Each year, marketers must navigate new SEO challenges. 2024 will be no different.

Google’s methods for ranking web pages will continue to change. AI tools will affect how content is made. And increased competition means the lifespan of your content will become shorter than ever. 

Phew, that’s a lot to deal with on its own.

But when you know what you’re up against, it’s that much easier to stay ahead of your competition and ensure your site’s pages rank high in search results.

To help you with that, we’re sharing our analysis of eight SEO challenges on the horizon and actionable tips you can use to address them.

Let's get started.

1. Google Algorithm Changes

The algorithm that determines Google’s search result rankings is constantly evolving. This can make it difficult for digital marketers to stay aware of best practices for reaching (and staying on) page one. 

Google’s algorithm is meant to serve as a filter for content quality and relevance. It’s continuously being refined to organize online content in a way that’s most helpful to searchers. 

The goal being to provide the best user experience by aligning quality content with searcher intent.

As a company, Google is known for its rigorous testing. In 2022, they ran over 800,000 experiments and made more than 4,000 changes to how their search functions.

Each time Google tests or changes its algorithm, it could change where your website ranks. Which, in turn, would affect your traffic and conversions.

Many have felt that pain before. 

HubSpot’s research shows that 50% of marketers consider algorithm changes their main SEO struggle.

Waking up to a sudden dramatic change in your search ranking can be very stressful, especially when it leads to losing significant organic traffic. 

Recovering from a shift like this requires a lot of work.

First, you need to understand what changed. 

Then, you need to define what steps to take to reclaim your previous rankings.

To get your bearings on what these Google updates can change (and their intended purpose), here’s an overview of five recent and important algorithm changes:

In many of these instances, the update changed how pages rank for certain queries. 

We call this “SERP volatility.”

Let’s go deeper into the August 2023 Core Update. 

Using Semrush Sensor data, which analyzes fluctuations in rankings and days where the changes are most dramatic, we can compare the volatility of the August 2023 update to the March 2023 update.

Semrush Sensor allows us to generate a chart that shows how much search rankings changed from day to day over the past 30 days, showing us that volatility stayed high all throughout the month of August. The volatility score ranged from about 8 to 9.5 out of 10.

On the other hand, the volatility score in March changed almost every day. Some days, the rankings remained relatively stable (showing a volatility score of 2 to 3), while others like March 16 (the day of the update rollout) sported a volatility score of 8.

What does this data tell us?

Sometimes, ranking volatility settles down after a major update. Other times, it persists well after the update’s rollout.

So, how do you weather the storm in either scenario?

Start by following consistent SEO best practices to minimize the impact on your website and traffic. 

More than that, arm yourself with knowledge. Stay aware of changes as they’re happening and keep a close eye on volatility in the days and weeks after an update’s rollout. 

This will give you some good clues on how to recover from reduced rankings.

How do you stay clued into Google’s changes? Check out these helpful sources:

• Bookmark the Semrush article about Google algorithm changes (it gets continuously updated)
• Follow relevant sources from the SEO industry such as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and Search Engine Roundtable
• If you’re on X (formerly known as Twitter), follow Google Search Central and Google Search Liaison
• Stay in the loop with what relevant people from Google such as John Mueller are saying

2. Generative AI Tools and Increased Competition

The rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools has created new opportunities for marketers. But, it has also introduced significant challenges. 

This could be seen as a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, your business can utilize AI to create more content faster. Google officially stated that it rewards high-quality content, however it is produced. 

This means you are more than welcome to use ChatGPT to write content, but you need to do so wisely.

On the other hand, your competitors are likely doing the same thing.

This means that, in many industries, you will be facing increased content competition.

Google Trends shows a growing interest in “AI content” as a search term, with queries increasing about fourfold from October 2022 to September 2023.

Be thoughtful about how and when you use generative AI. 

Focus on turning it into a way to more easily create quality content, rather than a means of churning out a ton of mediocre or poor content just to outproduce other sites in your industry. 

Test out ways you can use AI tools to accelerate your writing process. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking it can fully replace human content creators. 

You can also use the influx of new content from others as a strategic opportunity. 

