You may come up with the most remarkable product or service. However, if prospective clients cannot find you on the search engine’s top results, you won’t ever be able to make it big!

Whenever we search for something on Google, all of us prefer clicking on the top-ranked webpages. The higher ranking of any webpage is a result of SEO, the ultimate web marketing strategy. 

SEO optimizes a website so that it performs better. In simple terms, the path through which a search engine receives every search query and answers the user with relevant results is led by SEO.  

SEO is the radical stimulus for fostering brand awareness, expanding its reach, and promotion of its products and services. 

Beginners in the digital marketing arena wonder why use such technicalities when the same work can be done via ads? 

Because, according to the 99 Firms, $35 billion of digital ad spend will be lost in the year 2020 due to the use of ‘ad blockers’ by internet users. Hence, it is about time to dedicate your efforts towards SEO and increase your business reach organically! 

As reported by Safari Digital, Businesses with a marketing strategy allot an average of 41% of their budget to SEO.

SEO CHALLENGES AND THEIR SOLUTIONS

Your potential customers can only find you if you appear in the top results of a search query related to your business. 

Every SEO marketer wishes to ace that. But, often, the process is hindered by challenges that seem hard to overcome. 

If left unattended, these challenges can potentially halt the entire SEO campaign, sending previous efforts down the drain.

Identifying and troubleshooting these issues is what we will be discussing in this post today. 

So, without further ado, let us dive into the common SEO challenges and how to resolve them.

1. KEEPING UP WITH THE ALGORITHM UPDATES

Dynamic is the word best suited to Google’s algorithms. They are the criteria through which the search engine determines the quality of a webpage. Many of these have a profound impact on a website. 

Ever-changing algorithms are what makes SEO a process that calls for coming on strong with efficient strategies. Amidst trying to expand your company’s reach, marketers find every algorithm update very challenging. 

Defeat the challenge:

Don’t frustrate. Understand that a change in algorithm is due to the change in people’s behavior, so keeping up with it is worth it. As it is the people who you are serving, new ranking factors are actually making the marketing process easy for you.

Get the latest information on any such updates through authentic sources such as the Moz Blog, and don’t hesitate in taking help from SEO tools with good reviews. 

The right tools can make your keyword research and tracking performance a lot easier. 

2. OPTIMIZING THE SITE SPEED

A website that loads at a sluggish speed doesn’t give users a pleasant experience. Perhaps that is why HubSpot, in 2020, reported that page speed optimization is the top SEO strategy used to improve site performance.

If you notice a sudden plunge in your website traffic, slow loading speed can be the culprit behind it. Probably caused by uploading too many large image files, it negatively impacts SEO. This is a fact backed by Moz, which states that site speed affects search rankings.

Defeat the challenge:

Firstly, refrain from redirecting URLs that may cause slow loading speed. Also, use the images in JPEG format. Use an image compression tool to keep your images under 100kbs. 

Though these practices should pretty much solve the speed issue, if they don’t, try removing the plugins from your web design that are unused.

3. OVERLOOKING LOCAL SEO

According to Search Engine Land, 82% of mobile users conduct ‘near me’ searches for shopping. 

Disregarding this crucial aspect will subsequently hurt SEO. Verifying and then optimizing your Google My Business listing using SEO may be challenging, but it will give you a higher ranking on local queries.

Defeat the challenge:

Provide accurate, detailed, and relevant information regarding your location, business type, and other essential things to Google. Plus, points for any business that is already flourishing offline, as your ranking will increase due to mentions on other blogs and social platforms.

Add high definition images of your products to appeal to the customers. Decor NYC, a home goods store in Newyork, has several tempting photos of their store interiors, which assists them in staying on top of the local search results. 

Along with images, high-quality backlinks can also improve your ranking. You can successfully get these by creating content related to local events and news.

4. COMBINING SEO EFFORTS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Statista’s 2019 report notifies that 2.77 billion people use social media, therefore ignoring it in your SEO campaign is not a wise thing to do. 

Facebook alone reports that currently, the number of its monthly active users has surpassed 2.38 billion. 

An energetic, meaningful presence across social platforms is a tedious task indeed. Yet, many brands have gained massive success through their social media pages that ranked even above their website on Google. Read further to know how they manage to do that. 

Defeat the challenge:

Identify which platforms your target audience is present in higher numbers. Stay active on those networks by sharing your blog posts and other relevant content like events, sales, and customer feedback. Very soon, you will have an increased following and an improved lead generation.

Take Domino’s genius social media strategies like ‘pizza legends campaign’ that lets you create your own pizza, or the famous ‘pizza turnaround’ where they won back unsatisfied customers. In 2017, their unique social media content led them to surpass sales of another leading pizza brand. 

Now, you must be thinking, in this time of the global pandemic, will the strategy work? Well, it will, but you have to play smartly here. Many businesses are hanging in the garden of uncertainty regarding whether to spend on Fb ads or not. 

You already know that Facebook has immense data. Even in this time of uncertainty, you can use it to generate sales. 

Talk of which, I came across a blog published by SEtalks –SEO company. In that blog, they have explained how to run FB ads during the pandemic. The primary concept is to show relevant ads, aware users, yet market your product. I call it a smart approach.

5. OBTAINING LINKS WITH OPTIMIZED ANCHOR TEXT

Organic link building can help an entirely unknown business to grow a strong presence among the target audience, yet it is a complicated task. You can be unsuccessful at it if you haven’t conducted thorough research.  

Defeat the challenge:

By conducting advanced research on competitor backlinks and suitable high-authority websites, an efficient link building strategy can be devised. 

After that, anchor text linking back to your website can be assembled into guest posts on those high-authority websites.

Most of the SEO experts generate high-quality links for their client’s websites via long-tail keywords in guest posts. The strategy works well because Organic SERP clickthrough rates are 3 to 5% higher for long-tail keywords than generic keywords (as per statistics posted by HubSpot).

6. CREATING CONTENT THAT ADDS REAL VALUE

The original content of prime quality is one of the best ways to boost SEO for the long term. It is the best strategy to maintain your website’s authority. But what to do if you find it challenging to generate unique content continually?

Defeat the challenge:

User-generated content is a highly effective way to maintain authority as it gives original insights. Rotten Tomatoes, the movie reviewing website, accumulates Critic’s Reviews in which famous words and phrases are used.

Determine your high-value pages and put most of your SEO efforts on these for better rankings.

7. BEATING STRONGER COMPETITORS

Outrunning competitors that are ahead of you is both a dream and a challenge for SEOs. 

Defeat the challenge:

Instead of trying to rank higher on the same keyword as them, try alternate keywords as both of you have the same target audience.

Also, try to ace better on social platforms, content creation, and brand building, as they will potentially help you stay ahead in the game. 

TAKEAWAY

Even after the campaign is completed, SEO works round the clock like a salesperson to promote your brand. 

Getting to the first page may be full of challenges, but you need to stay persistent. Instead of backing off, keep up with the SERP analytics and adopt proper SEO best practices to keep on top of the game.