It is no mystery that companies of all sizes need to utilize a digital marketing strategy. For any company, a website that is lacking in website maintenance can make or break your search engine game! The thing with SEO is that a company not only needs to update and maintain their on-page and off-page SEO strategies set in place but their overall website maintenance as well! 

A poorly performing website will slowly start to hurt a company’s SEO strategies set in place! This is because a search engine wants custom, quality content in place on a website that is mobile friendly, designed properly and loads in less than two seconds! 

With over 5.6 billion searches per day, having your website optimized for search engines is of the utmost importance.

Why do you need SEO?

As one of the leading Denver SEO experts in the area, it is important to understand that SEO should always be implemented and continued to be monitored throughout the duration of the company’s life. 

This is because SEO is an inbound marketing strategy that brings better and more qualified consumers to the company’s website. A website and SEO work together from on-page and off-page optimization to navigation. Sales should always “be on” to bring in qualified leads. 

In the SEO industry, not all experts offer the same solutions and services and it could even hurt your company in the long run with ineffective short turn SEO strategies that are often flagged or banned by search engines such as Google. 

SEO red flags.

Believe it or not, your website might be doing more harm than good and a company oftentimes does not even know it! This can be due to a multitude of common mistakes but there are mistakes on a website that need to be remedied before in advance for a website to even start ranking. These mistakes hinder a company’s ability to bring in qualified leads and website traffic! 

1. Slow site speed.

One of the top checklists on a website maintenance list should be the loading speed of a website. One of the fastest ways to lose traffic (and leads) is by having a slow loading website. Mobile internet users will jump ship on a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

Not only is this an inconvenience to website visitors, Google can red flag your website for it. Google favors the user, so when they leave, Google notices. There are free tools out there that allow for a company to see for themselves how slow their website is! 

2. Keyword Stuffing

There are many, many factors that go into the proper on-page and off-page organic SEO strategy. One of them being keywords. In the early 2000s keywords fell under the impression that “the more the merrier”. Grammar, clarity and overall relevance were thrown out the window at the expense of the reader.

Today, however, keywords must flow naturally inside the content of a company’s website as much as possible! If a reader pauses when coming across a keyword, Google takes note. Why? Because the user-experience diminishes. 

As of November of last year, Google also released their BERT Core Update which learns a searcher’s search habits and provides content based on that. Aka, BERT is learning that language and keywords have not always been so natural, but now more than ever, natural language and user experience with keywords are critical. 

As a company, it can take 83 hours a week to start the learning process of SEO and this does not include off-page strategies! This is also where a company could harmlessly be implementing keyword stuffing without realizing it. 

3. Broken Links

Broken website links are as frustrating as a slow-loading website. When website traffic cannot access the sites being linked, it is viewed as an untrustworthy experience. 

While broken links are oftentimes not the fault of the website sharing them, it is important to be on the lookout for them. Website links break, move or get removed from the internet without warning. When utilizing website maintenance properly, a professional manages the maintenance of your site health on a regular basis, including internal and external links.

As a leading creative management firm in Denver, Colorado, our company can assist, implement and provide website maintenance for any company in any industry! 

If your company is lacking traffic it is time to assess your website speed, content and overall site health. These red flags just might be affecting how Google ranks you!