Still Waiting for Those SEO Results? Here’s why They Haven’t Happened Yet

Unless you’re search engine optimizing for nine word search phrases, the chances are your SEO efforts are going to take a little bit of time to show results. That’s just a part of the game. If you’ve been at it for a while without results, it could be something else entirely. If you’re still waiting for results from your SEO efforts, here are a few of the possibilities as to why they haven’t happened yet:If you’ve made the investment into SEO and you’re not seeing a return, here are some possible reasons why.* It’s still early in the game – Unless you’ve been operating a related offline business, you’re going to have to build a little bit first. Building includes focusing on less competitive search terms that are winnable, earning your reputation as an authority, growing traffic, etc. After some foundation building you’ll be able to compete against the established players from a much stronger position.* You’re spending more at Starbucks than on your SEO – Contrary to the ads touting SEO for $99 flat, the process is going to cost some money. Full spectrum SEO is both time and labor intensive so plan and spend accordingly. * You’re not using keywords that will drive traffic to your site – This usually happens by going too broad with search terms. Going too broad means that you optimizing terms which are too generic and probably too competitive to yield results. If you’re selling rear view mirrors for a Stutz Bearcat, optimizing for the search term “mirrors” isn’t going to work.* You’ve gone too narrow – An expert that knows the spec sheet for a product backwards and forwards may assume that people are going to search for the product using spec sheet terminology. It usually doesn’t work that way.* You’re not building inbound links – This is the part of SEO that is the most time and labor intensive. In fact, if you’re going after competitive search terms it could actually turn into a full time job if you want to start ranking for them. Link building is also an important part of the algorithms that the search engines use for their rankings, so it has to be done. If you’re not doing it, your SEO results are going to reflect it. * You hired your nephew to do your SEO – Or, the firm you hired just isn’t cutting it. In either case, the people doing your SEO should be able to explain their work and show a progression of results. If they can’t, you may have just discovered your SEO problem.If you’ve put in the time and money toward your SEO but aren’t seeing results, a second opinion may be in order.