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Looking for a New SEO Agency (11 Red Flags to Look Out For)

In the nascent stages of the internet, getting the coveted top spot or ranking on the first page of search engines was as easy as repeating a keyword on your webpages. But this was long before Google took over the industry and upped the standards.

Today, it’s crucial to work with a credible SEO agency to help your business establish its online visibility and authority. In this digital era, where roughly 93% of online experiences begin with a search query, building an effective SEO strategy is mandatory. In fact, 61% of marketers say their top inbound marketing priority is to enhance their SEO and grow their organic presence online.

With the rise of businesses looking for SEO professionals, many SEO firms have emerged to “fake it till they make it.” They over promise and under deliver, which results in unmet goals, wasted resources, and lost time.

Thankfully, there are ways to see if a firm can live up to their promises. To help you find an excellent SEO agency that delivers real results, here’s a rundown of the red flags to watch out for and what you need to look for instead.

11 Common Red Flags to Look Out for in an SEO Agency

1. No (or very minimal) digital footprint

One of the key responsibilities of an SEO firm is to help businesses build their online presence by ranking on the first page of the SERPs. If the agency you’re eyeing has a questionable digital footprint or none at all, that speaks significantly about whether or not their online marketing efforts work.

Find out if they can walk their talk. If you think their tactics don’t work for their own site, how can you trust them to optimize your business site?

Look for an agency that ranks on the first page of the search results. If their site holds “position 0” or the top spot in organic ranking, then all the better—they know what they’re doing. That’s not to say the higher a company ranks, the better it is, but it’s still a good indicator of expertise.

Tip: You can conduct a bit of research about which SEO firms apply their strategies in their own company. For instance, you can look for the top agency in your area by typing the keywords “SEO agency” and your location (e.g., “SEO agency in Brooklyn”) in the search engine. The top companies that appear in the first page of the SERP are those doing a fantastic job of optimizing their own site. Hence, they can probably do the same for your business.

2. Low-quality content on their own website

Since the SEO industry is highly competitive, you’ll find SEO agencies that produce strong content on their own site, from landing pages to service pages. If you see one that has poor or thin content, then they will either rank low (or not at all) for the keywords they’re targeting. Their website content should be a part of your deciding factors, especially if you plan to entrust your website’s content marketing materials to them.

Additionally, you can quickly and easily identify if a firm is legitimate and produces quality work based on their website’s brand info, such as the “About Us” page and “Mission and Vision” page. If they rip off content from similar business sites, you shouldn’t trust them with yours.

Tip: Read a few of their blog posts and service pages. Keep an eye on grammatical errors, repetitive keywords, and writing style. Go one step further by running it on a plagiarism checker to see if they’re copying content from another site.

3. Setting unrealistic goals or promises

SEO is excellent for increasing your online visibility and ranking on the search results page, which should be your goal if you want to find your ideal clients and grow your business. But if an agency gives improbable assurances, be warned.

“We assure you’ll be on page 1 in the first month.”

“We guarantee you’ll rank no. 1 for your target keyword in the first four weeks.”

When you hear these too-good-to-be-true promises, best believe they’re just that–promises. In this field, only a few things can be guaranteed, and they’re often supplemented with data-backed tactics to drive real results. So, if your SEO agency sets unrealistic goals and over promises a lot, this should be a cause for concern. Chances are, they won’t fulfill these, or they’ll use “black hat” techniques.

Tip: Look for companies that propose actionable goals. Search engine algorithms are ever-evolving, so you want to find an agency that is fully competent and delivers data-backed results.

4. Insisting on a long-term contract

Because of its unpredictable nature (e.g., Google’s algorithm, current marketing trends, level of competition, etc.), the same strategies that work for your campaigns today may not be as effective tomorrow. So, if an agency insists you sign a long-term contract with them, perceive it as a warning.

Instead, regular discussions between the client and the company should be conducted to analyze results, adjust metrics (if necessary), and reevaluate strategies. You can’t know for sure that the SEO tactics you plan months in advance will work and reach its targets. SEO campaigns are a month-to-month effort; it should be projected as such. 

Tip: Steer clear of agencies that persuade you to sign minimum contracts of 12 months. Look for agencies that are willing to do a test run first (one month), so you can think carefully before committing to an extended contract (6 to 12 months). You can renew it anyway when you see favorable results.

5. Inconsistent or non-existent communication

Good and effective SEO tactics require a lot of back-and-forth communication between clients and the SEO agency. The first few days of working together will be for devising strategies and going through adjustments or learning curves. This is important to help the firm find their groove to meet your needs. It’s a continuous progress, but generally more important at the beginning. Indeed, communication is a key part of the process.

If an agency refuses or outrightly ignores your inquiries, questions, and concerns early in the game, that’s a clear sign that they might not meet your requirements.

Tip: Do consider the company that asks for feedback, recommends ideas, and requests for consultations to ensure that they meet your needs and your business goals. Like a good leader, an excellent SEO agency knows when to reach out for questions and collaboration to make their strategies work for your business. 

6. No transparency with their processes and strategies

Most companies might give you a spiel filled with SEO jargon to catch your attention and make you think they’re 100% experts in the field. However, reputable SEO agencies will walk you through their techniques, processes, and approach in implementing their methods. If they refuse to share them because they’re “too difficult” to explain, you might as well expect the worst.

SEO is indeed a complex field, but a credible agency will help you understand what they’re doing, how they do it, why they’re doing it, and how it will benefit your business and prove your ROI.

If they’re confident about their capabilities and performance, they’ll be transparent from start to end of the project.

Tip: Don’t hold back on asking questions, especially if you’re not that knowledgeable about the field. This should help you filter out the dishonest and less-than-experienced agencies.

7. Results are not backed by data

Let’s say your current SEO company claims your site got a 150% bump in organic traffic, 150 quality backlinks to your site, and a 60% boost in conversion rates since you started working with them. That all sounds incredible! But have they presented any evidence that proves these numbers are accurate? How are you supposed to believe that your money is well-spent when they’re all verbal and have no actual report to supplement their claims?

