SEO maintenance - What is it and why is it important?

Website maintenance allows you to stay on top of the latest website design trends and get rid of annoying bugs, among other things. Without it, you are bound to run into a wide range of issues, from a few broken links here and there to serious security risks that put you at risk of a data breach.

Just like many other services, website maintenance services vary. The type of website maintenance that we want to focus on today is, as you might've already guessed, search engine optimization maintenance.

Remember, the first organic search engine result is ten times more likely to earn a click than the tenth organic search engine result. If you want to earn that number one spot and keep it, investing in ongoing SEO maintenance is definitely worth a shot.

Now, what is ongoing SEO maintenance, and how can it help you appeal to search engine algorithms? Read on to find out! In the following SEO maintenance guide, we will provide you with a bunch of useful tips and strategies for keeping and improving any website's search engine rankings with SEO maintenance.

What is maintenance in SEO?

In short, professional SEO maintenance is about constantly monitoring a site's performance in search engines. It entails things like monitoring its SEO rankings and checking whether it has been properly indexed by search engine crawlers. Sometimes, that's where the scope of ongoing SEO maintenance ends. You just keep an eye on your website's performance. Then, if anything goes wrong, you quickly step in and nip the issue in the bud.

On the other hand, SEO maintenance might involve a wide range of other activities aimed at intensifying and improving ongoing SEO efforts. For instance, it could include conducting in-depth keyword research and writing high-quality content. Of course, it's the kind of ongoing SEO maintenance that's a bit more expensive, as it takes a lot of time and effort.

Why is SEO maintenance important?

At first, SEO maintenance might seem like an unnecessary cost. However, in our opinion, putting in the effort and actually implementing some SEO maintenance practices is definitely worth the hassle. It has a number of benefits, most of which are outlined below.

Adapting to updates to search engine algorithms

As you might already know, search engine algorithms are always changing. A certain SEO strategy might do wonders for your website's organic traffic for a month or two. Then, it might tank its rankings in a single day due to a small algorithm update.

Ongoing SEO maintenance can definitely come in handy in such a situation. With its help, you can keep an eye on your website's performance in search engines prior to and after any update. If the update ends up causing the website's rankings in major search engines to tank, you can take action immediately and mitigate any and all damage that might've occured. On the other hand, if the algorithm in question ends up having a positive impact, SEO maintenance could help you figure out how to take advantage of it.

Improving search engine rankings and organic traffic

As we have already mentioned, SEO maintenance can cover things that go far beyond regular website monitoring. For example, it might include conducting in-depth keyword research and writing high-quality content targeting specific keywords. In such a scenario, SEO maintenance is likely to lead to improved search engine rankings and an increase in organic traffic.

Just think about it! When you combine following a basic SEO maintenance checklist with implementing a more complex SEO strategy aimed at increasing your website's position in search engine results, ranking higher in search results is almost guaranteed.

Enhancing user experience

Search engine bots don't really perceive website pages in the same way as humans do. A bot might not be able to appreciate how pretty a certain font is or how smooth the animations a website features are. Still, search engine bots do reward websites that cater to user needs. If you make your website more pleasant to browse for its users, search engines are likely to find it more attractive as well.

To give an example, you probably find broken links to be a bit frustrating. Running into quite a few such links on any website is probably going to result in you having a poor user experience, right? Search engines know that, which caused broken links to be taken into account when determining website visibility in search results. If your website doesn't contain broken links, it's probably going to be viewed a bit more favorably than the one that does.

Now, back to SEO maintenance. In general, monthly SEO maintenance includes checking for broken links. In addition, it covers other things that website users find annoying, such as slow loading times and outdated website content. Consequently, if you choose to prioritize SEO maintenance, your website is probably going to become more accessible and user-friendly.

Identifying and fixing issues

Investing in SEO maintenance means that you will always have an experienced SEO specialist at your disposal. While working on your website, they will be there to identify and, if possible, fix certain issues that you might be dealing with. To give an example, they can check whether some of your website pages have their duplicates in your content management system.

How do SEO specialists find out such things? Well, they have a number of useful tools at their disposal, including crawlers. Crawlers go through each and every single page on your website and report every issue they come across in the process back to the person who is operating them. If a crawler stumbles upon a broken link or three copies of the same landing page, it's going to be included in the final report outlining the crawler's findings.

Once such an issue is identified, an SEO specialist should be able to fix it in no time. In the majority of cases, SEO specialists have in-depth knowledge of content management systems, as well as some coding skills, among other things. Fixing something as small as a few broken links isn't going to take long. On the flip side, if they end up running into a more complex issue, they should be able to work in tandem with a developer or a content specialist and have it fixed as soon as possible.

Building long-term authority with search engines

Last but not least, website maintenance could help you with building long-term authority with major search engines. This happens in three different ways.

