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Here’s Why Your SEO Strategy Isn’t Working

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Here’s Why Your SEO Strategy Isn’t Working

In modern business, there is one thing that can either make or break your business: marketing. More specifically, digital marketing.

If you don’t get it right – and a lot of businesses simply don’t – it can mean the loss of profit, poor brand exposure and ultimately stilted business growth. As simply put, people are more and more interested in what a business is doing online in the modern age. So failing to put forward an effective digital footprint can be a real hindrance to your business efforts.

At the top of these failures tends to be a business’s approach to SEO. They understand that good SEO can push their business website forward, but don’t particularly have the right approach to make it work and actually gain the benefit that SEO presents. It’s a big issue and one you want to prevent from Day One of your digital marketing exploits – or at least very early in your campaigns.

So, if you are frustrated with the SEO aspect of your digital marketing then here are some sure-fire ways you’re going wrong. And, more importantly, how to fix them!

Outdated Tactics

The best practice when it comes to SEO changes every day. Largely because Google will cotton on to a new technique, view it as ‘spammy’, and update their algorithms accordingly. Some of these tactics may even be considered to be Black Hat SEO. Take the recent August update, for example. It saw a big problem that many people were exploiting – long, advice based, content that may or may not has been actually helpful – and made it more sustainable. Ostensibly, to better both user experience and help legitimate advice sites prosper.

For this reason, it is very important to keep on track of Google’s and other search engines guidelines. Be aware of the different tactics and what may be considered ‘spammy’. Otherwise, you may find that your site faces punishment as a result of not actually following the right rules.

On the whole, SEO tactics vary from person to person. Some people swear by link building, others value content and even more think the technical side is where the future of SEO is heading. Test out what you think might work, but then don’t be afraid to change tactics if something isn’t working for you.

Technically Incompetent Website

Yes, the quality and ‘technical’ backdrop of your website actually have a big impact on your SEO and subsequent rankings. If you have a website that isn’t particularly good, has thin or weak, or poor user engagement then it simply won’t help to convert for your business. In fact, you could even find it more of a money drain and hindrance than anything else.

If your website is poor, then you’re going to struggle both in terms of ranking and conversions when users actually do go on site. Also, bad sites simply turn off users; so, having the right level of ‘polish’ to a site is simply necessary. Otherwise, you will find your site filtered out by the masses who simply expect better from their online experience.

Misunderstanding Data

A lot of SEO is incredibly data-driven. You have to understand the traffic your site is gaining, what this means about your acquisitions channels and ultimately how to generate more. All from a few numbers and line graphs that Google Analytics presents.

It’s easy to see all of the data presented by Google Analytics or other sites, then feel disheartened or as if your efforts aren’t quite there. However, it’s not necessarily about the data. It’s much more about your interpretation thereof. Interpret right and you could end up generating thousands of more users, better conversions and overall have a better website. Whereas interpret it wrong and it will simply sit there with very little views and traffic.

If you’re confused about analytics, there are plenty of resources to help you become a Google Analytics expert.

Terrible Keyword Targeting

You understand keywords. Which means that you know how to research them, implement them on your site and the supposed results that this should bring. However, it simply doesn’t. Your rankings remain a flop, even with the ‘right’ implementation of keywords. Chances are you have really miscalculated your keyword targeting.

This miscalculation can come from a number of different issues. Targeting keywords with too much search volume, targeting those with too little and sometimes you may target the wrong keyword altogether. It really is a mixed bag of reasons on a good day.

Try changing your tactics. Pick two targets; one long-term and one short-term. From there, you can decide whether your strategy is working in the short term, then make adjustments to ensure it continues or begins to do so in the long term. Thus, hopefully, removing the issue of wasted time potentially.

Impatience

One of the worst things, in terms of your SEO campaigns, can be a level of impatience on your part. By no means is SEO a get rich fast tactic. In fact, when done right SEO is a slowly building organic process and gradually improves over a long period of time (though this differs from business to business, good SEO can take up to a year or more). It’s all about sustainability and not appearing ‘unnatural’.

This level of impatience is why many clients and marketing agencies fall out, as the client is often impatient for quick results. Some of these situations even lead to the involvement of mediation solicitors. However, this is unfair in many cases as SEO is a slow method for achieving great results.

For that reason, even when your SEO strategy doesn’t seem to be working the best thing to do is to not panic. Simply look at what you’re actually doing and look to adjust. Make beneficial, smart, changes and you can easily find a strategy that does actually work for your website and business.

