So here we are in 2026, and pretty much in the midst of another period of economic uncertainty. Interest rates are high, consumer confidence is low, and business owners are again pouring over their spreadsheets trying to determine where to cut back the budget. If you’ve been in business for longer than a few years, this is probably all too familiar – perhaps a little too familiar in this day and age!
And, of course, marketing budgets are always the first place business owners look to cut back on.
I get it. When business is tough, and costs are going up, up, up, it’s natural to look to cut back on things that aren’t necessarily generating an immediate return on investment. And, let’s be honest, marketing – and particularly digital marketing – is often seen as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘need to have’ expense. And, believe it or not, it’s probably reasonable to think like that.
The thing is, however, after 25+ years of working within a digital marketing agency through all sorts of economic ups and downs, including a global pandemic, and various economic ‘corrections,’ we’ve seen one thing very clearly: businesses that continue to invest in their SEO through bad times always perform better than their competitors through good times – and, perhaps most importantly, perform better through bad times too!
Let me tell you why it’s a mistake to cut back on your SEO through bad times, and what you should be doing instead.
The Fundamental Problem with Stopping SEO
So when your competitors are reducing their marketing budgets, it opens up space in the search results. What was once impossible to rank for now becomes possible. We have seen this happen time and time again throughout our respective careers. Businesses that have continued to maintain their SEO efforts during these times have seen their best improvements in search engine rankings during these times, not after.
Customer Behaviour Shifts Online
During these times of economic uncertainty, your customers become more research-focused and less likely to make impulse buys. This means they are searching online to find what they need.
If you have been maintaining your SEO efforts during this time, then you are reaching out to your customer base when they are most engaged and most likely to be receptive to your message. However, if you have gone dark, then you are essentially invisible to your customer base when they are most actively searching.
Lower Acquisition Costs
During these times, your competitors are going to be raising their paid advertising costs as they try to reach out to your customer base. This means that your long-term investment in SEO is going to be even more valuable to you now than it was before.
Every pound that you spend on SEO during these times is going to give you a much higher return on investment because your competitors are reducing their budgets. It is basic economics.
What Smart Businesses Do Differently
The businesses that succeed through uncertain economic times not only continue to invest in their SEO, but they also do it more smartly. Here’s what this looks like in reality, based on what we’ve seen work time and time again:
Focus on High Intent Keywords
While quantity may not be as important in uncertain times, quality certainly is. Rather than aiming for a thousand visitors who may not necessarily be ready to buy, it’s better to attract fifty visitors who are actively seeking a solution to a problem you’re best placed to solve. Consider, for example, the difference between someone who wants to know ‘what is SEO’ and someone who wants to know ‘SEO agency Manchester’. The difference in intent is worlds apart.
Double Down on Content That Demonstrates Value
When the economy is uncertain, customers become more discerning about finding the ‘right deal’. They’re not looking for sales pitches and promises of what you can do for them. They’re looking for evidence of how you understand their problem and how you’re best placed to help solve it. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to work with someone who understands their problem and can help solve it?
Content that demonstrates value comes in many forms, including:
- Case studies that demonstrate tangible results
- Problem-solving content that’s relevant to your industry
- Pricing models
- Comparison content
It’s not about content quantity in this case, it’s about content quality. Three good pieces of content will always beat thirty mediocre ones, especially in uncertain times where you need every piece of content to work harder than ever.
Strengthen Your Technical Foundation
So, when resources are limited, prioritise your technical SEO work that has a direct impact on user experience and conversion potential:
- Page speed optimisation (slow sites lose impatient visitors – we’ve all been there)
- Mobile performance optimisation (mobile traffic continues to rise year on year)
- Improvements to Core Web Vitals
- Crawl errors and broken links
- Internal linking structure improvement
These will benefit your SEO and conversion rates at the same time – it’s not just about driving more traffic; it’s about driving more traffic that converts once it arrives at your site.
Build Authority That Lasts
Economic uncertainty will come and go – and it always does eventually. But the authority you build during these times will last long after the current uncertainty has faded into memory. So prioritise:
- Earning high-quality backlinks from respected industry sources
- Building relationships with journalists and industry publications
- Building linkable assets such as research, data, and comprehensive guides
- Securing mentions and citations from authoritative sites
This work has compounding effects that will last long after the current economic uncertainty has been forgotten.