Analyze the new content being created by peers and competitors in your industry. Then, steal their traffic by creating better, more comprehensive versions of what they’re publishing.

You can do this by conducting a content gap analysis.

This refers to a specific type of SEO research where you can spotlight keywords that your competitors are ranking for and your pages aren’t (well, at least not yet).

An easy way to accomplish this is to use the Keyword Gap tool in Semrush to identify new opportunities.

From inside Semrush, click “Keyword Gap” under “Competitive Research.”

Then, add up to five competitors, choose the market you want to target, and click “Compare.”

Semrush will generate an actionable report that shows you keywords that your competitors currently rank for and your website does not.

After that, look at the box labeled “Top Opportunities” and click “View details” to open the full report.

There, you can toggle between the reports labeled “Missing” and “Weak.” 

The former refers to keywords your competitors rank for and you don’t, while the latter refers to the keywords that you do rank for, but are outranked by your competitors.

Choose one and scroll down to the results. Then, click “Export” to extract these keywords to a spreadsheet or another format.

Or, click the “+ Add to keyword list” button to save these keywords inside Semrush and add them to an existing list.

Select an existing list, search for it in the search bar, or create a new one if you’re starting from scratch by clicking “Create new empty list” at the bottom of the “All lists” box. 

Now, you can filter your list and map out keywords that are relevant to closing the gap between you and your competition.

Knowing where you stand against your peers and competitors provides an opportunity to focus your SEO efforts for maximum efficacy. 

As such, analyzing content gaps represents a particularly important part of SEO competitor analysis.

Further reading: Keyword Mapping for SEO: Guide + Free Template

3. Zero-Click Searches and SGE

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is transforming the way users interact with search results. But it also creates unique SEO challenges for you.

With SGE, you can engage in a conversation with AI, ask follow-up questions, or explore suggested questions that are related to your initial query. 

One big result of the increased presence of SGE is that we may see more zero-click searches.

Zero-click searches occur when a user performs a search but does not click any links shown in the results. 

This could happen because none of the results seem relevant. Or, it can occur because the answer to their query is displayed and completely answered within the search results.

In either case, this means less traffic for the websites that rank in the organic results.

Google’s SGE could be driving an increase in this behavior by providing AI-generated content at the top of the SERP. With this information, users may be less likely than ever to click on the results shown below it.

SGE can potentially make the journey of finding answers better for users by cutting down research time. With concise and relevant information front and center, it’s certainly driving new searcher behaviors.

According to Jumpshot’s research from 2019, less than 50% of Google searches result in a click. The number of zero-click searches will likely only get higher over time because of the dynamic search results in snapshots. 

For now, it seems like SGE could hinder the performance of top-of-the-funnel content that’s primarily informational. That’s because the information that users are searching for can be displayed directly in the search results.

In any case, SGE makes it more challenging for marketers to encourage users to click on their content. As if earning high rankings wasn’t a big enough SEO challenge on its own.

Here’s how you can ensure you’re still driving organic traffic in spite of SGE’s rise:

• Focus on original research and unique content that cannot be found elsewhere
• Think about the ideal user experience and then try to make it 10 times better
• Include varied content formats to reach diverse audience segments
• Take time to understand the search intent behind every keyword before you start creating content
• Prioritize helping your audience through comprehensive answers to their queries

All of the above can increase the chance of your page appearing in the AI snapshot. 

Also, don’t forget to make your title and meta descriptions engaging. This is the key to grabbing the attention of users who still scroll through all of page one.

4. SEO Growth That’s Slow to Materialize

When SEO improvements don’t quickly lead to better rankings and increased traffic, it can make it tougher to secure buy-in and resources from executives or managers. 

That, in turn, makes it difficult to secure investment in future organic growth.

This SEO challenge is not a new one. However, it has become trickier.

With increased competition, search engine algorithms have more content to evaluate and the definition of “quality” is continuously evolving. This is why website owners might notice it’s taking longer for their content to rank or that success is more elusive.

How long should SEO results take?

The answer, ultimately, is “it depends.” 

But, if that timeline is even less clear, it can lead to lack of confidence in organic search as a reliable growth channel.

