Inflation, inflation, inflation. Perhaps, as a local entrepreneur, you are considering quitting SEO. But what exactly happens if you stop? Will all the work (and your investment) be lost then?

Google Doesn’t Start Until you Stop

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy, and anyone involved in SEO will agree.

Once you publish a page, and it’s ready to be indexed, only then can Google work with it. And at that point, the ball is in Google’s court. Only then is it going to decide where and how the page can be shown. The first thing it will do is visit the page, crawl it and then index it. After this the page can be found.

How quickly you can be found depends on several factors Google uses. You can think here about the number of competitors, the type of keyword, whether it is a local, national or international search, etc. But also the use of the right (search) words on the page.

Google does not look at how nicely your page is written, or whether there are any spelling mistakes, but rather uses the content to decide whether it is a good match for a particular search query. And that doesn’t just apply to the content a visitor reads. It also concerns the content of the source code, such as structured data.

So the weaker the competition, the easier it is to rank high quickly. And this is especially apparent when it comes to local search results.

Example: personal trainer

Let’s take a personal trainer as an example. Four years ago, about 10 pages were optimised, and then the journey was pretty much stopped. Three months after that, all the main keywords could be found in the top 5.

The same business is still ranking high in Google with the same keywords almost 4 years later. So this shows that applying SEO can impact findability for years to come.

Current search results.

And below the number of events (including completed contact forms) in Google Analytics since 1 January 2020 (a few months after the campaign was discontinued). If you want to know how to set up and view events in GA4, read this article.

So contacts were also made during the pandemic, but far fewer than in 2022, when the rules started to relax. The number of events during the restrictions were obviously lower than when the restrictions eased off.

Of course, you cannot assume that every SEO project will bear fruit for that long, as this is a local business that has to rely on local findability. But should you have achieved good positions within Google, the effect could be felt for a very long time.

In fact, success depends on the factors I mention above. Because as soon as several competitors start focusing on SEO, search results can quickly change. Therefore, it is crucial to keep track of the statistics to know if it is time for a new SEO campaign.

For local entrepreneurs with a dozen competitors, an SEO campaign can have an effect for years to come. Once one is then easily findable, the number of organic visitors can be for a steady source of enquiries for years to come.

Why Does it Only Get Interesting When You Rank High For Certain Search Terms?

Here we come to the chicken and egg story a bit. Link building is an important part of SEO. This is because it contributes to the authority and value of the website in the eyes of Google and other search engines.

But getting backlinks can be a challenge if your website does not rank high enough, and does not receive visitors. And that is precisely the big problem. To earn backlinks, you need to rank high in Google, but to rank high in Google, you often need backlinks.

Fortunately, this is not always the case, and especially not for local entrepreneurs. Sometimes you don’t need backlinks at all to rank high, and at other times a small number of backlinks are enough.

Once you are well found, brand awareness will increase, the number of visitors will increase, and so will the chances of getting backlinks. And then the website can suddenly start growing substantially in terms of visitors….

The Money is (almost) Gone?

During a crisis, you sometimes have to make important choices quickly, such as investing or saving. By understanding how SEO works, and how long it can have an effect, you can hopefully make better decisions.

In doing so, it is extremely important to have a good overview of all statistics. Then you should not only think about important SEO metrics such as current positions, number of visitors and conversions. You also need to know what other marketing channels are yielding, what costs you are incurring there, where the most costs are incurred and how these relate to the revenues.

Quitting SEO can be a risk, depending on the contract with the SEO agency. This is because there are agencies that ‘rent’ backlinks, for example, and as soon as you stop the contract, the backlinks are removed. And as a result, positions in Google may deteriorate in the long run.

Competition

The number of competitors in the industry also affects the decision. If there are only 10 competitors, of which a few seem to be doing SEO, then it is easier to scale back the investment in SEO for a while.

You can also choose to send some employees on SEO training. Or hiring an Incompany SEO specialist, who works on site, and actually guides employees with SEO at the same time.

Since every SEO agency works differently, it is important to know what work is being done. One SEO agency might only help with an outline, and then have the text written, while another agency will write the texts themselves. And since a lot of time goes into writing optimised texts, you can opt for the agency that provides the outline, and later connects the dots. This way, the costs can be reduced, but the SEO journey can continue.

Another solution is to use specific SEO jobs. This is a method where an SEO agency focuses on one specific task at a time. You can think of a technical SEO or content project. With content, you should think of optimising, say, 10-20 pages for a fixed amount. The advantage of these specific jobs is that you pay once and are not tied to an ongoing contract. In addition, as a company you also know exactly what is being done, without spending hours solving one technical problem.

Quitting SEO Because it Takes too Long?

If a company wants to quit SEO because ‘it is taking too long’, it will have to take a good look at its work and goals. In that case, it is not a bad idea to get help from an independent third party. And let them look at all the work, expectations, objectives, keywords, but also the number of hours used, and of course whether the budget is sufficient to the objectives.

The fewer pages that are optimised, the longer it takes to rank high in Google and receive visitors.

Overall SEO Trajectory

An SEO journey for a local business might look something like this:

• First month: in-depth SEO analysis
• Second month: resolving technical issues (depending on the problems), picking up low hanging fruit, setting up reports, goals, software and keyword mapping
• Third month: keyword research and optimisation of existing content – Fourth month: continued optimisation of current content.

The reason for quitting SEO is different for every entrepreneur. In any case, base your choice on data. This applies not only to SEO, but to all marketing channels.