Most people think that once they start a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign, they can just sit back and let the traffic and leads come flooding in. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Once you stop doing SEO, your visibility on search engines will decrease, and you’ll eventually lose the traffic you’re getting.
It’s a commonly asked question – how long does it take to see results from SEO? The answer is that it can take at least three to six months to see any actual performance from a well-strategized campaign. This is because there are a lot of moving parts to set it all up and build credibility on search engines like Google.
Many businesses start questioning their decision to do SEO when they don’t see results immediately. They believe that the ranking and traffic spikes aren’t enough for the amount of work already put in. However, quitting prematurely is one of the worst things you can do for your business. The best is yet to come if you stick with it.
What Happens If You Stop Doing SEO
When you stop doing SEO, your website will eventually lose the rankings it worked so hard to build up. This is because Google and other search engines are constantly changing their algorithms. If you’re not keeping up with the changes and ensuring your website meets the new standards, it will eventually fall behind and lose its rankings.
Noticeable Decline In Your Keyword Rankings And Site Traffic
One of the first things you’ll notice is a decline in your keyword rankings and site traffic. Of course, this doesn’t start happening immediately after you stop doing SEO. It can take weeks or even months to feel the full effect. However, your website will no longer appear as high up in the search results.
Your website’s traffic will also start to drop off. This is because you’re no longer getting as many organic clicks from the search results. As your rankings decline, you’ll get less and less traffic from Google and other search engines.
The decline in traffic can be gradual at first. But if you don’t start doing SEO again, it will eventually become significant. You may even start to see a decline in leads and sales if your website relies heavily on organic traffic.
Why Do You Start Losing Rankings When You Stop SEO?
It is because Google crawls websites constantly to update their search results. If your website isn’t crawled and updated, it will eventually lose its rankings. This is because Google will assume that your website is no longer active and isn’t worth displaying as high up in the search results.
Here are a few reasons why stopping your SEO campaign can lead to a loss in rankings and traffic:
Lack of New, Relevant Content
Content is king when it comes to SEO. If you’re not regularly publishing new, relevant content, then Google will assume that your website is no longer active. One of the main signals that Google looks at when determining rankings is freshness.
When you stop doing SEO, you’re no longer adding new content to your website. Your website will gradually become less relevant and lose its rankings.
You should aim to publish new content at least once a week to keep your website fresh in Google’s eyes. This can be in the form of blog posts, articles, infographics, or even videos. As long as it’s relevant and high-quality, Google will reward you with better rankings.
The Competition Takes Over
Another reason why stopping your SEO campaign can be detrimental is that it gives your competition a chance to take over. If you’re not actively working on your SEO, your competitor will eventually overtake your rankings.
This is because they’re still actively working on their SEO and are constantly improving their rankings. Meanwhile, you’re not doing anything to improve your rankings.
It’s important to keep up with your competition and ensure you’re always one step ahead. If you stop doing SEO, they will eventually catch up to you and overtake you in the rankings.
Updates to the Google Algorithm
As we mentioned earlier, Google is constantly changing its algorithms. These changes can greatly impact your rankings, both positive and negative.
If you’re not keeping up with the changes, then you’re at risk of being negatively affected by them. For example, if there’s a change that penalizes websites for a certain practice that you’re using, then your rankings will suffer.
On the other hand, if there’s a change that rewards websites for a certain practice that you’re using, then your rankings will improve.
Either way, it’s important to keep up with the changes and make sure you’re always using the best SEO practices.
Marketing Versus Design & Development
Web design and development are important, but they should never take precedence over marketing. Unfortunately, this is a common mistake that many businesses make.
They focus all their attention on the design and development of their website while completely ignoring their marketing. As a result, their website looks great, but no one ever sees it because they’re not ranking in the search results.
If you want your website to be successful, you need to focus on both the design and development and the marketing. You can’t just hope that people will find your website; you must actively work on getting it in front of them.
SEO is one of the most important marketing channels for any website. If you’re not doing SEO, you’re missing out on many potential traffic and customers.
What Happens When You Stop Posting New Content?
One of the most common reasons why people stop doing SEO is because they do not see results. They create a few blog posts or articles and don’t see any immediate increase in traffic, so they give up.
The problem with this is that it takes time for your content to start ranking. When you publish a piece of content, it will not magically appear at the top of the search results. It can take weeks or even months for it to start ranking.
Moreover, your rankings will continue to improve the more you publish. The more high-quality content you have, the better your chances of ranking in the search results.
If you stop publishing new content, your rankings will eventually start to decline. This is because Google will see that your website is no longer being updated and will start to rank other websites above you.
To avoid this, you need to make sure you’re consistently publishing new content. Even if you do not see results immediately, don’t give up. The more patient you are, the better your chances of success.
What Happens When You Stop Building New Links For SEO?
When you decide to quit your SEO efforts, you’ll also stop building links that tell Google your website is a credible, reliable source. Once these links start deteriorating, the search engines will no longer see you as trustworthy, and your rankings will suffer.
To put it into perspective, would you rather buy from a website with no links or reviews or one with plenty of them? The answer is obvious.
The same goes for Google. The more links and reviews your website has, the more credible it will appear to the search engine.
If you stop building new links, your website will slowly become less and less credible in the eyes of Google. As a result, your rankings will decline, and you’ll eventually disappear from the search results altogether.
To avoid this, you must consistently build new quality links. Even if it’s just a few links per week, it’s better than nothing. The more links you have, the better your chances of ranking in the search results.
What Happens When You Don’t Lookout For Technical Issues?
One of the most important aspects of SEO is making sure your website is technically sound. This means ensuring that your website is easy to crawl and index, has no broken links, and loads quickly.
