Why SEO is an ongoing strategy, NOT a one-off thing
I’ve been a web designer for over 4 years now and SEO is my nerdy passion. I love learning about it, implementing it, reviewing what’s working. I’m kind of obsessed and have been since I originally did my marketing degree. Naturally - my clients have questions and one of the most common things people ask me is “can you SEO my website?”. Like it’s a one and done thing - which I totally understand but unfortunately it doesn’t quite work like that.
SEO is an ongoing strategy that requires consistent effort overtime, rather than a one-and-done service. So in this blog post, I’m going to walk through why that is and what are the ongoing things that you need to consider when it comes to SEO.
The Common Misconception: SEO is a one-and-done service
When you think of SEO, you probably think of “keywords” and optimising your website so you can show in Google’s search results. Maybe you think of optimising your H1 tags and meta descriptions if you want to get technical. And you’re totally right - that is a super large part of SEO. Understanding what people are typing into Google and making tweaks to your website so you can be the first website to show up. Sounds amazing right? Right!
However, SEO is actually an ongoing strategy and requires consistent effort for you to see results that grow over time.
While making those initial optimisations, like adding keywords and metadata are super important - these are just the foundations of your SEO strategy. These are the one-and-done actions that help google understand what your website is about.
However, Google needs to be reassured that you are trustworthy, up-to-date and an authority in your space. That is where ongoing SEO comes in. Things like blogging, building backlinks and keeping up with industry changes. So let’s dive into what these ongoing strategies actually look like.
On-Going SEO Strategies
Blogging
Blogging is one of THE best tools for growing your website through SEO and it keeps your website fresh/relevant in the eyes of Google. Every new blog post is another opportunity to rank for a keyword, answer a customer’s question, or showcase your expertise. But the key here is consistency. Writing one great blog post and disappearing for six months won’t move the needle. Ongoing blogging helps you build authority in your industry, gives you content to repurpose across other platforms, and signals to Google that your website is alive, active, and worth crawling regularly. (Crawling means rechecking your website to look for new content & rank it quickly.)
Backlinking
Backlinks (links from other websites that point to yours,) are like little votes of confidence in your content. The more high-quality backlinks you earn over time, the more trustworthy your website appears to search engines. But backlinking isn’t something you can tick off your to-do list once and forget about. It’s a long game. Relationships take time to build, and opportunities for guest posting, collaborations, or press mentions can evolve as your brand grows. Keeping backlinking as part of your ongoing SEO strategy helps you steadily improve your domain authority and search rankings.
Your Brand Reputation Matters
One of Google’s key goals is to recommend trustworthy businesses/websites. Reviews, mentions across the web, and social proof all contribute to your brand’s online reputation. A strong reputation builds trust, which search engines notice. But this isn’t a one-time achievement. It’s something you need to nurture by delivering a great experience, encouraging reviews, engaging on social media, and being visible in your industry. The more consistently positive signals you send out, the more your SEO benefits.
Local SEO - Google Business Profile
A google business profile is essential for you if you’re a local business that wants to rank in Google. In case you weren’t sure, a Google Business Profile (GBP) is the profile which comes up on Google Maps that houses your reviews, contact details, location, etc… And keeping it up to date is an important strategy if you want to be found by clients local to you.
That includes:
Asking customers for reviews regularly
Posting updates about your business e.g. any new offers/updates/promotions
Keeping your business information up to date e.g. changes in contact details or opening times.
Algorithm Changes
Search engines are always tweaking how they evaluate websites. What worked in the past, might not work anymore. Google regularly updates its algorithm to provide better, more accurate search results. Sometimes those changes are minor; other times they shake up the entire search results landscape. If you’re not keeping up with SEO best practices, you risk falling behind. Staying active with your SEO allows you to adapt quickly and avoid any nasty surprises when the next update rolls out.
Competition Growth
You’re not the only one trying to rank for your keywords and chances are, your competitors are stepping up their SEO game too. New businesses enter your niche all the time, and existing ones are investing more in content, design, and strategy. If you don’t keep optimising and improving your site, you might find your rankings slowly slipping as others overtake you. Ongoing SEO is how you stay competitive, visible, and one step ahead in your industry.
Changes in User Behavior
The way that people search and what they search for evolves constantly. So as trends shift, your website content and keyword strategy need to shift too. A really great example of this is the introduction of AI. More and more people are headed straight to chat GPT to ask it more sophisticated questions and get more “personalised” results. So want to make sure that AI optimisation is part of our new SEO strategies, to increase our changes of showing up in AI search results.
Reviewing what’s working
With all of these reasons to keep working on your SEO, implement ongoing strategies and writing new blog posts - comes the need to review what is actually working and tweak your strategy based on the data. If you’re putting in all this effort to boost your SEO rankings and get more visitors to your site, you’ll want to make sure all your hard work is paying off.
This would include things like reviewing your analytics, reviewing your Google Search Console to see what keywords you’re ranking for, and capitalising on what’s working. E.g. adding freebies to your best performing blog posts.
Monthly SEO Checklist
To help you visualise what this could actually look like for your business, I’ve created a monthly SEO checklist for you below. Of course, I recommend tweaking this strategy to suit your business goals and what is realistic for you - but it’s a great starting point when it comes to creating a solid ongoing SEO strategy.
Google Business Profile (if you have one)
Post an update on your Google business profile about any offers, new blog posts, discounts, etc…
Reply to all your Google reviews
Request a Google review from your clients who haven’t left one yet
Backlinking
Find blogs/podcasts/etc that you would love to feature in and will pitch throughout the month. Think about a mixture of easy-wins (like your biz bestie or communities your part of) and those more impactful partnerships too (e.g. bigger audiences).
Find some directories/local listing sites/etc… that you can submit your website to throughout the month
Blogging
Find a blogging rhythm that works for you. It could be every two weeks, once a month or once a quarter. (Always remember quality is better than quantity.)
Tweak/update any of your previous blog posts that are no longer up to date or need reviewing.
Analytics & Keyword Research
Review your website analytics to see what pages/posts are doing well. Consider, how can you capitalise on this and improve the performance of pages which aren’t doing so well.
Review your Google Search Console to see what keywords you are ranking for & how your results are improving over time
Every 4-6 months I recommend conducting keyword research using tools like Ubersuggest to find out what keywords people are searching for. This can also help you identify any changes in user behavior or industry changes.
Want to learn more about SEO?
If you’ve built your own website and you’re ready to give your website some Google love, I’d love to invite you to join The DIY Website Club. With over 6 SEO lessons and step-by-step tutorials showing you how to optimise your Squarespace website, you’ll learn all the essentials when it comes to optimising your own website. For only £40/month, you can get all of the learning modules, plus coworking for accountability so you actually make those changes you’ve been intending to make for ages. Click here to find out more, I’d love to support you with your SEO.
Want Support With Your Initial SEO Set Up?
Now you know that SEO is an ongoing strategy, but all your efforts will be more impactful with an initial SEO optimisation of your website. If you’d like someone to conduct keyword research for you and optimise the core pages of your Squarespace website - I’d love to support you with that. Click here to get in touch.
