Hired an SEO company for some SEO services and aren’t getting the results you wanted? Thinking Canceling SEO and dropping them like a bad habit?
Okay, it’s not actually that you shouldn’t find the best service provider for your business. There should be results, after all. You also shouldn’t continue to pay an SEO “service provider” that relies on outdated tactics. It also isn’t that you need to go in the hole financially if you’ve encountered a setback; bills have to get paid and lights must remain on.
However, you need to consider a few things before firing your SEO agency on a whim. You could be shooting yourself in the foot and hard. Here are 6 reasons why you should think very hard before doing so.
Your Traffic Will Fall After Stopping SEO Services
If you’ve experienced any increases in traffic during your time with an SEO services provider, that traffic is going to start to fall off.
If you have only given an SEO services provider a short amount of time – say a couple months – then you aren’t going to get the gains in traffic that you could have realized. You’ll probably get a small bump, but it will fall off again.
Why?
SEO is a set of best practices for how to run a website. How to set it up, what to put on it and so on. It’s kind of like keeping up a house; once you stop, it begins to fall into disrepair. If you stop the upkeep…there goes your traffic.
SEO Content Remains King…
Another reason why you’ll want to hang on to SEO services is that for SEO, content remains king (or at least very, very important) as does regularly-published content. An SEO services company will make sure that optimized content is being added to your site regularly.
What’s going to get left behind if you decide to cease using an SEO agency? Blogging. Content refreshes. Site copy updates.
And that is how you tank your rankings one step at a time, among others.
Competition Outrank you After Dropping Your SEO Agency
If you’ve retained an SEO agency and drop them, one thing that can happen is that your competition will begin to overtake you. It’s a corollary effect to your rankings and traffic dropping off.
Yours reduces. Whose gains? Theirs, and part of the reason you need SEO – whether it’s Seattle SEO services or international – is that you need to take ground from the competition, not lose it to them.
A Good SEO Agency Will Tell You When You’re Doing it Wrong
A lot of people love features on a website that add a ton of code. Pictures, slideshows, lots of Javascript and smart stuff that they think makes it look awesome…and a good SEO agency is going to tell you to stop the insanity early and often.
You see, without the input of an SEO services company, the sort of features that you want to have added to your site will torpedo your load times, wreck your scalability on mobile and therefore, kill your rankings as those attributes become even more important over time.
Web design is important, and you want a website that reflects the best image of your business to your potential customers, but a good SEO service provider will help keep you from shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak, with technical features.
SEO Agencies Adjust For Algorithm Changes
SEO Agencies Adjust For Algorithm Changes…Which Happen A Lot
Another thing that SEO agencies do is stay on top of search engine algorithm changes. They know the signs that one has happened, and how to find out what needs to be adjusted to account for any fallout from one.
Unless you have in-house SEO professionals, then you’re not going to know what hit you until you’ve fallen behind and potentially significantly.
How often does it happen? There were 13 Google updates or update-like actions in 2017 alone. That’s how much SEO service providers have to stay abreast of industry trends.
SEO services companies that employ real SEO professionals stay on top of algorithm updates and make adjustments as needed. If you don’t know to stay on top of them…it can bite you, real quick.
A Good SEO Company Does Not Promise Overnight Results
If you’re expecting instant results from SEO, you aren’t going to have a good experience with any SEO company.
If an SEO services company promises you instant results, they are either lying or they rely on blackhat tactics. Blackhat SEO is a set of practices that will get you a quick bump…but will quickly see you hit with a penalty and your rankings crash and burn like the Hindenburg.
The number one reason why clients leave an SEO firm? This exact reason. “It’s been a month,” says the client, “and I’ve spent money on this! There are no results! This SEO stuff is hogwash!”
It’s understandable, but again, think of SEO as improving and maintaining a home. Can you turn $130,000 home into a $275,000 home overnight? No, you have to invest time, effort and usually a lot of cash to improve a house’s value to a substantial degree.
SEO services usually take time to really show results. You should expect 8 to 12 weeks to see your rankings start to move, and 6 months or longer for significant gains to be realized. It doesn’t happen overnight.