How Much Should Your Business Spend on SEO?

In today’s business world, it’s very important to know as much as possible about search engine optimization (SEO) and the advantages of a tailored and relevant SEO strategy. Most businesses employ some form of SEO, even if it’s just to add their websites to a couple of online directories or check on the keywords that their competitors are using.

Of course, modern SEO is far more complex and, if you want to get good results, you’ll have to reach a little deeper into your pocket.

Factors Affecting Price

SEO pricing is primarily affected by a few factors that come into play when you’re trying to run a promotional campaign that actually increases your position in Google rankings These include:

  • Whether or not you need a comprehensive SEO audit and tools that add more to the cost, such as keyword research, monitoring, analytics and other technical SEO tools.
  • The complexity of your project and the ambitiousness associated with the goals you want to reach.
  • How long term your strategy is meant to be – with longer campaigns naturally costing more than short term ones.
  • The hourly rates of website consultants and SEO experts, which can range from less than $20 for cheap SEO to more than $100 per hour for professionals employed by reputable and established companies.
  • Whether or not you want to add locally targeted SEO to the mix.

Avoid Cheap Offers

Your rankings might actually suffer if the SEO strategy used is too bold or aggressive, and some “experts” use such methods to promote your site that Google and other top search engines don’t approve of. These can include anything from low quality content and the use of keyword stuffing, to employing so-called “black hat” SEO practices that can get your website penalized.

So, if you get calls from so-called SEO companies that promise to rank you on the first page of 100 search engines for only $99, or promotional emails that sound too good to be true, avoid those offers without a second glance.

It’s better to build your online fame up little by little, than to aim too high and get burned.

Modern SEO and Calculating Your SEO Expenses

Modern SEO costs at least $1,000, and involves comprehensive strategies based on carefully constructing the exposure of your website until it reaches the first page in Google, Bing and other mainstream search engines. These types of strategies typically employ a careful balance between local, global and on-site SEO practices depending on your needs.

On-site, web design and page speed improvement services will ensure that your site is search-engine friendly and that it won’t turn away any visitors. Local SEO, should you need it, will help your business rank high for local searches, and global SEO practices will focus on aiming for the right keywords, link building and content creation tactics to bring your key web pages to the top of the most important organic search results.

The best SEO professionals will focus on flexible campaigns that are tweaked constantly according to analytics and that target very real improvements happening over the course of at least a few months.

Considering that, in this time, your website can go from a few dozen visitors to hundreds and even thousands of daily visitors and leads, a total cost of $1,000 to $5,000 per month paid by almost 50% of businesses that use search engine optimization is not that far-fetched.

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