As a client, it’s your right to see actual reports of your website analytics. If they only send you Excel spreadsheets, consider that a warning signal since they can easily be manipulated to exaggerate the figures.

Tip: Since you’re allocating a sizable budget for SEO (yes, it can be quite costly), you’ll want to know whether the agency is padding the numbers or not. Look for an SEO company that follows up their online successes with hard data, much better if they pull out reports from relevant tools like Google Analytics and SEMRush. You want to work with an agency that is completely transparent with you, no matter what the circumstance.

8. Extremely low rates or price point

How much does an SEO service cost? Well, quality SEO doesn’t come cheap. You can tell how good or bad an SEO company is by how much they price their services. It’s also a reasonable indicator of their quality of work. If the rate of their services are surprisingly cheap, that might translate to poor quality with minor effects on your site’s ranking.

You don’t have to hire the top SEO firm to get powerful results, especially if you’re a small business focused on bolstering your local SEO. Find the agency that will work the hardest to help your business rank first on the SERPs. Plus points if they offer a reasonable price.

Tip: Conversely, high rates don’t automatically imply better work. Before you evaluate their fees, you must first determine how much you can afford to shell out for the services you need—some charge by the hour, per project, or per month. Once you’ve set a budget, shop around and make comparisons to find the agency that can provide quality work at a price point you’re comfortable with.

9. No reliable client feedback

Most SEO companies have positive testimonials on their website. But, be sure to take that at face value. These are likely to be the company’s biggest success stories. Albeit dependable, they’re not the reviews you should be interested in. Instead, you want to look for feedback from ordinary clients, such as small businesses and entrepreneurs. This gives you a glimpse of how the agency handles businesses like your kind and how well they perform across the board. Do a bit of research to find out what people are saying about the company on third-party review sites to find real, unbiased opinions.

Reviews like these are more honest and unfiltered compared to the ones posted on the SEO company’s site. A reputable SEO can refer you confidently to clients they worked with.

Tip: Ask the company’s clients about how long it took before they saw results, what it’s like working with the company, whether they did deliver their promises, how satisfied they are with their service, and how much it cost them. These should be enough to tell you whether the SEO agency is trustworthy and reliable or not.

10. Poor content marketing tactics

Content is a vital part of every SEO marketing strategy. It’s also a useful qualification when looking for a reputable SEO company. Normally, they will show you a few of their sample works so you can examine their quality of work and to prove that they do deliver well-optimized content. Keep watch on agencies that overlink their articles, landing pages, and other web pages. This link practice gets penalized by Google and other search engines for violating Webmaster Guidelines, resulting in a considerable drop from the search rankings or worse, blacklisting. If they do it on their own site, they might use the same tactic on yours.

Content and SEO go hand in hand and when implemented accordingly, it can help your site top the SERPs. High-quality content earns your site valuable backlinks, and when these pieces of content are optimized, it can dramatically improve your online presence and search rankings. Much like with point No. 2 above, if they’re copying or spinning content from other sites to pass as their own, that should serve as a blinking red light.

Tip: Always do a quick run on a plagiarism checker and grammar checker to see whether their content or a part of it was duplicated from another published post. If you find lots of errors or copied content, that should speak volumes about their quality of work.

11. Ambiguous plans

When discussing with an SEO agency about their strategies, SEO approach, and recommendations to boost your rankings, don’t buy into any buzzword-filled explanations. Any reputable and legitimate SEO service provider knows how important it is to talk about strategies in detail with a client.

This covers short-term and long-term goals for building a brand’s online presence, different methods of optimizing webpages for favorable rankings, technical SEO, and other crucial subjects to achieve the client’s SEO goals. They’ll ensure that they’re getting their message across clearly, so that you understand the benefits of their service.

Tip: If they can’t explain it directly and in simple words, it’s likely that they don’t know enough about what they’re doing and how they drive results. Don’t settle for agencies that woo you by throwing technical jargon around. An excellent SEO company will explain everything to the letter in layman’s terms.

Choose a Reliable SEO Agency

SEO firms that promise fantastic results may be tempting, especially if they offer low rates. But remember that your brand and your hard-earned money is at stake here. Don’t buy into empty promises.

While not all SEO companies are incompetent and dishonest, it’s always best to look out for the warning signs to help you narrow your search and hire a highly regarded SEO agency. Successful SEO campaigns come to fruition because of great planning, transparency, and open communication between a client and the SEO service provider.

If you see a couple of red flags with your current SEO agency, it might be time to re-evaluate. Let this serve as a guide to help you find the right SEO company that can help your content and brand reach the top of the SERPs and drive your revenue.

Looking for a reliable SEO partner? Contact us to learn more today!

A Complete List of SEO Trends and Statistics to Help You Rank Better

The SEO landscape is continually changing, with search engines like Google updating algorithms on a constant basis—sometimes even as often as three times a day. They generally do this to re-evaluate their methods to provide the best results for their users. 

Major updates, meanwhile, are done to implement machine learning to adapt to their ranking algorithm. It is first tested in a limited environment, then rolled out to the live index once deemed satisfactory. Significant changes take some time to settle. That’s why every big update comes with fluctuations in SEO rankings, which SEO specialists have called the Google Dance.

But why does Google feel the need to update relentlessly? The most common reason is it’s their way of detecting and hindering unfair SEO marketers that manipulate their search engine rankings using unfavorable techniques. It’s no secret that some businesses use Black Hat SEO techniques to trick search engines, so Google needs to make it so that only legitimate SEO strategies that improve the user experience have a positive effect on rankings.

It may take you some time before you can see results from White Hat techniques, but doing legitimate work assures you that your site won’t get flagged and penalized by Google, and that rankings last.

With the almost endless algorithm updates, companies have to discover new best SEO practices. Specialists have to be always prepared to face changes and reconsider their strategies and workflow for successful SEO.

SEO Trends and Statistics to Shape Your Strategy 

As mentioned, nothing is constant when it comes to search engine optimization. Over the years, many updates have been implemented, which usually results in different SEO trends popping up. Look into these SEO statistics to understand the trends that will dominate the future of search and SEO. 

I. General Search and SEO 

93% of online experiences begin on search engines.

