Getting What You Pay for: How Much is too Much for SEO?

Whether you own a business or agency, you are already aware of the dynamic and evolving nature of the search engine optimization (SEO) landscape. Unless you are an experienced and trained digital marketing expert, you cannot provide your brand with the kind of online optimization required to get consistently high sales or leads. That is why businesses rely on SEO professionals to perform this necessary function.

One of the top misconceptions that many businesses have is that SEO services should be delivered at a cheap rate. Why is this? There may be a few major factors that contribute to this expectation. First, many business marketers seem to be largely uninformed about the importance of SEO in terms of marketing. This was reflected in a recent study that brought to light the following facts:

  • Content Creation and Blogging  21 percent of the business marketers surveyed were unaware of the impact that content creation and blogging have on SEO.
  • On-Site Optimization – 26 percent admitted that they did not know how important on-site optimization is for search engine optimization.
  • Local Search Optimization – 24 percent were unaware of the importance of local search optimization in relation to overall SEO.
  • Link Building – 25 percent did not know how essential link building is for optimization.

Since so many marketers are unaware of the importance of effective SEO practices, why would they feel compelled to spend much, if any, of their marketing budgets on SEO services?

Low Prices Equal Low Quality Services

In addition to much misinformation about the relevance of SEO to businesses, the internet is crawling with companies that offer SEO services at shockingly low rates. Some companies advertise such services for $10 per month. That seems like an incredible price, does it not? That is because $10 for monthly SEO that yields results is too incredible to be true. Sure, you will probably get something in exchange for your money, but your expectations must be quite low if you are paying such a low rate.

At that price, you might get outsourced work produced by someone making a fraction of the money you have agreed to pay monthly. Instead of attaining greater visibility, which was the reason you decided to hire an SEO firm in the first place, you might get outdated or ineffective link building. In fact, if the practices you paid for are implemented unethically, you might even be de-indexed or penalized by Google.

Instead of asking how much is too much for SEO, the more appropriate question might be: How much is too little? You will not get the SEO results you expect for $10 a month or even $100 per month. The key is not how much you pay per month, but in the outcome that you get for the fee you pay. When you pay $10 monthly, do you receive effective services that increase your traffic and conversions? If you pay significantly more, even as much as $3000 per month, do you get a suitable return on investment? What is your cost per online lead?

To be carried out effectively, quality SEO is a complex process that requires many hours of work and involves an assortment of tasks. If you do not get a noticeable return for your investment, you might as well focus your marketing efforts on Google AdWords.

When you can afford to pay for quality, organic SEO services, you can enjoy greater visibility in Google and gain an edge on the competition with quantifiable results. Once you are paying for high quality services, you should focus less on the price per month, and pay more attention to how many months it takes to see a return on the investment of your SEO fees. In the industry, the average time for noticeable results may be about 8 to 12 months. However, with a quality, customized package, you could benefit from the effects of your investment within only a few months.

Paying for Service Packages

If you have ever shopped around for SEO services, you have almost certainly seen general packages available. These packages are often intended to provide clients with options, but what they typically do is exclude necessary services unless clients pay the top price. If you choose one of the lower-priced packages, you might not get citations or backlinks. The plan that will truly benefit you is usually going to be the highest-priced option, and that could take anywhere from a few short months to a year to produce a desirable outcome.    

Getting Positive Results from SEO

Instead of offering a broad-spectrum package that might not meet your needs, DriveTraffic provides a more holistic approach to digital marketing.  Marketing online involves more than just SEO. It requires the skillful coordination of several crucial components.

After evaluating your unique combination of needs and circumstances, we will create your package accordingly. You can get a customized screenshot of the activities you should be engaged in for your market, such as AdWords, SEO, and social media. You simply need to provide your name, email, city, state, and country, along with your website information. We will provide you with a form to supply us with the information we require.

Need Help With SEO?

Book a Call to See How We Can Help
Browse by Category
Related posts
Free download

SEO Cheatsheet

This downloadable PDF will help you remember some key steps to ensuring that you are following SEO best practices when creating or updating your web content.