I’m sure you’ve seen the SEO ads before: “$250 SEO package with fast results!” “Why wait 6 months when you can have results now?” “One time SEO with huge results!” etc.

I promise you that those companies will not have a significant impact on your business. If they do, there’s a good chance it was with black-hat practices that will come back to haunt you.

Those companies hurt the reputation of the digital marketing industry by providing lackluster services, selling someone and then not following through. At webFEAT we believe in a mutually beneficial long-term relationship where both parties grow and thrive.

In order to have a successful SEO campaign, it needs to be part of your ongoing marketing strategy. One time SEO can be helpful, but it generally delivers results for a short period of time, and then those results dissipate and you’re back to square one. Ongoing SEO is a process that involves maintenance, adapting, and seeing strategies and tactics through.

Let’s take a look at One Time SEO, Ongoing SEO, the pros and cons of each, and real client examples of results.

One Time SEO

We’ve handled One Time SEO for clients in the past. In certain situations (limited budget, new website launch, only want a minor increase in search presence, etc) it made sense to make some one-time efforts that would benefit the client. In every case, we recommended that the client signs on for regular SEO, or at worst, quarterly reviews.

A one time SEO essentially squeezes a lot of best practices and general efforts into one expedited set of work. It can make things happen quickly for your website, but as I said, it likely will not last. There are several tactics that require ongoing effort. For example: evaluating how users are engaging with your website via Analytics Data, and continuously improving user-experience. With a one time set of work, there is simply a stopping point on everything.

Our clients have seen results from the one-time SEO, but those results generally tapered off they did not move to a regular plan or schedule quarterly reviews.

If you’re looking to make one time efforts, I suggest that they’re specific. For example: You’re redesigning your website and you want to make sure your rankings don’t slip. A SEO company can help to ensure that doesn’t happen. Another situation could be that you want to make sure your website at least has some best practices in place, that make it friendly for users and helpful to rankings.

Pros

• More budget friendly
• See some results slightly faster (but keep in mind they will probably be temporary)
• Helpful when specific SEO tactics are used one-time as mentioned above

Cons

• Not sustainable
• Results are usually less significant
• Can’t continually improve based off of data and user-response to changes
• Can’t adapt to algorithm updates
• Can’t adapt to competitor changes
• Can’t adapt to changes in search methods (voice, TV screen, other)
• Can’t actively update content or maintain old content

Examples

*Finished one time in Nov ’17 (this post has been updated! See new examples in the “One Time SEO vs. Ongoing SEO 3, 6, and 12+ month check-in” section below)

*Finished one time in Jun ’16

Ongoing SEO

You know how they say ‘slow and steady wins the race’? That is kind of true with SEO. You can speed it up if you have the budget to put into it (more time to work on the site), but ultimately, persistence and regular activity are needed.

With ongoing SEO, you get a complete service that increases your exposure in search, maintains that exposure, and sustains growth. In a perfect world, yes it would be great to do a ton of work and get your rankings to skyrocket in a couple of weeks, but that’s just not how it works. Acquiring links, tackling mentions, writing blogs, cleaning up or republishing old blogs and content, algorithm changes, and more require regular upkeep.

Our clients always see results. In the worst case, appearances in search for a variety of new search phrases increase. There are certainly times where it’s really tough to get search phrases to the first page, but there is always a reason, and we generally find it. That’s another great thing with ongoing SEO, if something isn’t working, we can continually hunt down limitations or specific strategies we need to leverage, to get your website where you’d like it to be in the search results.

Bottom line: If you want to grow your online presence, build it into your marketing plan. The effort must be persistent.

Pros

• Sustainable
• Can continually improve based on data and user-response to changes
• Can adapt to algorithm updates
• Can adapt to competitor changes
• Can adapt to changes in search methods (voice, TV screen, other)
• Can actively update content or maintain old content
• Works well with other digital, and traditional marketing efforts (ex: an ad with your URL on it, go to site, it’s optimized for mobile and encourages action)

Cons

• Higher cost, needs to be built into marketing/advertising budget

Examples

All graphs in this post show the number of phrases a domain is ranking for in the top 5 pages, via SpyFu

*Started ongoing SEO in Nov ’17 (this post has been updated! See new examples in the “One Time SEO vs. Ongoing SEO 3, 6, and 12+ month check-in” section below)

*Started ongoing SEO in Jan ’17

One Time SEO vs. Ongoing SEO 3, 6, and 12+ month check-in

Checking in at 3, 6, and 12+ months for 2 real clients in similar industries. One that went with one-time SEO, vs. one that chose ongoing.

Reminder: These graphs show the number of search phrases ranking in the top 5 pages of search results for a domain. Via SpyFu.

One Time

Ongoing

If you’re looking to grow your business in 2021, SEO is a great way to do it. Yes it may cost more, but you’re going to get a return on your investment that is worth it.

Let’s say right now your website isn’t getting a lot of traffic, or a lot of good traffic. You’re not selling many products, getting many form leads or calls.

Just imagine a year from now if you invest in SEO efforts, you’ll be more visible in search, getting those conversions you’re looking for. My goal is to be able to show you that you’re paying $X per month, and you’re getting X conversions at that cost, or X transactions + $X in revenue. If you’re not seeing much activity on your website now, I want to be able to show you down the road that SEO has increased traffic, and driven X conversions or X/$X transactions and revenue specifically from the search results.

If SEO, or integrating a complete digital marketing strategy is on your radar this year, I’d love to discuss your situation further. Just fill out this simple form or give us a call (513) 272-3432 and we’ll be happy to get the ball rolling.