70–80% of users ignore paid search results and click on organic results instead.

Organic results are deemed 5.66 times better than paid ads by users because of the sense that companies on the top spot bought their way into the position without actually being the best option.

51% of online traffic comes from organic search.

75% of users do not scroll past the first page of SERP.  

32.5% is the average traffic share of the first organic search result.

91.5% is the average traffic share for sites on first page of SERPs.

The average page speed of a top ranking site is 1900 ms, 17% faster compared to sites that rank 10th.

81% of consumers do online research before making a large purchase.

61% of consumers research a product online before purchasing.

47% of consumers view 3–5 pieces of content from a company before talking to a sales person.

75% of SEO is done off-page, and 25% is on-page.

57% of B2B marketers say that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.

72% of marketers say that relevancy is the main factor for improving SEO.

Over 40% of revenue is captured by organic search.

Leads from search engines have a 14.6% close rate—a huge increase from the 1.7% close rate of outbound leads.

Bounce rates increase by 50% when a website takes an additional 2 seconds to load. 

Conversion rates drop by 12% for every extra second that it takes for a website to load. 

Voice search currently accounts for 10% of overall searches. 

At least 50% of all searches will be voice and image-based by 2020.

The SEO industry is worth approximately $80 billion. In 2018, businesses spent $72.02 billion in 2018 in SEO, with the number expected to jump to $79.27 billion by 2020. One-third of the spending is from large companies, while start-ups and local SMBs spend the rest.

Search engine market share by the device used:

  1. Google: 94.26% desktop, 89.63% mobile
  2. Yahoo: 1.42% desktop, 2.83% mobile
  3. Baidu: 1.31% desktop, .62% mobile
  4. Yandex: .47% desktop, 1.1% mobile
  5. Bing: 1.17% desktop, 3.98% mobile
  6. Others: 1.37% desktop, 1.84% mobile

“What is Bitcoin?” and “What is racketeering?” were the most popular “What is” searches in 2018. 

“How to vote” and “How to register to vote” were the most popular “How to” searches in 2018. 

II. Google Search

It’s no secret that Google is the undisputed king of search engines today, that’s why SEO specialists carry out campaigns that aim to keep Google and its users happy. Here are some numbers that prove this:

5.8 billion search queries are processed from different parts of the world.

Of 5.8 billion, 15% are new queries that have never been searched before.  This shows that there are always new keyword combinations worth exploring for SEO specialists.

71,780 Google queries are made per second.

3.5 billion Google searches are made daily.

More than 2 trillion Google searches are made annually.

The volume of Google searches increases by 10% every year.

86% of users look up the location of a business on Google Maps.

Google captures 90% of searches made on desktops.

Over 1 billion people use Google to look something up monthly.

Google has indexed around 100,000,000 GB worth of web pages.

44% of all website referral traffic is from Google.

8% of Google searches are questions.

An average Google search session lasts just under a minute. 

The average first-page result on Google consists of 1,890 words.  

The first result for Google’s desktop search results has a 34.36% CTR.

Organic results with 3–4 words in the title drive higher CTRs than those with only 1–2 words

Mobile Google searchers click on organic results 41% of the time.

Desktop Google searchers click on organic results 62% of the time. 

80% of Google’s users ignore its ads. 

If there’s a video on a site’s landing page, it’s 53% more likely to show up on Google’s first page.  

Google search queries share percentage by length:

  1. One word: 21.71%
  2. Two words: 23.98%
  3. Three words: 19.60%
  4. Four words: 13.89%
  5. Five words: 8.70%
  6. Six words or more: 12.12%

 “__ to avoid” search queries have increased by 150%.

 “Is __ worth it?” search queries have increased by 80%.

III. Mobile SEO

In 2015, Google updated its algorithm to accommodate searches done on a mobile device and to prioritize mobile-friendly sites better. This way, a website that ranks well when looked up on a desktop but has a poor mobile site will not appear on mobile search results. With smartphone use becoming the norm today, it’s no wonder that mobile SEO has accumulated the following numbers since its inception: 

Americans spent 3 hours and 35 minutes a day on their phones in 2018. 

52% of global internet traffic are from mobile.

Google captures 95% of mobile search in the US.

60% of Google searches are done on mobile; five years ago, the figure was only 34%.

87% of smartphone users look up something at least once a day.

1/3 of smartphone searches are done before a store visit.

66% of ecommerce transactions take place on mobile.

40% of ecommerce sales made during the 2018 holiday season came from smartphones.

40% of visitors will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

50% of “near me” Google searches on mobiles result in a store visit. 

42% of brand interactions via mobile involve Google search. 

51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a mobile-friendly website.

Around a third of mobile Google searches are related to location. 

IV. Local SEO

In 2014, the first version of Google’s Pigeon update was launched. This gave a platform for local businesses to compete for search rankings on a local level. Google boosted the rankings of businesses in close proximity to the searcher for added relevance.

97% of consumers learn more about a local company via the internet.

46% of Google inquiries are related to local information.

70% of consumers will go to a store after learning information online.

72% of consumers will visit a store within 5 miles of their location after doing a local search.

92% of users click on businesses on the first page of SERPs.

82% of mobile shoppers use the keyword “near me”; “nearby” and “closest” dropped by 23% in use.

28% of the searches for something local will result in a purchase.

1/3 of mobile searches are related to a location.

18% of local searches on mobile convert.

61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business with a mobile-friendly webpage.

78% of location-based mobile searches result in offline purchases.

18% of local searches result in a sale within a day.

34% of “near me” searches done on desktop and tablets result in store visits.

$1.4 trillion in local sales are expected from mobile devices by 2021.

73% of consumers trust business after reading positive reviews.

56% of local businesses have not yet claimed their Google My Business listing.

82% have not yet claimed their Bing listing.

Percentage of local ranking factors 

  • 29% – Link signals
  • 24% – On-page signals
  • 11% – Behavioral signals
  • 9% – Personalization
  • 7% – Review signals
  • 6% – Citation signals
  • 4% – Social signals

V. Link building

A mainstay in SEO campaigns and tactics, the rules of link building have also changed over the years with each update of the algorithm. In link building, the number of links is irrelevant—it is the quality of links that are more crucial. 

