Have you been utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services that brought you first place rankings on Google?  If so, maybe you’ve started to wonder, “Now what?” or “Do I still need my SEO service?”

For a lot of small business owners or executives, it’s common to question the on-going cost of SEO, especially if it’s already helped you achieve your desired results.  As with any service or expense, it’s essential to stay educated on the value you’re getting from SEO work over time because there are several factors to take into consideration. Here are just a few:

Competition –

It is important to assess your competition and consider what would happen if you were to discontinue your SEO services.  In most cases, the old saying is true: Competition never sleeps. Competitors may slowly raise in rankings while your position may regress if your SEO services are not maintained. Using SEO services to keep up with the continuous increase of online competition can prove to be very advantageous for maintaining your company’s revenue. Tweet This

Search Algorithm Updates –

Search engine algorithms are continually evolving in an effort to provide users with the best user experience.  Algorithm updates can affect your website rankings and may potentially cause adverse penalties depending upon how your website is categorized and optimized.  Having a well-defined SEO company that stays current with industry trends can help your website maintain its position, even amidst changes and updates.

Fresh Content –

According to the latest updates to Google’s algorithm, there has been an increased importance placed on current, relevant content. Google and other search engines consider the freshness of your website’s content as an important ranking factor.  The absence of that fresh content can result in a drop in rankings, or your website could be deemed less relevant in comparison to those producing more content.

one does not simply stop doing seoHaving a reputable SEO company maintain the consistent addition of new and helpful links, content, blogs, articles and more to your site enables you to maintain (and sometimes even raise) your rankings. Tweet This

SEO is Essential

It boils down to this: the longer that you stay on the top of search engine results, the more credibility and influence you will gain online.  From there, you can build upon this success and your new keyword phrases will begin to rank faster.  Considering all of that, SEO is no longer just an expense—it’s a crucial piece of your overall marketing strategy.

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13 Comments

  • Andrew Williams, March 30, 2015 @ 11:45 am

    Good point Jesse, SEO is a vital part of any marketing campaign. Without SEO websites would not come up on the first page of search results and be found by their potential customers. SEO is all about showing Google you deserve to be on the top of the first page by having the content to support the keywords, question, or topic you want to be found for.

  • Becca Watters (Vaughn), March 30, 2015 @ 12:14 pm

    Yes! Great post, Jessi! Someone recently gave this analogy in one of our meetings that I just LOVE so much! “Stopping SEO once you reach the top is like harvesting one crop of corn, and closing your farm.” One success does not mean it will last, and does not mean you have maximized on your opportunities!

  • Jeremy Lindstrom, March 31, 2015 @ 8:25 am

    In the words of Steven Tyler, “SEO is a journey, not a destination.” Or something like that…

  • Lindsey Potter, March 31, 2015 @ 11:47 am

    I like to think of continued SEO like I think of continued exercise. If you train incredibly hard for six months to compete in an NPC competition and you win your category, you must continue to exercise to maintain your figure. Likewise, if you reach a top search result in Google you must continue SEO in order to maintain the ranking. Otherwise all progress will slowly be lost.

  • Jamison Michael Furr, March 31, 2015 @ 1:26 pm

    I think that’s what it all really boils down too. At the end of the day, Google wants to provide value to it’s users by giving the most quality results, and you are not deserving of being the most quality result if you aren’t providing fresh quality content, but instead are being lazy because you hit the top.

  • Sean R Parker, March 31, 2015 @ 4:21 pm

    In some cases you could probably scale back your budget since SEO work can be front loaded (set up place listings, analytics, and site infrastructure), but why? Put the extra budget towards some killer content campaigns and you won’t be sorry about the increased traffic such strategies could yield.

  • Maria Williams, April 2, 2015 @ 1:17 pm

    This is great article Jessi. I think is sad when client’s think that because they are on the first page, that they should stop their SEO. The competitor are always there, so we should’t stop SEO.

  • Jessi Losee, April 2, 2015 @ 3:38 pm

    I agree! This is a very common misconception that we hear too often.

  • Jessi Losee, April 2, 2015 @ 3:40 pm

    Haha exactly, SEO is a crucial piece to any successful marketing strategy and is essential to maintain for continued performance.

  • Jessi Losee, April 2, 2015 @ 3:43 pm

    Great analogy! You are exactly right, it does not make sense to discontinue one marketing strategy as you see success, it must be maintained in order to keep the results.

  • M Andrew Eagar, April 3, 2015 @ 9:44 am

    Excellent pst Jessi! There is an art to getting a website to first rank on Page 1 of Google, and as you clearly pointed out, there is an art to maintaining that ranking as well.

  • janice wald, April 3, 2015 @ 10:56 am

    Hi! I find my blog posts are on Page 1 of Google but I have never received more than 11 referrers from Google in a day. Please advise. Thanks Janice
    PS I use Google Adwords Keyword Planner and long tailed stems.

  • Jamison Michael Furr, April 3, 2015 @ 11:37 am

    Janice, are you tracking getting that information via Google Analytics? Depending on how you have that set up, it could be that people people who click on your blog organically, and then go to your site would still just be organic traffic as opposed to referral traffic.

    If you do really have a lot of traffic to the blogs, but a small amount of that coming back to your site, I would look into how many CTAs/links back to your website you have on your blog posts and how well they are positioned. You could also dig into what the user behavior is like on your blog via Google Analytics to see how people are consuming and moving through the blog.

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