A question such as how often should SEO be done is something we are often asked. The truth is that SEO should be an ongoing process that is constantly evaluated and updated. It is not a one-time task that you can simply check off your to-do list and forget about.
The frequency of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) activities will depend on various factors such as the size and complexity of your website, the competitiveness of your industry, and the level of optimisation you’ve already achieved. It also depends on your goals and the resources available to you too. As your goals and initiatives change, so will the direction of your SEO campaigns. This is a key factor in determining how often should SEO be done for your business or organisation.
However, as a general guideline, it is recommended that you conduct an SEO audit and review at least once every 3 to 6 months to ensure that your website is fully optimised, up-to-date with the latest best practices, and aligned with the current search engine algorithms.
Search engines like new, fresh content on a regular basis that keep their user base the best informed – after all that’s why we keep going back to using the same search engine such as Google over and over because it gives us generally what we want.
In addition to regular audits, you should also continuously monitor and analyze your website’s performance metrics and make adjustments as needed. This may involve ongoing keyword research, content creation, link building, and technical optimization to ensure that your website remains competitive in search results and drives targeted traffic to your site. This is why how often SEO should be done is determined by how your website is performing right now and where you want it to get to.
What is SEO?
SEO is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic from search engines through organic search results (although you can also achieve this through pay-per-click, PPC, which costs per click).
The goal of SEO is to make a website more visible and relevant to search engine users by optimizing various aspects of the website.
SEO involves both on-page and off-page optimization techniques. On-page optimization includes optimizing the website’s content, structure, and technical aspects, while off-page optimization involves building high-quality backlinks and establishing a strong online presence.
The main objective of SEO is to improve the website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to the website’s content or business. By ranking higher in search results, your website is more likely to attract traffic and potential customers and save you money on PPC.
Good SEO involves following best practices and adhering to search engine guidelines. It requires ongoing effort and attention to detail, as search engines continually update their algorithms and ranking factors, and competitors may also be working to improve their own search rankings.
Why is SEO Important?
SEO is important for a variety of factors and reasons:
- Increased visibility and traffic: SEO helps your website appear higher in search engine results pages, which increases its visibility and exposure to potential customers. The higher your website appears in search results, the more likely it is that users will click through to your website, resulting in increased traffic.
- Better user experience: Good SEO involves making sure that your website is user-friendly and provides a good experience for visitors. This can include optimizing your site’s structure, improving page load speed, and ensuring that your content is relevant, informative, and easy to read. A positive user experience can lead to increased engagement, longer visit times, and improved conversion rates.
- Improved credibility and authority: When your website appears at the top of search engine results, it can improve your brand’s credibility and authority in users’ eyes. A high search engine ranking is seen as an endorsement of the relevance and quality of your content, which can increase user trust and loyalty.
- Cost-effective marketing: Compared to other forms of marketing, SEO can be relatively cost-effective, as it doesn’t require paying for ad space or other forms of promotion. However, it does require a significant investment of time and effort to achieve and maintain good results.
SEO is important because it helps you reach a larger audience, improve user experience, and increase credibility and authority. If you build your organic SEO search you also achieve free traffic to your website and this will determine how often SEO should be done for your organisation.
What are the Benefits of Regularly Performing SEO?
The are several reasons why SEO should be completed regularly and be part of your ongoing digital marketing whether you’re in business or not for profit:
- Search engine algorithms change frequently: Search engines such as Google regularly update their algorithms, which can affect how your website is ranked in search results. By staying up-to-date with the latest best practices and algorithm updates, you can ensure that your website remains optimized and continues to perform well in search results.
- Competitors may be optimizing their websites: Your competitors may be investing in SEO and working to improve their search engine rankings, which can impact your own website’s visibility and traffic. Regularly conducting SEO activities can help you stay ahead of the competition and maintain a competitive edge.