To begin with, SEO maintenance that includes content creation and optimization could involve working on articles or pages that cover topics that could impact a reader's health, financial stability, safety, or well-being. These pages are known as your money or your life pages (YMYL) and they have a huge impact on your SEO efforts. The better these pages are, the higher search engine rankings you will be able to achieve. Why? It shows search engines that you care about your users and that you are providing them with highly valuable information.

Creating high-quality your money or your life pages should, as a side effect, help increase your brand's experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. These things, also known as E-E-A-T, also have an impact on the effectiveness of the SEO strategies you are executing. Again, search engines want you to provide your website visitors with genuine value. So, if your website contains loads of authoritative content that's based on genuine experience and expertise, it's bound to have a positive impact on your competitiveness and prominence in search results.

Going-live SEO configuration vs. Ongoing SEO maintenance

Whether you're planning on building a website from scratch or migrating it, the entire process will probably involve some basic SEO configuration. However, this kind of configuration is not the same as an ongoing SEO maintenance task. Below, we will talk about the most important differences between the two.

New website SEO configuration

If your website is just being launched, you will need to lay a foundation for its success in search engine results. This foundation includes things like choosing a good domain name, outlining your site's structure, and setting up search engine optimization tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

In case you're preparing for a site migration, you will need to prepare a site migration checklist. This list might cover mapping old URLs to new URLs, planning which pages to redirect and which to delete, and updating the site's DNS settings.

In both of these scenarios, you're not dealing with ongoing SEO maintenance. Instead, you're either taking care of the absolute basics that will get you properly acknowledged by search engine crawlers or making sure that your website doesn't disappear from search engine results after its migration.

Of course, the definition of absolute basics differs depending on what SEO specialist or SEO company you go to. In some companies, a new website SEO configuration package might include a whole lot more than just the above-mentioned fundamentals. This, in turn, might mean that, in spite of purchasing a new website SEO optimization package, you're getting some services that fall into the category of regular SEO maintenance.

Basic SEO maintenance

As for basic SEO maintenance, it's mostly about checking up on your website and making sure that it's doing fine. In our case, our basic SEO maintenance package covers website performance monitoring, website loading speed monitoring, fixing broken links, checking your website's indexability, and performing on-page audits. Here is a more in-depth explanation of these terms.

• Website performance monitoring - Tracking a website's overall performance and statistics based on Google Search Console. The things we pay attention to include traffic numbers, bounce rates, time users spent on specific pages, and performance of target keywords in keyword rankings.

• Website loading speed monitoring - Checking load times to ensure fast access for users. As page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of users bouncing increases by 32 percent. With that in mind, it's safe to say that the faster a website loads, the better.

• Fix broken and redirected links - Repairing or replacing non-working 301 or 404 links. Keeps site healthy and user-friendly. Nobody likes clicking on a button only to end up on a page that doesn't exist, right?

• Indexability check - Before a page appears on the search results page, it has to be indexed. In other words, a search engine bot has to access that page, analyze it, and deem it worthy of appearing in a given search engine. If a certain page hasn't been indexed yet, an indexability check will help you identify that page and then make sure that it gets indexed as soon as possible.

• On-page auditing - Checking for on-page SEO issues like missing meta tags, missing headers, and duplicate content. While a missing meta tag might not seem that important, such small issues do add up. An audit helps you limit the said small issues to an absolute minimum.

If you want us to do even more in terms of SEO, you just have to ask! We offer plenty of different modules that include many other SEO activities. It all depends on your budget and your needs.

Is SEO a monthly service?

In general, SEO should be a monthly service. If you choose to invest in SEO services for a month, give up, and then end up investing in SEO services for a month again, you're unlikely to see any real results. As with many other things in life, proper SEO requires patience and consistency to bring you the results you need.

Besides, keep in mind that search engines change. The same goes for your website visitors. Their behaviors and preferences are also subject to change. Worse yet, your competition is bound to keep investing in new websites features and publishing new content. If you don't adapt, you will end up losing a lot of money fairly quickly. Taking that into consideration, you should perceive search engine optimization as an ongoing process that never truly ends.

How much does it cost to maintain SEO?

Our basic SEO maintenance package include six to eight hours of SEO maintenance work a month. During that time, we can take care of the things listed in the basic SEO maintenance checklist. Sometimes, we might have enough time left to do something extra, like writing a short article targeting relevant keywords, conducting keyword research, or optimizing meta descriptions.

Monthly SEO maintenance services are definitely worth investing in!

While the cost of SEO maintenance may vary depending on your specific needs and goals, the potential benefits far outweigh the investment. Whether you opt for basic monitoring services or a more comprehensive package that includes content creation and advanced optimization, regular SEO maintenance can help you stay ahead of the competition, maintain your search engine rankings, and continue to attract and engage your target audience.

Don't let your hard-earned SEO efforts go to waste. Take the first step towards securing your website's future success today. Our team is ready to help you develop and implement a tailored SEO maintenance strategy that fits your unique needs and goals. Visit our contact page, schedule a consultation, and learn how we can help your website reach its full potential in search engine results.