You’ve heard about search engine optimisation (SEO) – the process of optimising your website for search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. So, you decide to do some research and look into how it’s critical for increasing your site’s visibility, thereby growing your business online. As your quick Google search turns up results from digital marketing agencies and quality SEO providers, your eyes widen and you think to yourself, “Why is SEO so expensive?” In this blog post, we’ll provide you with our top reasons why SEO is so expensive – and why it’s worth it.
First things first – what is SEO and how does it work?
According to American marketing software developer HubSpot, 69% of marketers actively invest in SEO. In essence, SEO is a process designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic (unpaid) search results. The set of practices is used to optimise your website’s technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so that it can rank better – and as a consequence – become easily findable. The first thing a search engine like Google sees when exploring your website is your homepage. From there, it searches for relevant keywords, determines how relevant your web pages are and ranks you appropriately on its search platform. Your overall content needs to have credible, relevant, valuable and engaging information that these bots can easily read and understand. SEO providers like RED Marketing aim to boost your site’s quality and quantity of human traffic from these organic search results. Or, in simple terms, to increase your product or service’s chance of being found on the internet. As a business owner, SEO is a valuable opportunity to direct relevant traffic to your site.
Why is SEO so expensive? Three reasons why quality SEO will cost you
If you’re looking for a straightforward answer to the question, “Why is SEO so expensive?”, there are three reasons. Firstly, SEO is a continuous process that demands time and work. It requires the expertise of a seasoned SEO specialist to develop, grow and carry out a planned strategy in order to get measurable results. It’s not as easy as changing a few things and seeing instant results! The foremost task that an SEO provider undertakes is SEO audit conduction, which involves reviewing your site from an SEO perspective and understanding its position. They’ll then prepare a powerful strategy to overcome the identified obstacles – including proper keyword research (the topics and phrases that have the ability to define your site), website optimisation (set up a Google My Business listing and enhance local business presence) and improving the backend of your site (clean up code, improve page speed and integrate responsive design). This is just the beginning. Keep in mind that an SEO provider may use several expensive tools and applications to help your site’s ranking and technical health, too.
Another factor influencing why SEO is so expensive is competition. Just to give you an idea, there are 30 to 50 billion web pages indexed through Google, of which about 200 million are active websites. So, if Google determines that your site doesn’t meet its quality guidelines, it will remove it completely from the search results. Imagine no traffic coming from Google searches considering that organic search is most often the primary source of website traffic. Zero, nada, zilch… yikes! This reverts back to reason number-one why SEO is so expensive. Think of hiring an SEO provider like hiring a mechanic to fix your car. If you don’t have experience repairing cars, you’re going to hire an experienced car expert to solve your issue. Likewise, when you hire an SEO provider, you’re paying for experts to drive results in a sea of competition. They’ll monitor for significant algorithm changes (Google makes thousands of changes a year), ensure that best practices are always being updated as well as facilitate ongoing optimisation and testing of your website and content to allow your business to stay ahead of the competition.
Lastly, SEO is a profitable expense. So, instead of seeing SEO as an expensive endeavour, look at it as an investment in your future business. A well-positioned website that’s optimised for SEO not only builds a long-term relationship with the targeted audience – it also boosts your business’s credibility, helps you rank better in local searches, improves your site’s usability, supports your content marketing efforts, maximises your paid marketing strategies and gives you a competitive advantage (considering that results on the first page of a Google search get over 90% of traffic). Furthermore, while SEO doesn’t offer the same easy-to-calculate ROI as paid searches, it’s still quantifiable. You can measure almost anything – think changes in rankings, conversions and website traffic – with proper tracking and analytics. For example, platforms such as Google Analytics allow you to see every website user’s buying journey. We’re talking keywords they used to search, pages they engaged with and specific actions they completed. Your SEO provider will use these insights to adjust and improve your strategy.
How long does SEO take to start working?
On average, businesses that invest in SEO see a return on their investment in three to six months, depending on the business category and competition. That’s right – even if you’re just starting out, an SEO provider can put your product in front of your customers in a few months.
Get in touch with RED Marketing’s SEO experts today!
Yes, SEO is expensive – but the opportunities it brings help future-proof the success for any type of business. At RED Marketing in South Africa and the United Kingdom, our team of specialists bring together web design and development, SEO and social media optimisation (SMO) to create an effective and efficient ‘act of attack’. Contact us on info@redmarketing.biz.