There is simply no underestimating the value of a prominent presence on the search results pages, but achieving top ranking can be a frustrating and time consuming process. The arrival of the New Year marks a good opportunity to revisit your tactics and ensure you aren’t making any SEO mistakes that could sabotage your efforts to rank higher.
1. You’re targeting the wrong search terms
If you aren’t seeing any return from your SEO efforts, it could be that you aren’t optimising for the right keywords. If your efforts are focused around keywords that have very low search volumes, even strong rankings will fail to deliver the volume of traffic needed to justify your SEO efforts.
2. Your content is poor
Over time, how Google assesses your content has changed. Things like user intent and the use of natural human language within your articles, web copy, blog posts and landing pages have become more important – if your content hasn’t been regularly audited and your approach to content updated to stay in line with search engine expectations, you’ll likely fail to rank well.
3. You haven’t made mobile enough of a priority
It’s easy to assume that mobile has been around for so long now that you don’t need to continually work on the mobile readiness of your site. If that’s the case, and you are guilty of letting your mobile SEO tasks slip, now is the time to change course. Things like checking page load speed, ensuring all images you upload are compressed and reviewing the user experience for mobile users can all aid in your SEO efforts.
4. You’re too keyword focused
While keywords have long been a foundational aspect of SEO, advances in technology (such as Google’s BERT algorithm and AI) have eaten away at their importance. Now, things like user intent are considered, which means that your SEO needs to adapt to keep pace. Focusing all of your efforts around keywords means you’re missing out on other powerful optimisation tactics that could elevate your rankings.
5. You’ve overlooked local SEO
Local SEO has become more of a priority for many businesses over the last few years – especially those who have a physical bricks-and-mortar location or are service-based (such as plumbers or mobile beauticians). If you aren’t focusing on local, you could be missing out on a great deal of search traffic.