5 Reasons Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in your web traffic, learn top reasons why your SEO strategy is not working and fails

By Claudio Pires
SEO
Updated on March 13, 2023
5 Reasons Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in your web traffic, conversions, and sales. However, increasing your ranking in search engines doesn’t happen overnight, and even those who consider themselves SEO experts require continuous learning. Learn the top reasons why your SEO strategy is not working and fails.

SEO is constantly changing, so you need to be abreast with the trends and updates to ensure that your SEO strategies will work. In this article, we’ll explain why your SEO isn’t working.

Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

Has your ranking dipped from a high position when you first launched your website? Are you not satisfied with the results of your SEO campaign? Are you stuck on Google’s second page? Here are the reasons your SEO isn’t working:

1 – SEO Isn’t Unrealistic Goals: Reasons Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

Websites that rank number one on search engines invested much time, money, and effort to be where they are. If you want your site to rank on top, you’ve got to have a strong SEO profile by starting to set realistic and practical goals.

Here’s how you can set the right goals for your website: Keep reading to learn the top reasons why your SEO strategy is not working and fails.

  • Be clear with the purpose of your SEO strategy. Your SEO marketing goals may include one or a combination of the following: increase brand awareness, improve conversion rate, generate qualified leads, or generate more sales. While you want to attain a good score in everything, focusing on one goal at a time will help you create a more solid and concrete plan, influencing other website goals like a domino effect.
  • Assess and determine the best SEO platform to market your business – Facebook, Instagram, Quora, YouTube, etc.
  • Seek help from professional SEO agencies, such as the SEO company Clicks from Search, to guide you in planning the best SEO strategies for you.

2 – SEO Isn’t Poor-Quality Content

If you want long-term growth, you must remember that the first key to being successful in SEO is creating high-quality content. High-quality content brings organic traffic, driving more visitors to your website and retaining more customers that buy your products and services.

Google won’t allow dirty tactics embedded in web content that can affect user experience.

Here’s how to create high-quality web content:

  • Focus on the latest news, trends, and events to keep your brand or business current with current affairs.
  • Create time-tested evergreen web content which remains relevant for many years.
  • Earn organic traffic by uploading informative and helpful YouTube videos.
  • Guest blog on top-level blogs and significant publications.
  • Share relevant content through social media.

3 – SEO Isn’t Neglecting Social Media Presence: Reasons Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

Don’t miss the “social media” element when creating an SEO campaign. While generated links from social media platforms like Facebook don’t provide SEO benefits directly, it’s still a vital part of your SEO campaign. Undertand the top reasons why your SEO strategy is not working and fails.

Social media is an effective digital marketing strategy that can help you with the following:

  • Identifying your target audience
  • Improving brand awareness
  • Earning organic traffic
  • Increasing customer engagement

4 – Failure to Maintain a Professional Website

A professional website can instantly engage visitors and convert them into leads. You’ve got to have a responsive and engaging website to encourage more online users to stay on your site, explore it, and eventually decide to use your products and services.

Here are the qualities of a professional website:

  • Secure: Use a particular web host with an SSL certificate and firewalls once SEO isn’t unsafe.
  • Up-to-date: CSS, HTML, or JavaScript should be updated.
  • Fast loading time: Maintain a 1 to 2 seconds page load time to retain visitors and avoid user frustration.
  • User-friendly navigation: Use clear and easy-to-read fonts with adequate whitespace for a clean, uncluttered look.
  • Informative: Upload helpful and high-quality web content that is timely and less focused on advertising.
  • Interactive: Provide means for customers to reach and engage with you. Such as a dedicated section for comments or a forum and friendly customer service

5 – Outdated SEO Strategies: Reasons Why Your SEO Isn’t Working

SEO strategies should evolve with time. Using obsolete methods can cause your campaign to fail. Unlike in the past, keyword stuffing and directory listings. So, guest posting doesn’t have a significant impact on your search ranking results anymore. So, top reasons why your SEO strategy is not working and fails.

Here are the SEO trends you need to know:

  • Firstly, Keyword optimization: Use the right keywords for optimization by conducting detailed keyword research.
  • Secondly, Data verification: A successful SEO campaign involves linking to authority sites.
  • Voice search: AI-based systems are popular with emerging voice-activated devices. Like Siri and Alexa, so you need to ensure that your content is voice search compatible through answer-and-question-formatted content.

6 – Mobile pages that are unfriendly

In 2020, 46% of the total online traffic was mobile device based in the U.S. This implies that if your website is not designed to be utilized on mobile devices, you could lose over a fifth of your customers.

Since Google introduced a mobile-first indexing system, responsive design has become a priority for search engine optimization teams.

Start by running a mobile-friendly test on your website, and determine how the user journey will differ via mobile and desktop.

Ensure that your web design and user experience teams collaborate to as closely as possible combine the experiences while maintaining responsiveness, simplifying menus, and having clear calls to action.

Consider what mobile users are most likely to skim over, and ensure it is at the top of the page.

7 – Slow Site Velocity

The time it takes to load a page is significant to the rankings of Google’s SERP. After all, the conversion rate of a website decreases by 5% for every second of load time, that is, between 1-5 seconds.

Consumers want speed, and Google gains by providing it without taking resources when loading slow websites.

Site speed is often the first and most significant component of creating a positive user experience. Visitors who wait for a few seconds for the content they click on are more likely to look elsewhere. Avoid this by conducting a site usability study and focusing on the speed and accuracy of your site.

Frequently, the culprits responsible for the long loading times are apparent. You can shorten the load time by compressing files, reducing the size of images, removing unused plugins and scripts, and validating CSS and HTML.

Conclusion

Once you realize the importance of high-quality content, links, the right keywords, continuous SEO learning, understanding why your SEO isn’t working, and the power of social media, only then you’ll be able to create a compelling and successful SEO campaign.

SEO professionals, tools, and courses can help you attain your SEO goals. Implementing the right combination of SEO strategies will give you the best results in achieving the top rank on search engine results.

Claudio Pires

Claudio Pires is the co-founder of Visualmodo, a renowned company in web development and design. With over 15 years of experience, Claudio has honed his skills in content creation, web development support, and senior web designer. A trilingual expert fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, he brings a global perspective to his work. Beyond his professional endeavors, Claudio is an active YouTuber, sharing his insights and expertise with a broader audience. Based in Brazil, Claudio continues to push the boundaries of web design and digital content, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.