35% of companies spend $1,000 or less monthly for link building.

53% of clients dedicate a quarter or less of their SEO budget for link building.

65% of marketers say that link building is the hardest SEO tactic to do.

41% claim that link building is the greatest challenge in SEO.

VI. Social Media

Social media is not only big on the consumers’ side but even to Google and marketers. Today, there must be clear links between social media accounts and websites to lead one to the other. This network of social signals can have a significant impact on a business’ organic search results.

74% of companies and 82% of agencies say that social media somewhat or highly integrated.

40% of consumers prefer to support businesses that are engaging in social media. 

58% of marketers have seen improved search engine rankings after using social media for at least a year.

71% of customers will likely recommend a brand if they’ve had a good social media service experience with it.  

VII. Content Marketing Stats

Quality and relevant content can have a profound impact on marketing campaigns, making it one of the key pillars of SEO.

72% of marketers believe that relevant content creation is the most effective SEO strategy.  

81% of businesses think their blogs are essential tools. 

Producing a blog can give businesses 434% more search engine-indexed pages than not having one.

Better content can drive traffic by up to 2,000%.

Updating and republishing old blog posts can increase organic traffic by 111.37%.

VIII. Video Marketing Statistics

Google is now also promoting video content into its search algorithms as a valuable resource for users.

85% of US internet traffic will surround video this 2019. 

Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic results than text. 

A video thumbnail in search results can double search traffic.

CTRs for video emails are 96% higher than those without. 

20% of users will read the text on a page, while 80% will watch a video.

Evolving Alongside SEO

There is one fact that you can take away from these SEO statistics: search engine marketing is an excellent way to grow your brand. With consumers going online more and via new device types, it’s a mistake not to cater to these changes. Don’t be left out of the trend.

However, it is also a fact that technology evolves. For Google and other search engines, that means keeping up with the times and protecting their algorithm from SEO practitioners who may be trying to manipulate the system in a way that worsens a searcher’s experience.

SEO may offer your business tremendous opportunities, but specialists should be wary of going over the line. Keep up-to-date with the latest trends; be adaptive and not reactive to avoid penalties. It’s as easy as keeping your website compliant with Google’s standards.

You can do this by churning out content that is the type that people will find informative, and even like and share. In addition, keep your links healthy by checking and make sure your landing pages are working, and that other pages that link to your site are ideally from your niche. Find and fix any unnatural backlinks that you may find. 

Need help with SEO? Contact SEO Company today to find the best SEO partner to grow your business!

How Long Does It Take to Do SEO?

Any business creating a digital footprint knows just how crucial search engine optimization is to their online marketing efforts. It’s a proven strategy to boost your brand’s visibility on search results, as well as encourage you to establish your site’s authority and credibility to consumers.

Tons of articles have been published rounding up the best SEO practices and most creative tactics that will ensure you can reap the benefits of SEO. However, the debate remains as to how long you’ll see results after putting in your efforts. Is there a definite answer to this.

The truth is, it depends. It may be frustrating to hear this, as digital marketers live in a fast-paced bubble where instant ROIs and improvements are expected, but there is no correct answer.

There’s also the fact that “results” can mean differently to different SEO practitioners. One could be expecting higher rankings in SERPs, while another could want more organic search traffic. While they may be different, these factors are closely linked, and they will perhaps start to show improvement at different timelines.

There’s no one real answer as to how long SEO takes, but it’s well worth your time to familiarize yourself with the process so you can manage your expectations and gauge the trajectory of your results.

How Search Engines Rank Pages

Search engines like Google and Bing work hard to rank different web pages as accurately as possible properly. This helps users find the most relevant websites that will answer their search queries and reward webmasters who put in the work to make their sites helpful to their readers.

Here’s how they do it.

Step 1: Classify

First things first: search engines classify the search terms entered by a user. This helps them in identifying the information it needs to execute the rest of the steps in page ranking. Before that, they used to rely mainly on keyword volume despite some websites not having proper tags or labels. Some examples of classifications a search engine would give are YMYL, local, unseen, adult, and question.

There is currently no catalog of classifications available for SEO practitioners to see or infer what kind of category a specific search term would fall into, but it is known that this step starts up the whole ranking process.

Step 2: Context

The next step is discovering user intent and your historical, environmental, and geographical factors that influence that query. After considering the category of the search terms entered, they now have to find the relevant information related to that query. Some examples of these data are:

  • The user’s location
  • The current time
  • Identifying whether or not the query is a question
  • The device used to enter the query
  • The format used to perform the query (typed, voice, etc.)
  • Whether the query relates to previous items searched or not
  • Whether the question has been asked before or not

Step 3: Weights

Before an engine can determine what pages should rank, they need to figure out which signals are most important to the query. This is where RankBrain enters the picture. RankBrain is part of Google’s core algorithm which helps the search engine determine the most relevant results to a search query.

With the query classification and context at play, the search engine’s algorithm can now understand which relevancy signals have the most weight in influencing the results. For instance, if you were to type a time-sensitive topic such as breaking news in politics, freshness would be a critical factor vs. a general search about home gardening tips.

Step 4: Layout

A few years ago, Google SERPs were pretty straightforward, showing the first ten links to the query entered. It slowly evolved to become a bit more interactive, highlighting the essential information on the page. These additional data points evolved into what we now know as schema markup. 

For instance, there could be a short bio page for a celebrity or prominent historical event at the top righthand corner of the page. Google could also display related videos to the topic, breaking news, or other search queries that are relevant to what was initially entered. If you type a search term for an item you intend to buy, then you will see carousels with prices linking to online shops that sell the product. Not all queries will garner the same SERP layout.

Step 5: Ranking

Finally, the search engine can begin ranking. After gathering all the important information such as classification, user intent, relevancy signals, and layout, it can arrange the pages in the order that would most likely satisfy the user. This is actually the “easy” part for search engines—it’s gathering the rest of the information above that takes time and work for it to process.

Videos, developing stories, and other information related to a query may change any time, and so that requires constant updates that can affect the presentation of the SERP of the search query entered.

