Easily one of the most complex aspects of content marketing today, search engine optimization provides a key for brands and businesses to reach new audiences. Some of the biggest competitors in a given niche started out as tiny operations many years ago, but through hard work and persistence, grew their empires via prominence in SERPs.

There are many unique elements that affect SEO outcomes, with each immensely important in one or more situations. Even if almost everything is executed perfectly, one or two mistakes can completely derail a website’s success. Today, we’ll look at some of the most common reasons why SEO efforts continue to fall flat even when the approach is a solid one on balance.

You’re Ignoring Penalties

A variety of penalties exist for blatant violations of what Google, Bing and other search engines consider good web practices. Additionally, algorithms that govern how well your SEO campaigns perform can change on a dime, causing websites that were once doing well to fall through the cracks.

Be sure to check with Google Webmaster Tools or any other relevant search engine control panels to see if you’re being hit with penalties from pinging links or pages. You can also use one of many penalty checker tools available online that can examine your website for potential problem areas.

You’re Failing at Backlinks

Earning backlinks is a huge portion of successful, long-term SEO. However, search engines tend to view this as something that must be organically earned, which causes many brands to get into trouble. If you’ve been buying backlinks and/or engaging in tactics such as guest posting that force your links where they otherwise wouldn’t appear, then this may be to blame. Ultimately, using one or more link analysis tools to get a better understand of your link reputation can shed light on whether this is a problem. If so, either remove or disavow the links in question to solve the problem.

You’re Too Impatient

SEO takes tons of time and patience. Many people start out with the best of intentions and a ton of energy, but quickly find themselves losing interest when big results don’t occur. In the world of search engine optimization, even moderate improvements can take months to manifest.

Some people find themselves in a situation where they are constantly juggling different strategies because they see no improvement or results from previous ones. The best advice that you can take in such a situation is to maintain your level of interest, effort and intent. Without it, your SEO efforts will fail: be patient.

You’re Producing Weak Content

Ultimately, content is the most effective way to improve SEO. Not only can it be used to impress search engines, but it will also ensure that people who visit your website are satisfied. Since search engines can tell whether people find your website useful or not, this is a valuable component.

Content can be weak due to a number of reasons. First of all, it can lack depth or detail, which will sour many visitors on your offerings. It can be too short or broad, which search engines automatically view in a hostile manner. It can also be irrelevant to the audience to whom you’re pitching. You’ll want to carefully evaluate whether your content is actually strong enough to complement a broader SEO effort before throwing in the towel.

The effort behind SEO – pinging links to search engines, earning links from others, building great content, and more – takes a lot of effort. Many people who fail to see results are making one or more of the four big mistakes listed above, but there are other mistakes that can derail your efforts. Nevertheless, take time to inspect each one of these elements to see if this could be a problem for your SEO strategy.