Forecasting in SEO is difficult because there are so many factors that can impact both your rankings and the quality of your traffic. 

Here’s a short list of what might influence your time to ranking high in SERPs:

• Existing, competing content that covers the same topic
• The quality of your own content in terms of how helpful and trustworthy it is
• Your on-page, off-page, and technical SEO efforts
• The way you handle content distribution
• Your current domain authority and backlink profile

At Semrush, we conducted a study to try to give an answer to how long it takes to rank on page one.

For 41% of websites, it took about six months to rank in the top 10. However, these positions weren’t always stable. Many of the analyzed sites fell out of the top 10 positions only to reappear later.

So, how do you speed up your own results?

One important strategy is continuously monitoring your site’s SEO performance and making changes to optimize your web pages and content.

Use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to regularly monitor your website health. This will help you uncover on-page and technical issues that could be slowing your growth.

Start by creating your project and setting up your audit in Semrush. From the left-hand navigation menu, click “On Page & Tech SEO” >“Site Audit.”

This will prompt you to configure the tool to run an audit of your site.

You’ll see the “Site Audit Settings” page. Here, you can configure the options for your audit. If you’re unsure, just stick with the default settings.

Once you configure your settings, click the “Start Site Audit” button. The tool will take some time to crawl your pages. You can check the box next to “Send an email every time an audit is complete” to receive an update when it’s finished.

Once the audit is complete, you will be able to access the audit-specific dashboard. It’s full of useful statistics and metrics.

You should first pay attention to the overall “Site Health” score. This rates your overall technical SEO on a scale of zero to 100%.

After viewing that, you can then move to explore the fields labeled “Errors,” “Warnings,” and “Notices.”

These three categories of issues will help you prioritize your fixes. Each one’s score represents the relative severity and impact of the issue uncovered. Fix “Errors” first, then “Warnings”, and then “Notices.”

When you scroll further down the dashboard, you’ll see “Thematic Reports” and “Top Issues.”

The items listed in “Top Issues” are displayed based on their quantity and priority level. By clicking “Why and how to fix it,” you can see why each issue has been included as a priority and how to start addressing it.

The provided information breaks down the problem, explaining what it means and why it’s an issue. There may be links to relevant resources for further reading and guidance, while the “How to fix it” section details the steps you need to take to resolve the issue.

You can also navigate to the top of the dashboard and click on the “Issues” tab to see the full list of identified issues in one place.

You can use Semrush to identify issues ranging from duplicate content (more on that in a bit) and broken links to more complex elements, such as your website not being properly secure because of an SSL/HTTPS configuration problem.

It’s important to note that you’re never fully done with search engine optimization. You need to return to it every so often, make further optimizations, refresh pages and content, and analyze where it’s falling short when new competing content appears.

You can use the Site Audit tool to follow the latest SEO best practices and tackle future SEO challenges before they become serious problems. 

5. Having Too Many SEO Tools 

Marketers can struggle with decentralized information and data discrepancies due to the variety of reports, analyses, and dashboards needed to paint a full picture of SEO health.

Raise your hand if you have multiple tabs open when doing SEO research. 

Now, try to name all the SEO tools that you’re using. 

Is it more than five?

Maybe it’s in the double digits?

If so, take a second to think about the time you might be wasting chasing insights or working within several different platforms.

The easiest way to solve this challenge is to find a single, comprehensive tool. Ideally, it should combine all of the data and insights you need to make informed decisions about your website’s SEO.

Semrush is one example of a tool like that. We designed it to consolidate your workflow and strategizing efforts into a single platform.

When you open your dashboard in Semrush, you can find tools for performing keyword research, conducting site audits, and tracking SEO performance, among other actions. 

This gives you quick access to nearly every type of SEO tool you might need to monitor and improve your site’s performance.

Simplifying your SEO software stack makes it easier and faster to execute common SEO workflows.

For example, you can save time by pulling competitor keyword data directly into a tool designed to help you perform keyword research. Or, eliminate extra steps in your process by selecting target keywords and creating customized content briefs with a single click. 

It’s also helpful to have an integrated view of your site or project’s overall SEO health. This gives you a way to track things like your site’s on-page SEO and individual keyword rankings. 

