Jeremy is great at online marketing. He has got 60+ clients, and he leads a team of more than ten people. When he started out with his business, he was the hardest worker in town and he would get his clients real results. His clients were happy. Jeremy was happy.
Soon, Jeremy had more clients than he could handle. His life was secure. With this security, he started getting lazy. Really, all he needed to do was to maintain the rankings he had already achieved.
But, he failed to do it.
The rankings started dropping, and he would put the blame on the changing algorithms, how SEO is tougher now, how the clients need to upgrade the package; and all sorts of ideas whirled around the landscape. And guess what! The clients who have worked with Jeremy believe him. Just like that!
It’s difficult to cut ties with your favorite Jeremy and go shopping again! But if you see the following signs on your website, you must accept that it’s time to move on.
How To Know If Your SEO Agency Isn’t Doing Its Job?
1. Your Website Has Giant Pop-ups
Pop-ups were the most effective and popular web design elements, that drive conversions or at least email sign-ups. However, that was years ago. Search engines, now, consider pop-ups to be disruptive and negative for user-experience. Read Google’s official take on pop-ups.
Of course, there are still pop-ups that work, but take a look at all the pop-ups on your website. Do they cover a major section of the web-page? A top to bottom pop-up is a big no-no. The pop-ups that don’t allow the user to quit easily and cover the majority of the content or that the user has to see repeatedly are all bad for your business.
An SEO agency would usually put the blame on the web design firm you hired, but it’s the job of your agency to tell you that a certain tactic is outdated and can harm your business.
2. Your Website Has Broken Links & Pictures
If you’ve recently redesigned your website, there are high chances that pictures on your website require an audit. Google considers broken links and images very seriously.
They constantly advise webmasters to check for broken links and fix them, as broken links are the sure-shot sign of laziness. Browse your website, and click on every link you see. There shouldn’t be any broken links.
Though we, ourselves, hadn’t expected this but several websites still have pictures that do not load. Remove them or replace them with the new ones. But it’s never advisable to keep such elements on the website that do not contribute to good user experience.
Search engines, obviously, loathe websites that offer such a user experience. In fact, pictures without the alt text (it’s the way a webmaster informs search engine bots about the nature of the image) also convert to lost SEO revenue.
3. Your Website is Sloooooooow
You don’t need anybody’s help in figuring out whether your website speed is optimal or not. Google provides this tool for checking & optimizing website speed - Google PageSpeed Insights, which you can use free of cost. It also gives suggestions on what can be improved on your website.
Get your web development agency and SEO agency on the table, it’s better if they’re the same agency, and ask them to fix everything on the suggestion list provided to you by this tool.
4. Your Website is 'Not Secure'
Attention: If your website is built on WordPress, there’s a big security breach that happened due to a widely used plugin for social sharing called Social Warfare.
Did your agency notify you of that? It isn’t your job to scour through the online marketing news sites to find out what’s happening in the industry, that could potentially affect you. Your SEO firm should take care of that and keep you informed.
Search engines take security very seriously. With recent changes in privacy laws across the globe, especially Europe, you need to revisit your website’s privacy policy, the way your website collects data, and ensure your website has a secure connection.
Is your website ‘https’ or ‘http’?
Google officially announced that it gives priority to websites with https (a secure connection). That doesn’t mean websites that do not have https would be demoted, but it could very well happen in the future considering how government is tightening the leash on giant tech companies like Google and Facebook.
5. Your Website Doesn’t Have A Blog
For me, it’s unimaginable to do strong SEO, that would stand the test of time, without a blog. SEO is best done when combined with social media marketing and content marketing and a blog has a big role to play in both.
With a blog, you can focus on online branding and address the pain points of your customers. You can build a connection with them, and establish yourself as an authority. All this while your search engine rankings see a significant boost due a freshly updated site and in-depth content.
‘Content is the king.’
You can’t pile up your landing page copy with too much content. It has to be short and effective. So, you really have few ways to generate meaningful content than using a blog.
Moreover, a blog can be a good way to consolidate all the information that you can later use to - create videos, infographics, podcasts and social media content.
Does your website have a blog? Is it updated regularly with new content every month?
SEO isn’t a one-time task. It requires active participation on a timely basis, even if you’re already at top position. Lazy SEO could make your rankings tank. So, watch out for these signs and ensure your SEO agency is at the top of its game. If it isn’t, it’s time to move on.
About HurekaTek
Hureka Technologies is a full-service digital marketing and SEO agency in New Jersey. We serve small-businesses with web design & development services, online marketing services and AI apps. If you’re looking for a technology partner that can help you establish your digital dominance, get in touch with us now!
