When it Ain’t Broke

Why Canceling Services When Your SEO is Delivering Quality Leads is a Bad Idea

SEO efforts do not generate the quantity of leads that they did several years ago. Google’s paid services are increasingly taking up more of the real estate on the first page of searches. However, if you started SEO efforts before the shrinking of the first page, you are likely enjoying inexpensive leads from your site that are out of reach for many businesses.

Local businesses rely on SEO management companies, like 99 Calls, to enhance their visibility, drive organic traffic, and boost their search engine rankings. Today, we explore the devastating consequences of leaving a system that is working for the promise of getting better results.

If what you are doing isn’t working, that’s one thing. But almost monthly, we lose a long-term customer to a smooth-talking sales rep who convinces them that they can get either better results or that they can do the same thing for less money.

If you have been working with a company for at least five years, we hope you’ll think twice about terminating services if the results are “good”. There are other alternatives to canceling services when one method is working. In fact, adding different channels for generating revenue will help your business in a number of ways. Below is a case study of a Florida roofer who canceled lead services and suffered terribly.

The Departure

Like many businesses seeking to claim their place in the competitive digital landscape, a Central Florida roofing contractor initially engaged with 99 Calls to optimize its online presence in 2016. Since then, 99 Calls has managed to keep its website on the right track with dozens of first-page rankings and lots of organic traffic. After signing up for SEO services, organic leads quickly climbed month over month until they were averaging just over 100 roofing leads per month. In their best month, they achieved 216 roofing leads! So how much was this business paying monthly for 100+ leads? $449.00. Yes, they were getting Roofing leads for under $5 apiece. That must have been one smooth sales rep to convince them to cancel services and start anew. They did take the original domain that we had built with all the miles attached, but a URL on its own will not produce results.

Rapid Decline

After the split, our former customer experienced a noticeable drop in their search engine rankings. The decline was swift and impactful, leading to a significant reduction in organic traffic. The company soon realized the critical role that 99 Calls management had played in maintaining its online visibility. In addition, the new company they hired to build them a site and get them organic leads copied our proprietary content. They were paid by the contractor to build a new site, but rather than writing new content, they cloned ours. This happens regularly. When you are considering hiring a lead generation company, be sure that you understand what you will be getting for your money. Many of them will charge hundreds of dollars to build you a site and then clone the work of others (whether you have owner ship and or permission to copy it or not).

The Return

Realizing that they bought a bag of beans, after about five months, the roofer reached back out to restart services. Ownership of the domain was transferred back to 99 Calls. Keep in mind, if you do cancel services with a business and transfer the domain from their ownership, the domain cannot be transferred again for 90 days. We have often had to buy a new domain and host it until the waiting period has passed for customers who asked to return to using our services within 90 days.

The Slow Revival

Upon restarting with 99 Calls, our roofing customer noticed a much less robust lead volume. Since shutting down the site and stopping its ranking, its first-page rankings were nowhere near the peak they were when they left. They had noticed that stopping the site meant that the site had to start from scratch. After the site had been live again for a few months, it was averaging 12 leads per month. We see this happen repeatedly to contractors. Even at $49 each for exclusive roofing leads, 99 Calls is producing an excellent ROI on their marketing, but they will likely never see the lead volume that was achieved before the site was shut down. Shutting down for that short a time and restarting often yields comparable results. We have seen this phenomenon occur across all industries and regions of the United States. If a lead generation company was lucky and skilled enough to get your site highly ranked before 2019, do not pull the site down! Ride on your laurels for as long as possible.

Gaining Traction with a Multi-Channel Approach

The lead generation team let the roofer know of other Google products that are an excellent choice to help augment the loss of organic leads. They now use multiple channels to enhance lead production, including Google Verified (formerly Google Guaranteed — renamed by Google in October 2025) and Google PPC. With low service fees of $99 and $199 respectively, these two additional products are generating leads and extremely competitive prices due to excellent conversion rates by a skilled lead team.

The Results

The cancellation and return to 99 Calls showed that the grass is not always green on the other side. Sometimes, leaving something that works so well can do more harm than good. This roofer is a good example of how stopping your SEO site can be harmful to the lead volume and ranking of the site.

How to Try a New Company Without Losing Leads

There is nothing wrong with testing out a new company for online marketing. We suggest that you keep your current efforts going while you do so. Instead of shutting down your current lead site, have the new build landing pages for you and point all efforts (Facebook or Google Ads or Google Verified for examples) to the new landing pages. In this way you will be able to measure results and you’ll know which marketing efforts are producing the best return on your investment. Despite what some companies may tell you, you can operate more than one website. You cannot build multiple listings, however. This is especially true for Google Business Profiles. They have become tricky to verify and can get suspended if changes are made. Only when the other marketing company can demonstrate excellent results should a business terminate services with their current lead company. The risk of losing valuable leads is just too great.

Conclusion

The roofing company’s journey highlights the critical role that a strategic and well-executed SEO plan plays in maintaining and enhancing online visibility, especially when the site went live before 2019. The decision to leave a system that was producing in spades might haunt the business owner for eternity. This story serves as a valuable lesson for businesses navigating the complex worlds of SEO management, emphasizing the need for ongoing collaboration and adaptability in the ever-evolving landscape of online marketing.