Businesses that approach search engine optimisation as part of their marketing plan are often surprised that SEO not only takes time, it must be updated over time as well. A good ranking, like any asset of a business, needs constant maintenance and this means periodic tweaking of your SEO.

Relevance is the foundation of search engine optimisation, but it is a constantly moving target. Anyone who regularly uses the net will be familiar with how swiftly it changes. New concepts, new angles and new technology mean that the players are changed all the time. A smart business always has a hand in the game.

There are many approaches to climbing up through the rankings. Your business’ approach will depend on a mix of what is happening in your industry, your website’s individual personality and what works best for you at the time you optimise your site. However, when one of these things changes, such as the competition getting an edge on traffic, you may need to change tactics.

The things that most businesses aim to communicate through their SEO are relevance to key terms, authority in their field and trustworthiness as an operation. Authority is something that can only really be gained over time. Relevance is created through content and links, and trust, which also comes from good outside links, is added to through promotion of the business. All of these can be gained through careful effort, and all can be toppled by the efforts of a competitor or through inattention. These things are difficult to retrieve once lost, and it is better to stay ahead of changes through monitoring.

Monitoring is a stage that every optimisation campaign should go through. This usually involves assessment of what is happening in the industry that the business serves, and close assessment of what the top five or so businesses that compete with the site being optimised. Keywords are gleaned from this process, but it also usually provides a few ideas of what tactics might work. For example if your competitors have a blog, it’s usually a good idea to have one as well.

When maintaining your SEO, your monitoring doesn’t need to be as thorough It’s important to know how to analyse the changes you are seeing, and this is why it’s a good idea to keep our services at SEO Consult on board after your site is optimised. Not every change requires a reaction. Remember that your competitors can make a wrong move as well. Analysis of these changes does take experience to do well, and a certain instinct for the internet, but even without the services of an expert you should get a feel for the fluctuations in your industry over time.

SEO is always a game of patience, but strategy takes a huge part in every SEO campaign. Continuous maintenance is simply part of a good strategy. While it may require time and a small amount of budget, maintaining your SEO is worth it in the long run to avoid having to completely re-optimise your site after your ranking falls.

Get Involved