How Much Does SEO Cost?

How Much Does SEO Cost?  That is typically the first question that business owners ask us. Well to answer that question, we must actually answer it with a question of our own. What are the goals of the business with SEO? If the goal is to increase rankings to sell a product or service, that has Content Marketing and Organic SEO written all over it. If the goal is brand and reputation management to "push down" bad mentions of your brand or person on the web, that is more reputation management. If the goal is to "get on facebook" and advertise there, thats SMM (social media marketing). SEO as a term has so many associations, some people think Facebook ads are SEO, and Instagram etc.  Those are Paid Social Media Marketing strategies, and are part of an overall branding and digital marketing strategy. So before determining what the cost is for "SEO" we have to define the goal and actual need of the business/owner or decision maker. After that has been decided you should look at the competition. If the competition is Super Hard, we use Ahref's Site Explorer to determine how "strong" the profile of the competition is. If the backlink profile of the competition is on the "lower side" then we price accordingly, if it is "higher" typically higher usually means 60 or higher. Medium is 40-59 and lower competition is the remainder. This is not a hard and fast rule however and pure metrics alone don't tell the whole story. [caption id="attachment_35878" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

How much does seo cost?[/caption] The topical relevance of a website, which is really how niche specific are the referring websites linking to the researched domain, plays a part in the analysis.  For example, Amazon. So Amazon is the 800 pound guerilla in the e-commerce world. Not only is Amazon it's own Search Engine, as in people go right to Amazon and search and buy from within that ecosystem, Amazon products typically rank on the first page of Google for just about everything that you can buy online. That being said, just because Amazon is a "beast", doesn't mean you can't slay the beast. How? Topical relevance. That one page product listing is "themed" for that particular product offering. Meaning it's dedicated to, oh let's say, "lip ointment". Well, if you have a website that is dedicated to lip ointment (think chapstick), and you build alot of really good content that is backed by research with great images etc, you can eventually compete with and beat the Amazon listing. Why? Because YOUR WHOLE SITE is topically relevant to a particular search. So when we figure out pricing on a potential new client, we also have to take into consideration, who is producing the content? If you have your own writing staff and outreach for white hat link building, then you may only need Consulting. However most businesses, unless they are well established and have a dedicated marketing team are not equipped to Add MORE WORK to their already loaded plates. So, figuring out what level of frequency we need to publish on your website, and the amount of work for our outreach staff (they contact other website owners that are related to your niche about guest posting on their site so that you can earn a legit back link and get access to their audience), all come into play.

Do We Have To Keep Paying For SEO And Content Marketing After We Hit #1?

Have you ever played "King Of The Hill"? It was that crazy game we used to play on tops of dirt piles or snow hills as children. Everyone wanted to get to the top, and whoever was at the top was trying desperately not to get knocked off. So you had typically dozens of kids (yes I played it during school) trying to get to ONE spot. The Internet, and specifically top Google rankings are that ONE spot. Everyone wants to be king of the hill, and they are constantly trying to knock you off once you get there. Maintaining a strong strategy and executing on it, will help you stay there. "To be the champ, you have to BEAT the champ". So everyone is always going to be coming for you.

   

The following article How Much Does SEO Cost? is republished from MasterMind Digital

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