About the Author
Corey is the owner and President/CEO of VOLTAGE. He is also founder and author of The Digital Marketing Success Plan™ and the START Planning Process. Corey has spent 20+ years working in strategic and leadership roles focused on growing national and local client brands with award-winning, ROI-generating digital strategies. He's the recipient of the KCDMA 2019 Marketer of the Year award and his team at VOLTAGE has won nearly 100 local, national, and global awards for ROI-focused client work in the past decade.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is often viewed as a long-term strategy—and rightly so. But while we all understand that SEO takes time to show returns, there’s often a painful disconnect between what’s expected and what it actually delivers.
Over the years, we’ve seen this play out again and again: solid SEO campaigns that generate traffic, improve rankings, and hit conversion benchmarks—yet still fall short of stakeholder expectations. Why? Because performance metrics aren’t always tied to meaningful business outcomes.
If the goal of digital marketing is to deliver a return on investment (ROI), we have to ask hard questions about what’s getting in the way. Here are five of the most common root causes behind SEO underperformance—and how to address them before they hurt your strategy (and credibility).
1. Misunderstanding What SEO Really Involves
SEO is constantly evolving. What worked five years ago—let alone a decade ago—doesn’t necessarily apply in today’s landscape shaped by AI, changing algorithms, and shifting user behavior.
When leadership or stakeholders bring outdated assumptions into the equation, it can create unrealistic timelines, misplaced priorities, and poor strategy alignment. To avoid this, ensure everyone involved in your SEO efforts shares a clear and current understanding of what modern SEO entails—and what it takes to compete today.
2. No Clear Business-Focused Goals
SEO without defined goals is like building a road without knowing the destination. Sure, you may end up somewhere useful—but the path is less efficient, and it’s hard to know if you’ve succeeded.
Set goals that go beyond rankings or traffic volume. Your SEO KPIs should connect to actual business outcomes like lead quality, revenue generation, or customer acquisition costs. That level of clarity helps determine the right level of investment, speed, and focus.
3. Siloed or Shallow Reporting
It’s not enough to report on impressions, clicks, or even conversions. If your SEO reporting stops at the marketing level, you’re missing the bigger picture—and possibly risking your seat at the table.
Effective SEO reporting connects the dots from top-of-funnel activity all the way to closed business and ROI. This requires collaboration with sales, CRM integration, and a willingness to venture beyond your dashboard.
4. Insufficient Resources
SEO isn’t a solo sport anymore. It requires coordinated contributions from developers, content teams, analysts, and others across your organization. When those resources are unavailable—or not planned for—the execution timeline stretches, and results suffer.
Make sure your SEO plans account for both the effort and support needed to bring strategy to life.
5. Outdated Thinking in a Changing Landscape
Search behavior is changing fast, driven by generative AI, new search experiences, and emerging platforms. If your strategy is still rooted in “publish and wait,” you may already be behind.
The brands winning with SEO today are actively learning, adapting, and aligning their tactics with where search is headed—not where it’s been.
Final Thoughts
SEO still works. But getting real ROI from your investment means aligning expectations, setting meaningful goals, reporting beyond the basics, and staying flexible in a fast-moving environment.
If you’ve ever felt frustrated that your SEO efforts aren’t producing the business results you hoped for—this is your sign to reassess. Start with alignment, build buy-in, and keep your eyes on impact.
For more, check out my full article on Search Engine Land.