- Website content and technology may become outdated: Over time, your website’s content and technology may become outdated and need to be updated. Regularly reviewing and updating your website’s content, structure, and technical aspects can help ensure that it remains relevant and user-friendly.
- User behaviour and search trends may change: User behaviour and search trends can change over time, and what worked well in the past may not be as effective in the present. Regularly conducting keyword research and analyzing user behaviour can help you identify new opportunities to improve your website’s performance in search results.
SEO should be thought of at all times in relation to your digital marketing efforts. This will ensure that your website remains optimised and continues to perform well in search results, while also staying up-to-date with the latest best practices and algorithm updates. How often SEO should be done will again be driven what work needs to be completed to ensure your site is optimised.
Where Do You Start with SEO?
If you’re just starting out with SEO then here are some quick tips:
- Set clear goals: Define what you want to achieve with SEO, such as increasing website traffic, improving keyword rankings, or generating more leads. This will help you focus your efforts and measure success.
- Conduct keyword research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for or that are relevant to your business using a keyword tool. Often what we think people are searching for isn’t the case, so make sure you use keyword research tools to identify high-volume, low-competition keywords that you can target on your website. You don’t want to go after keywords that at this time are too competitive or don’t get any searches each month. You need to be strategic for a greater return on investment in time or money which is why you need to look at the average search volumes of the keywords you wish to rank for.
- Optimize your website: Make sure your website is optimised for search engines by optimising on-page elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content. Ensure that your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate in its current state before you move forwards. You’ll likely see an immediate improvement and you’re setting up the foundations for better results from the outset.
- Build high-quality backlinks: Establish a strong online presence by building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. This can help improve your website’s authority and increase its visibility in search results. This can take time to build up, so take a look at who you link to currently before you begin your strategy in this direction. Don’t forget to also maintain your internal links too to ensure search engines can find new content quickly and easily.
- Monitor and analyse performance: Use web analytics tools to monitor your website’s performance and track key metrics such as website traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates. Use this data to identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly. If it’s seen a drop, use this information to find out what’s happening and move forwards with this newfound information. You can simply do this by installing Google Analytics – and if your site doesn’t use this already, install it as soon as possible.
- Stay up-to-date with best practices: SEO is an ever-evolving field, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices and algorithm updates. Follow reputable SEO blogs and forums, attend industry events to keep yourself informed, or find someone who has their finger on the pulse in the industry.
It’s important to keep in mind that SEO is a long-term process that requires ongoing effort and attention to detail no matter how futile it may seem. It is likely that if you’re just starting out, then you need to get your organic SEO moving which means your answer to how often SEO should be done is going to be often and frequent to get get the ball rolling in the right direction. If your SEO is considered during a new build then this can remove some of the hard work needed afterwards.
What Are the Benefits of a Technical SEO Audit?
A technical SEO audit is a process of analysing a website’s technical infrastructure to identify issues and opportunities for improvement that may affect its search engine visibility and performance.
A technical SEO audit will highlight technical SEO issues and typically involves a comprehensive review of the website’s backend systems, such as its server settings, site architecture, URL structure, page speed, and other technical factors that impact search engine crawlability and indexation.
The main objective of a technical SEO audit is to ensure that a website is optimized for search engines and is technically sound to ensure its best performance. The audit also helps to identify technical errors or issues that may impact the user experience and helps to eliminate them, resulting in better rankings and user satisfaction.
During the technical SEO audit, a trained professional will use various tools and techniques to assess and analyze the website’s technical infrastructure. It will also show you in comparison to your competitors how often seo should be done.
They will look for issues such as crawl errors, broken links, duplicate content, incorrect meta tags, and other technical factors that may affect search engine rankings. Once identified, the auditor will recommend solutions and create a plan for remediation.
