If you’re a modern marketer then you know that search engine optimization, or SEO, is a key skill set in today’s digital marketing landscape. The good news about SEO is that if you have a solid base strategy, you’re likely to see positive growth for a long time. But the bad news is that SEO is a strategy that requires constant effort and monitoring. Here’s why.
The landscape is changing all the time
Since search engine optimization is a strategy that’s reactive to how search engines read and rank material, it’s constantly changing. The folks who work at Google are always trying to improve how their engines display search results and make the search process as accurate as possible. This means that there are always updates to the core algorithm happening, on both a large and small level. Some of these algorithms Google acknowledges and publicizes, but others get swept under the rug. This means that SEO experts have to be hyper-vigilant about monitoring rankings and traffic to make sure that short-term trends don’t become long-term trends indicative of an algorithm change or worse.
Penalties are extremely hard to recover from
Another reason why your SEO presence must always be monitored is to ensure you’re not breaking any rules, or doing things that Google doesn’t like. If you are, and Google releases a penalty algorithm that you become subject to, your site is in big trouble. It’s extremely difficult to recover from a penalty if you get hit with one. Whether it’s from bad content, bad linking practices, or something else, Google is always on the lookout for people who are trying to game the system in an unfair and unhelpful way. Stay on top of your SEO strategy and practice “white hat” SEO to make sure you don’t fall victim to a penalty. If you do, it could take years for your online presence and traffic flow to recover.
One bad link can make an impact
In addition to monitoring your traffic and rankings, you should also keep an eye on your inbound links. It’s important to get credible, strong domain authority links, but it’s also important not to get an influx of weak or low credibility site links. If a number of low authority sites start linking to your site, Google may interpret this as a “black hat” SEO play, which could end up getting you in trouble and causing some major damage to your online presence. One bad link probably isn’t enough to ding you, but if you start aggregating several bad links in a short period of time, you could have something to worry about. Prevent this from happening by proactively monitoring your link profile.
In summary, if you practice ethical SEO tactics and don’t try to game the system, you probably won’t have to worry about penalties or other negative effects. Still, it’s smart to constantly monitor your SEO metrics to get ahead of any changes. An advanced agency like SEO Toronto can help you with this. That way you will be able to prevent molehills from becoming mountains and help your website stay as healthy and strong as possible.