Three SEO Considerations When Choosing Your Next Hosting Company

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Let’s start with a couple of statements about hosting. True: hosting companies do not generally affect your organic ranking. False: hosting companies have no bearing on your SEO.

Many business owners aren’t aware that cost and convenience aren’t the only consideration to make when opting for a new hosting company. While these two points are valid and extremely important to growing organisations, what can’t be underestimated is the impact on website SEO that the correct – or incorrect – provider can bring to your site.

Whether your company is trampling the competition, or you’re looking for ways to save money while maintaining a great service, there are many reasons why you may wish to switch your hosting company.

For some businesses, loyalty means ease and convenience – and that works for them, but it’s not always the best option. For one thing, you could end up improving your services dramatically – and at no extra cost. Some brands may even find their hosting costs reduce when they switch, because plenty of operators are looking for new business and offer attractive incentives to the right customers.

So what should you look out for in a service provider? And what could the pitfalls be? Read on to find out the three major considerations you should make before making the commitment to change your hosting company this year.

Speed

Site speed is a huge ranking factor – and it may well be the case that you are considering a hosting move in order to create a more rapid site with better performance. Ranking improvements are definitely seen when a website greatly increases its speed and useability – and that’s simply due to the fact that Google loves to see websites that are slick and ready for customers to use as soon as they click.

Of course, there are ways you can control some of the factors that slow websites down, such as the content, coding and application of imagery and widgets, but a lot of the blame can often be portioned off to your host. So, you can rest easy that you’ve done nothing at all wrong.

The speed of your website can fluctuate normally, so the best and most accurate way to measure your current site speed is to take a look at it, as often as you can, to observe any changes or stalling points that concern you.

Once you’ve double-checked your site’s speed and you still feel it could benefit from being faster, start shopping around to see if your host (or a competitor) can offer you a better service.

The best results for a speedy website will come from migrating a website to a server that’s closer to you and your customer base. This doesn’t necessarily mean in the same town, but swapping a stateside server for one in the UK (if you’re based in England) could make a huge difference. Other host-related factors you can look into are the availability of a Content Delivery Network (CDN), or simply the type of hard drive technology used. It may also be worth asking if the server you’re being linked to is optimised to your content management system – such as WordPress or DNN.

Security

The safety of your site is a huge consideration, and should be taken seriously from initial build to the development of further mini-sites, as and when your business grows. SEO can take a huge hit if your website ranks low on the secure rating, and can end up being hugely damaging if left to deteriorate.

If your website isn’t deterring hackers, they can easily create spam pages and generate fake backlinks that can swoop underneath the radar for months. Google hates this sort of activity as it can be damaging to users’ experience, and so guess what? It penalises without mercy. Poor security can be fixed manually, but often this takes time and the harsh penalties may already have taken effect.

If your website is not hosted on a truly secure server, your site may also be open to malware attacks, infecting your website and putting your visitors at risk. Not only is this a huge inconvenience to your visitors, it also opens you up to having a security warning shown by your results – a huge turn-off for potential customers – or even being blacklisted by search engines completely. And no one wants this for their website; trust us!

To avoid any of these potential headaches and heartbreaks, make sure you talk through the security options available with your web host and request information and costs for any malware removal support, and other hacker defenses they offer to protect your website from attacks.  Entrepreneur.com also suggests requesting information about data encryption, to ensure your information is being held and shared securely and CloudLiving.com recommends five additional steps to secure your website.

Technical Support

There will come a time that you will need the professional support of a web hosting specialist. Don’t get stung with a huge bill when you really need the help; make sure you’re prepared from the start with a package that includes support right from the off.

Web hosting comes with a variety of potential pitfalls and even if this isn’t your first time at the start of a big project like moving servers, there are many ways in which small things can be overlooked. And small issues will no doubt lead to bigger issues further down the line. The best advice – as with most things – is to seek out a professional’s opinion wherever you can. Or even better, seek more than one opinion to make sure the advice you’re getting is sound and relevant to your particular needs.

Should your website go down – heaven forbid – you need to know that the support is there to get you back up and running quickly and with minimum upheaval or stress. Make sure your web hosting company offers 24/7 technical support to get those issues fixed quickly and have your website back on track in as little time as possible.

To give yourself even more peace of mind, delve into the experience and qualifications of the staff you’ll be working with whenever you contact your web host. Will you have a specific team assigned to your website? Do you know their names and their credentials? All of these things will help you to gain a better relationship with the people who can fix any of your issues quickly and will give you a better idea of the expertise you are paying for, too.

