Many web site owners face a problem. Their search engine marketing strategy is failing. They don’t know why and they equally don’t know what to do to ensure a ranking on page 1 of all search engines, not just Google.
Here are some reasons I have come across why this might just be the case:
1. Your goals are either wrong or not clearly defined: If your web site is not getting traffic to it and is not ranking, how can you expect it to be on page 1 for the most valuable term(s) in your sector? You must start by targeting key terms or phrases. Try to optimise multiple pages with different key phrases with lower competition on each. The more high rankings your site has for the phrases which attract lower competition the more likely your site will get high rankings for the most competitive terms available.
2: You are not taking seo (search engine optimisation) seriously enough as part of an overall digital marketing strategy, of course: This isn’t a process which you can start and then just let go (unfortunately for you). It takes time to make things happen. SEO is an investment for your company and therefore you should treat it as any other investment – with care, time and attention. What worked last year may not necessarily work this. What techniques were employed are likely to be ever-changing.Monitor. Assess. Prove. Repeat.
3. Your focus is all wrong: Some site owners are obsessed with ultra long title tags, stuffing keywords in to meta tags etc. Others will constantly submit their site to the engines in the hope that this will bring higher rankings.
Don’t chase the latest trend. You will fail. If you succeed it will only make the difference between position 10 and position 9 – not great enough to warrant the time needed to achieve this menial goal. If your website is not listed on page 1 on the search engine of choice, then you have not even got the fundamentals right!
4. Your key phrases are wrong: A massive mistake a lot of people make. There are tools like Google’s Adwords Keywords tool, but this is totally directed toward the advertising push of Google toward their services. There are other open source tools (free on the web) which you can find, but most are inaccurate at best. The issue of misguided keywords is probably the most popular and people are left scratching their heads as to why they are not ranking. It is not always the case that the number of searches equates to the number of clients/business transactions you will make on-line. It may actually be better to find more targeted phrases and get a foothold with these, before attacking the main phrases. If nothing else this will give your site a higher level of authority with the search engines.
5. Your links to your site are wrong: To get highest rankings on any search engine you must have good, relevant, high quality back links. However, there is a balance in this covering averages, as there is with all things online. Links can and should be a mix of do follow and no follow, exact match and phrase match, and padded; again in balance. Automatic links or paid links do not work. Actually, they can cause issues with Google which could see your link disavowed, and your website come up negatively on Google’s ‘radar.
In conclusion: To get anywhere on the search engines does not necessarily have to cost a fortune. Neither should the time needed to attain long term success be undervalued or underestimated by you. If you are in a geographically targeted market sector your improvement should be seen more rapidly than if you are not. However, be warned, as already mentioned on here many times over the years, the understanding of rank, Meta information, competitive analysis, page speed load (quality of hosting), social media engagement and quality of code, coupled with commercialism, ease of use of website for the viewer, and a clear and simple defined path, coupled with trust by using SSL certificates across the site, and by being open about your business, should have viewers and engines beating a path to your door. Failure in any one element may be tolerated. Failure in more may not! Chris.
