SEO is the most basic part of digital marketing. Rightfully, many business owners are switching to search engine optimization in the hope of better brand visibility, lead generation, and sales. However, SEO is not easy. There are many variables that one has to deal such as competition, and changes in the market, search engine algorithm, customer behavior, etc.
The hard truth is that not all SEO campaigns are going to work and bring the desired results. The results totally depend are the above-mentioned variables and the capability of an SEO company. There are many reasons for an SEO campaign to be unsuccessful. If your SEO campaign is not working, it is important to find out the reasons behind it. Hence, in this blog post, we are going to list the top 10 reasons why your SEO is not working.
1. Content is not optimized
Let us begin with the basics. The content that you put on your website should not only impress your visitors but also search engines like Google. You already know what your customers like. In order to make your content more search engine friendly your need to optimize it, Here we are presenting some tips on how to optimize your content.
Add the target keyword in the title tag.
Add the target keyword in the H1 tag.
Use the target keyword thought the primary content area.
Use the keywords in the alt text of images.
Use additional keywords in the H2 tags.
Note: Make sure you keep the keyword density healthy.
2. Over-optimized content
Did you read the note given in the first point? If you are not following that note, you are simply increasing your keyword density, which is a black hat SEO trick. Search engines like Google penalize websites that use black hat tactics to influence search engine ranking. In the end, you may lose your hard earned search engine ranking or your site might be de-indexed. Once your site is de-index no one can reach your website via Google.
Yes, not optimizing your content is a problem and over optimizing your content is also a problem. So, what is the solution for this issue? The best solution is to maintain a healthy keyword density. There is no ideal or best performing keyword density. However, as an SEO expert, we suggest you keep keyword density somewhere between 1% to 3% along with semantic and LSI keywords.
3. You are not targeting the right audience
Most of the new business owners either target a wide audience or wrong audience. Before you begin with SEO, one of the basic things you need to figure out is who your audience is. You can’t simply create a website and start uploading content. Doing so can misdirect your whole SEO campaign and make it unsuccessful.
It is really important to rank your website or web pages for the right keywords. Pick only those keywords that bring you sales. Do not forget to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for. Also, mix your content with long tail keywords and the keywords that have buying intent.
Here are examples of long-tail keywords:
How to fix 404 error
Headache and nausea in the morning
Home remedy for dry cough
Here are the examples of buyer keywords
Best price on Adidas Solar Ride
Veg restaurants in south London
The female gym is south west London
4. Stiff competition
When it comes to SEO there are many variables. One such variable is competition. You may rank your web page for certain keywords this month. In the next month, you may lose the rankings to your competitors. That is because your competitors are also working on their SEO campaign. He is trying to beat you and you are trying to beat him. In the end, it all depends on the capability of the SEO company you hire.
So, before choosing an SEO agency do research and find out the answer to the below questions.
How much experience your potential SEO agency holds?
How many projects similar to yours they have handled?
How much time does it take to bring results?
How will you handle the stiff competition?
What makes you unique in the digital marketing industry?
Why should I choose your SEO services?
Are the services complete white hat?
5. You are not willing to spend
Good SEO results come at a cost. Experienced SEO agencies offer their SEO services at an above average price. If you want to expand your business, you should not hesitate to spend more on search engine optimization services. After all, it is a kind of investment.
One of the most common mistakes of new business owners is hiring a cheap SEO agency. We are not saying, a company offering SEO services at low rates are always bad. What we are saying is a cost should not be the only criteria to select an SEO agency. You should also give preference to your business goals, capabilities of the SEO firm, results achieved in the past, and experience.
6. You are not giving enough time
SEO takes time to give results. We can’t really quote the ideal time that an SEO strategy takes to give results because SEO has many variable factors. The time taken to achieve your business goals depends on various factors. Below we are mentioning some important factors.
Your business goals
Level of competition
Region
Your SEO history
Current search engine ranking
Google penalty if any
The best thing to do here is to ask your potential SEO firm how much time does it take. Your SEO agency will do a website audit and find all the current issues. Based on the audit results and business goals you want them to achieve, they will give you an estimation. If the firm is not able to deliver within the time frame, it mostly means something is wrong with your SEO campaign.
7. Google has not indexed your site
If your site is brand new and is not showing on the Google results page, it simply means Google has not indexed your site. So, how do I find out whether my site is indexed or not? Here is what you can do to find out.
Google search “site:yoursite.com” without “WWW” and “/.” Here is an example: site.360degreeseo.com
If you can see your site in the search results and you are at the top, it means your site is indexed. Normally, you will see a full list of all your web pages. Just in case, if your site is not on top or not displayed at all, it means your site is not indexed.
8. Your website is not mobile friendly
Mobile friendliness is an important ranking signal. In the past, mobile friendliness was not a ranking factor. However, with the increase in mobile usage, the search engine giant started to give importance to mobile devices. If your site is not device friendly, you may not rank it high for mobile devices.
In simple words, you should own a responsive website. That is whenever your website is browsed on different devices, it should be fluid enough to take the shape of those particular devices. Visitors must not zoom-in or zoom-out to read the content on the website. If your website, does not has this quality, it will harm the user experience, which leads to poor search engine ranking.
9. The absence of inbound links
An inbound link is a clickable link on a third party web page that points to your site or a web page on your site. Google webmaster tool is a free tool to see the inbound links pointing to a site. You can use this tool to know the inbound links pointing at you.
Google ranks your website based on various factors. One of the most important factors is these links. If there are no links pointing at your site, you can’t rank your website. It is as simple as that. However, having a huge number of such links can harm your online visibility. Here, the quality of the links matters more than the quantity. Hence, you should focus on natural and high-quality links.
10. Your site has technical issues
The ultimate goal of a search engine is to connect internet users with quality content that matches there intent behind the search. So yes, quality is something more important here. Google has become the most used search engine throughout the world for this reason.
The job of a search engine is to crawl your site and categorize the content found. If everything is fine and the content on your website is unique and high-quality, you have nothing to worry. If, however, Google finds problems then this may affect your overall online visibility.
Here are the common problems:
Duplicate content
Crawling issues
Indexation issues
Domain issues
Subdomain issues
Lack of fundamental optimization
You will need an SEO expert to fix all these issues. Do not take the control in your hands unless and until you know what these terms are and how to deal with them. A small mistake can put your entire visibility at risk, and you might end up with a Google penalty.
