SEO can be an expensive investment, so, understand, you want to do everything you can to get the most out of your investment. But, in order to do so, you need to be aware of the common pitfalls that can hinder the success of SEO.
In my experience, nine things have historically prevented my clients from getting results. Knowing these roadblocks can help you get ahead of them and prevent them from interfering with your campaign and derailing your progress.
1. Not defining campaign goals
If you do not know the goals you are trying to achieve through SEO, measuring your success is impossible.
Similarly, if you have set goals but have not identified any key performance indicators (KPIs), it is difficult to know how successful you have been in achieving your campaign goals.
There’s nothing worse than having a number in someone’s head (e.g., adding 100 new leads per month via SEO) and not finding out until months into efforts and finding that you don’t live up to that expectation.
Defining goals and KPIs and communicating these with your team will help you have a successful campaign and meet your fund.
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2. Lack of resources
Working with a lack of resources is extremely frustrating, and can hinder your SEO success.
Below are some examples of resources you need to run a successful campaign and what can happen when you don’t.
3. Poor patience
SEO is a long-term investment. It’s not something you can afford, no matter how many resources you use.
Businesses get frustrated when they don’t see significant gains in the first few months. They may question their investment, decide to scale up their efforts or pull the whole plug.
Please do not assume that your SEO efforts will not work because your site is not at the top of the search engine results pages in the first month. That requires consistent time and effort.
In fact, even when an SEO specialist works, it can take months or even years to see impressive results. So no matter how hard you try, you have to be patient and confident in the process.
4. Broad targeting
When working on an SEO campaign, it is important to define the niche you want to target. This includes your geographic market and your customer base.
Defining a niche at the beginning of your marketing campaign helps you find your ideal customers in your unique corner of the market. Also, the more specific you have to your niche, the easier it will be to rank well.
Your niche’s topic groups and keywords may get less traffic than more general ones, but they also convert better and are valuable for your target and track.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you choose a niche with no search volume or one that isn’t closely linked to your products or services. Just look for one that is reasonable to target based on the competition and trends in your industry.
I realize that it can be scary to choose a specific niche, especially if you want everyone to have the opportunity to find your site. But, you have to remember, the definition of a niche does not mean that you will be held forever. A niche must evolve over time. You can expand your reach later in your campaign when appropriate. You can build a thematic skill in a range of themes and niches.
5. Not thinking full-funnel
It’s important to remember that not all Google users are ready to convert after finding your page. You have to think about the users at every stage of their journey, including the beginning, the search, the comparison, the transaction and the experience.
You cannot assume that every keyword or topic your destination will convert. It’s just not realistic.
Instead, you need to choose the goals that belong to the language used by a potential user at each stage of the funnel and provide the right content and level of engagement they are looking for during their consideration and customer journey.
For example, if they are just aware of their need for a new type of insurance for their business, they will probably begin their journey by researching their options and the types of companies they provide. They are not necessarily ready to fill out a form or make a call and start a sales process until they do a search and start going through the funnel.
6. Ignoring SERPs
Many people who start their SEO journey do not understand how a search engine results page (SERP) works. Then they don’t even realize that there are many sections on the SERPs and that organic results are typically buried under ads, news feeds, paper packets, snippets presented and more.
It is critical to educate about the anatomy of a SERP in order to understand the many ways in which your SEO efforts can impact the results that are shown to users.
A good SEO or area adjacent to traditional search (i.e., local SEO) has the power to get one of the coveted sites in Google’s search features (pack of cards, featured snippets, reviews, etc.). . But you may need to do a few tweaks to your SEO strategy to optimize your pages in a way that gets the attention of Google.
For example, schema markup can help you communicate to Google that you want your reviews to appear below your Google listing. Similarly, having a Google Business Profile listing increases the likelihood that you will appear in the results of the pack of cards.
7. Bad partnerships
Nothing slows down progress as a bad partnership. The wrong partner can prevent you from meeting your bottom line, whether it’s with salespeople, agencies, freelancers, tools, writers, developers, or people who weigh in on strategy and implementation.
But, terminating a bad partnership is not always easy, especially if contracts are involved. Before pulling the plug, discuss your expectations and how this collaboration fails to meet. Then, develop an action plan to rectify the situation.
But in the end, if your collaboration isn’t salvageable, you should end it. SEO is an investment, and it doesn’t pay to work with someone who won’t help you meet your fund.
Do all possible due diligence on the front end. Hopefully, you don’t end up in this situation.
8. Disconnection from other marketing channels
As a marketer, nothing bothers me more about working with professionals who blindly think that their marketing channel is the all-in-one, end-all to meet the goals of their clients. In reality, marketing channels need to be synergistic to produce the best possible results. This comes from someone (me) who started their deep career in an SEO silo.
There is a time and a place for all marketing channels. For example, if you need fast results and want to top your list on Google, then paid search is a great option. But long-term advertising can be costly. That’s where SEO comes in.
SEO takes time. It rarely gives first place results in SERPs. So, working on your SEO while the ads are running simultaneously can reach a similar population until your site rises higher in the organic ranking and eventually the need for a paid ad for that service or product is no longer there. necessary. In addition, paid and organic sites can work well together in some cases based on how the SERPs are structured for specific topics and queries.
In addition to this, we need to know that other channels like social, email and other types of digital advertising can go a long way in working together and influencing the customer journey. Don’t put all the pressure on a single channel if you can avoid it.
I encourage my clients to think about how they can leverage all their marketing channels and disciplines, including SEO, paid search, content, UX / UI, video, and more, to get the best results possible.
9. Not enough attribution
Tracking data is important. After all, it’s what shows how much return on investment your SEO efforts pay off. However, it is a mistake to only track SEO data and not to track business statistics and conversions related to your SEO efforts.
For example, if you have a service-based business like plumbing, you should expect to see an increase in keywords in plumbing. However, this means little if you don’t even see an increase in conversions (i.e., calls or contact forms that are completed).
With digital marketing, we have the power to know if it works and to follow everything. It is unacceptable in most cases to make assumptions when we can connect the dots from the impression through conversion (and hoping out).
Remove your SEO roadblocks
It’s normal and natural to want instant SEO results, but it’s not usually how it works. To get the SEO results you want to take consistent time and effort. Avoiding the pitfalls outlined in this article will help you get the most out of your SEO investment.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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About The Author
Corey Morris is a qualified marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in developing award-winning digital and ROI-generating strategies for local and national brands. He was recently honored as the recipient of the KCDMA 2019 Marketer of the Year award.