Whether you’ve employed a professional search engine optimisation company, or if you’ve simply learnt SEO for yourself, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your website’s SEO is first rate and enough to beat your competitors.
So, whether you know nothing about SEO – or if you know everything, here are five reasons your SEO sucks (potentially).
1 – You think you know nothing or everything
Most people who own a website either think they have no SEO knowledge at all, or they believe they’re experts in SEO and have nothing to learn. This also applies to people who consider themselves to be SEO programmers, as even they, in truth, do not know everything.
If you run a website, understand that you do not know nothing about SEO. Firstly, you’re reading this post, which means you understand how to find SEO blogs and websites and where to find the best information to read. You’re still reading, so you’re keen to learn more about SEO – therefore you will. If however you’re an SEO programmer (or you have hired an SEO company) then knowledge of SEO is often taken for granted.
Understand that SEO changes all of the time, every day. Without researching, reading and experimenting, you will never be as good as you think you are – and you will never, ever know everything about SEO because as soon as you think you know something, it changes.
The wisest man on earth is the man who admits he knows nothing.
2 – You read SEO forums
Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing wrong with reading SEO forums (and some well respected SEO blogs) but you can’t blindly take what you read as gospel. Many people believe everything they read online, and not just where celebrity gossip is concerned. When you believe SEO advice without checking it, double checking it and experimenting for yourself – you could find yourself making some very costly SEO mistakes.
Believe it or not, but even some ‘SEO experts’ use SEO forums to get their information. This is because they’re not SEO experts at all – they’ve just read some forums and have decided they know enough to offer SEO as a service.
They don’t.
3 – You’ve picked the wrong keywords
Whether you’re doing your own SEO, or you have an SEO company doing it for you, keyword research should start before any actual on-page work gets underway. All too often people forget this, even SEO companies. Some SEO agencies will simply sell you on the idea of ranking for a selection of keywords, without knowing if those keywords will actually yield any relevant traffic even if you do rank for them.
SEO is about traffic, not rankings. Rankings are vanity, traffic is sanity (to paraphrase Theo Paphitis).
Research keywords first – then perform SEO. If you don’t research your keywords you could find yourself spending a lot of money on your SEO budget for very little return, which won’t help you at all.
4 – You’ve done your SEO, and then stopped
Many people, including some unenlightened SEO agencies, consider SEO to be a one time service. SEO is performed once at the start of the contract and then the website is left for 12 months until your renewal comes around, upon which point your SEO company gets in touch and offers a list of other things they could have done in the beginning.
This helps them, not you. SEO is not a one shot deal, it’s an ongoing, evolving thing that requires regular monitoring and work in order to be successful. Google rewards websites that feature regular content because its users are looking for the latest information – make your website what it wants to see.
5 – Your SEO is stale
This is the most common reason for poor quality SEO, and one that many SEO companies fall foul of. What works one day may not work the next – and when SEO companies (or individuals) believe they have learned all they need to learn, their techniques do not change. This means that their SEO is less effective with every day that passes.
Keep an eye on new techniques, new practises, new announcements from the search engines and make sure that your SEO company knows what is happening in the world of SEO. If they don’t, your SEO will suffer.
If any of these five reasons for poor SEO apply to you – you need to speak to someone about your website before it’s too late.