Some of the key areas of a technical SEO audit include:
- Site speed, load time and performance,
- Site architecture and hierarchy,
- URL structure and redirects,
- Meta data relating to meta titles and descriptions,
- Sitemap and robots.txt file,
- Duplicate content checks,
- Mobile-friendliness,
- Structured data and schema markup,
- Content issues,
- SSL and security,
- Indexation and crawlability,
- The severity of issues to fix,
- Internal and inbound links linking structure,
- and more.
The findings and recommendations of a technical SEO audit can help website owners and marketers to improve their website’s search engine visibility and user experience, resulting in better rankings, more traffic, and increased conversions.
The Relationship Between Content Marketing and SEO
Content and SEO are inherently intertwined, and both are critical components of a successful digital marketing strategy. Content is the backbone of SEO, and without high-quality content, it’s difficult to achieve a strong search engine presence.
Here’s why content in relation to SEO is so important:
- Search engines prioritise high-quality content: Search engines are designed to deliver the most relevant and useful content to users. They evaluate website content to determine its relevance and quality and use this information to rank websites in search results. This means that high-quality content is essential to achieving a strong search engine presence. Google made this clear in their “helpful content update” in the backend of 2022.
- Content is an opportunity to target specific keywords: By creating high-quality content that targets specific keywords, search terms and phrases, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings for those keywords. This can help you attract more targeted traffic to your site and generate more leads. You can do this via a frequent blog post about a topic relating to your target market which aligns with your SEO strategy.
- Content generates backlinks: Creating high-quality content that is valuable and informative can attract backlinks from other websites. Backlinks are an important factor in search engine rankings, and having a strong backlink profile can help boost your website’s visibility in search results.
- Content drives user engagement: High-quality content that is engaging and informative can improve user engagement and increase the likelihood that users will share your content with others. This can help to generate more traffic and attract new leads to your website.
By creating high-quality content that targets specific keywords and is designed to engage and inform your target audience, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings and drive more traffic and leads to your site. You also build your online authority and expertise and can also have fun with multiple content strategies to increase your organic traffic.
Content writing can take time which is why many shun SEO, but the truth is, your piece of content should be seen as an asset to your business. Your content strategy will also drive how often SEO should be done at your organisation. If it’s important you will be optimising and creating content often if you want to see results.
As long as you create relevant content your SEO content will serve you well long after you have written it, sometimes years into the future. Content marketing is one of those SEO techniques many companies are now implementing which means you can no longer ignore it to be successful online. All SEO specialists know the importance content has to play when it comes to your SEO marketing. There is however no optimal frequency for content creation, just that it’s frequent, relevant and high quality.
For example, a blog post is a type of content that should keep up to date that can keep working for you long after you have written it. You can simply repurpose it and use your SEO reports to guide you so that you improve your SEO performance year after year whilst building even more fresh content at the same time.
How Often SEO Should Be Done: FAQs
Here are some common questions relating to how often SEO should be done:
How Long Does SEO Take?
The amount of time it takes to see results from SEO efforts can vary widely and depends on several factors, such as the competitiveness of the industry, the level of optimization already in place, and the size and complexity of the website.
There is no “one size fits all” as each website is unique. However, depending on the search competition you can generally see results with a rise in the ranking from two weeks and 6-12 months. Just keep improving your content every quarter if it starts to drop.
It’s important to note that some changes may take longer to see significant results, especially if they involve on-page optimisations or link-building efforts.
In these cases, it may be more appropriate to review your analytics on a quarterly or biannual basis to better gauge the effectiveness of your SEO efforts over time. You will likely be moving in the right direction even if you’re not seeing the results you’d like immediately.
How Often Should SEO Analytics Be Reviewed?
it’s recommended that you review your SEO analytics at least once a month to keep track of your website’s performance and identify areas for improvement.
Monthly reviews can help you track changes in website traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates, and can provide insights into which pages and keywords are performing well and which ones need improvement. Reviewing your strategy on a quarterly basis is a good idea if you need to change your overarching strategy.
By regularly reviewing your SEO analytics, you can make data-driven decisions and adjust your strategy as needed. This also means you can plan for seasonal content and trends too.
