{"id":1531,"date":"2022-07-27T17:55:55","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2022-07-27T18:21:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T18:21:04","slug":"does-seo-still-work-in-a-recession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/seo\/does-seo-still-work-in-a-recession\/","title":{"rendered":"Does SEO Still Work in a Recession?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s pretty clear we\u2019re headed for a recession if we\u2019re not already in one. If you haven\u2019t checked out our other recent post, you should make sure you <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/ppc\/how-to-prepare-a-business-for-2022-recession\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">plan your business for a recession<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. What I\u2019d like to focus on here is SEO though.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019ve been working with Google long enough, you can start to identify what they do to prop up quarterly earnings all the time. It\u2019s incredible. For example, in Q4 2021 it became clear to us that Google\u2019s algorithm in PPC was getting reckless with overspend on completely garbage traffic. Overspend issues that would only happen once a quarter happened 5x a month as Google tweaked their algorithm to dial up the aggressiveness of spend largely on traffic with minimal value. You wonder why nobody trusts Google\u2026let\u2019s just say as a 15-year veteran of the industry, that distrust is well-earned at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what is Google doing right now? The standard \u201cfill the entire SERP up with ads before the organic listings\u201d play. See below, everything in red is ads and there\u2019s 1 organic listing in this SERP now:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-1532\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image1-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"756\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image1-1.png 1308w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image1-1-300x214.png 300w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image1-1-768x548.png 768w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image1-1-1024x731.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 756px) 100vw, 756px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The filter by ability on the left is a new feature they\u2019ve been testing lately. Being able to service both PPC &amp; SEO for most of our clients, we\u2019ve been able to see first hand how this has taken some traffic from SEO and directed it to Google Shopping. Many keywords that haven\u2019t changed rank in SEO have simply lost some volume.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So does this mean that we should stop investing in SEO?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>No, that is pure insanity and it baffles me that some people actually think this.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s do some simple math for PPC.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our average client is spending somewhere around $70k per month in ad spend (low $10k, high $1mm+, quite the disparity).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They pay us a percentage of ad spend fee to manage that spend, let\u2019s say 11% ($7,700).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So every single month they\u2019re paying $77,700 for sales via PPC.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now for SEO let\u2019s say:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have a $7,000 per month retainer with us.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s no direct associated ad cost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>This means that they could have an SEO agency do consistent growth work on their website for 11 months before they spend what they\u2019re spending in <\/b><b>1 MONTH<\/b><b> in PPC<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And what happens when SEO results continue to improve more and more? The initiative gets more and more profitable, which is wild. We have some clients where the ROAS on SEO is over $1,000. You ain\u2019t getting that on PPC. Ever. Period.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This high-profit spend once it gains traction unlocks the brand\u2019s ability to invest more in PPC &#8211; a rising tide lifts all boats. A super conservative model goes something like this (keeping PPC stable for the sake of example too, ideally we\u2019d scale that as well!):<\/span><\/p>\n<table style=\"font-family: var(--secondaryfont); margin-bottom: 30px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO Investment<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO Rev.<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PPC Investment<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PPC Rev<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total Rev<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total ROAS<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$5,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$205,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.42<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$5,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$205,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.42<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$5,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$205,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.42<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$207,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.44<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$10,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$210,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.48<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$13,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$213,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.51<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$15,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$215,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.54<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$20,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$220,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.60<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$25,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$225,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.66<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Month 10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$7,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$30,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$77,700<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$200,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$230,000<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$2.72<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In what we\u2019d consider a \u201clay up\u201d situation, SEO increased the overall profitability of the department by 12.4% (from $2.42 &gt; $2.72). Now as a business owner, you can either choose to reinvest that profit into MORE PPC and push it harder until you get back down to a $2.42 ROAS like we started with, OR you can simply enjoy the profit increase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The point is, SEO can be an almost infinitely increasing ROAS play. PPC cannot.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>But How is SEO Different in a Recession?<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image1-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image1-1-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image1-1-768x336.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It really isn\u2019t to be honest. The biggest difference is that Google may get a little more annoying with ads to help prop up their profitability. SEO is an \u201ceasy expense to cut\u201d because it\u2019s not an immediately profitable expense and people think they can cut it and not see a business revenue loss right away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The opportunity cost though is massive. You should not be an online brand and cut your SEO strategy completely when for most of our brands it\u2019s ~30% of their website traffic and revenue. To leave that traffic completely neglected is reckless at best. The bigger issue is the opportunity cost that comes with not investing in SEO during a downturn while others are cutting their marketing budgets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO is a very competitive market, this trait it shares with PPC. But during a recession, SEO tends to get cut first which means everyone else is cutting it too. You know what this means? Everyone else is getting stuck in the mud, so <\/span><b>brands that continue to evolve their SEO strategy in a recession will come out WAY ahead<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>But Are People Even Clicking Organic Listings if They\u2019re Buried?<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1543\" src=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image2-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image2-1-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image2-1-768x336.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hubspot.com\/marketing-statistics\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">63% of people click on ads<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, this also means that 37% of Google users do NOT click on ads! Google commands almost 85% of market share, so that 37% represents millions upon millions of users that you\u2019re completely ignoring if your strategy is a PPC ONLY strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s abundantly clear that every data point imaginable points to the incredible value SEO can drive when it\u2019s done right (emphasis on DONE RIGHT). Read up on our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/seo\/e-commerce-seo-expert-strategies-tips-digital-position\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ecommerce SEO strategies &amp; tips<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to take matters into your own hands, or hire out if you need more help. Don\u2019t use a recession as an excuse to hire some cheap \u201cwe\u2019ll get you #1!\u201d agency. Digital Position is a world-class <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/seo-services-agency\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO agency<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that\u2019s here to build your success story and get you through the tough times. Do SEO right, build a solid brand presence, and your wallet will thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s pretty clear we\u2019re headed for a recession if we\u2019re not already in one. If you haven\u2019t checked out our other recent post, you should make sure you plan your business for a recession. What I\u2019d like to focus on here is SEO though. If you\u2019ve been working with Google long enough, you can start&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"thumbnail_src":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/BlogCover1-1-300x168.jpg","thumbnail_medium_src":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/BlogCover1-1.jpg","featured_image_src":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/BlogCover1-1.jpg","author_avatar_src":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/roger2.jpg","author_name":"Roger Parent","category_labels":["SEO"],"tag_labels":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1544,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/1544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.digitalposition.com\/resources\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}