Most people understand that SEO is expensive, but how much should SEO really cost? If you search for “search engine optimization corporations,” on Google you’ll see that many agencies charge a fee of £1000 as a minimum monthly engagement fee (although this can be lower for local SEO services). You’ll also find less than stellar companies offering SEO services for a very low price such as couple hundred pounds per month or even less.
There’s a large gap in pricing because it boils down to effectiveness as well as the quality of the services being offered by these SEO companies. SEO is driven by the content of the site in today’s world and it’s clear to see that sites which offer services for a very low fee aren’t going to be able to provide you with the quality service that you need to be successful online.
There are Three Types of SEO Providers You Need to Know About
Experienced SEO Agency
An experienced SEO company will have a keen interest in any company they work with. They are looking for long-term business relationships and will provide a high ROI or return on investment. They typically provide all sorts of services you need such as conversion tracking, analytical data, and results that can be measured. You’ll get a high quality of service when you choose one of these providers. IF your SEO company wants you to succeed as much as you want to, then you have found a good provider for the services you need.
SEO Agency That Doesn’t Know Better
This type of SEO company usually outsources the work that they do. They don’t do the work so there’s have zero control over that work. This type of company is at the mercy of their providers. These providers usually don’t deliver high quality work. They may seem professional on the surface, but the work delivered is usually on the amateurish side.
SEO Agency That Just Wants Money
There are also SEO agencies that just want your money. They will tell you want you want to hear such as getting a rank on Google at number one within 72 hours. They ask you to pay right away by Western Union or another method and you’ll also get bonuses such as a unicorn or free cash too! It’s safe to say these companies are not going to deliver.
If you’re an executive or CEO and don’t understand the landscape of SEO and just focus your efforts on price, you’re going to be in for a surprise. In the long run, you’ll end up costing your organisation more money than needs to be spent. It’s best to go with an experienced SEO company from the very beginning as the extra cost will more than pay for itself.
Here’s Why Amateur SEO Is Actually More Expensive Than a Quality SEO Company
The Link Audits Aren’t Cheap
You can think of a poorly running website as a car that has the same issues. To fix a poor performing car, you look under the bonnet for problems. This is the same thing you do on a website only you look at the website links and do a link audit. When you do a link audit you inspect the inbound links to the site and then find the ones that are toxic. There are automate programs you can use, but these aren’t always as accurate as you want them to be.
You need to do an audit manually and have it done by an individual that understands what to look for. This is a labour intensive process which can be tedious as well. Some agencies will charge thousands of pounds or dollars to have this done side-wide. This link audit guide will help you understand more about what a complete link audit is going to involve.
Full Link Clean-ups Can Be Even More Expensive
If you do an audit and there’s a lot of toxic links, these will need to be removed. You can have Google disavow the links which are harmful to your website. This isn’t a simple process as if you want to regain your rankings you have to put in the effort to request the removal of all the links impacted manually.
Google says that it expects a webmaster to mare a solid effort to clean up links which the search engine considers unnatural and not just upload a list by using a disavow file. This process can be quite time consuming as you’ll need to reach out to website owners and request that they remove your links. This is why many SEO companies will charge around £3,000-£20,000 to clean up your links.
Penalties Can Make Your Traffic Disappear Quickly
Google penalized the website Overstock in February of 2011 because they offered discounts to schools that placed links which were anchor-specific on their sites. Overstock was no longer on the main Google search page for around two months. The company estimated that its revenue fell about 5% as a result of this which is a large chunk of their business. This was all because they had a large instant drop in their traffic numbers. Companies will usually get an audit done by professionals because they used low quality SEO services and have traffic drops which can occur quite quickly.
If Your Site is De-indexed Your Brand Can Be Ruined
If your site doesn’t show up in Google at all, this can ruin your brand. If you have no Google traffic, you won’t do very well. If Google thinks you violate its guidelines, then it can remove your site from its index. The Google webmaster guidelines contain complete information about this. If you use a SEO company which uses spam-style links, either knowing this or not knowing this fact, your brand may be removed from Google completely and you’ll lose a lot of business.
If you’ve been a victim of low quality SEO, we want to hear from you. Please let us know by using the comments sections located below.