The dream of all owners who carry out SEO practices is to rank on the first page of search engines for their given keywords. Although, this isn’t always possible due to the saturation and presence of large companies in certain sectors. Despite there being difficulties for businesses getting to the top of the search results, this doesn’t stop them from trying.
There are many avenues in which business owners can go down in order to get their websites to rank. Working with marketing agencies who offer SEO services and pricing guide for SEO services are one example. Purchasing SEO packages is another way in which websites can rank. Freelancers are also an option, along with business owners doing their own SEO.
SEO For Small Businesses
Small businesses often have limited budgets for things like SEO and marketing, but this doesn’t mean that they can’t rank just like larger businesses. For small businesses, local rankings is what matters the most. For example, if you have a coffee shop in London and want to attract visitors, you don’t need to be ranking in Australia as this isn’t likely to convert to visitors and revenue.
By focusing your scope on a target location, you can have an effective SEO campaign whilst keeping within your budget. This may mean that instead of working with a marketing agency, hiring one freelancer to work a few hours a week may be more cost-effective. If you are familiar with how SEO works and are comfortable with the basics, you may even choose to carry out Search Engine Optimization on your own. This can cut your marketing costs significantly and allow you to be more in control of how your website grows online.
The issue with marketing agencies for small businesses is their high prices and slow progress. Most marketing agencies will charge $500 upwards per month for their services. For this price, you are likely to receive content creation, links and on-page optimizations. Now all of this is great and eventually will lead to some traction and rank improvements, it may take longer than you expect. For $500 per month, you can hire an SEO freelancer who will likely provide better results with more transparency, or you can do it yourself for free (with the time cost and cost of outreach for links to be taken into consideration).
For larger businesses who can afford to spend thousands per month on SEO efforts, then an agency or group of freelancers working together is likely to be the best option. Although buying SEO packages that are results-based will likely provide you with a better return on your investment. Learning SEO and other marketing skills have never been so easy, with the help of free courses and online resources. This means that if you can’t afford to spend out on an agency or freelancer, then doing your own SEO may be enough if you are a small business operating in a low-competition sector. Social media is a great marketing tool that can be used for free. Instead of spending out on SEO, an alternative may be to focus on growing your social media presence.
