Problem-Solving in SEO
A Methodological Approach to Diagnosing and Fixing Organic Performance Drops
Hiring the right talent for SEO can be challenging. During interviews with SEO candidates, I often present problem-solving challenges to assess their practical skills and approach to SEO strategy. For example, I might ask:
"An established website's organic performance dropped 30% over the last 28 days. How would you identify the problem and propose a solution?"
"A client wants to improve organic performance by 150% year-over-year (YoY). How would you plan a strategy to achieve this goal?"
It's crucial to understand that SEO is not a guessing game or an art form based on intuition—it's a methodical, data-driven process. An SEO professional's ability to analyze the situation systematically and prepare a structured approach to identifying problems and implementing solutions is paramount.
In this blog, I'll delve into two common SEO challenges, stress the importance of a structured methodology in SEO, and provide insight into how to approach real-world SEO issues. Let's explore why problem-solving skills are crucial in SEO and how to navigate performance drops and ambitious growth goals using a structured approach.
SEO Is a Methodological Process, Not Guesswork: Understanding the importance of a structured approach in SEO problem-solving empowers you with the knowledge and skills to navigate the complexities of the digital landscape. One of the most common issues I see in the SEO industry is the tendency to blame algorithm updates every time performance drops. While algorithm changes play a role in organic traffic fluctuations, relying solely on this explanation is a sign that someone doesn't fully understand the intricacies of SEO.
Some SEOs suggest adding more backlinks as a standard shortcut when organic performance declines. Although backlinks are essential to SEO, they're not a universal solution. A thorough analysis is always required to determine the root cause of the issue.
Influential SEO professionals understand that solving problems requires a structured approach based on data, analysis, and a comprehensive understanding of the larger digital ecosystem. They should be able to:
Diagnosing the issue using data: Data in diagnosing SEO issues provides a solid foundation for your problem-solving process, instilling confidence in your ability to identify and address performance declines. Isolate potential causes: Break down potential factors, such as technical SEO issues, content relevance, or changes in audience behavior.
Propose solutions based on the identified problem: Once the issue is isolated, implement targeted strategies to fix the problem and monitor for improvement.
Let's explore two common scenarios you might face in SEO and how you can apply a structured approach to solve them.
Scenario 1: Organic Performance Dropped by 30% Over the Last 28 Days
In this challenge, we're looking at a situation where an established website sees a significant drop in organic performance—a 30% reduction over the past 28 days. This type of decline can have profound business implications, so it's critical to identify the root cause quickly and take action.
Step 1: Diagnose the Problem
The first step in tackling an SEO performance drop is to diagnose the problem by isolating the affected areas. You'll want to break down the data into segments that help you pinpoint where the traffic loss occurs.
Actions to Take:
Analyze specific pages: Look at which pages have seen the most significant drops in traffic. Are certain key landing pages or product pages experiencing a higher-than-average decline? This helps narrow the focus to specific problem areas.
Break down search queries: Identify the queries that contributed to the organic traffic of the affected pages. Are there specific high-value queries that have lost ranking or search volume? Has user intent shifted?
Check for technical issues: Conduct an audit to ensure that technical SEO issues aren't to blame. This includes checking page loading speeds, mobile usability, indexation, and whether there are crawl errors or issues with meta tags (such as incorrect canonical tags or robots.txt directives).
Step 2: Identify the Root Cause
Once you've isolated the problem areas, the next step is to identify the underlying cause of the performance drop. There are several potential reasons why a website might see a drop in organic traffic:
Technical SEO issues: Problems such as server errors, slow loading times, or incorrect redirects can impact your rankings and visibility.
Audience interest: If your target audience's interests have shifted, it's possible that the keywords you were targeting no longer align with what people are searching for.
Competitive landscape: You might have been outbid by competitors who have produced more relevant or updated content. A shift in market trends could have resulted in competitors outranking you for specific queries.
Step 3: Develop an Action Plan
Once you've identified the problem, it's time to prepare an action plan to address it. This action plan should be based on the specific findings from your analysis.
Potential Solutions:
Fix technical SEO issues: If your analysis revealed that technical SEO was the root cause, prioritize fixing issues such as slow page speeds, broken links, or crawlability problems.
Update content to match audience intent: If audience interest has shifted, update your content to better align with what users are searching for today. This may involve refreshing older content, creating new blog posts or pages, and optimizing for keywords.
Outperform competitors: If competitors are outranking you, conduct a competitive analysis to see what they're doing better. Consider improving your content's depth, adding new features, or gaining more authoritative backlinks.
Scenario 2: Client Goal – Improve Organic Performance by 150% Year-Over-Year
In the second challenge, the client has set an ambitious goal of improving organic performance by 150% year over year. This requires a detailed strategy that focuses on growth and ensures sustainable and realistic development.
Step 1: Assess the Potential for Growth
Before creating a strategy to increase organic performance by 150%, it's important to assess whether this goal is achievable based on the current landscape.
Questions to Ask:
Does the potential audience support this growth?: Analyze market data to determine whether your niche has sufficient search volume and interest to support a 150% increase in traffic. This might involve expanding your keyword research to uncover new opportunities.
Does the website's current asset base support this growth? Review your digital assets—content, backlinks, and technical infrastructure—to ensure your website can handle the growth. Are there existing content gaps that need to be filled? Does the site need technical improvements to support higher traffic levels?
Step 2: Build a Strategy
Once you've determined the feasible growth goal, you can start building the strategy. A comprehensive strategy that covers content production, technical optimization, and amplification of efforts across all channels prepares you to tackle the challenge of achieving ambitious SEO goals.
Key Components:
Content production: Create a calendar that expands your content to cover more long-tail keywords, address common user pain points, and produce high-value resources that attract backlinks. This also includes optimizing existing content to ensure that it ranks for more queries.
Content amplification: Amplify the reach of your content through social media, email newsletters, guest posts, and other distribution channels. This ensures that your content reaches a broader audience, which can lead to more backlinks, engagement, and traffic.
Ongoing technical SEO improvements: Regularly audit the site's performance to ensure no technical roadblocks could impede growth. This includes improving site speed, enhancing mobile responsiveness, and optimizing the user experience.
Step 3: Monitor and Adjust
SEO is an ongoing process, so it's important to monitor your performance continuously and adjust your strategy as needed. Use tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to track progress toward the 150% growth goal and make adjustments based on the data you gather.
SEO Requires a Methodical, Problem-Solving Approach
Whether you're trying to diagnose a drop in performance or working toward ambitious growth goals, the key to success in SEO lies in adopting a methodical, data-driven approach. SEO isn't about guessing or taking shortcuts—it's about understanding the problem, identifying the root cause, and implementing a tailored strategy to solve it.
When interviewing SEO candidates or working with SEO agencies, it's essential to find those who deeply understand this process. Effective SEOs don't just point fingers at algorithm updates or default to link building whenever performance drops—they follow a structured approach to uncovering problems and implementing lasting solutions.
Focusing on data analysis, problem-solving, and long-term strategy can ensure that your SEO efforts are aligned with your business goals and set up for sustainable success.