You may not have perceived SEO burnout before, but chances are you or someone you know has. Common signs and symptoms include:
- Sweaty palms at the mere mention of “reviews.”
- An ache in the pit of your stomach when you realize your search traffic has unexpectedly dropped.
- Loss of delight in activities you usually enjoy (such as optimizing your blog posts for search engines).
There is currently no cure for SEO Company burnout, but there are steps you can take to reduce its effects and possibly even reignite your passion for all things SEO.
Take a break from your SEO
If spending time on your analysis isn’t helping or is making your burnout worse, it might be time to take a little gap from all that SEO stuff. That means you don’t have to worry about traffic, reading the latest Google updates, and re-optimizing old content to rank desperately.
While you shouldn’t leave your SEO on gyro pilot for too long, sometimes a short break can be enough. After a few days, you might want to repeat it with renewed energy.
Network with fellow business owners or search engine marketers
Sometimes, it can be contagious to surround yourself with enthusiastic and passionate people about SEO. Hearing them talk about their latest SEO strategy or success may be the medicine you need to heal (or at least treat) your burnout.
Make Time for Things You Enjoy
Since most SEO tasks are done online, or at least on a computer, I encourage you to take some time to do something you enjoy offline. Running (or walking), eating out, playing with my dog.
Just make sure it’s something you like (and bonus points, we have to track everything if it’s a guilty pleasure).
Doing something I enjoy gives me new insights into my business, website, or SEO strategy. That gives me the motivation to take matters into my own hands and make things happen.
Commit to Working intensely in little time
One cause of SEO burnout is simply devoting too much time to completing SEO tasks.
I’m sure you’ve heard or read about 4Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. While running a business four hours a week is not feasible for most business owners, the techniques he recommends are all about using the time you have as efficiently as possible.
Decide how much time you devote to SEO and then stick with it. Set a timer, put it on your almanac, have a responsible partner; it doesn’t matter. Just make sure you don’t let SEO take over your life.
Outsource Your SEO
Assuming you’re not an SEO or search marketing professional, your burnout might be trying to tell you something. Namely, it’s time to let someone other take control of SEO so you can focus on running your business.
SEO can be time-consuming and very technical, and sometimes you have to bite the bullet and outsource it.
Spend time with your potential audience or target market
When I lose touch with my audience’s wants and needs, burnout often begins to set in. It becomes about rankings, optimization, and traffic rather than people, problems, and solutions.
Focus on creating quality and valuable content that is well optimized and well promoted. Even if you do this and nothing else, chances are you’ll see an increase in rankings and traffic, which is always great for keeping you motivated.
Spend quality time with your first love, your analytics
The analysis of your website is the basis of your SEO strategy. They’ll tell you how much search traffic you’re getting, which posts or pages are performing best, and what content needs help in the SEO department.
I find that devoting a bit of time poking around in my analytics tends to give me new energy and reminds me why I never cared about SEO in the first place.
This is especially true when I look at my conversion rates—nothing like seeing a drop in conversion rates to remind me why SEO is important.
Back to basics
SEO burnout is more likely to occur when you let things get too complicated. While the technical aspects of SEO are undoubtedly important, if you’re feeling burned out, it’s probably time to get back to basics.
So what are the basics? Start with some basic keyword research and optimize your on-page content.
First, research popular keywords and phrases that you know you can write great content about. Use these keywords as a beginning point for finding an overall theme for your content and related topics and subheadings you can incorporate.
Then use these keywords in the title tag, headers, URL, and all content. This trick is relatively simple, but it can still yield tremendous rewards. It’s a surefire solution to burnout.
In a nutshell
If you’re struggling with SEO burnout, you’re not alone. Most business owners and even SEO and marketing professionals have been there at least once. Fortunately, it won’t last forever if you take steps to mitigate its effects. I hope you found this helpful.
