Is it Important to Continue SEO Once Ranking?

While short pauses of up to a few months aren’t likely to cause harm to your rankings and rankings don’t just drop because you stop SEO, many businesses start to see a drop in their rankings and traffic to their websites around the 6-month mark. We’ve seen this happen with one of our clients. The website was built in December of 2016 and continued to show upward growth for several years until 2021 which also coincides with the last time we updated the site or added any new content to it. Traffic to the website steadily fell over the next few years until they came back early in 2024 wanting to update the website. For the first time since 2021, the website looks to be on track to once again get more traffic than the previous year.

Here are several reasons why it’s important to continue with SEO once your website starts ranking well:

  • Consistency is Key: SEO is a long-term strategy, and maintaining consistent activity helps to steadily improve your rankings. A long pause or complete stop might cause some loss of the momentum we’ve built.
  • Adapting to Changes: Search engines frequently update their algorithms. Continuous work ensures that we can adapt to these changes promptly, keeping your practice optimized and competitive.
  • Maintaining Progress: We’ve made good progress so far, and continuing with the slow and steady approach means we won’t have to spend additional time later re-familiarizing ourselves with where we left off. This way, we can avoid any potential setbacks.
  • Gradual Improvements: SEO efforts often include small, incremental improvements that accumulate over time. Even during this challenging period, maintaining a minimal effort will ensure that your business continues to benefit from these ongoing optimizations.
  • Keeping Ahead of Competitors: Consistent SEO work helps to stay ahead of competitors who may be more aggressive with their strategies. Maintaining our efforts will ensure your business doesn’t fall behind.

One thing you may want to consider instead of pausing, if you’re on a higher monthly plan, is switching to the monthly minimum recommended of 5 hours monthly for slow and steady progress.

If you want to read more about why taking a break from SEO is not a good idea, check out “Should your business ever take a break from SEO?” from Search Engine Land