Search engine optimization (SEO) is a marketing strategy that we often refer to as a long game. Why? Because there are many factors that can contribute to success or failure. With the advent of the Helpful Content Update, there are even more things to consider when it comes to the success of your SEO strategy. Some of them might surprise you: here are three that often trip people up.
Domain Age
If you’re working with a brand new domain (AKA the name of your website, e.g. southvalleypediatrics.com), it takes longer to build up your credibility and your backlinks. Older domains may see SEO results faster because they already have some credibility compared to brand new domains. However, just because a site has some history, it doesn’t guarantee that you will see results faster. If you have seen a decrease in site traffic or been affected by a penalty or core algorithm update, you will also have a steep hill to climb. If you have to spend time fixing major impacts on your traffic, expect to spend time getting your baseline traffic back up before you start to see any major SEO strategy wins.
Competition
As with most things related to business, more competition means a greater need to find a niche. This need extends to SEO, where overly general keywords (known as short-tail keywords) like “personal injury attorney,” mean you’re competing with the entire nation. However, if you focus your content on highly specific (aka long-tail) geographically targeted keywords like “vehicular accident attorney near San Jose, CA” you will see your conversion rates improve.
Expertise
Your website might be brand new, and you might have a million competitors—neither of those things is within your control. What you can control is how you approach your SEO. First off, ensure you have someone on your team that knows what they are doing. SEO is a craft, and people are trained to write and optimize specifically for this channel. The more time your SEO team can dedicate to optimizing your site for a specific keyword, the faster you will get the results you’re looking for.
We Can Help
We’ve been optimizing websites for search for over twenty years, so we’ve seen a few things. If you’re struggling to see the growth you’re looking for with SEO, contact one of our marketing experts for a consultation.