Having a single comprehensive tool to handle these different tasks can streamline your entire SEO process. Plus, it helps keep your budget lean, instead of spending on several monthly bills for an array of different tools.

6. Keyword Cannibalization and Duplicate Content

A poorly planned SEO strategy can lead to duplicate content being created and issues with keyword cannibalization. 

Together, these problems can seriously hurt your rankings and traffic.

Keyword cannibalization occurs when two or more pages on the same website are competing for the same keyword. 

This can confuse search engines in terms of which page is more appropriate to show in search results. Often, as a result, neither of the pages will rank at all.

Cannibalization can often happen as a result of duplicate content. 

Whether it’s due to poor editorial organization, the same content being published on two separate URLs, or publishing new versions of old content on a new page without removing the outdated version, duplicated content can happen more often than you might think.

Even if you avoid keyword cannibalization, the issue of Google ranking your outdated page over a more recent one is not doing you or your potential readers any favors. 

To avoid cannibalization and duplication issues, you need to have a clear understanding of the content that already exists on your site. 

Be vigilant about analyzing your existing content while planning your new content. Avoid overlap in the topics your site covers.

With the right tools, you can identify these issues when they do occur and quickly fix them.

Try Semrush’s own Cannibalization report inside Position Tracking to identify and fix problems like these.

To get started, click on “Position Tracking” on the left side of your Semrush dashboard.

Then it’s time to set up your project. Type your domain into the text box and click “Set up tracking.”

On the “Targeting” page, select the search engine, device, and location. After that, click “Continue To Keywords.”

In the text box, you can type a target keyword (or keywords) for your website.

Or, click on the “Import from…” button to add keywords from your Google Analytics account. It’s also possible to add them from spreadsheets or even get keyword suggestions directly from Semrush.

Once you’ve set your keywords, click “Add keywords to campaign.”

Then, click “Start Tracking.” 

Your project is now ready. From the “Position Tracking” page, click the “Cannibalization” tab.

This view allows you to understand the number of affected keywords and cannibalized pages.

In the “Cannibalization Health” section, you’ll see two key metrics:

• Affected keywords: Keywords that have more than one page ranking in the top 100
• Cannibal pages: Multiple URLs from the same website that compete for rankings with the same keyword

Under the “Cannibalization" section, you’ll see detailed information about the issues identified. Click the “Keywords” tab to see which specific keywords are affected and the pages that are involved.

You can click on the arrows to expand any result. If you do so, you will open a more detailed view that shows performance over time and ranking changes.

To fix these issues, you may want to delete, combine, or rewrite the pages in question.

Check our keyword cannibalization guide for more information on how best to leverage this type of report.

But, what if the issue you need to address is duplicate content? 

You may be able to identify duplicated content on your site by using Google’s site-specific search operator. Use this to find pages on your own site that contain the same or similar content.

To do this, simply perform a search on Google like so:

site:[yourdomain.com] "[paste first few paragraphs of copy here]”

This search will return any results on your own domain that contains text matching the copy you provide.

But it’s not always as simple as just two pages with the same text. In some cases, duplicate content problems could be triggered by technical SEO or site structure issues.

You'll want to do further analysis to overcome this particular SEO challenge. More precisely, you’ll need to analyze factors like:

• Website content
• Canonical tags
• Meta tags
• Parameter handling
• Duplicate URLs
• Redirects

Read our full guide on duplicate content to learn more about addressing this type of issue.

7. Decaying Content Creates SEO Challenges

Over time, content on your site that used to rank well may sink lower in the search results. 

This is called content decay.

It happens because user expectations and the definition of quality content change over time.

Sometimes this occurs naturally. Other times, it can be the result of a shift in search algorithms that changes how pages rank for specific search terms. 

To address content decay, you'll need to do a comprehensive site audit and define steps for refreshing your content.

You can usually spot decaying content either in Google Analytics 4 or another analytics tool. You’ll want to continually monitor and track the amount of organic traffic flowing to each of your pages across multiple periods. 

Once again, you’ll notice the importance of an integrated strategy. 

