What Happens When SEO is Stopped or Not Pursued – My Actual Case Studies

A great misconception is that after a website has gained steady rankings, they can stop SEO strategies. This is the farthest from the truth.

The Importance of Sustaining Your SEO Efforts

SEO involves a lot of tasks, there are website and backlink audits, correcting the issues found from the audits, studying competitors and planning a strategy out of that analysis. One of the more important parts is a solid content strategy. Why so?

• Every time you publish new content, it triggers Google to visit your site (once your sitemap has been submitted to Google). And the more Google visits your site, the more it improves your chance of ranking.
• Also, when you study the keywords of competitors and get content for publishing, every new content allows you to rank for more keywords. One article can get indexed for dozens, even hundreds or thousands of keywords.
• SEO Writing involves researching what people are looking for, and giving the answer for that search query. The more substantial and valuable your content, the more Google will favor you in ranking.
• Finally, when you post fresh content, it tells Google that your site has updated information, making Google favor you in ranking. Especially with the March 17 update from Google:

As of March 17 2023: Google Will Start Crawling Less to Reduce Environmental Impact

What Happens Without SEO – My Case Studies

These cases involve two scenarios

1. The client was already ranking so they thought it could ride them through without SEO, and
2. Contacted me, did not pursue

1. The client was ranking so they stopped SEO to “save”

So what happens when they stop SEO to “save” money

1. Dramatic dive because of unmonitored toxic link attacks: a podiatrist in Adelaide

Audit showed no errors but the massive toxic links as shown below caused the nosedive above

2. A Shopify site selling healthful snacks

3. An Aesthetic site did not know their Analytics tracking code was gone

4. A Shopify site selling a specific type of attire

5. An International Distributor of Craft Materials

6. A Pool Contractor in California 

has errors and toxic backlinks the client was not aware of which…

…which caused the rapid decline in keywords indexed/ranking

7. Thai Massage in Australia rapid decline in ranking

This massage spa in Australia did not know they were also getting toxic link attacks

Before with SEO, no toxic links, no errors

After the end of SEO services, toxic link attacks

2. Contacted Me for SEO, did not pursue

Lost first-page rankings

Takeaways

Google loves updated websites, so if SEO is stopped or not pursued, expect a negative impact. Your rankings are not permanent, so if your site is not updated or maintained properly expect a nosedive.