Millions of people make New Year’s resolutions each year, but most fail within the first month. This is the same SEO work she wanted to do last year, but couldn’t get it done.
Well-intentioned companies often find that they have more work than they expected when they embark on their SEO journey. As such, they fail for a variety of reasons, including lack of buy-in and effort.
In 2023, I am determined to implement SEO so that I can actually compete in search results. Here are five solutions for overcoming common obstacles to SEO success.
SEO Solution 1: Have a Shared Vision
Pointing to an SEO audit and saying “I have to do this” is not a strategy. You should be able to discuss the high-level vision of your SEO program.
This may include things like:
Why you want to make SEO an important initiative
What trends indicate that SEO is an important marketing activity today? Perhaps the fact that there are 5.9 million searches per minute on Google?
Conclusion: it doesn’t really matter If Do you want to use a platform that is used by almost the entire US population, but want to beat your competitors and make money? your A fair share of organic search revenue?
Goals and KPIs to set
Shows you thought about the goals you’re trying to achieve and the KPIs you’ll measure along the way.
how do i get there
What are the steps required to get the program up and running, and who do you need help with?
SEO Solution 2: Get Real buy-in
you TRUE Are you in favor of SEO? Is there some kind of buy-in for the CEO to say it’s an important initiative? Without this “go for it” attitude, it can be difficult to move beyond your department.
I remember a few years ago when my company delivered a 100+ page SEO audit to one of the largest research and review sites in the automotive industry.
We suggested radical changes and told them that implementing them all would bring in a lot of traffic.
It was a big risk for the client. We knew that to make it happen, everyone needed to be on board, from marketing to IT. As such, the chairman of the board called a company meeting and said that SEO would be a key strategic initiative from that point on.
And guess what? Together they implemented all the recommendations and within his first week after launch traffic increased by 900% for him. They remain competitive to this day.
Getting this kind of buy-in requires preparation. If you want to advocate for her SEO at your place of business, you have a little work to do.
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SEO Solution 3: Build Relationships
After all, companies aren’t made up of departments and roles, they’re made up of people. Strong relationships go a long way in business and getting things done.
Once you’ve identified the key people you need to achieve your SEO, you can start by meeting with them one-on-one or in teams to:
- Show how SEO can help you reach your goals. There is rarely a business goal that cannot be achieved with some form of SEO. Do a needs assessment of their goals and see how SEO can support them.
- Show them that they are an important part of the process of making it work: Most people are initially unaware of how their day-to-day work affects SEO and vice versa. How can you contribute to SEO success?
SEO Solution 4: Educate on SEO
If you’re trying to get everyone involved in SEO, remember that most people have a limited view of what SEO is (outside of your immediate team). Keep things simple.
Whenever possible, SEO advice should be validated against Google’s recommendations (see help files for Google Search Central, Google Search Central videos, etc.).
This helps show that SEO is a partnership with Google and not for manipulating the system.
And SEO training can be key. When I started my agency, I quickly realized that the best way to get clients to implement SEO was with SEO training. This was a major impetus for starting his SEO training course in 1999.
Since then, we’ve put all of our clients through SEO training so they can have intelligent conversations that help move the needle.
Consider SEO training for everyone who needs to be involved (we’re talking web developers and IT people too). I’ve found that when companies start his SEO training across teams, it creates a shared understanding that motivates people to get things done.
SEO Solution 5: Work Hard
Not everyone gets a 900% increase in traffic in the first week, like the company I mentioned earlier. In fact, it can take up to six months to see significant results, depending on factors such as website health and competitive environment.
Some companies may give up if they don’t see the expected results immediately. This is clearly a mistake and is due to a lack of understanding of how SEO works (see education section above).
Businesses must invest in SEO throughout the site lifecycle to remain competitive. But remember, once you invest, it’s yours (unlike PPC, turning it off makes it disappear from search results. Nothing wrong with PPC, you need both!).
However, there that is How to get instant results, see results, and get people hooked on SEO. For example, consider a pilot project that:
- A plan to prioritize the most impactful SEO tasks and then track and share the results.
- A small SEO initiative by an in-house key team.
A few small wins under your belt can help you build momentum. However, sometimes the biggest problems with website SEO are technical in nature. Please remember that And solving them requires a lot of effort.
At a minimum, you need an IT person, a website developer (the person responsible for making changes to the website).
One piece of advice here: you can always submit technical changes as “bug fixes” to the site. The developer and his IT professionals are interested in fixing bugs and want to stay on top.
counting the year 2023
Starting an SEO program is not always easy.
If that’s a challenge for you, start small, make your most impactful moves first, and celebrate every win. increase.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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About the author
Bruce Clay founded Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing optimization company providing search engine optimization, PPC management, paid social media marketing, SEO friendly site architecture, content development, SEO tools and education. person and president. Clay authored the books “Search Engine Optimization All-In-One For Dummies” and “Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals”, now in its fourth edition. He is credited with creating his first web page analysis tool, creating the Search Engine Relationship Chart®, and being the first to use the term search engine optimization. Bruce Clay’s Famous SEO Training His courses are available online at SEOtraining.com.
