Why SEO is an ongoing investment

Search engine rankings are competitive. The rewards for being at the top ranking position for keywords that attract search volume are higher than ever. The traffic these keywords generate is highly convertible and as such can have a huge impact on the revenues of a business.

It is understandable that the businesses that hold these top ranking positions want to retain them and don’t take too kindly to dropping down in the rankings.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a zero sum game. If someone is winning someone else is losing! It is often asked why SEO requires ongoing investment. Simply, it’s because once top ranking are achieved, your website becomes ‘the one to beat’ and rival websites will attempt to regain their rankings, spurred on by a loss in traffic and revenue.

Imagine SEO as a long distance running race that never ends. Even when you’re in 1st place, you still need to maintain your position and run faster than your competition. If you stop optimising your site once good rankings are achieved, you will be overtaken, and your rankings/traffic/income/leads will drop in line with that fall. How quickly this happens will depend on the market in which you operate and the competitiveness of the keywords targeted.