By Usman Raza
One of the most popular ways to make your presence known on the web is through search engine optimization or simply SEO. If we take a look back at how SEO started, things seemed to be very easy. All you needed was to build links and optimize your web pages. And then, wait for a few days for your website to be indexed. In an instant, you land the top spot. That’s pretty much it.
However, today, the entire SEO process seems to have gotten more and more complex. In order to achieve your SEO goals, you need to go through a lot every single day. Believe it or not, many factors need to be taken into account before you could even implement a powerful and effective SEO plan.
Yes, SEO is no longer the same as before. If you don’t believe us, we’ll give you 12 more reasons why SEO can be hard to do successfully. Read on below.
1. Lots of Experts
At the moment, there are many digital marketing agencies and experts that claim to have implemented the best and most effective SEO strategies. The truth is, while some of their campaigns are designed well, others do not consider even the most basic concepts of SEO. So, you need to be extra cautious. If you wish to work with experts, at least learn the fundamentals of SEO. After all, you don’t want to be fooled by individuals who claim to be experts.
2. Tight Competition
Every second, a new web page is being added. That only means it is very difficult to get search engines to rank your blog posts, press releases, and videos on the first few slots. Then again, with a good combination of promotion, content, and SEO, landing the top spot should not be impossible.
3. More Time Spent
Unfortunately, spending time on optimization is not enough. More often, you need to do more than that. You have to pay attention to how your audience reacts to your use of keywords. From there, you’ll have to come up with an effective SEO strategy. Can you imagine how much time you’ll be spending on optimization alone? Add to it the planning process.
4. Another Investment
When you talk about SEO, you need to put in a significant amount of money. If you fail to go for the right bid, you’d end up at the end of the competition, making it hard to acquire the number one spot. Most companies that think twice about investing in SEO are the start-ups.
5. Lack of Tools
If you truly want to be ahead of your competitors and land the top spot, you need to stay updated with all the new SEO tools and software. Sometimes, you will need to spend a bit of money on these tools, but rest assured they will help in your SEO campaign.
6. More Competition
No matter how hard you work on ranking certain keywords, remember that you have competitors who are also vying for similar search terms. So, do not expect that your website will rank in an instant. The competition is tough, hence the need to double your efforts.
7. Content Problems
Content and SEO always make a great pair. But, with more content, the more complicated your SEO strategy will be. That is because you will have to consider what SEO campaign or strategy you will use to get your web pages and other visual content indexed by Google. Just to be clear, more content won’t guarantee positive results. Thus, you also have to plan carefully before investing in more content because you will also need time and money for it.
8. More Technical
Search engine optimization does not only focus on content. It also gives importance to the technical aspects of a website. For instance, how do you effectively optimize your website that runs on two sub-domains? How do you optimize a website that runs as a web application, too? How fast should your website be for it to rank well on Google? These are just a few technical issues. There is more to this.
9. Challenge on Content Creation
Another major challenge involved in SEO is the creation of content. Yes, we already have an idea about what type of content Google loves – relevant, long, and unique. But, the true issue is how you create it, whether it is pure text or visual content. Creating a piece of content that is engaging, unique, SEO-friendly, and in line with your SEO goals is not just difficult, but also expensive and time-consuming.
10. Adjusting and Troubleshooting
SEO is often a bumpy and rough ride. At some point, you are on top of SERPs, but suddenly, your ranking drops. If you get caught in this situation, troubleshooting can be very difficult. You need to find out what caused the drop. You have to examine a lot of aspects, which can be very hard, particularly for beginners.
11. Analysis and Development
As you get familiar with SEO, you will have to analyze certain factors and develop strategies for your website. In the long run, you have to assess and evaluate whether or not your efforts are effective. You have to weigh them and make the necessary adjustments to make the most of your strategy. Now, you can safely say that all those tasks are easy. Actually, they’re not. Though there are many available tools to help you analyze data, you need to undergo trial and error to get better results.
12. Minor Details Still Matter
In white hat SEO, search engines pay attention to minor details or elements such as schema. No wonder why many small business owners would rather invest in paid ads as they generate more leads given a short amount of time, which is completely the exact opposite when compared to white hat SEO.
Final Thoughts
These are just among the few reasons why SEO is getting harder each day. They may all seem true, but if you’ve got the right strategies to go against these reasons, then there is nothing to worry about. Soon thereafter, as you master every aspect of SEO, you will reap a higher ROI from your campaigns.
Hopefully, these reasons do not discourage you to invest in SEO. Rather, they should inspire you to do better and beat the odds.
