Sometimes our SEO campaigns don’t always work out the way we want them to. In fact, SEO involves a lot of testing and evolving. What worked last year may not necessarily work this year, or even next year. So you have to continuously find out what search engines want and how to deliver it to them.
This is one reason why many people simply hire an SEO agency. But that’s not always the best solution. Sometimes agencies operate using black hat tactics that will get your website nuked by search engines. This can have a very negative effect on both your website and your business.
So what do you do if your SEO strategy isn’t working? What type of adjustments should you make in order to revive a dead campaign?
Make a List and Check It – Twice
The first thing you need is a list of everything that was done in your campaign. Any links that were built, any content that was created, on-page optimization, social media marketing – you need all of it.
This may seem like a tall order, but this is going to help you to be able to complete the next step: going through your list and checking what was done.
Link building: Where are your links coming from? Are any of them broken? Are the links niche related or just general links? Are they spam?
Content: Is your content structured properly? Is it meaty? Is it worthy of being shared? Is it unique or generic?
On-page SEO: Are you targeting the right keywords? Are you targeting too many keywords? How are your meta tags? How is your page setup? Is your content broken up with the proper headings? Does it include pictures? Are they labeled properly?
Social Media: Is your social media campaign active? Is the content you’re sharing interesting? Is it original or is it taken from somewhere else? Is it being shared? How often do you post? Do you only post when you want someone to know something is going on with your business? Or do you interact with your target audience, try to help them and solve their problems?
Website: How fast does it load? How is the user experience? Is it mobile friendly? Is the design pleasing to the eye? Is it cluttered or simple?
These aren’t the only questions that you need to answer, but they do touch on the main issues that cause most SEO campaigns to fail.
Make Corrections Where Needed – Including In Your Budget
Once you figure out what the problem is, you can begin to make the appropriate adjustments. You may need to disavow any bad links, or fix broken ones. You may need better content, or a better website design.
The solution to many of these problems are not cheap. You may be able to disavow links yourself, and be more active on social media, but great content and excellent web design are not cheap. If you don’t have the budget for these things, you aren’t going to get the positive results you want.
Expand your budget to allow you to get the help you need in order to fix your failing campaign. Being cheap is one of the most common reasons businesses fail at SEO. It’s an investment, and if you want to be successful, you need to invest in your business.
Have Patience
Once you make these changes, it may take a few weeks or even months for positive results to show up in the search engines. So be patient. Just continue to do things the right way, and eventually you’ll see good results.