10 Reasons Your SEO Campaign Isn’t Working

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy most of us can get behind, in theory--we know practically everyone uses Google and other search engines to find what they need, so having your business website rank highly in organic search results is a smart idea. But what separates the industry experts from the would-be-nice crowd (and what prevents many entrepreneurs from acting on SEO in the first place) is the value of ROI as the ultimate priority. ROI, your return on investment, informs whether your marketing strategy earns more money than it costs to produce or is just a waste of time and effort.

If you're currently experiencing a negative or neutral ROI in your SEO campaign, consider these 10 mistakes and scenarios that could be decreasing your ROI:

1. You're only "half-in". SEO isn't a strategy to "tack on" to an existing list of marketing efforts. You can't put in 15 minutes a day and expect to see results. The more time and effort you put into SEO, the better results you'll see, and there's a minimum amount of effort required before you see any results--for example, if your on-site SEO isn't in order, it won't matter how much you allocate to other tactics like blogging and link building. "Half-in" strategies will make it impossible for you to achieve a positive ROI, so if you're going to pursue SEO, fully commit to it.

2. You're working with the wrong person or agency. While it's tempting to look at results as your biggest indicator of ROI, don't forget the importance of your cost basis. If you're paying too much for SEO, even exemplary inbound traffic results won't be able to secure a positive return for your campaign. Be prudent in your investment decisions; you can hire an agency, hire a full-time expert, or work with freelancers to plan and execute your campaign. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

3. Your inbound links suck. Link building is important, but links have varying degrees of quality based on your link sources, contexts, and structures. One bad link in your inbound link profile probably won't hurt your rankings, but a pattern of spammy, manipulative inbound links can earn you a manual or algorithmic penalty, which can temporarily or even permanently remove your website from organic search results. Check your inbound link profile using a tool like Moz's Open Site Explorer to look for any inbound links that could be holding you back -- then remove them or disavow them. To get good inbound links that build your brand and your rankings, start a guest blogging strategy.

4. Your content sucks. "Bad" content can refer to hastily written, poorly researched, unoriginal, or otherwise uninteresting content for your followers. If you post too much of it, Google will take notice, and you could earn an algorithmic penalty due to the Panda algorithm, which is designed to detect spammy, "thin" content and penalize sites for having too much of it. It isn't enough to write blogs regularly; you have to offer audiences something valuable.

5. You're paying attention to the wrong metrics. I use the term "vanity metrics" to describe numerical metrics that don't especially matter to your bottom line. For example, having lots of followers on Twitter might seem important, but a follower count can't tell you how engaged your audience is with your brand. If you spend too much time trying to achieve these numbers, and not on building relationships that matter, your campaign will never take off. For help deciding what to measure, see What to Measure Weekly, Monthly, and Annually in an SEO Campaign.

6. Your priorities are wrong. There are many priorities for an SEO campaign--ensuring on-site optimization, producing regular content, building inbound links, and engaging socially are just a few of them. If you're spending too much time on a low-priority segment of your strategy (like posting news updates on social media) and not enough on a high-priority segment (like establishing publishing relationships with relevant publishers in your niche), your results will suffer.

7. You're not targeting the right audience. It's not enough to rank highly in Google--you have to rank highly for search queries that actually matter. If you're a car dealership and you're ranking for keywords and phrases that have to do with class-action litigation, it won't matter how high you rank or how much traffic you get from those rankings. Make sure you're targeting the right segments of your demographics and updating your strategies accordingly. For help with that, see How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords for Your SEO Campaign.

8. Your conversion rates are poor. Conversion rates are the last gateway that could prevent an agnostic visitor from becoming a full-fledged customer. You might be getting thousands of visitors from search engine results pages (SERPs), but if your conversion rates are low, none of that traffic will translate into meaningful revenue. Optimize your site for conversions with concise, compelling copy, simple, visible calls to action, and trust signals.

9. You have tunnel vision. Of course, it's possible that you're already earning a positive ROI and you just haven't realized it yet. Organic traffic and conversions are important to calculate the value of an SEO campaign, but they aren't everything. Think of the intangible, less measurable factors that your SEO efforts have produced, such as increased brand exposure and an improved overall reputation. Be sure to consider these in your calculations.

10. You're impatient. Finally, remember that SEO is a strategy that pays off in compounding returns. During your first few months, it's normal and expected for you to see a negative ROI. As you start investing more time into the strategy, your ROI will increase, so don't be concerned unless you're already several months into a strategy with no clear results. For more information on how long SEO takes to start working, and what your expectations should be, see What ROI Can I Expect from SEO? and How to Set Realistic Expectations For Your SEO Campaign.

If you're just getting started in SEO, these are all things to avoid, and if you're already in the thick of a strategy, these are things to correct or resolve. Don't be surprised if it takes some fine-tuning; there's no guarantee or secret formula for success. Instead, your success will rely on a series of adjustments and evaluations that gradually get you closer to your intended goals.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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