When a business reaches the first page of Google, they assume their SEO efforts are over. But what happens then? Can you save money by halting it? There is an unfortunate misconception that SEO is a one-time expense, and that you’ll continue to rank well long after you achieve what you set out to do. This is not the case at all.
It’s important to note that stopping SEO is different from stopping any other marketing effort. Stopping SEO has implications from your revenue to your website. Here’s what happens when you stop SEO:
The focus of SEO isn’t just on helping you get higher rankings in search engines. A good SEO company will also monitor your site for problems that may impact search engine ranking. Without an SEO agency monitoring and watching out for things breaking on your website, technical issues can quickly mount. If you’re unfamiliar with how websites work, then you probably don’t know that things occasionally can break without reason. Over time, the effects of these problems eventually affect the functionality of your website and can end up costing you a great deal.
If you stop SEO services, you may also lose out on developments like mobile responsiveness, page speed, and user experience – all of which have an effect on your website ranking and are treated by your SEO company.
A constant effort is required for SEO. You can compare it to going to the gym. In the beginning, seeing results will take a while, but you’ll soon start seeing improvements. However, if you take a long break from work, you will gradually revert to your old habits, perhaps even worse than before. After you’ve stopped SEO, your website’s rankings and traffic are hard to regain, just as if you stopped going to the gym for a long time. By restarting, you’ll essentially be starting from scratch. You will lose all the time, money, and effort that you spent on SEO before you stopped it.
It may seem like no longer investing in SEO is going to reduce your monthly expenses, but you’re only wasting all that money and all the initial investment you made.
Does stopping SEO make sense? Definitely not. If you want your business to be found online, SEO is a necessity. Your business strategy should include it as a crucial element, not just an optional part. Unless you treat SEO as part of a long-term, consistent effort, you won’t reap the benefits. Our success as local Calgary businesses has helped dozens of Calgary businesses succeed online. If you’re considering quitting SEO or you’re unhappy with your current agency, we can help.