It’s a great accomplishment when you reach the first page of Google. You probably have an influx of clients and a boost in revenue. All those blogs, white papers, website links, and digital marketing efforts are finally paying off. You’re successful enough that you don’t have time, or perhaps the will, to market yourself. After all you’re a success so that means you can take your foot off the pedal, right?
WRONG!
You may be tempted to put SEO on the backburner or cut costs, you think your competition is going to do the same? Not likely. Keeping the momentum going is more important than ever, especially if you’ve worked so hard to climb the Google ranking. Here are some good reasons why you should keep the SEO momentum going:
IT’S TOUGHER TO START AGAIN
You remember when you first started riding a bike? You were wobbly and shaky until you started to pick up momentum and then suddenly it was easier to balance and steer. SEO is kind of like that. It’s a lot harder to start over again than to coast. Maybe you don’t need to try so hard to rank on certain keywords but it you stop altogether than it’s like falling off the bike. You’re back at square one.
Google keeps constant tabs on you when you’re constantly updating your website, blogging often, and creating great content. But when you stop SEO, Google stops coming around to your site often and even if you start all those SEO tasks again Google is slow to visit you because it’s not used to your updates.
YOUR WEBSITE’S TRAFFIC WILL DECLINE
AS we mentioned, SEO takes time to build up and requires a great content strategy and execution to maintain a great raking on Google. While stopping all search engine optimization efforts won’t make your phones stop ringing – at least at first, it is inevitable your rankings will decline. Google will see your sight as less valuable and you won’t be as searchable and your conversions will decrease.
Though the decision is momentous and seemingly temporary, the impact it has on your rankings is longer-term than desired. It takes time to build your rank on search pages and it must be an ongoing practice to keep your content and backlinks fresh, and maintain a competitive edge within the marketplace. You must keep your site from becoming stale in order to maintain a credible business in the eyes of search engines.
YOU LOSE VALUABLE INSIGHTS ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS
If you stop SEO then you lose valuable insight on what your customers are doing and how they behave on line. Their interests, behavior patterns, and how they use your site are derived from analytical reports developed by your SEO team. If you don’t have that information, it because very difficult to make future predictions about your business.
Here’s how you can use this information to support your overall business goals:
Find patterns in users’ engagement to create content they truly care about Identify opportunities for improving your website’s structure based on bounce rate, conversion paths, and more Identify business gaps and validate the need for new service or product offerings Define new campaigns and offerings based on interests
GOOGLE CHANGES IT’S CRITERIA, SO SHOULD YOU
There are almost 4 billion search requests each day made on the biggest search engine – the only one that really matters because let’s be honest, nobody cares about Yahoo or Bing anymore. Because Google processes so many requests a great user experience is mandatory and so they constantly evolve to make their user experience better.
As they change their search criteria, what you used to do – keyword stuffing, tons of useless backlinks for example – no longer work. You have to remember Google’s job isn’t to get you to rank higher on its search engine but, it’s customers are all those people using it to search for information. Those are the people Google caters to and wants to keep happy. You have to ensure your SEO goals align with Google’s –keeping your customers (And Google’s) happy.
THE COMPETITION WON’T STOP
Perhaps with your first place Google ranking you’re in a position to turn business away, but maybe your competitors are willing to hire more people or come up with alternate solutions to maintain their momentum. We had previously discussed how Google rewards high-quality, fresh content – and if you stop nurturing your content creation, it’s only a matter of time before your competitors begin capturing traffic and potential customers that were once yours.
Conclusion
If you need some help determining the best SEO strategy for your business, talk to one of our strategists at PLUR. We’ll guide you through the difficultly help you define the best course of action going forward and create a plan that is sustainable and effective.