5 Questions to Ask to Determine Whether Your SEO Campaign is Working

Guest Post by Kerry Harrison

SEO is at the heart of all online marketing methods today. With so many companies vying for those coveted top spots on the search engine result pages, it is critical that you perfect your SEO strategy.

If you are not getting the traffic and conversions you had hoped for, it could be that you are going wrong with your SEO efforts. With that in mind, continue reading to discover some of the key indicators that your search engine optimisation campaign is failing.

1. Does your website provide a good user experience?

If not, this is most definitely where you are going wrong. Of course, it can be very difficult to look at our own websites in an objective manner, which is why it is a good idea to enlist a few helpers when assessing the user experience your website provides. You can combine this with existing website data to get a thorough understanding of where your website is going wrong. Needless to say, you will also need a good website builder. UKWebHostReview.com has reviewed Wix and Squarespace to help you get started.

Nowadays, user experience is a critical ranking factor. Search engines have worked hard to ensure they present the best results for the user. They aren’t going to rank a website highly that is slow and difficult to navigate. With slow websites, you should make sure you upgrade to a better hosting provider delete large and unnecessary media files, and take all of the other steps needed to speed up your website. With navigation, users should not have to think twice about how to use your website and it should be optimised across all devices.

Aside from this, you need to make sure your website delivers a good user experience in terms of the content that is being offered to viewers. It should be original, informative, and at least 600 words in length so that it can add true value to the viewer.

2. Have you got your priorities right?

There is so much to the world of SEO, which is why you need to get your priorities right. To find out whether you have the right priorities, ask yourself the following questions…

• Do you write for your audience as well as search engine bots?
• Do you prioritise quality over quantity?
• Do you optimise every new page you add to your site?
• Do you focus on keeping social engagement high?
• Do you discard of old pages in the right way?
• Do you build quality links instead of buying them?
• Do you produce high-quality content on a regular basis?
• Do you pay a large amount of attention to user experience?

If you have answered ‘no’ to any of the questions presented above, you are definitely going wrong with your SEO campaign, and now you know how!

3. Are you tracking the correct metrics?

Another indication that your SEO campaign could be failing is if you are tracking the wrong metrics. Have you found yourself caught in a trap whereby you are tracking metrics that do not have much relevance or significance to the bottom line of your business? For example, you may track the number of followers you have on Twitter. Yes, a large following is a good thing but this offers no indication in terms of how engaged your followers are with your business. You should focus on building relationships rather than getting caught up in these sorts of numbers.

4. Are you ranking for ideal keywords?

You also need to take a look at the keywords you are ranking for. In order for you to execute an excellent SEO strategy, you need to have a complete understanding of the keywords you should target. There are lots of great keyword tracking tools that can assist you with this. If you are ranking for keywords that are not fully relevant to your business, you are going to find yourself with a high bounce rate because you will attract people that are not looking for what you have to offer.

5. Has your organic search traffic been on a downward spiral?

Last but not least, another clear indication that your SEO campaign is failing is if your organic search traffic is decreasing. The best thing to do here is head over to Google Analytics and carry out a six-month comparison. This will help you to get a true picture regarding your organic search traffic figures over time.

There are lots of different reasons why websites experience a fall in organic search traffic. Some common examples include recent changes to algorithms that have caused websites to rank badly, indexing mistakes that have made it a challenge for the search bots to crawl your website, and security issues that have caused Google to lower your ranking. No matter the issue, you need to get to the bottom of it so that you can rectify the problem and get your campaign back on track.

As you can see, there are many different indicators that tell you that you’re going wrong with your SEO efforts.

If you have noticed any of the signs that have been mentioned above, there is no need to panic but you do need to act. Make sure you follow the advice that has been provided so that you can get your search engine optimisation efforts back on track.

About the Author

Kerry Harrison is an experienced freelance content writer, with a First Class Honours Degree In Multimedia Journalism.