We all know the Internet is a competitive place; there are millions of businesses all competing for the same limited market. And each player must somehow find a way to win customers. You already know you need to boost your game online so that your website can consistently attract visitors, convert them into viable leads and eventually customers.

But how?

This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. Your target customers are looking for you, and you need to help them find you. The best way to do this is making sure your SEO is on point. But it’s not a one-time deal. It’s important to understand that effective SEO management is an ongoing process. Here’s why.

Search engines constantly change their algorithms

Successful SEO implementation means that your website and its contents will be easily discoverable on the Internet and will rank well in search results. However, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing keep changing their search algorithms to improve them and combat black hat or deceptive SEO practices.

While this is intended to improve the experience of internet users, it may often affect your search rankings already established. Regular SEO management therefore lets you update your strategies to meet these changes and keep your site search engine friendly.

The online marketplace changes

Key among SEO practices is the use of keywords. These keywords and how they are used (including their placement) keep changing from time to time and you have to keep up with such changes or risk using keywords that no longer produce quality SEO results due to changes in online markets. Keyword quality diminishes with time, so a monthly SEO management is vital to enable you to carry out a keyword audit and retarget your markets.

Your business evolves

A website is supposed to be the face of your business. The website will more effectively market your business if it represents it accurately. Suppose your business grows, introduces other products or makes certain essential changes in its offerings, your SEO practices must also change to accommodate and market such changes effectively.

Keep up with your competition

Other competing businesses are always changing their products and services and marketing strategies, and they constantly change their SEO practices to reflect such changes in their businesses which in turn makes them progressively more visible to search engines.

Continuous SEO is typically a requirement in search ranking

Implemented SEO practices become stale with time and can affect your ranking. This only means that if you stop implementing new SEO activities, your ranking could progressively drop and affect how visible your business is to its target market. And who takes the top spots? Your competitors.

Web analytics behavior keeps changing

Knowing about how your website traffic behaves is a crucial factor in serving the interests of your site’s visitors more effectively. A good user experience will increase your conversion rates, which should translate into more customers. To deliver such user experience, you must continuously:

• Study what your site’s visitors are interested in, their demographics and the actions they take after interacting with your content, and;
• React to shifts in your sources of inbound traffic.

For example, low response to your calls to action (CTAs) may be a wakeup call to repurpose your CTA strategy. Keywords that do not bring inbound traffic may need to be retargeted or changed. All these are only possible through regular SEO management.

In summary, yes it’s typically important to continue monthly SEO maintenance. However, some businesses maintain good rankings without much effort. There are many factors to consider. The world of SEO is complex.

If you have any questions about how SEO works, or what recommendations might be for your business, apply for a mentorship call with our founder, marketing expert Katie Mellott.