Is Search Engine Optimization Really Free?
A regular question I get from small and medium sized business owners is just how much they should be spending on search engine optimization. The reality is that your SEO efforts should be based on the number of websites you’re trying to improve rankings for as well as the number of keywords you are managing. Regardless of the number, SEO requires time and effort.
Whether you are focusing on SEO or pay-per-click marketing, you must make an investment in time, resources, and dollars to achieve you goal. Often times SEO is compared to PPC. This is an unfair comparison because pay per click marketing has an immediate and direct cost. The costs associated with SEO are more indirect but just as expensive. Consider you time, effort, and work associated with any optimization effort.
You begin incurring costs as soon as you start spending your time reviewing your site from an SEO perspective. Beyond the initial site review are efforts related to keyword analysis and taking a closer look at each of your competitors. As a result you are incurring costs associated with the value of your own labor. You could also outsource these functions to a third party and applicable fees would be incurred. The key is to consider your time as money. Each moment you spend could be used towards something else.
The expense of doing things on your own are real. A great way to determine actual costs is by dividing your current salary by two thousand labor hours or the equivalent of a full year of work. This gives you an hourly rate. If you are doing much of the heavy lifting for your SEO efforts, this is essentially the price you’re paying. It may not feel the same as paying someone an hourly fee but the impact is largely the same.
Once you have completed a review of your web site, completed the necessary analysis, and have determined the ideal keywords you are going to optimize for, the optimization process begins. And this work can be very costly. Again, you have to consider the time you are spending on SEO related activities and how much its costing you by not focusing on other, higher priority opportunities. The process of link building is an arduous one and can be outsourced to expedite the process or simply lower costs.
I have found that the best ways to save money is through prioritization. There are a variety of software applications that can help you make the most of your search engine optimization. It’s essential to have an idea of which tasks can help you achieve specific outcomes and find the most cost affective way to complete them. Once you’ve prioritized your to do list, consider the expense of software, your own time, or a third party in getting the work done. You want to find the most cost effective solution to complete your search engine work.
The truth about search engine optimization is that it doesn’t come cheap. If you want to ramp up your search engine optimization efforts quickly, you will need to make an investment. The choice you need to make is whether or not that investment will involve your own valuable time. If so, that’s fine, just make sure you are getting the biggest bang for your buck. Consider outsourcing those activities that can be done more cost efficiently elsewhere.
Related posts:
- What Is Search Engine Optimization?
- Free Search Engine Traffic To Your Website
- Easy Steps For Search Engine Optimization
- Top 3 Commonly Believed Search Engine Optimization Myths
- Search Engine Optimization Marketing Techniques – Increasing Traffic
