Don’t Be Surprised by the Traffic You Didn’t Get for the SEO Work You Didn’t Do

Each new year, millions of people create New Year’s resolutions. They vow to eat better. To exercise more. To spend less time working and more time with family.

Resolutions

SEO Resolutions are well-meaning, but 81% of people who make them fail to reach their goals.

Don’t make resolutions without an action plan.
The secret to success is right in your hands.

–J Allen Shaw, children’s book author

Search engine optimization can drive more visibility in the search results, more traffic, and more revenue. But like a New Year’s resolution, you must do it to see results.

Well-meaning site owners pay agencies, consultants, or in-house SEO professionals to give SEO advice to help their businesses grow. Yet a significant percentage of those recommendations never get implemented.

This happens for many reasons. Most often, the company doesn’t see SEO as a strategic initiative. That trickles from the top down, and business silos make it nearly impossible to get things done.

So how do you succeed with having great SEO intentions and actually following through on them?

Don't be surprised by results you didn't get from SEO work you didn't do.

How to Make Sure the SEO Work Gets Done

Here are a handful of things to consider implementing to make sure SEO priorities get done:

1. Educate, educate, educate. And not just the immediate marketing teams, but other teams that need to get SEO things done need to be trained too.

We have upgraded what people know and love as “online training” with our membership-based SEOtraining.com, a comprehensive SEO training experience. The heart of it is the Bruce Clay SEO Training course.

Our new SEO course is online, but it is not a recording of a live class. It is green-screen recorded and quite professional in sound and presentation, with more than 15 hours of professionally produced video lessons. As with all videos, you can take the course at your own pace – start and stop as you like.

Members also have access to email support and regular live Q&A sessions to get their questions answered. Resources beyond the training course include in-depth mini-courses on key subjects, e-books, single-topic Ask-Us-Anything videos, and many more.

2. Prioritize recommendations. Work on the most impactful SEO tasks first — the ones with the most potential to move the needle.

For example, our SEO audits make it clear which tasks are most important to tackle first and how to prioritize everything else from short-term to long-term tasks.

3. Support recommendations with Google guidance. Show examples (help files, tweets, videos, etc.) of Google recommending what you are trying to accomplish. This is a great example from Google on why site performance matters.

Make sure to distill the “why” behind Google’s recommendation. Whether you’re talking to a client or your own internal team, you want to make it easy for your intended audience to understand and get on board. Also, think about your audience when you talk about results.

For instance, if you’re recommending a change that will improve site performance, the UX department will respond to user experience improvements, while the C-Suite will respond more to revenue growth.

For every half second decrease in homepage load speed, our customers see an average annual revenue increase of $376,789.

Mobify

Mobify correlations chart.

4. Get creative to move SEO changes forward. Technical fixes can be hard to implement. That’s because web developers and IT folks often focus on other things.

In a bit of good news: UK-based Zazzle found that 75 percent of marketers said SEO technical fixes were implemented within one month. But that leaves 25 percent of those surveyed waiting more than a month.
Zazzle survey showing how long do technical fixes take to implement.

To help move technical SEO changes forward, speak the language of your audience. Instead of requesting enhancements to the site, put SEO technical fixes in as bug reports. Fixing bugs is typically KPIs developers care about and want to stay on top of.

(The key is not to put anything in the report you must defend. A bug is a bug; it’s not “losing traffic to competitors” or anything else.)

5. Think strategically. We must think and plan strategically to get things done. This article by a doctor at the Harvard Medical School blog gives tips on how to keep New Year’s resolutions by asking five important questions.

These same questions could be applied to communicating and getting buy-in for SEO initiatives so they get done:

  1. Why do you want to make the change? Know and show the reasons behind the SEO recommendation.
  2. Is your goal concrete and measurable? Support your recommendation with Google guidance and data, case studies for similar organizations, websites, or initiatives, and the KPIs you will track.
  3. What is your plan? Detail the steps necessary to reach the goal.
  4. Who can support you as you work toward change? Identify which colleagues, teams, or departments will need to be involved to get the recommendation done and how.
  5. How will you celebrate your victories? Make sure that the small and big wins are in front of everyone all the time. This helps build trust and confidence in the SEO process.

McKinsey also has some great insights worth looking into on how to make a change within an organization, including motivating people.

Resolve to Get SEO Things Done This Year

If we want our SEO recommendations to be implemented, we must create a plan for how to get things done. Like the person who signs up for the gym in January but never attends, paying for SEO advice but not following it is wasted potential.

Remember, SEO is forever — there is no “end,” and it takes a commitment to see results. This core concept can help us think beyond the title tags that need to be changed this month or site speed that needs to be tackled the next so that we can accomplish more.

If you need help with your SEO action plan, contact us for a free quote, and let’s talk.

FAQ: How Do I Prioritize and Execute SEO Tasks for Maximum Impact?

Executing SEO tasks with precision and purpose can significantly influence your website’s performance. Prioritizing these tasks to maximize their impact requires a well-defined strategy considering both short-term gains and long-term objectives.

