Why has my SEO stopped working? And 6 tips to get it going again

SEO is a core consideration of any successful website. So, clients naturally worry if the organic traffic, leads and sales your website has always generated start to fall off. Is the channel in a permanent state of decline? Has mobile mitigated the importance of traditional SEO?

Don’t panic. It’s easy to turn search back into one of your most effective marketing channels. Follow the six guidelines below, and your SEO will soon be back to generating visibility, traffic and results.

1. Keep the SEO engine running

Although disciplines like email marketing or PPC can be dialled up and down in reaction to campaign flows or seasonal activity, or a change in company focus, SEO mustn’t stop. SEO results take time to build, and if the action is intermittent, it loses its impact.

To stay ahead of your competitors and to stay ahead of the Google algorithm, you need to make sure your SEO strategy works 24/7. Even small changes to your website or updates to Google’s algorithm can have a significant impact on how your SEO performs.

The key to a winning SEO strategy is continuous improvement. There is always something to make better.

2. Integrate SEO with your broader marketing strategy

SEO is often treated separately to a company’s overall marketing strategy, removed from disciplines like PPC, content, affiliate and above-the-line marketing.

One consequence of splitting out SEO is that businesses then think of it as an exercise in search rankings. In fact, it has a demonstrable impact on other channels.  Strong technical SEO will help drive a strong PPC or content performance. It also helps identify trends; SEO data has shown for a long time how people have shifted to mobiles as their primary internet device. This insight has helped our clients adapt their PPC, content and user experience to the mobile-first customer.

SEO activity should integrate with your above-the-line marketing. TV or radio ads can have a strong influence on online search behaviour, so use your strategic SEO keywords in the ads, or include words from your ads in your SEO

3. All websites are different

Every website is unique and needs distinct SEO approaches and techniques. For instance, international search engines evaluate sites differently. What works well for Google in Europe might not be best practice for Yandex in Russia or applicable to Baidu in China.

It’s crucial you approach each of your sites with a fresh pair of eyes to understand its unique SEO requirements.

4. Focus

Many businesses approach SEO with broad brush strokes, focussing on the entire site at once, including the same keywords in every piece of content, or packing all technical optimisations into one sprint.

You need a surgeon-like precision with SEO to focus on the individual elements of your site. Instead of trying to apply optimisations to all 600 pages, focus in on the top 50 to address critical obstacles.

Success comes from planning well in advance and applying a process of continuous improvement in granular steps.

5. Be patient

It’s dangerous to expect instant results from SEO. While PPC can generate immediate impact, SEO is more of a slow burn.  It can take up to six months to see results, especially in competitive markets. However, if you keep at it, at a steady pace, you will get improvements that last for years and years.

If expanding internationally, remember different search engines have different criteria. Don’t roll out global optimisations in one go. Optimisations that boost your visibility on Google may harm your ranking on Baidu. Be methodical, experiment and optimise on a case by case basis. This approach can mitigate disaster and help with expansion into new territories quickly.

6. Take a sensible approach to KPIs

Focusing on one metric at a time, rather than just overall site traffic, can make a huge difference.

If you notice 100 people spending a lot of time on half a dozen of your pages regularly, find out what you can learn from that and how it might impact your overall strategy.

If you focus on device split and see increasing mobile traffic, it may mean you need to tweak content and look at page titles and meta descriptions to drive more clicks from mobile devices.

The best way to boost SEO results is to make sure you’re employing an attitude of continuous improvement. SEO is one of the most valuable tools available to a digital marketer, and to get the best out of it, you need to give it the time and attention it deserves on an on-going basis.

If you do, your bottom line will thank you for it.

Get in touch with Oban International now to see how we can improve your international SEO performance.