We've been here before, with many local businesses still reeling from the recent pandemic-induced lockdowns.

In an economic downturn businesses - much like consumers - tend to cut back on their spending, and that can often mean stopping or scaling back investment in all aspects of digital marketing, including SEO. 

But is cutting SEO budgets in a recession a good idea, or is now the time to double down? 

The risks of reducing local SEO budgets in a downturn

Sure there may be fewer potential customers out there, but they still exist. They may also tend to spend less in a downturn, but they will still spend something on the goods and services that they need.

Taking a long term view toward your marketing investment during a downturn can pay off. A McGraw-Hill Research study looked at 600 companies between 1980 and 1985 and found those who maintained or raised their level of advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession had significantly higher sales once the economy recovered. In fact those that advertised more aggressively during the same recession had 256% higher sales than those that stopped advertising.

It's important to note that SEO is a long-term investment so, while you can cease activities immediately, the impact will take a while to be felt. As such halting your SEO activities today will have a detrimental effect in later months and years - and can take a while to pick up again. Especially if your competition is continuing to invest. 

Consumer trust and spending typically recovers within 1-2 years of a recession. So, when your target customers return to pre-downturn spending levels, how can you ensure that your business is prominent for searches in and around your vertical?

If you aren't keeping your business at the front of customers' minds, there's an opportunity for your competitors to gain market share. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) refers to this as losing "share of mind."  

With organic search results continually updated, if your competition is investing in local SEO then can your business really afford to miss out?

What opportunities does local SEO provide small businesses in a recession?

Local SEO can help your business to reach those customers who are actively looking what what you offer, where you offer it, exactly when they need it. That high relevance inevitably means higher conversion rates in terms of enquiries and sales.

Consumers often trust organic search results more than paid advertisements. After all anyone can launch a Google Ads campaign today, but earning a top 3 search result takes way more time.

Appearing in the top 3 local organic results for your products and services gives your business the lion's share of potential new customers, with 1st to 3rd place results accounting for 70%+ of clicks. That doesn't leave much for the anyone ranked 4th or below.

Customers generally want to support their local community, so will often choose a local small business over a national operator or one that's further afield. In order to choose your business, they need to know you exist.

Building a regular local customer base for your business can provide your business with a lifeline to carry you through a downturn and out the other side.

Improving your customers' user experience (or UX) is a big part of SEO. Optimising for mobile and speeding up web page load times can help improve conversion rates across ALL your marketing channels. 

It becomes cheaper to promote your business in a downturn. Where your competitors aren't promoting their businesses, the relative cost of investment in channels goes down. Less competition for paid search means a lower cost per click (and lower cost per conversion), while less competition for organic SEO means better results from the same efforts. 

Compared with advertising costs as a whole, local SEO provides incredible value for money. And, by driving organic traffic from Google, Bing et al, local SEO can reduce your longer term investment in other marketing acquisition channels.

How to outshine your competition during and beyond an economic downturn 

Of course how your business can best approach a recession depends what your business offers, and who you are targeting. 

This article from Harvard Business Review back in 2009 shares some great ideas on how to tailor your marketing tactics in a downturn including streamlining product portfolios, improving affordability and bolstering trust.

For any local business, positioning is key in avoiding the race to the bottom. Unless your business can genuinely compete on price, try to avoid focusing on cost in your messaging and instead communicate the value that your goods or services bring.

Focusing your messaging on content that addresses customers' pain points with competitor products and services, while highlighting your own strengths can create a competitive advantage. 

Remember to communicate the benefits of your services such as reliability and quality, along with any guarantees, will help position working with you as a stress-free experience.

If you'd like help getting through this recession by improving your business' local SEO performance, we'd love to hear from you. Simply grab a free local SEO audit for your business, and one of our friendly team will be in touch to discuss your results in more detail.