The Paid vs Organic Balance
I’m not saying don’t bother with paid advertising – that would be foolish. PPC and social ads can work well for certain campaigns and product launches. But there’s a big difference between paid and organic search that people tend to forget:
Paid channels rent traffic; SEO builds traffic.
When you stop paid advertising, traffic stops immediately. It’s like turning off a tap. But when you build traffic through SEO, it continues even when you stop advertising. In times of economic uncertainty, owned traffic is more valuable than rented traffic – it’s yours regardless of what’s happening in the world.
The smart approach isn’t about paid or organic; it’s about rebalancing your investment to channels that build lasting value, not just renting temporary visibility.
What Happened During COVID (And What We Learned)
We’ve been working with many businesses through the pandemic uncertainty of 2020 and 2021. Those businesses that stuck with or even increased their SEO spend didn’t just survive – they thrived! I’m not saying that to sound good, I’m saying it because it’s absolutely true.
We’ve got a manufacturing client who carried on with their SEO work through the pandemic, even though their factory was closed for three months. When they reopened, they’d moved from page three to page one for their main product terms. Their competitors, meanwhile, had stopped their SEO work, assuming that no one was searching. They were wrong – people were actively researching, preparing to reopen when they could. We were there, and our client benefited from that research phase, converting those relationships when business reopened. It was quite something to see, to be honest.
We’ve got a property client who, during 2020, actually increased their content production, creating in-depth content about topics that their competitors had abandoned. Eighteen months later, they’d tripled their organic traffic and were winning deals that started with content created during lockdown. The long game was a huge success.
The point here is that your customers are still searching, even if they’re not actively buying. Being there during the research phase means you’ll be considered during the buying phase. That’s it, that’s the point – and it’s that important.
Making the Business Case
In order to justify investment in SEO to stakeholders when times are uncertain, you might say:
- SEO is both defensive and offensive. It helps defend your rankings against competition and gain ground against them where they have retreated.
- The cost of recovery is always higher than the cost of maintenance. Cutting SEO today will result in higher costs of recovery later.
- The value of organic traffic is multiplied. Unlike paid advertising, where you pay per click, organic rankings will keep producing traffic. Each additional visitor you get through SEO will improve your overall cost per acquisition.
- Economic conditions are always cyclical. Search engine authority is permanent. While the economy will recover, search engine rankings will stay. So, don’t let economic conditions dictate your SEO strategy. I know that’s easy to say when I’m not looking at your financials.
Your Action Plan for 2026
Essential (Don’t Cut These):
- Maintenance and updates to your website
- Content updates to your top-performing pages
- Maintenance and updates to your existing rankings
- Link building and outreach
Strategic Additions (If Budget Allows):
- New content creation based on high-intent keywords
- Competitor gap analysis and opportunities
- Local SEO, especially useful in an economic downturn
- Structured data implementation
Consider Pausing (If Necessary):
- Content experiments in new, untapped areas
- Content meant for awareness but low conversion potential
- Aggressive expansion into new keywords outside your business niche
The right things are more important than the quantity of things you do. Consistency beats intensity every time.
Going Forward…
The fact of economic uncertainty does not change the basic principles of digital marketing. Businesses need to be found by customers who are looking for their products and services. The question is whether you are visible to them or your competitors are.
I have lived through enough economic downturns to know that the businesses that perform best are those that treat marketing as an investment rather than a cost. SEO, when done correctly, is one of the best investments you can make, especially when the going gets tough.
The businesses that are succeeding today are not the ones cutting back the most; they are the ones investing the best. They are maintaining presence when their competitors are going dark, capturing mindshare when the competition is retreating, and positioning themselves to surge forward when the economy improves. And it will improve.
Uncertainty is uncomfortable, and there is no avoiding that. However, it is also very clarifying. It separates the businesses that understand the importance of long-term value creation from those that are focused on short-term survival.
Which model will you follow for the next 12-18 months?
If you would like to discuss how you can maintain or enhance your SEO position during these tough economic times, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to share what we have learned from living through several economic downturns with you.