This is the bitter pill to swallow. Whether it’s through an agency’s mismanagement of goals, priorities and tasks, or just a flick of the wrist from Google’s algorithms, online performance can suffer, and this can lead to clients having second thoughts.

That’s not to say that this naturally leads to the end of a relationship, though. Any good SEO will pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get to work to learn why the expected results aren’t materializing.

Even so, there are times when a downturn in fortunes can encourage clients to look a little closer at their books, and make tough decisions around what to cut back on. For example, as I’m sure many readers can testify to, the spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent shutdown of many local businesses led business owners to eye their budget carefully, crossing out any line not bringing in profit.