Can I Stop Doing SEO Now That I Have Good Rankings?
Assume your company has invested in SEO marketing by hiring a professional SEO (search engine optimization) agency and delegating certain strategies to employees. When you first start providing these services, your goal is to rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for the products or services that you provide.
After a few months of working with an SEO agency and implementing your in-house strategies consistently, your website will be listed at the top of the SERPs for your targeted keywords. After achieving this rise in the rankings, it is natural to wonder, "Can I discontinue my SEO services and maintain my ranking?”
Many people believe that once they reach the top of the search engine rankings, their work is done and their website will remain near the top for their primary keywords. However, the internet is far too competitive a market to believe this. Effective SEO marketing entails a number of strategies that all work together to achieve not only good rankings but also to increase conversion rates by driving more traffic to your website from your target audience. When the processes at work are halted, your website will gradually drop in the rankings as competitors with active SEO campaigns take your place. To stay ahead of the competition, SEO requires ongoing maintenance; SEO is not a one-time event.
The following are key reasons why you should continue working with a digital marketing agency even after you have achieved good rankings. If you want to work with a professional who offers SEO services, contact our digital marketing experts at BizzDesign.
Stay Ahead of the Competition
Because anyone with an internet connection can advertise their business online, competition for search engine rankings is intense. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that websites that appear near the top of the first SERP (search engine results page) receive a much higher click-through rate (CTR). Depending on your industry, you may be competing with hundreds or even thousands of other websites for the same keywords. If you reach the top of the rankings and then abandon the strategies that got you there, your competitors will quickly take over and push your website lower and lower.
Keep Up With Changing Algorithms
Google is the most popular search engine in the world, and some people may eventually figure out how to exploit its algorithm to achieve high rankings. As a result, Google updates its algorithm on a regular basis to alter how it crawls and ranks websites. It is critical to keep up with Google algorithm changes because an SEO strategy that was once effective may become ineffective after an update or, worse, be subject to Google penalization.
You must modify your SEO marketing strategies in response to each Google algorithm update, or your rankings may suffer as a result of the new algorithm. An SEO agency's professionals are always up to date on the latest Google updates and can assist you in fine-tuning your SEO marketing for better results.
Don't Pass Up Opportunities
The great thing about staying active in your SEO efforts is that you will always find opportunities to improve your rankings and increase your traffic and leads. If you reduce your SEO efforts, you risk missing out on the following opportunities that can benefit your website:
Additional rankings: Every time you add a new page to your website, you're giving it another chance to rank. Increasing the number of pages on your site that rank for different keywords will increase traffic (website visitors) and leads.
Earning links: Having links to your website on other websites helps your rankings because it shows Google that other people trust your website enough to link to it. If you do not keep updating your website with new content, you will miss out on new link opportunities.
Returning visitors: Getting traffic (website visitors) to your website is great, but getting visitors to return is even better. Visitors to your website, on the other hand, will have little reason to return if it is never updated with new content.
SEO-friendly website updates: Your website will inevitably need to be updated at some point in order to improve its functionality or to add a new page. When making these changes, keep SEO in mind so that the changes you make can help with the rankings.
Create New Content
There is a saying in the SEO industry that “Content is King” as it takes fresh, useful, and engaging content to keep your audience or customer base coming back to your website. People consume content online at an incredible rate, particularly on mobile devices, and if you stop providing new content, you will lose audience appeal as your old content becomes stale or irrelevant. Google is also more generous to websites that regularly publish new content.
The creation of content should be at the heart of your SEO marketing strategy. If your company does not have the time or resources to create content in-house, an SEO agency can help.
SEO Marketing Needs Maintainance
According to a Search Engine Roundtable ranking study conducted in 2012, ceasing all SEO marketing activity after reaching the top of the rankings can result in a 30% drop in rankings. This same study found that companies that continue their SEO marketing after achieving good rankings see an increase of up to 18% in their rankings.