What Does SEO Speed Depend On?

Since the length of time it usually takes for SEO to produce tangible results is in a range (2 to 12 months), most digital marketers would still likely gun for the shortest time possible in this timeframe. There are plenty of factors that can speed up or slow down your SEO efforts.

Competition

It should go without saying that the rate of difficulty increases in an industry where there are a lot of competitors. There’s always a possibility that your competitors have been doing SEO longer than you have, and the results will show—so it could take a while to dethrone them from the number one spot on SERPs. This is also a huge factor why competitor analysis is essential before starting your SEO strategy. It’s good to be clued in with what your industry rivals are doing and to spot the holes in their campaigns which you can do better.

Inbound Links

It’s no surprise that links have a huge role in SEO, as these are trust signals for search engines to decipher if your website is a credible reference that other sites refer to. However, it’s not all about quantity here, but quality.

A high volume of low-ranking webpages that link to your site won’t guarantee a high ranking—the opposite is true. These links could hurt your web reputation and slow down your SEO progress too. By focusing on sites that have higher domain authority, you can maintain the quality of your backlinks and attain your SEO goals faster.

Lastly, there’s also the topic of how fast you get those inbound links. Search engines would find it quite dubious if you suddenly acquire a considerable amount of high-quality links all at once. This could indicate black hat SEO techniques and could cause your site to get penalized—something potentially challenging to recover from.

Content Quality

Search engines love high-quality content. This has some indicating factors, such as word count, internal links, external links, format, and more. However, there’s no need to spew out 10,000-word articles on the regular. Google has become smarter in identifying the types of content that answer a person’s search query.

There’s also the factor of how regularly you publish your content. Some people have thought that the key to content publishing is to do it as often as possible—but this theory has been debunked. As long as you have great content that’s worth discussing, highly relevant, and helpful to your target audience’s problem, then there’s no reason for volume to trump quality and relevance.

Website Architecture

The effectivity of your SEO efforts also lies on what your website looks like:

  • Is your text readable?
  • Do the pages load quickly?
  • Are the URLs short and related to the page’s topic?

These factors matter when it comes to the speed of SEO. Your website architecture tells Google how much effort you put into your website and how much you care about your users by giving them a great browsing experience.

Having an architecturally-sound website also helps Google crawl your webpages for information more easily. They don’t have to crawl through too much text, code, or too many URLs to identify which data is pertinent to your site. Keep in mind that Google also now prioritizes mobile-friendly webpages versus those that are not optimized.

Website Age

Unfortunately, even if you believe that your website is the answer to the information that’s lacking in your industry, you might find it difficult to rank for the first six months since your website has gone live. This is because Google considers sites that are less than six months of age as a “new website.”

Search engines tend to favor old websites since they’re more established and less likely to spew out non-factual information that could hurt their reputation. However, that shouldn’t stop you from putting in the work for your new website. As long as search engines see consistency in your efforts, you will be rewarded faster—especially after passing the six-month mark.

Google Takes a While to Index Pages

Building upon the discussion about website age, it’s also important to consider that it takes a while for Google to index new websites and pages. The current estimate is around four days to four weeks. However, the exact amount of time will again vary. Google always uses its private algorithms for their actions, so it’s quite tricky to give a definite answer to this process.

Here’s how Google indexes pages:

  1. Crawling begins with a list of websites from past crawls and sitemaps provided by webmasters. This job is done by the Googlebot, an algorithm-equipped web-crawling digital robot tasked to discover new and updated web pages to be added to the Google index.
  2. As the bot visits each new site, it detects links on that page and adds them to its list of pages to crawl as well. It pays attention to new websites, updates to existing web pages, and dead links.
  3. Once it starts crawling the site, it reads the information on the page according to the instructions outlined in the site’s robots.txt file. After Googlebot finishes reading the text and following the links they discovered on the page, it begins the process of indexing the webpage.
  4. The data and content which the bot read are sent back to Google’s servers and added to its vast database. They take note of key signals such as keywords and website freshness, all of which are tracked in the Search Index.
  5. The information collected in the database is then fed to programs that keep track of which sites should be crawled, how often bots should visit them, and the number of pages to fetch.

The Google Search Index is the web’s library with hundreds of billions of webpages in its fortress. It’s the index at the back of reference books. As content and links are published every minute of the day, it could take a while for Google to crawl each individual site and add them to their index.

There’s no current strategy to follow to make Google index your page faster. However, it’s worthy to point out that the speed at which Google can index your site will depend on the same criteria that you should look into when auditing your website for SEO: content, website architecture and responsiveness, inbound links, etc.

SEO is Worth It

Although it seems like SEO is a challenging process with no immediate rewards, don’t give up—it’s worth it! While it’s not the fastest channel in terms of results, it’s one of the most important tactics you should implement if you want to hit your long-term goals. A good rule of thumb would probably to check back on your progress around the sixth to twelfth-month mark and see if there are any other tactics you can incorporate or if you should re-evaluate current practices.

If you noticed, the common thread among all the topics discussed is to build an authoritative and helpful website. You can accomplish this by producing great content, establishing credibility through inbound links, and creating a superb user experience for your visitors. The heart of SEO directly lies there, as unbelievably simple as that sounds.

Another thing you shouldn’t forget is that SEO is a process. You will need to update your tactics, maintain your website, and continually scout your playing field to stay on top of the game. It’s important not to get complacent as a lot of companies regularly take their shot at SEO and also expect results.

Make sure you’re always working to secure or maintain that top spot!

Ask SEO Company what we can do to grow your brand with proven best practices!

9 of the Worst SEO Mistakes Businesses Can Make

In any given year, search engines like Google roll out dozens of new algorithm adjustments. These may not always be major changes, but they all contribute to the single most important goal of making sure that anyone who hits “Enter” in the search bar gets what they need. In effect, these updates cater to the end-user and prompt businesses to keep the customer in mind, always and in all ways.

The challenge, therefore, when it comes to SEO, is keeping abreast of changes despite the ceaseless cycle of technological development. It’s definitely no easy task. Make one mistake too many and you could be losing market share to your competitors, which is always a big no-no.

