The truth is, SEO itself isn’t actually expensive. When SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is tuned properly, it becomes a powerful marketing tool that ends up making a business money – rather than costing a business money.
Of course, as with any investment in your business, there are costs associated with SEO. It doesn’t matter if your business is engaging a SEO company for a local SEO campaign or an SEO package, there will always be associated costs with your campaign.
Most business owners don’t really understand what SEO is, and therefore they don’t understand why there are ongoing costs associated with an SEO campaign, or what really goes into the costs of SEO.
In this post, we’re going to break down why SEO is costly, and sometimes perceived as being expensive. By the end of this article, you will understand that SEO isn’t actually expensive, but a valuable investment in your business that will actually make you money.
If you’re unsure of what SEO is, we recommend you start here.
SEO Requires Constant Attention
The major reason that SEO has ongoing costs is because an SEO strategy requires constant attention and fine-tuning. There are a number of reasons why SEO requires consistent attention and changes.
The Google Algorithm Constantly Changes
The Google algorithm is constantly evolving, and consists of thousands of data points. In an attempt to serve better content to their users at all times, Google periodically changes factors that go into their algorithm.
These algorithm changes are integral to the Google algorithm and important, however what this means is that your SEO agency has to constantly modify your websites SEO assets to ensure you continue to rank on Google.
Your Competition Are Probably Undertaking SEO
It doesn’t matter if you are a small local business or a large enterprise, your competitors are likely undertaking their own SEO strategy.
Competition in any industry is always healthy, however if you have competitors who have been completing SEO for years, you have some ground to make up.
Further to “catching up” to the competition, your competitors are likely performing ongoing SEO tactics. What this means is that your SEO agency has to constantly pivot and innovate to ensure you are ahead of the curve.
A Website Needs To Be Updated With Fresh Content
Every element of SEO campaigns require fresh, updated content. This relates to constant updates on your website, and constant updates to your off-page assets.
Your SEO provider will need to ensure they are regularly logging into your website, sometimes on a daily basis, to ensure your website remains relevant and fresh within the Google algorithm.
Google prefers websites and businesses that are constantly working on their website, and SEO agencies need to stay ahead of this by ensuring constant updates are made to your website.
For all of these reasons, your SEO campaign requires constant attention and dedicated amounts of time needs to be put into your SEO campaign.
SEO Services Are In Demand
One of the major factors that goes into how much SEO costs and what makes SEO expensive, is that SEO services are in high-demand.
Any SEO agency worth their weight will filter out clients with minimal budgets (think less than $500 per month), since a good SEO agency knows that they won’t be able to deliver the required results for these types of clients.
An SEO company that performs only white hat SEO techniques and good SEO overall, will only want to work with clients who have a decent digital marketing budget to work with.
Beyond this, once a company realises that their business investment in SEO provides incredible dividends, they will likely increase their overall SEO budget.
What this means is that SEO services are in high-demand and SEO companies who provide real value and real results elect not to work with companies that have low budgets.
An SEO Company Hires Qualified SEO Experts
When you engage a SEO company for your digital marketing campaign, you will likely have access to an entire team of SEO professionals.
SEO agencies will typically hire various different SEO experts, such as on-page SEO experts, off-page SEO professionals, technical SEO team members and beyond.
With the average salary of an SEO professional in Australia being $80,000 + superannuation per annum, it is no wonder that SEO services can seem expensive. In saying this, to build a SEO team of this size and expertise, you would be spending quite a lot more than your SEO retainer.
In order for a digital marketing company to provide a cost effective marketing strategy to your business, they need to ensure their team is getting paid.
As with any professional, SEO’s should be viewed as no different. With search engine optimisation being one of the most valuable marketing methods on the planet, it should be no surprise that the average wage of an SEO is expensive.
A Quality SEO Campaign Requires Resources
Any form of quality SEO management requires resources, and large amounts of them.
In order to increase search engine rankings, an SEO agency will need to ensure they are working with content writing professionals, backlink creators and other professional SEO team members to ensure your business increases rankings within the search engines.
The sheer amount of constant, monthly resources that goes into an SEO campaign contributes massively to the overall SEO cost of your campaign.
An experienced SEO agency understands what it takes to rank and understands exactly how much work is required to increase your Google search positions. They will factor this into your overall SEO budget to ensure there are no surprises down the track.
SEO Companies Drive Results & Real Value
There’s no denying that SEO is expensive for some businesses, especially at the beginning of your SEO campaign. It can seem like a lot of money to businesses who are just starting their digital marketing journey.
We encourage business owners to consider how much added revenue their business can expect with increased rankings. Most businesses that work with a quality SEO expert should expect to receive good SEO results, and a giant upswing in website traffic through SEO.
At the end of the day, SEO is designed to provide businesses with value. While it may seem expensive, we often say that not investing in SEO is actually costing your business more money.
SEO allows businesses to grow substantially, and the overall cost per lead is much lower than any other form of digital marketing. What’s more is that SEO has a compound effect, where businesses can expect a 25 x return on investment.
Work With Australia’s Best SEO Agency
There is a key factor that can make SEO very expensive for businesses, and this is working with the wrong SEO company, or an SEO company that doesn’t deliver any results.
There are a number of warning signs to look out for when choosing an SEO company, and we recommend choosing wisely and doing your due diligence before making a choice.
By working with Australian Web Experts, business owners can be rest assured they are working with Australia’s leading team of SEO experts that know exactly how to deliver business owners with a return on investment.
