What is Ongoing SEO & Why You Should Be Doing it

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t something you can simply do once and forget about it. It’s an ongoing process that you need to revisit regularly. There are several important reasons that you need to constantly update your SEO efforts.

Google frequently changes its algorithms which means the rules of SEO are always changing. A few years ago the Penguin & Medic updates caused many sites to fall in the rankings because they didn’t measure up to Google’s latest standards. More recently, Google has added new ranking factors such as mobile friendliness, page loading speed, and helpful content updates. You never know what changes the next algorithm will bring. In addition to major new algorithm changes, there are frequent minor updates that may also require you to make some adjustments to your SEO strategy.

To optimize your site you need to track all of your metrics and make changes when necessary.

• Keywords – You should always be testing and tracking keywords, which have always played a large role in SEO. Over time, different keywords may perform better or worse. You may need to update your keywords as you introduce new products or services or remove others.
• Backlinks – Links are still important for ranking but only if they come from relevant and authoritative sources. It helps to know which sites provide you with the most valuable backlinks. It’s also worthwhile to spy on your competitors and identify their backlinks.
• Traffic and Engagement – In addition to tracking which keywords and topics bring you the most traffic you also want to measure engagement. This includes bounce rate and time spent on your page or website.
• Site Performance – Checking how your content is performing and seeing how engaging your traffic is on your website is crucial as well. If people aren’t finding what they want on your site, your bounce rate is more likely to rise. Analyzing performance factors is key to continually keeping up with your industry and your conversion rates.
• Page Popularity – Keeping a close eye on which pages on your website are getting the most attention and which ones aren’t ever being viewed is a big on-going SEO task. Reviewing this page data in Google Analytics can effectively provide you with a priority list of pages that need revamped content. Adding CTA’s to high volume pages (or any pages for that matter) can help increase conversion rates too.

By watching your analytics, you’re guided on what actions to take in the future. All of this, however, demands constant attention on your part. Data is constantly changing and you need to keep up with it if you want your SEO efforts to be successful.

You need to listen to your customers and visitors at least as much as the search engines. This includes both what they say to you directly and what they say about you on social media and on review sites. Readers should inform your content marketing which is closely related to SEO. For example, if people request information on a certain topic you can create topics and headlines that cater to this audience.

Customer reviews are playing an ever larger factor in local SEO. Google considers reviews when ranking websites, giving preference to businesses with more positive reviews. Getting positive reviews is an ongoing, hands-on process that requires you to monitor and respond to customers regularly.

SEO is a competitive enterprise. Ranking your site means outranking your competitors. When you first publish a page or post, you may rank well in the search engines. Often, however, competitors will be watching you and seek to outrank you for important keywords. Because SEO is a constant battle for rankings, you can never ignore the competition. They can also inform you of the keywords and topics that your own customers will appreciate.

As some experts believe, SEO is really all about content marketing even though many people mistakenly separate them. Google increasingly rewards websites that publish the most helpful and original content for their readers. A strong content strategy goes hand-in-hand with an effective SEO strategy. Content marketing is, almost by definition, an ongoing and always evolving process.

To rank well in the search engines and to engage with your readers you need to consistently publish quality content on relevant topics. This really ties together with many of the other reasons that SEO needs to be ongoing. A strong content strategy requires you to keep up with the latest trends in your industry, listen to your audience, and watch your analytics carefully.

It would be nice if you could just perform a few SEO tasks once and then know your website would rank well indefinitely. Unfortunately, that’s not the way the world works. SEO is a dynamic and highly competitive field. Between Google, your customers, and the competition, there are lots of moving parts to consider. If you want to rise to the top (and stay there), you need to be diligent and alert.

Contact Intero Digital today and find out how our SEO specialists can help your business’s website rank.