Whether you’re new to the field or you’ve been around long enough, run through these top examples of SEO mistakes for good measure. Get a quick refresher on what not to do so you keep your website’s performance in tip-top shape.

1. Poor internal linking structure

Internal links and their structure are important to any website. Not only do they offer convenient navigability to your users, they also offer your audience content that’s easier to consume, getting them even more interested in what you have to offer. These links also help Google bots map out the significance of your content to those looking for related answers.

The problem

Understandably, more pages are created as a website ages. There’s a chance that internal links lead to 404s, duplicated content, and so on. While these minor things may not seem like much of a problem, if you accumulate too many poor links, your site may end up not getting indexed.

How to fix It

There are several ways you can make sure your site’s linking structure is strong enough to withstand the test of time.

  • Make a habit of resubmitting your XML sitemap to search engines after making changes to your website. This keeps the valuable information on your website indexed as well as its page updates.
  • Use robots.txt and no index tags wisely to streamline what crawlers map throughout your site. But, keep in mind not to block links to your own webpages or an affiliate’s link.
  • Always do regular keyword research to maintain the relevance of terms that your target audience uses.

2. Thin content

By Google’s definition, thin content refers to content with little or no value. In other words, these pages don’t necessarily have less content in the literal sense, but they could also be duplicated from other pages or have near-similar content. Thin content may also refer to pages that read like they were just written for the sake of including keywords.

The problem

You might be creating new pages just to churn out more content, but that sacrifices the quality of not just one page but the rest of your website. If Google deems that you to hold more pages than incidentally acceptable, it’s possible that your whole site may be removed from search results.

How to fix it

Producing good content is the best response to a penalty. You can request to be reinstated in the search results after making the appropriate adjustments to your site. You may even increase your brand’s authority with this.

  • Do your keyword research. This ensures you don’t overuse the same words over and over. This boosts your relevance and gives better insight on what your content is about.
  • Keep content straightforward, actionable, and evergreen. It should be able to transcend time so that you build a stronger brand identity.
  • Boost any duplicate content with additional original content. While it isn’t ideal to just delete these duplicate pages because you might lose any ranking you’ve already gained from it, you can improve the existing content.
  • Run readability tests. You’re not here to impress your audience with big words. You’ll sell better when you’re understood better.
  • Stay relevant and informative if you want more people to click on your site. Remember, they’re looking for answers and solutions to questions and problems they have.

3. Optimizing for the wrong keywords

Why does it seem like your efforts in keyword optimization aren’t working? You can research as much as you want, but you might not be getting the full meaning behind the terms you’ve stocked. It’s easy to misinterpret things, after all.

The problem

Context is crucial to the way you utilize any form of data you’ve gathered. More than listing keywords from research, understand why these are the keywords that come up. For instance, your content may not match the user’s intent. If someone is searching for information on a general term, offering a product page isn’t the most ideal option – an informative article might be a better match.

How to fix it

Look into the statistics you find. Take a moment to reconsider how they all make sense from different perspectives.

  • Bounce rate. Why might there be a significant number of people leaving your landing pages so soon, when you’ve beefed them up with CTAs? Your terms may be too broad and may be capturing too wide an audience that doesn’t specifically need your brand. Identify and adjust.
  • Revisit your brand and target market. Offer your business to the people who need what you have. Tweak the content based on terms that they would use instead of terms that may be too generic.
  • Re-evaluate if your pages match a user’s intent. You’ll want to give a solution to a problem, not just related content.

4. Failure to localize

Language plays a crucial role in widening audience reach. The more accessible it is in a specific language, the more people will opt to click on your content simply because they understand it.

The problem

If going global is your business goal, you may want to take a step back and reconsider localizing because of how much potential it holds. Not everyone in the world understands English. Expanding to different languages will make you a formidable competitor against brands that don’t provide accessibility in this way.

Plus, search engines have also included localization in their ranking algorithms. SERPs are affected by a user’s location whether the search is related to a particular geography. You may miss out on getting a better ranking if you don’t localize.

How to fix it

Allowing users to understand is one thing, but there’s more to localizing than just translation. It’s about the who, what, and where.

  • Make accessibility an imperative necessity to your chosen locales. Create content that makes your business relevant for a locale such as shipping rates, branch locations, and whatever else affects a location.
  • Build link connectivity to sites relevant to the region you’re targeting. Talk to local blogs and businesses. You may get a feature on their website if they like you enough.
  • Submit your site to directories. They can increase your SERP ranking and in effect, your site traffic.

5. Duplicate content

The bigger your website grows, the more content you will build over time. If this isn’t looked after well enough, you might end up with duplicate content issues.

The problem

Although Google and other search engines don’t directly penalize duplicate content, there’s a chance that they will regard duplicate content as “thin” content that should be de-indexed. Plus, if third-party websites find their content on your site before you asked permission to repost it, they can file intellectual property claims.

How to fix it

It’s more about website management than anything else. Keep a watchful eye on what kind of content you create and put out because it may cause more harm than good.

  • Conduct regular site audits. Review your existing pages content that needs updating. Do anchor texts and links work properly? Is your output still relevant and valuable?
  • Don’t let high authority sites republish your content without a backlink. It might seem like a good idea at first to get a high authority site to republish your content even without a backlink. But because they’ve already built their domain authority and have a huge following, your audience (or search engines) may think that it’s your site that duplicated the content. Make sure that you’re always credited as the original author.

6. Link buying

It might sound like an easy fix to get more clicks by paying other sites to link to you, but as it stands, link buying is bad practice. More importantly, it goes against Google’s webmaster guidelines. Once you’re caught, you’ll be penalized and knocked down the SERPs.

The problem

According to Google, paid links don’t refer just to using money for links or posts with links. This includes any form of exchanging goods and services for links or sponsored content. It’s good to be wary of how you obtain backlinks to your site.

How to fix it

Don’t rely too much on other websites to generate traffic. They’re helpful in building your authority and ranking, but only to a certain degree. Paying for links shouldn’t be your go-to strategy.