When you stop doing SEO, you also stop looking out for technical issues that could hold your website back. Over time, these technical issues will start to add up and eventually negatively impact your rankings.
Google is constantly changing its algorithms, and what may have worked a few years ago may not work today. In addition, there are continuous upgrades in cybersecurity threats, site speed issues, and CMS updates, meaning your site will never stay up-to-date for long if you stop doing SEO.
To avoid this, you need to make sure you’re constantly monitoring your website for technical issues. Even if you’re not seeing any immediate impact on your rankings, these technical issues could be holding your website back from reaching its full potential.
What Happens When You Stop Refreshing Pages?
Refreshing a page is when you make changes to the existing content on a page to improve its ranking in the search results. This can be anything from adding new FAQs to updating facts and figures.
The most important thing to look for when refreshing a page is whether or not it matches search intent and if the page in question is better than the competition.
If you stop refreshing pages, then your website will start losing relevancy. Google will see this as a negative signal, and your rankings will suffer.
To avoid this, you need to make sure you’re constantly refreshing your pages. It might take some time to see results, but it’s worth it in the long run.
What Happens When You Stop Building New Pages?
When you stop building new pages, you’re essentially telling Google that your website is no longer being updated. This is a huge red flag for the search engine, and it will take your website out of the running for any new keywords or terms.
If you’re not adding new pages, then you’re not adding new content, which means your website will slowly start to lose relevancy. In addition, if you have any existing pages ranking for keywords, they will eventually lose ground to your competition.
You need to make sure you’re constantly adding new pages to your website. The more pages you have, the better your chances of ranking for new keywords and terms. In addition, if you have existing pages that are ranking well, adding new pages will help to solidify your position in the search results.
Building new pages can be a lot of work, but it’s necessary to maintain a strong SEO presence.
What Happens When You Stop Watching Out For Bad Links?
Bad links are links from spammy or low-quality websites. These links can hurt your website’s reputation and cause your rankings to suffer.
If you’re not constantly monitoring your backlink profile, you’re at risk of accumulating bad links. Once you have a few bad links, it’s only a matter of time before your rankings start to suffer.
In contrast, watching your backlink profile can quickly identify and remove any bad links. Your competitors won’t be able to take advantage of your bad links, and your rankings will be protected. This will help to keep your website’s reputation intact and protect your rankings in the long run.
Bad links are a serious issue, and you need to make sure you’re constantly monitoring your backlink profile for any signs of trouble.
Why Shouldn’t You Stop Doing SEO?
We all know SEO is an amazing asset to improve search rankings and help your business grow. And it’s obvious you’re not going to stop doing SEO. Your efforts to create and update content and the technical issues that are easily solved if they’re spotted all boost your business. You also need to ensure you comply with privacy regulations if you want to stay on top.
We strongly suggest you keep up with your SEO even if you feel like you’ve plateaued. The ugly truth is that it’s hard to regain momentum once a website starts going in a negative direction.
Continuing to do SEO will help keep your website relevant and improve your bottom line. Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t stop doing SEO:
1. Google Introduces An Average Of 12 Changes To Their Search Every Day
It’s a well-known fact that Google is continuously changing and updating its search algorithm. They ran over 600,000 experiments in 2020, resulting in more than 4,500 improvements to their search engine. That’s an average of 12 changes per day!
Some of these changes are small and insignificant, while others can significantly impact your website’s traffic. For example, the recent Google helpful content update favors websites that are constantly adding new and relevant content. At the same time, it penalizes websites with outdated or irrelevant content that doesn’t provide any value to the user.
This is just one example of how a small change in the algorithm can have a big impact on your website. If you’re not keeping up with the latest changes, you’re at risk of losing traffic, and your rankings will suffer.
2. You Have Millions Of Competitors, And They Aren’t Standing Still
This may seem like an intimidating number, but don’t forget that every one of your competitors is fighting for the same thing – to rank higher on Google.
If you don’t believe us, try running a Google search for a popular keyword in your industry. We did a quick search for “coffee” and got over 2 billion results:
Out of these billion results, you need to find a way to stand out and get your content on page one. When you pause your SEO efforts, your competitors will continue investing in their SEO, eventually overtaking you. It’s only a matter of time before they start stealing your traffic and your potential customers.
3. Maintaining A Website Is A Full-Time Job
A website is a lot like a car – it needs regular maintenance to run smoothly. If you don’t invest the time and effort to keep your website up-to-date, it will eventually start to break down.
One of the most important aspects of website maintenance is keeping your content fresh and relevant. Search engines love websites that constantly publish new and original content because it shows that the website is active and engaging. On the other hand, websites with outdated or irrelevant content are penalized by Google.
In addition to content, you also need to keep an eye on your website’s technical SEO. This includes things like broken links, crawl errors, and site speed. These factors can negatively impact your website’s ranking and performance.
If you’re not regularly maintaining your website, it will eventually decline in the search rankings. And once your website falls behind, it won’t be easy to catch up.
4. The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Will Be To Recover
If you’re thinking about taking a break from SEO, we urge you to reconsider. Once your website starts to decline in the search rankings, it will be very difficult to recover. The longer you wait, the further your website will fall and the harder it will be to climb back up.
SEO is a long-term strategy, and it takes time to see results. But if you’re patient and continue to invest in SEO, you will eventually see a return on your investment.
As a business owner, it’s important to understand that SEO is an ongoing process. It’s not something you can do for a few months and then stop. You need to commit to SEO for the long haul to see sustainable results.
We understand that running a business is tough, and a million things are on your to-do list. But if you want to succeed online, you need to make SEO a priority. Pausing your SEO efforts will only make it harder for you to reach your goals in the long run.