The reason you use SEO strategies is because you want to improve your page ranking. Sometimes, the result is disappointing, and your SEO efforts fail. In the majority of cases, the failure is not caused by some mysterious Google penalty. Your SEO strategy will fail because of factors that you have not taken into consideration from the beginning.
Let's see some of these factors that lead to SEO strategy failure. If you know them, you can improve your efforts and apply successful long-term strategies.
1. Considering keyword density as the most important SEO strategy
This is one issue that will lead to failure in the short-term. Keyword density is a concept that has been overused in the past years. It does not lead to a higher rank of your web page. The times when keyword density was one of Google's most important ranking factors have passed.
You won't convince any search engine that your web page is one of the best just because you have plenty of keywords stuffed into the content. It is important to just focus on creating content that is created to help people. User experience is of great concern when it comes to ranking website pages.
2. Not investing in high-quality content
You may put a lot of effort in SEO strategies, but if you don't invest in high-quality content, there is a possibility of failure in the long run. Google and other search engines are trying to provide the best results for their users, which means high-quality content. Make sure that the content on your website is well-written, has persuasive language, and it is not too short. Also, check the grammar and the spelling to make sure that the title is relevant to the article.
3. Building the wrong links
Building links is definitely an important strategy, but it is not always an efficient one. If the links are built wrong, and they seem unnatural, they are most likely seen as spam. There are promotions that promise you thousands of links for very low prices. Although you think you can save a lot of money here, you'll be investing in a useless strategy. Do yourself a favor and just build content that attracts high quality links from readers.
4. Ignoring to track your SEO efforts
One thing you need to do is use a solid analytic software to track your optimization efforts. If you know the strategies that work for your website, it is much easier to duplicate the process, and increase your overall rankings. You will also find out what is not working and what to avoid. Analytics are essential if you don't want to waste your efforts or resources.
5. Using outdated techniques
A successful strategy from one year ago can be a total failure if applied now. Why is this happening? The algorithms of search engines are always being updated. You should not ignore those updates if you want your web page to benefit from high rankings.
It is true that some of the algorithm's updates do not have great consequences, but others have affected even the ranking of some famous websites. That's why it is always a good idea to keep up with the updates of the algorithms.
6. A poor understanding of your target audience
When it comes to SEO, one of the first things you should do is to understand your target audience. Try to see who are the people from your target audience, what segment of the population they belong to, and what they are searching on the Internet. After understanding all these, you can build a proper strategy, using the right keywords and other appropriate techniques. Only by knowing your target audience will you be able to adapt your web page content to their needs.
7. Ignoring social media
Our everyday life is influenced by social media, so ignoring it is definitely a bad choice. When you plan your strategy, make sure you include social media in that plan. Investing in social media is efficient because people use it very often and is one of their daily sources of information.
8. Using narrow keywords
It is good to be specific in your website content, but being too specific when it comes to keywords is not a good idea. You will lower your chances of having high rankings if you will use key phrases such as "brown natural leather handbag for women on sale". The probability that someone will actually search the entire key phrase on Google or another search engine is very low.
9. Not having a mobile-friendly website
Nowadays, more and more people use their mobile gadgets, such as mobile phones or tablets for searching information. If you don't have a mobile-friendly website, now is the time to invest in this strategy. In the last few years, the number of those who use search engines on mobile gadgets rather than on their PC or laptop has dramatically increased. Last year, an update in the Google algorithm actually introduced mobile responsiveness among the ranking factors.
If you want to upgrade your page ranking, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. For this purpose, it is necessary to make your web page content readable on a mobile device without zooming or tapping, place the tapping areas at an appropriate distance, and avoid horizontal scrolling. This investment is definitely a long-term one.
10. Having high competition
Each day more and more competition appears online in your market. Although they may be younger, the older websites that move into your market will have an edge. It is hard to compete with websites that have ages of experience. In this case, you could try to invest more in social media marketing and attract the local audience. Understand that it takes time to beat your competition, regardless of how dense the market may be.
Would love to here from you...