Things That Impact SEO

There are many things to consider when optimizing websites and web assets including pages and images/videos. While we follow the SEO best practices and keep a close eye on the performance data, there are things besides Google updates that impact our SEO performance and activities.

Search User Interests Change

People’s interests change all the time. These changes are reflected in the search query report. Even the brand name search trend fluctuates causing the traffic to go up and down.

Search user’s behavior also changes. From one search engine to another platform, from desktop device to mobile, these changes also impact your SEO performance.

Business Focus Change

While most companies conducting business online understand the importance of organic traffic and SEO, the executive may have a different idea. Recently, I saw the results of a survey conducted among corporate executives asking what influences their business decisions. Surprisingly, the customer related information (interests, behavior, etc.) was not mentioned. It was all about the market and economic trends. And, their decision will influence where to allocate more budget or decrease the budget, and some projects may postponed till the next fiscal year.

Personnel/Team Change

Any projects including SEO should not be influenced by personnel change, but it often is. I’m sure many people have experienced that every time a person in charge of the project, team, or company changes, the whole direction of the projects or campaigns changes. Some people may not have good experience with SEO to support SEO projects. I’ve heard a company completely shut down the SEO team and refocused all online marketing to paid ads.

What Can SEO Do?

Here are some suggestions to minimize the negative impact of these outside influences on SEO projects.

Have an annual SEO road map showing big/small projects with goals
Publish monthly/quarterly/annual SEO performance reports showing how SEO/organic traffic plays a key role in business growth – Share them with other departments including executives
Monitor search users and search market trends, and adjust the plans accordingly – Be agile

It is crucial that bigger digital marketing teams or other departments are aware of SEO efforts. They won’t be able to deny your project if they understand the value of it to them or the company.

Motoko Hunt

Since Motoko established AJPR in 1998, she has been working with some of the world's well-known corporations, helping them to enter Japanese market using the Internet. She is a frequent speaker at the digital marketing conferences around the world. Her articles are published at several online media sites including Search Engine Journal, ClickZ, and MultilingualSearch. She received the Best Consultant Award from the US Search Awards in 2014.

Comments are closed.