This is still true today, as ceasing SEO activities will result in a drop in links from other websites, which may lead Google to conclude that your website is no longer active or relevant. When this occurs, Google will begin to favour other websites over yours, allowing them to take over the top rankings and push yours down.
Risks Should Not Be Ignored
There are always potential issues with your SEO campaign that can cause your rankings and traffic to fall. If these risks are ignored, a drop in traffic can result in fewer leads and sales.
The following are some SEO risks you should be aware of:
Technical SEO issues: Broken links and errors degrade the user experience of your website and should be addressed immediately.
Harmful links: Link building is beneficial when trusted websites link to your site, but having too many spam or low-quality backlinks can be detrimental because Google may assume your website is also low-quality or spammy. Check your backlink profile on a regular basis and disavow any bad links.
Keep Up With Changes in Your Company
Companies frequently undergo internal or external changes such as new ways of doing business, new products or services, or rebranding. When you make a significant change to your business, you must update your SEO marketing campaign to reflect the change. Rebranding and new products or services are excellent sources of new content that will both engage your current audience and attract new potential customers.
Keep Up With Changes in User Search Behaviour
User behaviour trends change over time, and if your SEO strategies do not adapt to these changes, you will lose rankings and internet traffic. The increase in the use of mobile devices mentioned above is one major change in user behaviour that has a direct impact on search rankings and traffic to your website. Another change in user behaviour to be aware of is the use of keywords. The keywords used to search for a specific product or service may change over time, and if you are targeting keywords that are no longer used, you will not rank well for the new keywords.
Continuous keyword research is a critical component of SEO maintenance.
Monitor Changes in User Behavior on Your Website
Users can access your website through a variety of channels, and once there, they each use it in a unique way. Web analytics data allows you to see what your visitors are doing on your website, as well as how they got there and what keywords they used to get there. All of this data can help you improve your overall SEO marketing strategy. Knowing what your website's most frequent visitors do can help you improve what works and identify what doesn't in order to provide a better user experience.
For many businesses, analyzing website analytics can be difficult and time-consuming, but the information it provides is critical for good SEO marketing. SEO agencies can provide web analytics consulting and suggest or make changes to your SEO strategy based on the data.
Over Time, Establish Authority in Your Niche
One of the ultimate goals of SEO marketing is to position your business as an industry authority in your specific niche. As it takes time to establish your authority, you must create consistent content that is relevant and timely for your target audience. You will not be able to establish your company as an authority in your niche if you discontinue your SEO marketing strategies and do not create new content for your specific audience.
Protect Your Online Reputation
Some things on the internet are beyond your control, such as negative user comments and reviews, which can harm your online reputation if ignored.
Your online reputation is comprised of your company's online presence and rankings, as well as user reviews and comments about your business. Maintaining a positive online reputation is critical because most consumers read online reviews before making a decision, and your online reputation will have a significant impact on the impression that users have of your business. Maintaining a good online reputation necessitates consistent activity to respond to comments and reviews, both positive and negative, or your online reputation and search engine rankings will suffer.
BizzDesign Provides Ongoing SEO Services
Just because you have achieved your desired position in Google's SERPs does not mean your work is finished. Your SEO marketing strategy should be implemented and adjusted on a regular basis in order to maintain a high ranking in the SERPs, which will help increase your conversion rate and ROI. When you stop all SEO activity after you have climbed the rankings, your rankings and traffic will fall because you will have nothing new to offer your audience and no idea how your targeted audience behaves on your website to improve their experience. An SEO agency can not only improve your rankings in Google's SERPs but also implement a continuous SEO marketing plan to keep them there.
Contact BizzDesign if your company could benefit from the services of an SEO firm. We offer a full range of SEO services and work with each client individually to develop a customized SEO marketing plan to help achieve and maintain good SEO rankings. Call us on 04 0980 1950 for more information about our services.