Can you take a break from SEO?

February 28, 2020

SEO is a necessary tool for small businesses because it determines how visible you are to potential clients. Some businesses might see some success after a while and think that they can ease up on the work they are putting in but that’s really not a good idea.

What happens when you stop SEO

Content suffers

 
Stopping SEO doesn’t mean you just stop checking rankings, it means you’re slaking on your content production too. Without a constant stream of fresh content for your website web browsers become less interested in your website. They are looking for site that are able to provide value to their customers, while you might still appear in search results it will be a lot lower now. Even long time customers may stop visiting your site now that there is no new information for them.

You lose track of keywords

 
Targeting the latest key words for your business is one of the best ways to ensure that you are always popping up in relevant searches. If you take a break from SEO then you are falling behind on the new words and potentially losing a lot of business. Trends are always changing and evolving, so if you aren’t keeping up to date you’re already behind your competitors.

Your audience and conversions drop

 
With less traffic to your website you’re losing out on potential sales and marketing opportunities. People visit a website for information and products, if your website is lacking in either then you will be seeing the results. Higher bounce rates, less time spent browsing your website, these are all things that can affect how your business is performing.

Basically all of this means that no, you can’t take a break from SEO. Taking a break after you’ve already started seeing results will just end up killing the momentum you built up. All of that hard work you put in to getting your website to rank better and show up more frequently in local/relevant searches going down the drain.

It’s kind of like deciding to stop taking your medication because you started seeing good results and are feeling better, that feeling is coming from the medication. So once you stop taking it, everything goes right back to how it was before you started.

Websites are hard work, they require maintenance and constant care. So does cultivating a good online presence with search engines and browsers. You can’t leave a website and expect it to do well just because it looks nice, you need to provide regular content and maintenance too.

Making sure you are keeping an eye out for errors that may pop up and make going through your website unpleasant for visitors. Monitoring page speeds, and Google rankings to see where you need to improve. And interlinking within your website to relevant articles and pages in order to impress Google, and help your visitors find relevant topics they may be interested in.

SEO is a great asset for any business, it can help your business grow to new heights. But it’s not something you can get complacent with, just like cyber security you need to keep working at it in order to be effective.