Sometimes you get what you pay for. Often with web hosting, you’ll be better off paying more for a better service if it means keeping your SEO ranking high, your customers safe and your website up and running efficiently and quickly.

Driving Traffic To Your Ecommerce Site

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When you have a physical store gaining footfall is a huge influence on your advertising and how you design your store. And all of that is still valid with an ecommerce site. The only differences lie in the fact that you aren’t aiming to grab the attention of someone walking by, but to target your audience when they are browsing the internet – whether or not they are searching for you. An ecommerce site has so many advantages, as does a physical store, but it gives you the ability to reach so many more people than a fixed location does. You just have to know how to go about getting that attention in the right way. The saying ‘any press is good press’ is 100% wrong; you need to strive to have a good reputation while using the right tools and software to attract and retain your customers.

Design

The first thing to consider is the base of your operations; your website. An ecommerce site doesn’t need to be overly complicated. In fact, you can easily start one with a DIY web building platform. But making sure that it can be easily navigated by anyone is key. Keep things simple and uncluttered, with drop menus and different categories clearly found and all key contact information on both a contact page and at the bottom of each page. And make sure that you stay true to your style – if you are selling custom skateboards you need to stick to the cultural designs surrounding that to attract your main audience base.

Research

Do the research before and after you have launched your ecommerce site. You need to know who is searching for what you’re selling, what demographics are visiting your page and who is sticking around long enough to buy something. Look at Google Analytics to get you started, and look into applying applications and advice from Veon Consulting to increase your ecommerce statistics. The right software and tools are key here, and never think that doing the job once means completing the task.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation are key words and phrases that increase your standing on a search engine results page. Use them well by wisely – Google do block pages that appear to dump a lot of phrases together in the hope of being first on that list. Keep it relevant- use Google AdWords to figure out the right phrases for you and check in regularly. As trends change as will the most commonly searched phrases. Integrating SEO phrases comes naturally to a content writer, so maybe you should look into hiring one for your web content, or you can give it a go yourself.

Deals

Just like a giant SALE banner in a window catches the eye, does a good deal encourage clicking. Use social media to advertise any deals or promotions you have going on. You can use cookies to target the right audience, but it can also help to interest people who otherwise wouldn’t think about visiting your ecommerce store.

Can You Manage Your Website’s SEO Strategy?

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Businesses need websites to promote themselves to prospective clients, and creating an effective site is a science, and indeed an industry, all its own. Whether you choose to build your own site or employ a specialist to do it for you, all your efforts will be in vain if you don’t get your website to the top of the search engine rankings. It’s hard to move on business and marketing websites for references to SEO and how important it is, but is it something you can manage yourself or is it the digital equivalent of brain surgery – best left to the experts?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization; it simply means there are certain things you can do with your website that will result in search engines listing it closer to the top of the results list when someone searches for terms that are relevant to your business. That’s the simple part; the complication is how this is most effectively achieved. Different search engines use different algorithms (the combination of factors and how much weight is applied to each) to rank search results, and they are not inclined to transparency when it comes to providing details of their methods. Added to this, algorithms are regularly changed and updated according to a search engine’s development programs.

Tackling SEO yourself

There are some elementary steps you can take to lay the basis for a sound SEO strategy, based on some of the more static principles that algorithms take into account:

• Ensure your site has quality content and is well-written. This is a fundamental requirement, and algorithms place significant weight on the quality of your content.

• Include links to relevant, quality sites. Use sites that have the authority and high traffic for their subject area. The higher the quality and authority of your links the better your site will be rated.

• Get backlinks from other websites to your site. Again, concentrate on authoritative, popular sites. You will need to make connections with other website and blog owners, and you will need to add links to your site in exchange for them adding your link to their site.

• Use appropriate keywords in your metadata and content to highlight the relevance of your business to terms people are searching for.

It can be a time-consuming process to research where you want your site to be linked and agreeing on terms with the hosting site. There is no reason why, with time and dedication, you shouldn’t be able to accomplish this work yourself but remember to keep educating yourself about SEO methods and updates to the algorithms.

Professional SEO services.

Given the huge impact SEO has, it’s no surprise that there are a lot of companies offering marketing and SEO services. Some companies have experience and expertise that can be very effective in formulating a successful strategy. If you are contemplating this option, be sure to find a reputable company like Dymic Digital SEO, and avoid the scammers and the companies that are simply not very good at their job. If you’re contemplating this solution, do some research on the results of companies you are interested in and view their case histories. You can also consult forums and find out what other customers have thought about a company’s services.

