SEO is one of the most important aspects of growing your business online, and it is a process that is constantly evolving. The initial goal of an SEO campaign is to improve the visibility of a website on search engine results pages by targeting the first page of results for specific keywords.
So once you achieve that goal, can you simply stop your SEO services and enjoy the benefits? Definitely not.
There is this common misconception that once you start SEO, you can ramp it down or even stop it altogether, and your rankings will stay the same. But unfortunately, that is not how it works.
The job of SEO is not done once a website is listed on the first page of the result. There are several negative repercussions of stopping an active SEO campaign. First, to maintain your position in SERPs, you must keep up with the latest trends and changes in the SEO world. This means being patient and sticking with a regular long-term plan and budget for your SEO services.
How Stopping Your SEO Services Can Affect Your Business
SEO is all about building trust and credibility with search engines. It takes time to go up to the speed where you will see all your efforts in the form of better rankings and increased organic traffic. However, just like any moving vehicle, if you push the brake, it will not just stop but gradually come to a halt.
The same is the case with SEO, if you suddenly decide to stop your SEO activities, your website will not immediately lose all its rankings, but it will start slipping down gradually. And eventually, your competitors continuing with their SEO efforts will start moving up and outrank you.
When you decide to take a leap and halt your SEO services, you can expect to get hit with the following consequences:
We are all aware that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing; to maintain your rankings, you will have to keep up with the changes and update your website according to the latest trends. Suppose you stop your SEO activities and do not make any changes to your website. In that case, your website will gradually become outdated, leading to a loss of ranking and visibility in SERPs.
Your organic traffic will start to decline
Organic traffic is the lifeblood of any website, and businesses rely heavily on it to convert leads into customers. Therefore, if you stop your SEO activities, you will rapidly see a decline in traffic.
You will see no leads or conversions
Once the traffic stops, the leads and conversions will also come to a halt. This will directly impact your bottom line and adversely affect your business. So why stop something that is working wonders for your business?
Your competitors will outrank you
If you stop and your competitors don’t, it is only a matter of time before they start outranking you in SERPs. A big blow to your business and reputation.
In the section below, we will discuss what causes the above consequences to happen and how you can avoid them.
When You Stop Posting Fresh Content
Content creation is the first activity that is hit when you ditch your SEO services. Search engines love fresh content, which is one of the main ranking factors. Choosing not to create new content or update existing content will gradually decline rankings. The users will have no reason to visit your website as there will be nothing new for them to see. And Google crawlers will have nothing further to index.
This obviously will benefit your competitors, who will continue to be active and post fresh content on their websites to capture the traffic you are losing.
A consistent SEO plan considers the need for new and fresh content on a website. This is why a professional SEO company in Corpus Christi will always have a content creation calendar to ensure that new content is regularly created and published.
When You Stop Building Links
Link building is an important ranking factor and helps in boosting your website’s authority. When you decide to quit your SEO services, you will also stop building links that tell the search engines that your website is a reliable and trustworthy source of information.
Once these link-building activities are ceased, your website will slowly lose its authority and rankings. Even the new content you generate for your website will not be picked up by anyone as no links point to it. Just like you won’t buy a product from an unknown brand or without reading reviews, search engines will not index your content without links.
Other than that, if you are not keeping a watch on the bad links pointing to your website, your website will also suffer a Google penalty. Therefore, monitoring bad links and disavowing them using Google Search Console is integral to the SEO process.
So if you think you can get by without SEO services, the link-building factor alone should be enough to change your mind.
When You Stop Tracking Your Competitors
If you stop monitoring your competitors, they will soon start to outrank you. It is thus crucial to keep an eye on what they are doing so that you can beat them at their own game. With the help of tools like Google Alerts and mentions, you can track when someone mentions your competitor or their brand name online. That will allow you to swoop in and try to convert that customer.
You can also use competitor analysis tools like Moz and SEMrush to track their SEO activities. That will give you insights into what keywords they are targeting, what backlinks they are building, and much more. You can then replicate their strategies and do better than them to outrank them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your competitors also monitor you. So if you suddenly stop all your SEO activities, they will know that you have given up on it and might try to take advantage of the situation.
When You Stop Fixing Technical Errors
Your website is like a house; it must be well-built and maintained adequately. However, it will start to fall apart when it no longer gets the love and attention it needs. The same is true for your website. If you stop fixing-
- Broken links
- Redirecting the 404 pages
- Site speed issues
- CMS errors
- Security vulnerabilities
- Google algorithm changes
- And other technical errors
Stopping your SEO services means you no longer have your finger on the pulse of your website. Your website will never stay up to date for long, and you will not be able to fix these errors on time. Things will continue going downhill as Google ranks your website even lower, users will get frustrated and leave, and in some cases, you may even get penalized.
Do not let this happen to your business; instead, continue working with reliable SEO services in Corpus Christi that helps you fix these errors as they come up.
Why You Should Avoid Stopping Your SEO Services
You may think that stopping SEO services saves your hard-earned money. But the reality is that you lose a lot more than you save. On the other hand, an SEO campaign can potentially increase your revenue by leaps and bounds. And even a small SEO campaign is better than no campaign at all.
The moment you walk away from your SEO campaign is the moment your competitor starts to steal your thunder. You may think you can come back and start from where you left off, but it will be much more complicated than starting afresh.
Do you really want to take that risk?
We may give you many reasons why you should never stop your SEO. But the bottom line is that it is your decision. Whether you do not see the results you wish for or are tired of the entire process, it is vital to understand the implications of your decision. Only then can you make an informed decision that is best for your business.
YellowFin Digital is a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO. We have helped countless businesses achieve their online goals, and we can do the same for you.
If you are looking for an agency to help you with your SEO campaign or are unhappy with your current SEO agency, contact us to see how we can help you achieve your online marketing goals.
