backlinks
Any smart and experienced SEO specialist will tell you that you need to earn your backlinks rather than build them. There are several creative and honest ways to earn quality and relevant external links to your site; however, to cover those methods, we’d have to stray off almost completely from our topic of discussion.
A number of quality backlink tools can be found online through which you can get a list of sites linking to you. You can also use Webmaster Tools to do the same. These tools let you see what the backlinks look like, whether they’re coming from quality and relevant sites or just irrelevant and generally spammy ones. If the latter is true, you need to rethink ways of earning link juice.
10. Bad Quality or Irrelevant Inbound Links
Link-building is a crucial aspect of your SEO campaign; however, there are varying levels of quality which depends on the links’ sources, contexts and structures. A bad link or two in your inbound link profile may or may not hurt your rankings – on the other hand, a complete pattern of spammy and manipulative inbound links will get you a nice Google algorithm penalty, where you risk being permanently removed from organic search results.
Inbound links profiles can be checked by tools available online though nothing beats the expertise and experience of a seasoned digital marketing agency that has ‘been there and done that’. Just to give you a quick example, a good guest blogging strategy is great for building your business brand and boosting rankings.
11. Not Utilizing All Marketing Channels Effectively
In order to really tap into the true power of SEO, it has to work synergistically with other elements in order to truly drive digital growth. What you should be doing is incorporating all aspects of digital marketing such as creating highly compelling and valuable content and delivering it to your audience, not only through social media but email marketing as well. In addition, you should do everything you can to reach out and build long-term relationships with key players in the industry.
12. Failing to Track Your Efforts
Simply believing that you’ve implemented the best SEO practices or hired the most sought-after SEO company isn’t enough – you won’t know how far you’ve come unless you measure your efforts. Measuring SEO growth is a key element in understanding where you’re headed and also how you’re going to get there.
For example, measure your site’s growth on Google Analytics and track your targeted keywords. This will help you to better evaluate your content marketing efforts and determine in the process, if you need to fix your SEO direction.
13. You’re prioritizing it All Wrong
Some of the highest priorities of an SEO campaign are producing regular quality content, ensuring proper onsite optimization, building quality and meaningful inbound links and keeping social engagement high. If you’re constantly spending too much time on low-priority SEO strategy segments such as posting news on social media and not enough on a high-priority segment like building relationships with niche leaders and publishers, your SEO will suffer sooner or later.
Just to give you an example, you may be focusing too much on the following, which is actually hurting your SEO efforts more than anything else:
- Writing for search engines only.
- Focusing too much on churning out quantity in terms of content and not quality.
- Not optimizing properly each time a new page is added.
- Not taking the appropriate action when discarding old pages.
- Buying links as opposed to building quality links relevant to your niche.
- Not paying enough attention to user experience.
14. Not Broadening Your Horizons
A great ROI is something every business strives for, and they very well should. However, organic traffic and conversions aren’t everything, even though they are crucial to calculating the overall value of your SEO efforts.
It always pays to give attention to the less measurable and intangible SEO factors like better brand exposure and improved overall reputation. Take these calculations into account and to get a really clear picture of how your SEO efforts are shaping up, you need to hire a digital marketing firm who is tirelessly willing to crunch the numbers for you around the clock.
15. You’re Not Going All the Way and/or Expecting Overnight Results
Finally, it must be noted that SEO efforts devised to complement your current marketing efforts. You can’t just put an hour aside each day and expect to reap the desired results. The more time, effort and energy you’re willing to invest into SEO, the more desirable results you’ll see. And one important aspect that really needs to be accounted for is the ‘patience’ factor – it takes time for SEO efforts to bear fruit due to its very nature and any number of factors can cause delays. For instance, if your onsite SEO isn’t up to speed, it doesn’t matter what kind of resources you pool into link-building and blogging.
The fact of the matter is “half-in strategies” will make it difficult to enjoy a positive ROI; to be truly successful in the SEO game, you need to be very patient and commit to it 100%.
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