You have developed your own SEO strategy and you are not sure if you ever need to call in the professionals again. However, you may be seeing some details about your SEO strategy that make you think twice, a few red flags that may be giving you concern – something may be wrong with your campaign. If you are unsure, but want to be sure, we have narrowed down a few facts that might suggest that your SEO campaign is dying and that you should be taking corrective action immediately.
Sign #1 – Your organic traffic is dropping sharply
One of the best metrics we have to measure a SEO campaign’s effectiveness is organic traffic. It shows us how many people have found your website by using a search engine. You are able to get a complete breakdown of your organic traffic through Google Analytics, but the main number is the one that should be giving you the most concern. Make sure that you observe this number every month, preferably weekly. If you do, you should be seeing some long-term growth patterns.
Even though the long-term growth patterns are what we WANT to see, what you have to pay close attention to is a sharp drop. If you have 2,000 hits every week but you suddenly end up with about 300, chances are that you have a major problem on your hands.
Sign #2 – Decline or stagnant growth for more than two months
Again, your SEO campaign is based upon long-term growth. That is what you are after. If you are consistently seeing that you are getting everything EXCEPT an increase, chances are that something is wrong. You want to see a pattern towards increased traffic, even if it is sometimes incremental. There might be reasons that some months are better than others are – you do not have to panic if you notice a drop one month.
However, if you notice that this is happening for two or more months, there is a serious issue. If you are seeing a stagnant number or a decline, this is a major red flag. Even if it does not necessarily mean that your SEO campaign is FAILING, you do not want to gamble another month on that fact do you?
Sign #3 – Your keyword rankings are dropping sharply
Even though keyword rankings are not as important as they once were, they still matter. Remember that keywords were once the lifeblood of the SEO industry – you had found success if you could get one of your keywords to rank highly. Nowadays they are not as important, especially because Google does not rely on keyword phrases, but rather relies on user intent.
Now it is better to have quality content that is relevant to your topic rather than a bunch of keywords. However, your rankings are still a valuable metric. They can tell you how healthy your SEO campaign is. Make sure that you measure a handful of keywords every month. You should consider it a red flag for your campaign if you notice that your rankings are falling on a majority of the keywords that you are targeting.