Now is NOT the Time to Ease Off Your SEO!

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

One of the worst mistakes a site owner can make with their SEO is to assume that once they reach the top of the SERPs then it’s time to call it a day and wind down their SEO campaign. That’s like a NASCAR driver taking their foot of the gas and just cruising in on the last five laps—the competition is going to catch up a lot quicker than you think! If your site is positioned well in the SERP, now is the time to pounce! Never take a shortsighted approach to your SEO and assume it’s done. There is always new opportunities to take advantage of and help grow your online brand.

Don’t look at SEO as a line item in the budget.

Many companies (or at least some members of the management team) just see SEO as another line on their budget. They may think to themselves, “We achieved our objectives, why keep paying? It’s done and done, right?” Unfortunately that’s not how SEO works. For many businesses, whether they realize it or not, SEO is the lifeblood of their online marketing that generates most of their new business. Can your company afford to fall in the SERP? How much traffic would your website lose if your site dropped from the #1 spot to the #5 spot? How many new customers would your site fail to convert?

Companies that are ranked well in the search engines have to realize there is a big, red bull’s-eye painted on their back and the competition is determined to unseat you. Just like you were determined to reach the top of the SERP and reap the benefits of ranking #1, so are they. The only thing in their way is your website. If you stop your SEO campaign and they don’t, how long before their efforts start to overshadow yours?

If your site is positioned well, instead of trimming down your SEO budget, why not repurpose it? Can you pay your SEO provider or hire a freelance SEO copywriter to write more content for your blog and article marketing campaign? Can you devote more of your budget to enhancing your social media presence? Are there extra industry conferences you could sponsor? Rework the existing budget and find new ways to build your online brand?

Now is the time to really ramp up your content marketing and help further cement your website in the top of the SERP. The more content you publish the more inbound links you create, while simultaneously establishing more touch points to engage your target audience with. Since content feeds your social media marketing campaigns, publishing more content also gives your social networks more opportunities to share the content, building your overall social presence and developing social signals that can positively impact your SEO.

Remember—SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Once you accomplish all your online goals, you still have to work to hold onto them.