  • Build a strong brand to get more organic links. While that may be a lot easier said than done, you can always turn to other ways to get organic links. Try participating in online communities to establish yourself. Help solve problems posted there and relate it to what you’re offering.
  • Create how-to articles that address a problem your business is solving. Pages like this can help you reach your target audience faster and more effectively.
  • Open your doors to guest blogging. Make sure that it’s more about reaching a wider audience than building links, so don’t forget that quality content still matters.

7. Overlooking social media’s potential

Many companies are still hesitant about investing their resources in building and managing a social media presence, but it’s important to recognize that there is, in fact, SEO benefits to this (albeit indirectly).

The problem

Almost everyone is on social media. If your business isn’t on it, you may be missing the chance to boost website traffic and brand awareness on such an accessible platform.

How to fix it

It’s easy to discover goods and services on social media, and there’s a bigger audience to engage. You can build a strong following that allows room for organic backlinking without the need for any form of payment (if they like you enough).

  • Create a page and link to conversion pages or relevant info on your site. An interested party might message or comment, asking for details. That’s the perfect time to jump in and share your landing pages, encouraging them to convert.
  • Post consistently and never forget to make it relevant. The more people relate to your content, the more it will be shared, thus exponentially increasing your reach.
  • Add keyword-rich descriptions on your website content and link them to your social media profiles (and vice versa). This will make it easy for crawlers to map out the relevance and potentially boost your social media page’s value.

8. Equating good content with pure text

Surely, keywords play a major factor in any site’s SEO strategies. But, there are a lot of other ways to provide quality, SEO-friendly content.

The problem

We live in the digital age where answers can be more than just long form articles. Let’s face it – not everyone has the time and energy to read long articles. People are always on-the-go nowadays and they crave highly-visual, snackable content.

How to fix it

Questions can be answered visually, too, with different media formats that center on the topic a user has searched.

Create videos. They’re often playful and appealing, which easily beats having to read. Videos don’t need to be long. They can be short but hold impactful meaning that gets straight to the point of the topic at hand.

Add images to break down your text. Make sure to use alt tags and name the file as descriptively as possible to help search engines understand what the image is about.

9. Missing title tags and metadata

Titles are the very first thing users will see on SERPs and it’s what searchers will use to determine whether a particular piece of content is relevant to what they need.

Problem

You may be going over the character limit for titles and metadata. Remember not to go beyond 60 characters for titles and 120 characters for meta description. Otherwise, search engines will truncate your title and description and users will not be able to read the entire snippet. Choose your words wisely!

Importance of variation in keywords

  • These make the very first impression of your business. You want to be able to capture your audience with a distinct title that addresses their concern.
  • It’s displayed in a web (or mobile) browser’s tab and helps indicate what page is open. Having keywords associated with your brand not only helps users identify which tab pertains to your content, but boosts brand recognition, too.
  • These are also displayed on social media posts when your content is shared.

How to fix it

It can be challenging to write short copy, especially when you want to be as descriptive as possible. Here’s what you can do to write better title tags and metadata.

  • Include promo details and relevant bits of information related to your page in the title.
  • Frontload your titles with the main keywords that answer a search made by a user.
  • Make sure your page titles are never the same. Give them unique titles that clearly state the significance and relevance of your page.
  • Put your brand name in the title tag. If your brand is already well-known, you can boost traffic with just the mention of it.

Conclusion

When you’re in an SEO pinch, remember to keep calm. There are different ways you can fix the problem—or avoid these worst SEO mistakes altogether.

The key point to remember is that it’s all about the quality of your content. Your business won’t be compromised if you remember who your audience is, provide answers to their questions, and offer them a unique solutions. And when in doubt, consult with the experts at SEO Company. 

10 Ways to Use Schema Markup for More Organic Traffic

Building a sound website isn’t just about setting up responsive website design and producing relevant content—a lot of the work happens behind the scenes too! That means knowing how to optimize the backend of your site. You should frequently check in and polish your codes for maintenance, updates, and to see if they still make sense.

One of the most crucial things you should ensure is that you create your web pages with context, so the search engines can figure out exactly what it contains. Luckily, it’s easy to do this with schema markup.

What is Schema Markup?

The schema markup is a type of code or tag that you can add to your HTML so search engines can understand and skim your page better. It is also frequently referred to as structured data.

Schema is actually short for Schema.org, a library of semantic vocabulary of tags. This project is a collaborative effort among Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo. Their goal was to provide a better way for webmasters to provide information and context about their site to search engines. Performing this step can help boost SEO rankings too and is therefore critical in your website structure.

How Does Schema Markup Work?

Plenty of websites with markup still use HTML codes. Adding schema markup means including Schema.org tags to your HTML microdata. Search engines will then be able to read that data to know what your page is about, display it on its results pages, and feed visual information to potential website visitors, such as ratings on products or small photos that explain what’s found inside the webpage.

For instance, we see that Sanuk’s website displays ratings, number of upvotes, price, and the stock availability of their product. It already gives you so much information to aid your decision to buy the product.

One of the most important things to note is that schema markup was created with the user in mind. The top search engines didn’t just band together to make your lives more difficult—they created the code to help everyone out. That includes search engines that want to understand the content of your page, users who want to know what the link contains before they click it, and webmasters who wish to provide this data and improve their website for both search engines and its users.

Why Should You Use Schema Markup?

Schema markup sounds exciting and all, but what tangible results can it give your website? Here are just some of the best ones:

  • Higher click-through rates – More people will be enticed to visit your webpage. A study revealed that using schema increases your CTR by up to 30%.
  • Improved website rankings – The richer the information you provide, the more search engines will appreciate your effort to tell them how much valuable content you have on your webpage. This means higher rankings for all types of content.
  • Become eligible for Position Zero – Schema helps you get the coveted featured snippet on search engines. The material displayed on that spot has schema markup implemented on their webpage.
  • Beat your competition – Steal the thunder away from your industry rivals as you attract more web visitors and inch your way to the top of SERPs.

Types of Schema Markup that Can Boost Organic Traffic

There are many kinds of schema markup codes that have different functions. Below are some you can implement depending on the nature of your website and business. There will be some here that you will definitely want to prioritize over others.

