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{"id":21462,"date":"2020-04-14T01:55:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T08:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/?p=21462"},"modified":"2022-12-15T17:33:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T01:33:52","slug":"stopping-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/blog\/stopping-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When You Stop SEO: The Ugly Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEO is like the boulder rolling down a cliff – it only knows how to gain more and more momentum.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many business owners that aren\u2019t as tech-savvy might think of SEO as a simple plug and play strategy. We\u2019re here to let you know that it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consequences\nof stopping SEO might not be noticed immediately, but the drop in traffic,\nranking, and revenue is inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some business\nowners may ask, \u201cI\u2019ve been investing in SEO for a year, can I put a stop to it\nnow or maybe pause it?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\u201cStopping advertising to save money is like stopping your clock<\/strong> to save time.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Henry Ford.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Well, we don\u2019t\nrecommend stopping or pausing your SEO efforts at any time. That\u2019s because SEO\nis not a plug and play tool.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this post, we\u2019re going to lay out the results of what happens when you stop SEO work and how exactly that happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stopping Your Website SEO Effort Will Result In A Ranking & Traffic Decline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
$\"Website$ <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s inevitable.\nOnce you stop optimizing your website and turning out fresh content, Google\namong other search engines will understand that you\u2019ve abandoned your website.\nThe ultimate result is your rankings will begin to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cSo HOW does that happen?\u201d you may ask. Continue reading as we list off some of Google’s ranking factors, how it understands that you’ve abandoned your website, and how that ultimately results in your rankings declining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Lack Of New Content<\/h3>\n\n\n\nGoogle loves seeing fresh, new content updated on your website\nconsistently. It\u2019s one of the major factors to having a healthy website that\nranks well for the proper keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-content-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23467\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-content-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-content-1-600x300.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-content-1-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe moment you stop SEO work is the moment your website will stop\nhaving new content.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEventually, Google will stop crawling your site and will now shift its focus to other websites, such as your competitors, that are still updating and <a href=\"\/blog\/how-blogging-helps-your-business\/\">publishing new content on blogs to gain more rankings and traffic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNow, all the great rankings you were getting before for keywords\nrelated to your business will start to suffer and your competitors will begin\nreaping the benefits.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nA secondary negative that will occur once you stop publishing new content is the lack of sharing your website receives on various <a href=\"\/blog\/best-places-to-advertise-online\/\">social media outlets<\/a>. When the link to your website gets shared on social platforms that sends a signal to search engines that this is a good piece of content. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe bottom line is that fresh, new content plays a vital role in\nkeeping your rankings high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Rise In Technical Issues<\/h3>\n\n\n\nMost websites have at least some technical issues on the backend\nthat consistently need to be monitored. It\u2019s simply the nature of the SEO game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"945\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/website-issues.png\" alt=\"Website Technical Issues\" class=\"wp-image-21475\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, not every business owner understands the technical\naspects that go on in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd we don\u2019t blame them. That\u2019s our job to try and educate them on\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are constant changes that need to be made on the backend of\nyour business website and if someone stops performing SEO work for you then\nthose begin to pile up and hurt your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s the equivalent of hearing a noise in your car but ignoring it instead of taking it to the mechanic shop. Eventually, the car will begin to breakdown and suffer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSome of the technical issues your website might run into are out-of-date plugins, duplicate content, crawling, and sitemap issues. All of these play a major role in your website\u2019s health and how search engines view your website. Maintaining your website\u2019s health is a crucial factor in Google ranking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Outdated Content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"836\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/old-content.jpg\" alt=\"Outdated Content On Website\" class=\"wp-image-21480\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nGoogle recommends website owners to keep updating their content to\nprovide more value over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is mainly because refreshing the content on a page will help\ndrive 20-30% more traffic to the website, sometimes even higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you stop updating content on your website, Google will regard\nyour content as obsolete and you might start experiencing a drop in your rankings.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut it\u2019s not just the technical end of this. There is also human behavior accounted in this as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow many times have you gone to a webpage only to see that the content is very outdated? <\/p>\n\n\n\nIt happens all the time, right? And what is the first thing you do?