The Reasons Why Your SEO Efforts Aren’t Giving You ROI

Search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is a smart move for companies when done correctly. Proper SEO attracts a consistent supply of leads that turn into clients, which is the ultimate goal. SEO works 24/7. On the other hand, Pay-Per-Click, otherwise known as PPC, advertising does not work when you stop paying for it. However, not every SEO effort will bring you the results you want. If your search engine optimization efforts are not getting you clients and, therefore, a return on your investment, there are several reasons for that. Let us examine five common reasons you’re not getting the SEO results you desire.

You Have the Wrong Expectations

Search engine optimization requires skill and expertise, but it also requires time and effort. If you expect your campaign to give you the results you desire before your campaign is four to six months old, and without a lot of research and adjustments along the way, that’s an unrealistic expectation. An SEO campaign is different from another. However, every competent SEO campaign flow should generally look like this:

First Month: Discovery and Research

Second Month: Technical SEO Work

Third Month: Content Creation

Fourth Month: Link Profiling and Optimization

Fifth Month: Social Media Campaigning and Integration

You will not see a real impact until well into month two. After that, Google factors in the changes. It can take up to two weeks for re-indexing, particularly on a new site.

However, it’s typically not until month six that adjustments are already in place, and Google has had the opportunity to register them. It would be best if you did not try to determine how successful your campaign is until then. If you try to decide before then, you could misrepresent the result and create inaccurate ones.

You’re Not Spending Enough Cash

Proper SEO requires spending money. However, keep in mind that the more money you spend, the better the results you receive. It would be best if you worked with a credible agency to get good results, no matter how much money you’re putting out. However, most of the time, incredibly reputable agencies won’t be able to get good results without a sufficient budget.

As reported at Moz, a survey says that ten percent of clients spend less than $500 a month. twenty-seven percent spend between $500 and $1,000, twenty-nine percent spend between $1,000 and $2,500, twenty percent spend between $2,500 and $5,000 a month, and fifteen percent spend between $5,000 and $10,000. The prices of SEO reflect the scope of the project and the level of difficulty.

Looking at budgets, anything less than $1,000 isn’t enough to produce adequate SEO results. While you monitor for changes over three to six months, you should increase your budget. What should you do if you can’t improve your budget? You should adjust your strategies and expectations and do what you can with your SEO campaign. Put all of your focus on content creation and improvement. This approach will be more effective than spreading your budget too thin by focusing on too many things.

You Need to Improve Your Content

Google’s goal is to deliver only quality results to its search engine users. They do this by giving the public content that matches what the public is looking for and helps them achieve what they want to achieve. Some people who search on Google seek information, some seek navigation, and some are transactional. To be successful with SEO, you have to know the intent of the keywords and, based on that, structure your content.

Your content must be well-written about grammar and spelling. If your content is inferior, whether, by readability or relevancy and intent, you will have trouble ranking. If you’re not giving your readers content of value, blogging every day is fruitless.

You Need to Work on Your Backlink Profile

Your inbound links are of great concern to Google. If the quality of your links is poor, the results you get will not be suitable for your link-building efforts. Building links to your sites are essential. However, if your links don’t come from good sources, structures, and good context, your links won’t help you. Indeed, if manipulative spammy sites fill your backlink profile, they will harm your backlink profile. If you’ve got too many spammy links, you could be penalized, and Google can temporarily or permanently remove your site from organic search results.

Look at your website’s backlink profile with a tool such as Open Site Explorer to investigate for any toxic links. Then take steps to remove or reject them.

Your Competitors are Working Harder Than You or Spending More Than You

You and your competition are both interested in SEO. Therefore, you’re both working toward the same thing. However, in the end, only one of you will win. No matter how much you’re investing and how much effort you’re putting in, somehow your competition does better than you, which leaves you wondering why the ROI you expected is not happening.

Actually, this is a misconception. Yes, your competition could get ahead of you on occasion. They could even stay ahead of you for a long time. However, that doesn’t mean the efforts you produce aren’t making a difference or paying off. When you focus on good SEO efforts continuously, you help to prevent your content from regressing in search results or even out of decent search results entirely when your competition presents growth. If your SEO results weren’t providing any ROI, you would be worse off.

Is your competition appear to be beating you all of a sudden? If so, wait to see if their rank improvement holds. SEO constantly changes. Early on in a campaign, SEO results fluctuate and are volatile. Therefore, there’s a chance you’ll see ranks shift again.

When you start an SEO campaign, you must ensure you conduct a complete competitive analysis to know what you’re up against. This approach will help you develop the right strategy for your goals and budget and will help you set reasonable expectations. More often than not, any time you try to manage SEO on your own, particularly if you don’t have a digital marketing background, you will likely become frustrated at your lack of results. Need help with your SEO campaigns? Please feel free to contact us.