In this case, a key part of your content planning process should involve identifying pages that may be experiencing content decay, then updating those pages while avoiding any cannibalization or duplicate content risk.

If the amount of traffic to certain pages appears to be declining over time, then it could be caused by content decay. 

Remember: Some fluctuations in rankings and traffic occur naturally. If the changes occurred recently, they may not require your attention. The page may see its rank improve again without you taking any action.

But, if there’s evidence of a steady and sustained decline, you’ll want to investigate further into why traffic is dropping.

Here are the main things you need to pay attention to:

• Compare your website’s traffic change with market trends to find a benchmark
• Review keywords that once ranked well but have since declined in their positions
• Analyze paid strategies of your competitors to see if their paid positions in SERP “stole” your traffic
• Do an audit of your backlink portfolio
• Analyze the technical health of your website

After you isolate the primary reason you’re losing traffic, you can rework your content. 

Here are the common approaches to addressing content decay:

8. Limited Resources 

SEO success can be difficult to achieve without the proper resources. 

While this issue isn’t entirely new on its own, it’s magnified by the other obstacles we’ve discussed on this list.

By its nature, SEO requires patience. But, key decision makers might not be willing to wait too long. They might not even be willing to invest much in SEO since the return on investment isn’t clear.

Why hire writers if you can use generative AI?

Why invest in a long-term strategy if SEO results are slow to be realized?

Why commit to organic growth when ranking factors seem to be constantly in flux? 

According to a survey by SEJ, 14.9% of respondents said that their biggest challenge is a lack of resources.

Indeed, SEO can feel uncertain. As we mentioned earlier when discussing slow results as an SEO challenge, it’s difficult to project exact results that will come out of your efforts. 

As a marketer, you face a catch-22 here. You can’t prove that SEO works without investing in it, but you can’t get managers’ buy-in without some results to point to. 

The best marketers can do is make data-driven suggestions and highlight each victory they achieve, even if it’s small. 

Over time, this can lead to greater executive buy-in and further (or enhanced) investment in SEO.

More often than not, you are forced to wear multiple hats and be resourceful. Instead of lamenting an inability to launch elaborate content campaigns, focus on what moves the needle the most and double down on that.

Use whatever resources you have available to craft an effective, right-sized SEO strategy. It might start by targeting a single search query and working to demonstrate progress. 

Align every tactic with defined business goals. 

Then execute, measure, and share the results.

If you need help convincing your manager that SEO pays off, feel free to explore our resources on calculating the ROI of SEO investment.

The most important thing is to notch some incremental wins to build a case for continued investment. 

This can be a grind. It’s a cyclical process. But, when done correctly, you’ll climb the ladder one rung at a time, proving the value of your work at each stage. 

Ultimately, repeating the process is the secret to bigger, longer-term success. Scoring small wins builds consensus and trust for your entire SEO strategy.

FAQs About SEO Challenges

1. How can I overcome keyword ranking fluctuations in SEO?

To manage keyword ranking fluctuations, you need to focus on creating high-quality, relevant content that’s optimized for search and readers. It’s important to regularly track rankings, monitor keyword performance, and build a diverse backlink profile.

2. How long does it take to see results from SEO efforts?

It is challenging to precisely forecast how long it will take to notice your SEO efforts are paying off. Semrush did some research to try and answer this question.

Around 41% of domains included in research were ranking in the top 10 positions after six months. However, these positions weren’t always stable. Many of the sites analyzed fell out of the top 10 positions only to reappear again later.

3. What should I do if my website's SEO rankings suddenly drop?

If you notice you’re losing ground in search rankings all of a sudden, check if there’s been a recent Google algorithm update. Then, analyze the affected content to see how you can improve its quality.

If there haven’t been any algorithm updates, you’ll need to analyze the SERPs for the keywords in question. Check if there’s new content covering the same topic that’s now competing with yours. Conduct competitor analysis to figure out what makes their content rank higher.

You can use Semrush’s Position Tracking to monitor your rankings. This tool has features like tagging, sorting, filtering, and exporting reports, making it easy for marketers to find exactly what they’re looking for in their website’s SEO or PPC performance.