\nClick the back button and immediately bounce out of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThat sends a signal to Google that your content wasn\u2019t good enough\nand this affects what we call your bounce rate. Once you start having a higher\nbounce rate Google will start lowering your rankings for that search term.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDo you see how easily this can spiral out of control by not doing regular updates? It\u2019s not just about publishing NEW content, it\u2019s about updating the current content, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, how exactly can you update the content on your website? You can add more value to the content by adding FAQs, links to other valuable content, update with new facts, update the dates, add schema, or even try changing the page\u2019s theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\nStopping these simple updates can drastically drop your rankings and affect your website\u2019s overall reputation in the mind of potential customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. New Web Pages<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe structure and design of your web pages need to be changed from time to time. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow users search for your product or service continues to evolve and\nthat means adding new pages related to that keyword or restructuring and\nreorganizing your website is a necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTake for example an event venue. One highly ranked search term in this industry is \u201cwedding venue.\u201d From the beginning, your website likely has a page dedicated to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut what if your venue has two ballrooms, one of them being a\nsmaller and more intimate room. Now all of a sudden the search term \u201csmall\nwedding venue\u201d or \u201cintimate wedding venue\u201d starts becoming more popular. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIdeally, you\u2019d create a page for this showing off the smaller ballroom you have. But if you stop SEO work you won\u2019t be able to take advantage of this new keyword while your competitors will.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe moment you stop targeting new terms and building new pages, you will start losing the keyword growth momentum. You will lose a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Increase Of Broken Links<\/h3>\n\n\n\nOne of the website ranking factors is having proper linking on your\nwebsite either to other internal pages or to other valuable websites. While it\nused to have more significance, it still is an important factor that needs to\nbe worked on and monitored.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOver time some of these links can become \u201cbroken\u201d, meaning when a\nuser clicks them, they don\u2019t get sent to the right destination and instead see\nan error. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSometimes the link you are sending them to might have been deleted,\nthere has been a change in the URL, or perhaps that external website isn\u2019t\nfunctioning anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-alecan-widget-cta\">\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Build A Strong Internet Presence With The Power Of SEO<\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large no-border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"724\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-search-ad-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21362\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\nPeople search for everything online. Use this to your advantage with comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) to maximize organic and local rankings, keeping your company visible and relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-alecan-button cta-button has-default-style has-accent-color has-default-hover-color\" href=\"\/client-intake-form\/\">Request Free Consultation<\/a>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n\nWhile you cannot control what happens to the content outside of your website, you will have zero excuses to make when an internal link shows up with a 404 error. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGoogle wants its users to have the best possible experience with\neach search. Now tell us why Google would favor your website over a\ncompetitor\u2019s when your site has many broken links? <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe answer is they wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaintaining the links on your site not only sends a good signal to\nGoogle, but it also offers your website visitors a good experience which can\nallow them to stay longer on your site and improve your rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Monitoring Of Duplicate Content<\/h3>\n\n\n\nWhat is duplicate content you ask? <\/p>\n\n\n\nDuplicate content is exactly what it sounds like. It\u2019s content that\nhas been stolen and used on other websites without any significant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"541\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/duplicate-content.png\" alt=\"Duplicate Content\" class=\"wp-image-21490\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTake a chunk of content from one of your webpages and do a search\nwith it. If you see other websites showing up with that same content you know\nthey\u2019ve taken it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd it\u2019s not just the actual content, it can be whole pages, too!<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis can have a negative effect on your website and ultimately affect your rankings down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. Keeping Up With Google Algorithm Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\nAs we mentioned earlier, SEO is a marketing strategy that keeps\nevolving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"\/about\/\">Your digital marketing team<\/a> needs to be up-to-date on the latest algorithm updates to ensure your rankings don\u2019t drastically drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs part of continuously improving their customer experience, Google\nfrequently makes algorithm updates. Some are major while others can be minor\ntweaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNot staying current with these updates can cause your website to drastically drop in rankings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"736\" height=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/search-traffic-drop.jpg\" alt=\"Drop in organic traffic of website\" class=\"wp-image-21468\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThink of it as a car manufacturer not adapting to newly imposed\nregulations. If they don\u2019t adapt they will be penalized and their sales will\nplummet and they will soon be obsolete. