SEO. You always hear the word being thrown around, but not everyone necessarily knows exactly what it means. The truth is that unless you’re an SEO expert who constantly keeps up to date with enhancements, you’ll never fully understand it.
Many business owners want to know how much SEO costs, as well as how they would determine what a good SEO agency looks like. After all, SEO can be somewhat mysterious in nature due to its complexity and fluid nature, so finding a great SEO provider may seem unattainable to those who have limited SEO knowledge.
Both large and small businesses are under more pressure than ever before to decrease costs while increasing revenue. If done smartly, SEO can do that and more.
There are billions of potential customers out there, all you have to do is reach out to them through good SEO.
Don’t underestimate yourself, even if you’re a small business, you can still compete on a global stage against big name brands. If you find an SEO partner who has your best interests at heart, they’ll find creative ways to maximise impact even if you have a limited budget.
A critical part of finding a great SEO partner is getting a better understanding of the different types of search engine optimisation packages that are available, and what package may be best suited to your business.
Let’s delve into SEO to give you a firmer grip on the whole thing.
Here’s how to pick out the best SEO pricing packages for your business:
1. Get To Know SEO
Even if you’re a digital marketing enthusiast, you’ll never have a complete understanding of every aspect of SEO. It’s way too technical and frankly, that would be way too much to ask from most business owners.
However, having a basic understanding of SEO and how it works will give you a better chance of finding the right SEO partner, as well as choosing the best suited package from the many SEO packages in Australia.
Knowing what it is and the fundamentals of how it works is essential to partnering with the right agency, and getting the most out of the SEO packages that are available on the market.
Like any other aspect of running a business, the more you know about SEO, the better informed your decision will be when you’re selecting an SEO agency to partner with. You need to ensure that their strategies align with your ethics, and that those strategies will help you achieve your SEO goals.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation or SEO is a process of improving your position in organic or non-paid search results in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. The higher your website ranks, the more people see it and ultimately the more traffic you get.
According to stats, the first page of Google captures 71% of search traffic clicks.
SEO comprises many aspects that are continuously evolving, hence it being complex and somewhat hard to get your head around. Google uses more than 200 ranking factors which is exactly why it becomes complicated.
To simplify it, you can focus on these three important aspects of SEO:
- Technical aspects behind the website
- Content of your website
- Quality backlinks increasing the authority of your website i.e. links from other websites to your site
On-page Versus Off-page SEO
On-page (on-site) SEO means optimising your website to affect the organic search results. It’s everything you can do to optimise a website like speed, content, headings, site structure and more.
Off-page (off-site) SEO covers all activities you can do to improve the website SEO authority through getting backlinks from other websites. There are many ways to get them like guest blogging, social media efforts, cooperation with influencers, writing valuable content so people link to your website and so on.
Keyword Research
Creating content without keyword research won’t pay off. Content without proper optimisation won’t rank which will lead to low site traffic. You simply have to know what keywords to target in order to generate enough quality traffic.
Get to know the different types of keywords and either do the research yourself using a keyword tool, or get your SEO agency to do it for you.
2. Your Current SEO Status
Before you delve into selecting SEO pricing packages for your business, you need to get an understanding of where your SEO currently sits.
If you choose the DIY option, you can choose from a range of tools like Ubersuggest. All you need to do is simply enter your domain and you’ll have access to heaps of SEO data about your site. Things like your top traffic pages, keyword ideas, critical website errors and more are available to you with the click of a button.
It even goes as far as to tell you how to fix each error. You can either fix the errors yourself or get a developer to do it for you depending on your ability. Some of them may be quick fixes while others may take a higher skill level.
If you choose to get an SEO expert to do it for you, make sure they do a thorough review of your website to ensure that you get a full understanding of the whole SEO picture.
3. Your SEO Goals
Now that you know where you are in terms of SEO, you need to determine where you’d like to be.
Setting SEO goals is key to determining the path you take.
Measuring targets like revenue in order to understand how many leads/website visitors you need. Establishing benchmarks like how organic traffic performs when compared to paid, referral and other sources. Or what your conversion rates by channel are, and what you’d like them to be, are the types of goals you can set yourself.
Once you’ve set your SEO goals, you’ll be in a stronger position to choose SEO pricing packages that will help you achieve them.
There are countless elements that contribute to SEO, so knowing what you want to achieve will give your SEO partner a clear vision of how they can get you there. It will act as the foundation for their strategy, as well as dictate what input you’ll be required to add to the process.
