Why No Search Engine Traffic?

OK, so you launched your website and threw a few articles together thinking you might begin to receive some search engine traffic. You wait a few days, a few weeks, and now it’s been a couple of months, and you’re still trying to figure out why you haven’t received any traffic.
There’s a few reasons why you may not be receiving search engine traffic.
1. Competition.
Back in the 90’s and early 2000’s, it was a lot easier to rank for most keywords out there. Why? Think about it – there was a lot less competition back then. Today, there are literally millions of new webpages being added on a daily basis. Your article or content is only one out of over a trillion webpages currently in existence. That’s not to say that your article is competing against a trillion webpages at any given time, but you could imagine how much competition you’re potentially facing in your industry.

2. Targeting Volume-less Keywords.
Always keep this in mind – ranking for keywords with 0 traffic volume is useless. Ask yourself this: What good is a #1 ranking if no one is ever searching for that specific keyword? You’re right – it does no good. This is the reason why small business owners need to do keyword research upfront before they waste time on volume-less keywords or keywords that don’t convert.

3. You Need SEO.
Having a fancy looking website may be good for user experience, but it is not going to make the search engines like your site more than the next. Search engine algorithms are complex, and there are many different factors that go into determining how a website ranks in the search engines. Google claims to use over 200 signals to rank websites. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to micro-manage every part of SEO, so here’s a tip. Pay attention to the basics (major factors) of SEO and you’ll do fine.

4. Your Site Hasn’t Been Indexed Yet.
Your site needs to be indexed by the search engines in order for it show up in the search engines. If your site is only a few days old, there’s a chance that it may not have been indexed by the search engines yet. Google and Bing have gotten better about indexing sites fairly quickly, but the wait time is different for every site.
Unless you work in an industry with little to no competition, don’t expect easy search engine traffic. Search engine optimization (SEO) takes time to do properly and results don’t come overnight. Don’t take shortcuts and follow white-hat methods. It’ll save you lots of time and headaches later down the road.