Most people understand the basics of search engine optimization. They understand that there are various elements of a website that need to be updated in a way that is “readable” by the search engines, even if they don’t know which elements those are or what the proper way of updating them is. But a lot of folks ask: Is SEO a one-and-done service? Once a site is optimized, is that all there is to it? Or is SEO maintenance necessary?

The short answer is no, SEO is not a one-and-done service.

Having all of the proper elements of a site optimized is only one part of SEO. The search engines’ algorithms also look at how recently websites – and their individual pages – were optimized. So if you look at SEO as a one-and-done service, you will likely get a bump in the immediate time after making the changes. But as soon as one competitor…and the next…and the next update their sites, you lose your edge. The older your changes become, the less effective they are.

SEO maintenance is all but required these days. The work is not nearly as in-depth as the initial optimization. And not all pages need re-optimization at once. One tactic is to take a look at your Google Analytics, see which pages have a high number of impressions but a low click-through rate, then prioritize those for your SEO maintenance efforts to try and get the click-through rate higher. Another way to perform SEO maintenance is to look at queries driving traffic to your site, compare that to your bounce rate, then optimize existing pages or create new pages around those terms. In any case, you’re killing multiple SEO birds with one stone – fresh content built around targeted queries, a better user experience based on fresh, targeted content, and all the little pieces the algorithms look for in a site.

The SEO team at Asterisk Creative understands SEO maintenance first hand. They spend their days putting SEO best practices in place, and staying on top of changes made to the algorithms. This keeps our clients’ optimization efforts and SEO maintenance plans can also be on point. Ready to take your optimization efforts to the next level? Give us a shout today!