1.       Organization Schema Markup

Usually appearing on the right-hand corner of SERPs, this tag enables you to present your company information in an orderly fashion. It includes your logo, nature of the business, website, short history, contact information, social media profiles, and location, to name a few. It’s an excellent way for users to learn about your company at a glance without having to click through so many pages. It also boosts your image and adds credibility to your brand.

2.        Website Schema Markup

The website schema markup shows a second search bar, called the Sitelinks Search Box, under your URL. It allows users to type in queries and consequently get results from your website. This is helpful if they see that your company or brand is related to the industry they are researching, and they feel that they can get more specific results by taking the search to your website. For this to be activated, however, you must have an existing site search feature.

3.       Recipe Schema Markup

The recipe schema markup is made especially for food blogs, where they can show rich snippets of their creation. It’s usually a great way for users to evaluate whether or not they want to follow a specific recipe since it already shows the cooking duration, ratings from other people who’ve done it, a thumbnail showing the finished product, and more or less the entire summary of the recipe. Again, this works because you don’t waste anymore of the user’s precious time. They can decide then and there if they want to click on your website and learn what you have prepared. This schema markup is also great for visual and instructional content.

4.       Site Navigation Schema Markup

You’ve probably come across a URL of a SERP display “Jump to [Menu}” or “Jump to [Page].” This is the site navigation markup. It allows users to click on the specific menu or section on the page where they can find a more detailed explanation of their query, shortening the time it takes for users to get the answers that they need. If you have this on your webpage, your visitors will appreciate the fact that they don’t have to go through countless pages or try to figure out where the content they’re looking for is.

5.       Video Schema Markup

Search engines have a harder time indexing videos on search results pages, as there is no text to crawl—this where tags, like structured data, come in handy. Implementing video schema markup not only helps your content get indexed faster on search engines like Google, but it also shows a thumbnail image of what your video is going to be about. The description of the video will also be shown, as well as the video length and date of publishing.

Note: This also motivates you to be as descriptive as possible with your videos. This information is what will help Google and your users understand what your content is about before they even click on your page.

6.       Social Media Schema Markup

You can also specify which social media profiles you want to appear under your URL. This can help your audience know where else to reach you, other than your official website. You can place your Facebook Page, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Spotify, and so much more, depending on which channels are most relevant to your business. Of course, you don’t have to fill in each one unless otherwise necessary.

7.       Local Business Schema Markup

Location information is one of the most widely searched things about a business. If you don’t have this readily available on your site, you may be frustrating or turning away a lot of potential customers. Implementing this structured data saves your target audience from additional clicks by displaying your company or store address, operating data and hours, contact information, and more right on Google Search or Google Maps. This helps distinguish different branches of the same company, and boosts local SEO.

8.       Article Schema Markup

If you regularly publish blog posts on your page (which you should be doing), then the article schema markup will help put your content center-stage. This is usually a collection of your most recent posts, with your headline, featured image, and date of publication included. If there’s a video on the page, it could replace the space where the featured image would usually be shown.

This gives the viewer much more information about a particular topic at a glance, as well as a chance to see its relevance and freshness. You can further categorize the structured data you tag for your blog posts, news articles, and journals or scholarly articles.

9.       Rating or Review Schema Markup

Like the original example shown above with Sanuk, the rating and review structured data clues in your target audience about necessary information about a product. If you have an e-commerce store on your official website, it would be helpful to show details like ratings and the number of reviews your item has gotten from other people. It’s much more attention-grabbing this way.

10.   Product and Offer Schema Markup

The product and offer schema markup work well with the rating and reviews tag. That’s right—you need two different tags for each feature. If you notice carefully on your searches, some results won’t display a rating. In that case, they only have the product and offer schema markup activated. This gives information such as stock availability, price, or price range. This saves a person the hassle from discovering that your product is out of stock, or your item may be out of their price range.

Essential Tools to Implement Schema Markup

To execute the above examples of structured data on your webpages, you will need help from these smart tools. Luckily, most of these are free. Here’s why you need each one and what they can do for you.

Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

This tool allows you to generate schema markup codes that you can easily incorporate on your website. Once you’re at the home page, the first thing you should do is select the type of data you want to markup. Let’s say you want to add video schema markup. Next, you paste the URL of the page you want to add structured data to. Highlight all the relevant information you want to be marked up. In this case, you’d want to include the title, upload date, and relevant information to appear on SERPs.

Schema.org Schema Data Type

The Schema.org website gives you the necessary information about the different types of structured data you should use for your HTML code. You can look it up there and note it for when you enter the needed values on the Structured Data Markup Helper.

Structured Data Testing Tool

To better help you visualize the changes that will happen to your webpage, you can use the Structured Data Testing Tool to see what the schema markup adds. You can also use this for troubleshooting or testing for warnings and errors. If all seems to be working well, you can then add the generated schema markup to your web page. This saves you time from having to go back in and edit things again if there is missing information you may have overlooked.

Google’s Structured Data Guidelines

Last but not least, it’s critical for you to review the guidelines set by Google. It’s free material you can base your schema markup optimization and strategies on to help your webpage get understood and indexed faster by the search engine. These guidelines are also an excellent benchmark for what you can follow and apply towards other search engines (Bing, Yahoo!, etc.) since they all co-created the structured data tags.

If you need a few more tools for your schema markup experimentation, you can also check out the following:

  • Google Data Highlighter
  • Yandex Structured Data Markup
  • Yandex Structured Data Validator API
  • Bing Webmaster Tools Markup Validator
  • Google Rich Results Tester

Implement Structured Data Tags Today

Schema markup might seem like a small detail in your HTML code, but its impact is huge. More and more websites are becoming feature-rich, cutting away from simple blue links on SERPs. The different parameters set by search engines ensure that webpages incorporate things such as schema markup to improve the user experience.

Suffice it to say that learning about schema markup and the nuances of its use can definitely be a handful, especially if you’re not well-versed in code. Thankfully, there are reputable agencies that know what they’re doing in the digital marketing and SEO scene.

Contact experts at SEO Company who can help you implement this feature, so your website can start reaping the benefits of structured data today!