To start, analyze your current SEO landscape. Identify keywords that drive the most traffic and conversions. This data-driven approach enables you to allocate resources to tasks that align with your business goals. Additionally, top priorities should be auditing your website for technical issues and optimizing on-page elements. These foundational tasks lay the groundwork for effective SEO.

Once the essentials are addressed, turn your attention to content optimization. Conduct thorough keyword research to uncover valuable opportunities. Craft compelling, user-focused content that addresses searcher intent. This enhances your website’s relevance and drives organic traffic growth.

In the realm of link building, prioritize quality over quantity. Seek authoritative websites within your niche for potential collaborations. Secure high-quality backlinks that boost your search rankings and establish your website as a trusted resource.

Regular performance monitoring is key to maintaining SEO success. Leverage analytics tools to track keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rates. This data empowers you to refine your strategy and reallocate resources as needed.

By implementing these prioritization strategies, you’ll ensure that your SEO efforts yield maximum impact. Remember, success in SEO requires a holistic approach encompassing technical excellence, content optimization, link building, and continuous performance analysis.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Prioritize and Execute SEO Tasks for Maximum Impact

  1. Keyword Analysis: Identify high-performing keywords that align with your business objectives.
  2. Technical Audit: Conduct a comprehensive audit to address any technical issues hindering search engine crawlability and indexing.
  3. On-Page Optimization: Optimize meta tags, headers, and content for target keywords to enhance on-page SEO.
  4. Content Strategy: Develop a content plan based on keyword research, focusing on creating valuable, informative, and engaging content.
  5. Keyword Mapping: Align target keywords with specific pages on your website for better content optimization.
  6. User Experience Enhancement: Improve website navigation, page load speed, and mobile responsiveness to enhance user experience.
  7. Link-Building Strategy: Identify authoritative websites for potential link-building partnerships.
  8. Backlink Acquisition: Secure high-quality backlinks from reputable sources within your industry.
  9. Local SEO: Optimize your website for local search by creating and verifying Google My Business listings.
  10. Social Media Integration: Leverage social media platforms to promote and share your optimized content.
  11. Performance Tracking: Implement analytics tools to monitor keyword rankings, organic traffic, and conversion rates.
  12. Regular Audits: Schedule regular website audits to identify and address new technical issues and optimization opportunities.
  13. Competitor Analysis: Analyze competitor SEO strategies to identify gaps and potential areas for improvement.
  14. Algorithm Updates: Stay informed about search engine algorithm updates and adjust your strategy accordingly.
  15. Voice Search Optimization: Optimize your content for voice search queries to accommodate changing search behavior.
  16. Structured Data Implementation: Implement structured data markup to enhance the visibility of rich snippets in search results.
  17. Local Citations: Build local citations to improve your website’s visibility in local search results.
  18. Content Refresh: Regularly update and refresh existing content to ensure it remains relevant and valuable.
  19. Conversion Rate Optimization: Optimize conversion rates by creating optimized landing pages and calls-to-action.
  20. Continuing Learning: Stay abreast of the latest SEO practices and trends through webinars, conferences, industry publications, and other sources.

This step-by-step guide is designed to assist in efficiently prioritizing and implementing SEO tasks, with maximum impact, for maximum search engine visibility and site performance goals.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.

Comments (13)
Still on the hunt for actionable tips and insights? Each of these recent SEO posts is better than the last!

13 Replies to “Don’t Be Surprised by the Traffic You Didn’t Get for the SEO Work You Didn’t Do”

Great point you pick Bruce Clay.. unfortunately I also failed to gain traffic in my site but after read your article that getting courageous in my self .It is quite helpful. I really appreciate you sharing; it helped me understand SEO ideas.

Planning plays important role in SEO but execution is more needed for the success. Many people plans about different things but they don’t do accordingly that’s why they don’t get the success in SEO. Thanks a lot for sharing this good read.

You helped me a lot and keep up the good work !!!

Very Impressive…. Thanks for the post

You have often heard people saying do not use difficult vocabulary in SEO it might help you rank better. Or don’t stuff keywords it will harm the website ranking. But before jumping to conclusions on how can something have an impact on the SEO strategy? It is important to get relevant search engine optimization services to explain SERP and in what ways it can have an impact on the SEO strategy.

Great Content, Keep Posting this type of blog. Thank You

The last point mentioned is so important! I noticed that very often I just solve the emerged problems rather than go by a devised SEO plan. That’s why in the end some goals are failed and I feel frustrated about the whole year job. As it is said in the article, it is vital to create a reachable action plan and follow it continuously.

Seo is something that requires hard initial work but also a lot of constancy, it is not easy but it can bring great satisfaction. thanks for your article!

I completely agree. Bruce, every article is a source of inspiration, thank you. Greetings from Italy.

The idea of educating team members from other departments who are closely involved in SEO activities is a great idea. I found it to be interesting. A great action plan is a must-have thing before doing any SEO work.

thanks for the article man, it has great strategy for seo.

SEO is too esoteric for a lot of us, specially those like me with a barely profitable, niche product. I know I can do better because I used to rank much better and did so. My ranking virtually disappeared overnight seemingly because my domain name supplier let my subscription lapse. Is this the reason?

Excellent post, SEO is a hard work , nothing is given, everything is earned in search engines ranking

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