“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” - Sun-Tzu
Truth…businesses are going to struggle for a while.
But the reality is that businesses and dental practices will eventually open again. So in the meantime, while your dental practice is closed should you shut down your SEO?
Yes and No. Practices in smaller markets may find shutting down SEO to have no negative effects on their rankings while in highly competitive markets it might be a different story.
Before shutting down your dental practice’s SEO ask yourself two crucial questions.
1. Where do I currently rank?
Unfortunately, Google’s algorithm updates and searches aren’t shutting down during this pandemic. Short-term traffic may have dropped or slowed but unlike most paid advertising; the focus of SEO is the long-term nature of ensuring that your website ranks well. While many dental practices are shut down and experiencing short term losses in the next several months, planning for the future and optimizing for upcoming initiatives ensure that your practice is best positioned to hit the ground running.
Now, chances are that your competitors have also shut down their SEO. For those competing with these dental practices, you’re presented with a unique chance to either “catch up” or surpass them all together.
2. How competitive is my market?
If you’re in a competitive market, chances are your competitors are doing some sort of SEO. This means that if you’re also doing SEO you’re both growing. Hopefully, you have the better SEO strategy.
Dental practices that shut down their SEO now will likely be the ones asking why their competitors are outranking them in a few months causing them to reinvest heavily into SEO or paid search ads to stay relevant on Google search results.
It is not uncommon for businesses to stop and start SEO. Unlike some other digital marketing tactics, the benefits of SEO can last longer and carry over for some time. So review both your short-term and long-term goals before shutting down SEO.
Stay safe! For questions, please contact Adam at adam@beyondmarketingsolutionsllc.com.