A lot has changed over these past few months, which has inevitably caused many companies to re-work their strategies, re-balance their budgets, and rethink their day-to-day marketing activities. At Eden, we understand that aligning your marketing goals with the “new normal” can be a tricky task, especially when your small- to medium-sized business has so many moving parts. At times, it can be tempting to cut down on organic elements, like content marketing and SEO, but we’ll break down below why it’s important to stick with them.

Content Marketing and SEO are a Long-Term Commitment

Most recently, we were surprised to discover that only 64% of marketers actively invest time in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (source: HubSpot). If you find yourself in that percentage, congratulations, you’re already ahead of the curve!

Of course, the keyword here is to “invest.” Unlike putting money towards Google Ads and other forms of advertising, you likely won’t see instant results from SEO and content marketing. 2-6 months after proper optimization, however, your dividends will start to pay off! And while it can be tempting to pursue immediate returns, industry research, along with our personal experience, has continuously demonstrated how much of an asset organic marketing can be.

Just like with any long-term commitment, however, you need to constantly and consistently nurture it in order for it to be healthy. 

Consider this:

• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. (Source: DemandMetric)
• Conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (Source: Aberdeen)
• 58% of marketers said “original written content” is the most important type of content, outdoing visuals and videos. (Source: Social Media Examiner)
• The Google Algorithm is always shifting and reinventing the rules of SEO
• Search engines have long favoured fresh, relevant content that fulfills the needs of searchers in the present moment

By Cutting Down on SEO and Content, You May be Boosting Your Competitors’ Rankings

If you quit cold turkey or even trim down on your constant flow of content, you’ll be doing more than just losing points for yourself, you may in fact be helping your competitors!

If you stop monitoring relevant keywords, hold off on any technical SEO fixes, and discontinue or slow down content, your competitors have that much more of a chance to push ahead. This may seem counterintuitive to some that come back with:

“But… we’ve put so much effort into our content and SEO already, isn’t that enough?”

Unfortunately, that may not be the case. While you take a breather from the hard work you’ve put in over the months or years, others have an opportunity to slip in and rank ahead of you in the meantime. There’s never any guarantee that you’ll stay #1, but the last thing you want to do is lower your odds of maintaining first-page rankings.

On the flip side, some of your competitors may be slowing down their SEO and content development during COVID-19, which can give you a better chance to climb to the top faster, and earn a higher return on your investment sooner, rather than later.

Keep Things Fresh, Relevant, and Engaging

Although there are best practices to adhere to, we always maintain the old adage, “quality over quantity.”

As long as you have a solid content strategy mapped out and a process for monitoring SEO, monthly maintenance should be fairly easy. Just keeping things fresh, relevant, and engaging for your target audience, is already a major plus for your company!

Need help creating engaging content and quality SEO? Get in touch with our team to get on the path towards optimization and audience engagement!