Taking a middle path

If you have the skills, time and interest, you may want to deal with some elements of SEO yourself and leave the more complicated aspects to professionals. As long as you can work in harmony with your SEO company, this can achieve successful results. You need to be clear about what each of you is responsible for, and be open to the SEO advisers on every aspect of your strategy to ensure a good working relationship. If you have staff who are interested and capable, you could assign the best candidate to take charge of your SEO. You would need to facilitate appropriate training courses to enable them to be effective in the role and make sure they continue to develop their skills.

Assessing the success of your SEO strategy

Before you begin, whether you are doing it yourself or employing specialists, you need to know how well your website is performing. Use tools like Google Analytics to see how much traffic you’re generating, how many click-throughs and how many conversions. Once you have the figures, compare them every month to see what is improving and what isn’t, so you can adjust your strategy to aid in increasing site views and purchases or inquiries. Reviewing progress and results is a vital step, the same as with all your marketing activities, for without knowing what actions have increased sales, you can’t address any issues and find ways to fix them.

Where to go for help if it’s not working

If after repeated efforts you are still not seeing improved results, it might be time to engage a professional company. The competition for ranking position is fierce, and there are many other websites all clamoring to take the coveted page one positions. You will be at an advantage if you operate in a very focused niche because there will be far fewer relevant results to be retrieved. However, if you have a product or service with general appeal, you will be vying with hundreds or thousands of other businesses, and there are only a few who can make it to the front. If you are determined to or have no choice but to go it alone, you should at least do as much research as you can on optimizing your SEO so that you have the knowledge to make the right changes.

Don’t underestimate the power of SEO to make or break your company. Your website could be beautifully designed and full of exceptional high-quality content, but if it’s not marketed well, you’ll never get high levels of traffic visiting the site. Most people looking for products and services look to a search engine for information, and if you’re not on the first few pages (preferably page one) you’re unlikely to be seen, so give SEO the time and attention it merits.

4 Amazingly Effective SEO Strategies for Content Marketing

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When it comes to generating web traffic and online brand awareness, few methods are more effective in the long-term than search engine optimization (SEO), which is simply the practice of optimizing your website and marketing efforts to facilitate higher rankings in the search engines. Since all of those search results are linking to content, the primary driving force behind any SEO campaign is content creation/marketing. Although site owners and marketers should always aim for quality over quantity, to a degree it really is a number game. The number of posts you have online at any given time will directly affect your brand’s visibility. With that said, here are four strategies you can use to achieve expansive results in any content marketing strategy:

1. Geo-Targeting and International Marketing

Sometimes, expanding into foreign markets is all it takes to tap into an extra group of visitors that you might’ve previously overlooked. This is worthy of being mentioned first because it’s something that many marketing campaigns fail to take into account. While global brands can benefit tremendously from international marketing – click here for more information on that – local brands should also be using geo-targeting techniques to increase the amount of traffic generated in the regions where they conduct business.

2. Guest Posting and Allowing Guest Authors

Another way to get your content in front of new eyes is to volunteer to post your content on relevant blogs and sites that allow guest posts. By guest posting on high authority sites and then linking back to a page on your own site, you’re not only attracting direct referral traffic but you’re also improving your SEO stats by increasing the number of high-ranking inbound links that point to your site. Likewise, posting an open invitation for guest authors will give your site fresh new content for free.

3. Infographics, Videos, and Other Media

You could be losing a large chunk of traffic by not producing and promoting infographics, videos, GIFs, sideshows, reports, presentations, and other forms of media content. Infographics can spread like wildfire if they contain a number unique and useful statistics, as they tend to be linked back to as resources by bloggers.

4. Focus on the Social Networking Side of the Coin

Finally, staying active on social media is a duty that no brand should neglect, especially if you’re trying to promote content to generate additional traffic and awareness. Having a post go viral on a site like Facebook or Twitter is a great way to build massive momentum and dozens of strong inbound links in a matter of days.

Content Marketing Has become the Crux of SEO

Not too long ago, SEO was ridden with sneaky, short-sighted tactics that often involved nothing more than seeking out random links from sites that match a set of criteria. However, in recent years search engines like Google have evolved past a purely metrics-based approach and are now able to more accurately discern what quality content reads and performs like. Since the goal of the search engine is to provide links to the most relevant content, it was only a matter of time before content quality became the core issue in SEO, so take note and adapt your SEO efforts to follow suit.