4 Signs Your SEO Isn’t Working Well
Search engine optimization is one of the cornerstones of any company’s digital marketing strategy today because it’s the only way new customers or patients will find your website. But how do you know if your SEO strategy is doing its job or if it’s letting you down?
A robust SEO strategy is complex and constantly changing. It involves a lot of moving parts and many different success metrics, so it can be difficult to know if you’re on the right track. Our team at McCauley Marketing Services has been delivering top-notch SEO services since the early days of search engines, and our team is here to explain a few key signs that your SEO isn’t getting strong results.
- Your Organic Traffic is Dropping
Your organic traffic includes the number of users who reached your website through means other than paid search engine ads like Google Ads. Search engine optimization is one of the only ways users can find your site organically, so it’s a helpful metric to watch. It’s natural for any site’s organic traffic to ebb and flow, but if you’re seeing a steady decrease of more than just a few months, it means your SEO isn’t as effective as it used to be.
Keep in mind that if you stop producing new content for your site, your organic traffic and other SEO results will drop. Search engines prioritize newer content and more updated sites in their rankings. A common mistake is for companies to see that their traffic is strong and think they can set aside their ongoing SEO strategy. Your competitors are putting out new content while you’re taking a break, so your search rankings will drop if you aren’t keeping up with them.
- You Have a Low Click-Through Rate
Your click-through rate is the percentage of users who click on your site when it comes up in search results. For example, if your site comes up in the search results for 100 people and one of those people clicks on your site, your click-through rate would be 1%.
If you have a low CTR, it indicates that your page is coming up in search results for search terms that aren’t a good match for your actual content. Your site is getting categorized incorrectly by the search engine, which means that you aren’t giving the search engine clear enough information about what your online content includes.
Keep in mind that your goal for your CTR depends on many factors, so there’s not one singular number to aim for. Our specialists can discuss your needs in detail and help you set an appropriate CTR goal.
- You’re Getting Fewer Leads or Customers from Your Website
It’s important that every time a new patient or customer (or a potential one) contacts your business, you find out how they heard about you. Keep track of these numbers and watch for trends. If you’re seeing an ongoing trend of fewer and fewer people hearing about you from your website, it could be a sign that your SEO isn’t as effective as it once was. Many businesses don’t watch their websites’ analytics closely, so seeing a drop in your new business and discovering that you’re getting fewer online leads is often the first sign that your SEO needs help.
- Your On-Page Time is Low
Your website’s analytics include data about the amount of time users spend on your site. It may be called “time on page” or something similar, and it’s sometimes called “dwell time” too. The average on-page time can be an important indicator of your SEO strategy’s success.
If users aren’t spending much time on your site, particularly if they aren’t taking the next step to contact you, it often means that they clicked on your site in their search results, but it didn’t have the answers they needed, so they left the site. Like a low click-through rate, this indicates that your pages aren’t getting categorized as well as they could be so they’re not showing up in the right searches.
Low on-page time can also indicate that your content is thin. This means that you might have the answer the person is looking for but you don’t explain further or expand on the topic in an informative way, so the user isn’t encouraged to stay and learn more.
What You Can Do to Bring Your SEO Back to Life
If any of the signs above are a bit too familiar for your business, now is the time to get your SEO strategy back in shape. Call McCauley Marketing Services to schedule a meeting today to discuss how we can help. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more expert marketing tips.