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe same goes for your website not adapting to the changes to the\nalgorithm.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTherefore, thinking about stopping SEO is a bad idea. With SEO, your\nwebsite will also evolve in how it looks and functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. Monitoring Website Speed & Performance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"770\" height=\"433\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/fast-website-is-better.png\" alt=\"Website Speed - Faster is better\" class=\"wp-image-21471\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nHave\nyou ever clicked a link for a website, waited about 5 seconds for it to load,\nand simply clicked the \u201cback\u201d button because it didn\u2019t load?<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe answer is almost assuredly, \u201cyes.\u201d The same goes for the\ncustomers you\u2019re trying to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWebsite speed is a major factor in helping your website rank\nproperly because of how it affects the user experience. Users don\u2019t want to\nwait forever for your page to load and instead will just leave your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\nYour website needs to be optimized for speed from time to time to\nensure that users are getting the best experience possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen\nyou leave your site dormant and don\u2019t make the necessary changes to help with\nthe speed your rankings will begin to suffer while your competitors begin to\nrise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9. Lack Of Gaining Quality Backlinks<\/h3>\n\n\n\nOne of the ways that your website builds authority and a good \u201conline reputation\u201d is by having other websites in relevant industries link to your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"797\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/backlinks.png\" alt=\"Quality Backlinks\" class=\"wp-image-21473\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhen you publish a piece of great content other websites will\ntypically link to your website which is both beneficial to you and them.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile this factor doesn\u2019t have as much weight as it used to, it\nstill is important to maintain.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you stop your SEO service and stop producing new content, other\nsites will stop linking to your site and may even remove any older links to\nyour site they originally had.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOver time this will begin to lower your website\u2019s domain authority and give your site less credibility which leads to lower rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Website Ranking & Traffic Decline Will Result In Fewer Leads & Sales.<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSo now that you\u2019re aware of how your rankings will drop what does\nthat all mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\nWell as a result of your website showing up lower and lower on the\nsearch results pages, you will begin to see significantly less traffic landing\non your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAccording to <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/insiders\/inbound-marketing-stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hubspot research<\/a>, 75% of people never go past the first page of search results. Meaning once your rankings decline the overwhelming majority of your potential clients have a much smaller chance of getting to your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo you\u2019ve got less traffic now, so what?<\/p>\n\n\n\nLess traffic means less potential inquiries and sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThink of a physical brick and mortar store. If the foot traffic begins to die down there are fewer sales to be made.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThis is the exact same process for your website. Once it\u2019s visibility begins to decline you will begin to see fewer sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe majority of our clients see approximately 50% of their leads and\nsales coming from organic traffic as a result of the SEO work that is done.\nImagine what happens when that gets drastically cut? It isn\u2019t pretty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nEven when someone does land on your website there is a certain\nperception that they make when they realize the website isn\u2019t being kept up to\ndate. They may begin to view your business negatively and decide to go with a\ncompetitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGaining that reputation back can be more difficult and costly than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s important\nto understand that SEO is a strategy that is constantly changing and requires\nadaptation. Pausing or completely stopping SEO will put all the hard work and\neffort you did in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThink of SEO as buying up internet real estate. You work hard to start gaining ground but you need to consistently improve in order to maintain it. Stopping your SEO means you\u2019ve stopped tending to your real estate allowing competitors to move in and take a hold of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe hope this piece of content brought great value to you. If you\u2019re interested in SEO services for your business, <a href=\"\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"contact us today (opens in a new tab)\">contact us today<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEO is like the boulder rolling down a cliff – it only knows how to gain more and more momentum. Many business owners that aren\u2019t as tech-savvy might think of SEO as a simple plug and play strategy. We\u2019re here to let you know that it\u2019s not. The consequences of stopping SEO might not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,8,9,10,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expert-insights","category-home-services","category-law-firm","category-medical-healthcare","category-small-business","category-startup-business","category-wedding-venue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21462"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25319,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21462\/revisions\/25319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alecanmarketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}