Can Your Business Really Afford SEO?

If you rely on Google for sales then you need SEO. But, can your business really afford a proper SEO strategy?

Many people think that they can try to enforce a strict budget and try to save as much as they can when it comes to SEO, but this is the wrong way to go about it and will only end up causing more harm to your business.

Essentially, if you do not have a healthy SEO budget then you might as well forget about it.

So why do you need a decent marketing budget when it comes to SEO? Because those agencies that offer you cheap search engine packages for ridiculously low prices are simply out there to scam you. It’s a scheme to fleece you of your money and it’s a very common practice.

Also Read: Affordable v’s Cheap SEO – what’s the difference?

Let me elaborate on this a bit more. Say for example you are in the medical cosmetic industry and you want to rank for keywords that are seriously competitive like: cosmetic surgery Sydney, tattoo removal Sydney or even dentists Sydney CBD, then you are going to need a very healthy SEO budget. If you think that you can rank on page 1 of Google for any of these keywords by simply having a shoestring budget of a couple of hundred dollars per month then you are dreaming.

This just won’t happen and the following are reasons why your business will never rank on Google with a slim budget.

# 1: The existing websites that are already on page 1 have been doing SEO way longer than you have and already have a head start. Some websites sitting high up the rankings will have been building authority to their URL for many years so you have to play some serious catch-up. Doing this is not as simple as it would seem. I know so many businesses that are sitting on page 4 or 5 and want to get to page 1 really quickly. To get there you need a slow, even-handed approach to your SEO. If we try and rush it, Google will detect this unnatural link building spike inactivity and you will be penalised.

I know a lot of businesses that have tried to pressure SEO agencies into this type of activity and the end results are disastrous. We end up having to pick up the pieces and get them out of the Google penalty. It’s a tricky scenario. On the one hand, you want to be ranking very quickly and we do have the means to expedite the process but on the other hand, we know the consequences. Slim budgets are often aligned with SEO companies that offer cheap rates and in turn propose, SEO shortcuts with sugar-coated quick results that last a few weeks or months at best. Ramifications are hideous. You will find that agencies like us that charge an appropriate fee for SEO are the type of companies that will deliver long term, sustainable results. Having said that if you are on an SEO shoestring and want to have a crack at it yourself Seach Engine Watch has an interesting and helpful article called SEO on a shoestring budget: What small business owners can do to win.

# 2 SEO takes time and resources. Like any other professional service, we need to spend time working out the best strategy for your website, analysing the competition and looking at ways to outrank them. All this takes energy and resources and this must be paid for. Plus you are paying for our strategy. At SEO Sydney Experts we have spent years fine-tuning our SEO skills. We are literally studying Google algorithmic patterns and ranking trends on an hourly basis and it’s this type of intellectual property that you are paying for. Basically, you are getting the very best of the best working for you and this does come at a price.

If you want to cut corners and save a few dollars then by all means go with a cheap agency but whatever you do, do not expect to see any decent realistic rankings. SEO takes time and quick SEO results are rarely achievable. Bargain basement SEO is usually accompanied by what is deemed ‘outdated’ SEO practices. These guys will use the most primitive and cheap SEO techniques (because that’s all you have paid them for), in an attempt to rank your website. They will use as many free ‘black hat’, non-Google compliant methods to boost your website, but if there is one thing I can promise you today as I write this blog; nothing will happen. In fact, if you have any type of ranking, say for example you were on page 2 and we’re hoping that by investing a few dollars for a few links you would get to page 1, the opposite will most likely happen. You will end up on page 5 or 10. And, if they promise you hundreds of new links and tell you that this will help with your rankings then run away fast. Building lots of new links is a common SEO sales tactic but one that again will lead to a Google penalty.

This is how it works when it comes to Google and businesses really need to understand the fundamentals of SEO and Google before they spend a cent on their marketing.

The formula goes like this: lack of SEO understanding + cheap SEO packages + dodgy SEO companies + inadequate SEO strategies = Google penalty.

# 3 Cheap SEO offerings in nearly all cases are all about a one-dimensional approach to your SEO. It’s a case of throwing a few backlinks your way and praying that something will happen. Many SEO companies will string you along for many months and say that their strategy will work but you need to give it time. Meanwhile, all you are doing is throwing money at a useless campaign that won’t work. It’s a waste of good money and all the while you are losing clients to your competition that has the appropriate SEO budget and is doing things the right way. Basically, you only have yourself to blame.

SEO and internet marketing are so much more than backlinking. It’s about content marketing, social media, and analysing your website’s performance for maximum conversion rates. It’s a full digital campaign and all of this needs funds.

In summary, all I can say is that if you want to sleep easy at night and have confidence that your Google marketing is being looked after in a professional manner, then you have to work with a proper SEO agency. Simply, hooking up with an outfit that has sold you their services purely on price and unrealistic rankings such as 90 day SEO ranking guarantees OR free SEO for 2 months, is a bad way to go about your business and it’s a mistake we see many SME’s make.

You must be realistic when it comes to SEO and have a mindset that you need to pay for this service. Just because the concept of internet marketing might be alien to you, does not mean that you should not do your research and make an informed decision based on the evidence presented. I have witnessed and seen far too many people get absolutely hammered, smashed, ripped off, and totally caned by choosing the cheapest SEO on offer.

Think carefully about it. If you can’t afford SEO and if you are not prepared to invest in this part of your marketing, then don’t even start the process. Forget about it for the time being till you are ready or at least have the funds to start it properly. This might be hard for those new businesses looking to get on Google and don’t have a lot of money to invest. But, again even if you are small your internet marketing budget should be your main priority as you need to generate as much traffic as you can to your website.

Still confused? Please give me a call and I will explain the entire SEO process to you on 02 9360 8514.