How Often Should You Post New Content to Your Website?
This largely depends on your strategy and competition. Ideally, you want to blog posting twice a week, but, you are better off writing high-quality content which is 1200 words or longer than frequent content that is 500 words or less. That’s because high-quality content is seen as more valuable by search engines.
To start seeing significant results and prove your relevancy, you want to aim for 80-100 articles over time. This is when you will start to see a big shift in your position – especially if you are operating in a competitive online market in regard to organic search. Adding an article from time to time is not going to get you the best results. You need to be consistent. This is why having a content calendar is also a good idea.
When Should You Consider Updating Your SEO Plan?
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try you just can’t make traction with your chosen keyword. If it’s been over a year, it might be time to change tact with a keyword.
Sometimes you might want your content on your website to show you’re an expert in your field, not to necessarily be there to rank, in that case, it’s fine.
However, if it’s been over a year for a keyword to rank and it’s still 100+ you need to rethink the strategy. You may need to rewrite the content and optimise it for a less competitive keyword or longtail keyword, or you may need to optimise the content to meet the market requirements. You can find out this from rank tracking and using your SEO performance report. SEO professionals will also be able to assist you with this too to help you make the right decisions.
Are FAQs Good for SEO?
Adding FAQs to your SEO articles is a good strategy to use. Not only can you provide a wider amount of keywords to your content, but you can directly answer questions being asked online in relation to your topic. It ensures what you are writing about is covering the topic in-depth and not just at a surface level. The should play a part in your SEO process and help improve your SEO scores.
Isn’t Using an SEO Plugin Enough?
Sadly there is a lot more to SEO than meeting the requirements of an SEO plugin. Just because you score 100% doesn’t mean your content will rank highly. You need to make sure that your content is highly credible and optimised, that your site is technically sound, that you have researched your topic and understand what people are really looking for online and a whole host of other factors. It’s not as simple as it used to be anymore, simply because the Internet and websites are more competitive than ever.
Why Do Search Engines Need to Adjust Their Algorithms Frequently?
Search engines need to adjust their algorithms frequently in order to provide the best search results to their users. The internet is constantly evolving and the content available on it is always changing, which means that search engines need to keep up with these changes in order to deliver the most relevant and useful search results.
As technology and user behaviour evolve, search engines need to adapt their algorithms to keep up with these changes. For example, as more people use mobile devices to access the internet, search engines need to adjust their algorithms to ensure that mobile-friendly websites are given higher priority in search results.
Search engines also need to adjust their algorithms to prevent spam and other low-quality content from ranking highly in search results. This helps ensure that users are presented with high-quality and trustworthy content when they conduct a search.
By adjusting their algorithms frequently, search engines can stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technology, and can continue to provide the best search results to their users. This is why it’s important to stay up to date with all aspects of SEO so you retain a high SEO health score in the eyes of search engines in relation to your industry. It’s also why it’s important to have high-quality SEO practices in place so you don’t get penalised when algorithms change.
Summary
In conclusion, how often should SEO be done is simple to answer. SEO is an ongoing process that requires consistent attention and updates.
- The frequency of SEO activities depends on various factors, including the size and complexity of your website, the competitiveness of your industry, and your goals and resources.
- Conducting regular SEO audits, monitoring performance metrics, and analysing user behaviour are essential to maintain a competitive edge and driving targeted traffic to your website.
- Technical SEO audits can help identify technical errors or issues that may affect search engine rankings and user experience.
- Content and SEO are intertwined, and high-quality content is critical to achieving a strong search engine presence.
- By following best practices and adhering to search engine guidelines, you can improve visibility, credibility, and authority while driving traffic and leads to your website.
Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy that requires ongoing effort and attention to detail, but the benefits are well worth the investment to attract free traffic to your website and for your site to fulfil its potential. Hopefully this article has helped you understand more how often SEO should be done.
