Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key element of online marketing that can immensely boost your bottom line. SEO gets more eyes on your content and attracts more potential customers.
An unfortunate truth is that even with great content marketing practices in place, there will be times when your rankings decline. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the common causes for poor rankings—whether they changed gradually or suddenly—and offer some possible fixes.
- You’re unclear on your goals
It’s imperative that you have unambiguous answers to the following questions:
- What, overall, are you hoping to achieve with your content?
- Who are you trying to reach?
- (For each piece of content) What action do you want your audience to take?
One of the first things you need to do in order to solve your search engine ranking problems is to identify or reiterate your goals. Once you know where you’re at and what you’re aiming for, it becomes much easier to figure out everything in between.
One of the most common ways to improve search engine ranking is by using high-quality content marketing. By focusing on building quality content that is relevant to your audience, you will see an improvement in your viewer traffic and overall ranking.
Another common way people try to improve their search engine ranking is through link building. Keep in mind that this approach can be time-consuming. But if you focus on creating quality links that are relevant to both your audience and your own site, it will boost your ranking. Additionally—and just as important—it will improve your site’s credibility.
Finally, one of the best ways to solve search engine ranking problems is through SEO (search engine optimization). This involves adjusting your website so that it looks good and is easy to find when people do a Google (or another search engine) query or search. By optimizing your website, you can boost your ranking and improve your site’s visibility.
- You haven’t done an audit
One underrated way to solve your search engine ranking problems is to conduct an analytical audit or hire a specialist to do so. An analytical audit helps identify and break down the problems affecting your rank. Only from there can you develop short- and long-term solutions for your site.
Don’t forget, you can also improve your website’s rank by improving the quality of your links and content. A professional service can assist with these to support you on a one-time or ongoing basis.
- You’re not set up for success with SEO
One of the most important ways to improve your website’s traffic is through Search engine optimization (SEO), especially on-page SEO. This involves using relevant keywords, optimized title tags, featured snippets, Structured Data Markup, and subject lines to improve your website’s ranking. Also, don’t forget to use an effective and captivating meta description.
If you’re confused by these terms, you might consider hiring a consultant or doing your own deep dive into the topic—most of the time, good SEO simply can’t be overlooked. By optimizing your website, you can increase traffic, improve rankings, and keep people returning to your site.
You can also consider using Google AdWords, which allows you to pay for ads that appear on relevant searches. These will show up at the top even if your content marketing alone hasn’t gotten you to the first page of results.
- Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
Would you believe us if we told you that mobile devices now account for over half of all website traffic? If you want to rank your website well, your site absolutely must function effectively on mobile.
Although certain Google algorithm tweaks are still unknown, they left little to the imagination when it comes to mobile. Google switched to “mobile-first indexing” in 2020, which implies that Google now treats mobile pages as importantly as desktop or laptop pages. Thus, your website’s rating will suffer if it is challenging to browse on a handset device.
Fortunately, it’s not too much of a hassle to determine where you stand. If you want to find out quickly whether your website is mobile-friendly or not, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. You can also get a list of your site’s mobile usability concerns with Google’s Search Console’s Mobile Usability Report.
You can always make your website more mobile-friendly by:
- Updating your website to the latest version on the CMS (e.g. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace) to utilize new features of their mobile-friendly themes.
- Making clear calls-to-action (CTAs) with easy-to-tap buttons and using forms with large text fields.
- Avoiding pop-ups that aren’t very simple to exit and, frankly, annoy your users.
- Your internal and external links aren’t optimized
Your site must have accurate information architecture to ensure that your site is not just correctly indexed by search engines, but appropriately set up. For example, Google may (correctly) index a web page under Contact information when the material really belongs on your Services page.
And when you obtain a link on an external domain, you may acquire an isolated page on your site or a subdomain that can’t be crawled. Correcting this is a very helpful tactic for promoting fresh material on your website and speeding along its indexing.
- You don’t have high-quality content
One of the most important, yet most challenging, ways to solve your search engine ranking problems is to ensure you have quality content. This means having articles that are well-written, informative, and optimized for snippets, which are bits of content that Google highlights for quick, helpful answers to searches.
It’s not just your own site that’s important here, though. Your backlinks should also come from quality websites that help your site rank higher. Low-quality sites that reference your business are far less helpful. Also, remember to eliminate duplicate content by placing canonical tags or preventing crawlers from indexing the duplicates.
Finally, make sure you are regularly updating your website and content. This will help to keep your site fresh and relevant in the search engines.
Contact us today to solve your ranking issues
Our Local SEO Company leverages decades of combined experience for businesses that want assistance with SEO and online marketing. SEO Guru’s professionals can help get your website to the top of search engine results and beat your competitors. Contact us today for a no-obligation SEO report.