How Much Should You Budget for SEO Services?
Digital advertising spend reached an estimated $325 billion
in 2019 and, after a brief stall due to COVID-19, is expected to increase to
$389 billion in 2021.
According to Google, “…in most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
Are you wondering how much to spend for SEO or how to develop
a budget?
Digital advertising spend reached an estimated $325 billion
in 2019 and, after a brief stall due to COVID-19, is expected to increase to
$389 billion in 2021.
Chances are, you’ll contribute to that with your SEO budget.
But how much should you spend on SEO services?
Don’t worry — you’re not alone. For many companies, digital
is their primary marketing channel. Even so, many owners and executives still
have a difficult time budgeting for online marketing.
It’s just as difficult on the provider’s side to develop a
winning strategy and put the right price tag on it.
In short, it comes down to a matter of positioning – how does your website compare to competitors? Your existing position and how fast you want to make progress are the top variables for determining a budget for SEO.
One recent survey found that less than half of all small
businesses have any money earmarked for SEO. For businesses that do invest in
SEO services, they average just under R2000/month.
In the end, it turns out that SEO is one of those things
where you actually do get what you pay for.
Businesses spending more than R2500/month are 53.3% more
likely to be “extremely satisfied.”
Is it any surprise that so many business owners are
reluctant to invest in SEO? Most business owners have no idea how search
marketing works. They are far too busy running their businesses to spend time
learning SEO.
In most businesses, there is a standardized step-by-step
process to get from point A to point B.
Many assume that SEO works the same way. They treat it as a commodity and fall victim to the $99/month, “guaranteed page one” spammers, and scammers.
Managing Your SEO Resources
Here’s what you need to pay attention to:
1.
Information Architecture
Your site should:
Be crawlable & accessible to Search Engines.
Follow Google Webmaster Guidelines for SEO best practices.
Be optimized for a high quality of user experience (paying
careful attention to Core Web Vitals).
Render cleanly on mobile, tablet & desktop devices.
Boost Your Content with Keyword Intent Analysis
2.
Content
Your site’s content should conform to best practices as
disclosed in the Search Quality Ratings Guidelines with an emphasis on:
Being unique and offering value.
Matching search queries.
Satisfying user intent.
Being of high quality.
Satisfying the fresh content Algorithm.
3.
Backlinks
Must be natural. Avoid popular link schemes like PBN’s and
paid guest posts. Instead, focus on building real links that boost positioning
in the SERPs.
Quality is key: A lower number of High trust/High
Authority/Relevant links can outperform a large quantity of lower quality
links.
You Manage What You Measure – Set Goals
Before establishing a budget, one must define specific goals
for a campaign.
Your goals should include measurable results, a defined
timeframe, and an actual measurement for success.
At one time, success was measured solely by keyword
rankings. While SERPs remain an important metric, they are not the most
important metric.
I would argue the most important metrics are those with a
direct impact on the bottom line. Organic sessions, goal conversions, and
revenue fall into that category.
Goal setting could include improving organic sessions by X%,
increasing conversions by Y per month and/or increasing revenues by Z%.
When setting goals, it’s important to keep a couple of
things in mind.
First, they need to be achievable. Stretch goals are fine,
but pie-in-the-sky benchmarks can actually work as a disincentive.
Equally important – you need to give the campaign time to
work.
According to Google, “…in most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
The Cost of Cheap SEO
I belong to several Internet Marketing Groups on
Facebook. It’s truly frightening, the number of noobs posing as SEO
professionals and taking on clients.
It’s not uncommon to see a question like: “I just landed a
client that wants to rank for [keyword x] – how do I do it?”
A close second is the use of link schemes, specifically
Private Blog Networks, without ever explaining the risk to clients.
If business owners were just throwing money away by hiring
an incompetent SEO, that would be bad enough. Unfortunately, the collateral
damage from “cheap SEO” can go much deeper.
It can draw a Google penalty and virtually wipe out a
website’s visibility on the web.
Business owners need to keep in mind they’re ultimately responsible for any SEO work performed on their site. They should discuss the specific tactics to be used before entering an agreement.
How much can you expect to spend on SEO?
If you are hiring a top-level SEO company to execute a local campaign, expect to pay R4500.00+ per month.
A national or international campaign will require a minimum budget of R15,000 to R25,000+ a month.
Some firms offer a “trial package” at a lower price, with no contract. This allows prospective clients an opportunity to test their services, by minimizing risk. If you can’t afford to retain a top-level SEO pro, there are some options.
The most common is a one-time website SEO audit with actionable recommendations. Just fixing your website will often lead to a meaningful boost in organic traffic.
Content development and keyword analysis are other areas where you can get help from a pro for a one-time fixed rate. Another option is to become an expert and do it yourself.
Developing
a Budget
Your goals will determine what tactics are needed for
success. This, in turn, sets up a framework for developing an action plan and
the budget necessary to support that plan.
This brings us full circle to positioning and paying
attention to those factors that move the dial.
How does your information architecture stack up against
competitors?
How does your content strategy fare as compared to the
competition?
How does your backlink profile stack up against the
top-ranked websites?
The answers to those questions will determine priorities as well as the volume of work needed to reach your goals.
In many cases, the actual work performed will be the same –
regardless of budget level. The difference is the volume of work performed.
If you’re adding twice the content and twice the links at
budget level “B” vs budget level “A” you have a higher likelihood of achieving
earlier success at the higher budget.
That said, the right budget is one you can afford, without
losing sleep, for a minimum of six and ideally twelve months.
It takes time to properly plan, implement and tweak a
campaign in order to evaluate its success.
Also, keep in mind the lower the budget, the longer t
he journey.
The SEO takeaway
Unlike PPC, an organic search campaign will not yield
immediate results. A comprehensive SEO campaign will involve a combination of
technical SEO, content marketing & link-building.
Even when executed to perfection, it takes time for Google to recognize and reward these efforts.
With that said, the traffic earned from these efforts is often the most consistent and best converting among all channels.