Having goals will also give you the ability to monitor your SEO agencies progress, and determine if they are actually reaching your desired goals. It will act as a benchmark for you to determine if you’re getting value for money, or potentially getting overcharged.
4. SEO Pricing Packages
Cheap SEO
SEO pricing sitting at around the $500/month mark is considered cheap SEO. While it may sound fantastic, in principle it’s ineffective and can be detrimental to your brand.
Cheap SEO, aka black hat SEO, is a set of unethical practices that are used to improve the rankings of a website in the search engine results page. They’re designed to positively affect search engine rankings while not taking the human factor into consideration.
Black hat SEO can get your website or page to the top of the Search Engine Results Page very quickly. However, these hacks and tricks will most likely lead to search engines penalising or banning your website.
They go against Googles terms and conditions, so you’re bound to feel Googles wrath sooner rather than later.
You may think you’re saving upfront, but it’ll cost you more in the long run.
Steer away from these types of SEO packages in order to avoid the negative consequences that come with cutting corners.
Affordable SEO
SEO packages in Melbourne that cost around the $1,500/month will give you decent results in small, low competition industries.
These SEO packages will utilise what is called white hat SEO. It’s a set of ethical techniques sticking to the guidelines and rules set by the search engines. It also requires more experience, greater knowledge and better skills.
The basic elements of white hat SEO include quality and relevant content, overall website optimisation and link building. White hat SEO is a long-term strategy oriented to improve the user experience, increase brand awareness and strengthen brand loyalty.
A good SEO agency uses clear methodology and calculates its rates based on the number of hours required to deliver that methodology.
If you’re coming across high costs with zero justification of the hours spent or the deliverables being offered, then that’s a red flag. While cheap SEO should be steered away from, over the top costs with no backing behind them mean that your most likely being taken for a ride.
SEO Success Factors
With affordable SEO you can see results, however you need to be prepared to input into the overall strategy. Here are the key factors that a good SEO agency will incorporate into their strategy, with your help:
- Well targeted content
- Crawlable website (by search engines)
- Quality and quantity of backlinks
- Website satisfies user intent
- Unique and fresh content
- EAT: expertise, authority and trust
- Click through rate
- Website speed
- Website works on any device
Don’t get too overwhelmed. If you don’t have the skills for any of these factors then you can find someone who does. Your SEO agency will either have employees who have the skills, or contractors that can do the job. If they don’t then you can find a freelancer who can take on the task for you.
Premium SEO
Premium SEO has its place in the market.
Highly competitive, large industries require more work and more time, leading to higher costs.
However, don’t get caught paying a premium price for below par SEO services. Agencies that charge high prices without any justification of the hours spent on your SEO, or deliverables they’re offering don’t belong in this category.
Generally, a good SEO agency will scale their offering upwards as your requirements increase. They won’t start charging you a premium price if you don’t have the complexities that require it.
Generally, large organisations or businesses in highly competitive industries like insurance, will require premium SEO services.
If you’re unsure, do a bit of Googling or speak to peers to determine how competitive your industry is.
Conclusion
SEO is complicated in nature, but that doesn’t mean that small businesses can’t dominate the SEO world.
Affordable small business SEO packages that drive results are out there, you just need to know what to look for.
A Melbourne SEO Agency that uses clear methodology and calculates it’s rates based on the time required to deliver it, is a good choice. They’ll work closely with you covering all the SEO success factors to ensure that their strategy is all encompassing.
You don’t need to pay a premium price to start seeing results. Your SEO pricing should reflect the amount of work required to reach your SEO goals. A complex, largely competitive market will take longer to crack, which will cost more.
However, less complex markets will only require affordable SEO services in order to get results.
Don’t fall for the tricks and hacks, cheap SEO may be appealing but it could lead to catastrophic results down the track. In business, you pay for what you get; if you pay for cheap SEO then that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Your SEO agency should review where your SEO is currently at, take time to understand where you’d like to be, and create a strategy to get you there, within your budget constraints. It should be a partnership where you both input your efforts in order to get a result.
Remember that SEO takes time. You won’t see results overnight, and if you do, then you should be questioning how your agency got them so quickly. It’s a long-term game that takes constant effort which leads to lasting results for your business.
Get to know the basics of what it is and how it works in order to be better prepared when you seek an SEO partner, it will pay off.