Are affordable SEO services just a myth like Bigfoot? Absolutely not.
You might be jaded when it comes to shopping for an SEO firm to help your website. These companies can be worse than airplane tickets, with bait-and-switch pricing and surcharges for everything.
It doesn’t have to be that way, because not all SEO firms are like that.
Here’s how to find affordable SEO services and get the most from your advertising dollar.
Don’t Assume You Need a New Website
Just because your website is underperforming doesn’t mean you have to blow it up and build it again. Because that’s the expensive way to do things.
A lot of the time, a few tweaks to your existing website can unlock your potential and un-plug that sales funnel.
A good SEO firm should provide a full audit of all of your web properties, including your:
- Website
- Blog
- Social presences
- Any microsites
Let them know you’re interested in leveraging what you have, not building something new from scratch unless it is absolutely necessary.
You will be surprised what some strategic tweaks can do for both your SEO and your CRO (conversion rate optimization).
Don’t Invest in Pay-Per-Click Ads Hoping to Help Your SEO
Don’t get us wrong. Pay-per-click-ads are amazing and certainly have their place in your digital strategy. But PPC and SEO are different things. Success with one does not bleed over into the other.
Try to think of it this way. PPC is traffic you buy, and SEO is traffic you earn. Or, PPC is bidding on keywords, whereas SEO is optimizing them.
There is no proven data that proves that PPC leads to SEO success, even though you’re buying them from Google.
Now, PPC ads can be great to bring traffic/ sales leads to your site and help your CRO. But don’t expect them to help your organic ranking.
And don’t hire an agency that promises it will.
Don’t Invest Heavily in Social Media Expecting SEO Results
Again, this is another massive myth out there. Going all-in on social spending will not lead to SEO success. Not really, anyways.
Google has flat out said that social media does not impact SEO rankings.
Of course, there are countless experts on both sides of the fence, who have data and their own Venn diagrams to support whether or not social success leads to SEO success.
Here’s the short answer: It doesn’t hurt, obviously. But if you’re searching for affordable SEO services, you’re probably better off spending your money on things that are proven to impact your SEO ranking, like content and link-building.
Otherwise, you can spend money on building vanity metrics like Likes and Followers. They’re called vanity metrics because they look very nice, but do nothing to actually help your business.
We don’t want you to spend money tripling your social reach, with absolutely no movement on your SEO needle.
Spend Your Link-Building Money Wisely
Just straight up don’t work with anyone who tries to sell you on spammy link-building practices that they claim will help. The Google Penguin update from a little while ago will make sure they don’t help.
In fact, they do far more harm than good. If you have any of these spammy links out there right now, your site’s ranking is being punished for it.
What is a spammy link? Basically, it’s an exact match keyword, using exact match anchor text, pointing back to your site, on a completely unrelated site.
For example, let’s say you sell lawnmowers in Statesville. A spammy link would be another site hyperlinking “Best lawnmowers Statesville” to your site, even though they have nothing to do with lawnmowers.
Google wants quality, organic links from real sites. Not “link farms” people may try to sell you on. Quality links come from things like:
- Media coverage
- Legitimate guest posts and blogs
- Links on an influencer’s sites
- Mentions on related/ industry sites
But, the good news is that this update is part of the Google core algorithm now and works in real time. So if you take down these links or “nofollow” them, you will see the payoffs almost right away.
Auditing your external links is something that a company providing affordable SEO services can help you with. But, if they try to sell you on link farms, walk away immediately.
Avoid One-Size-Fits-All Packages
During your first meeting with your would-be firm, do they spend their time talking about you, or themselves? Do they spend that time trying to sell you, or trying to understand you?
If most of the meeting is spent talking about their packages, they’re focused on the money. But if most of the meeting is spent talking about your needs, they’re focused on results.
They should be able to custom-build a package to suit you because the only truly affordable SEO services are ones that actually work.
Bonus Tip: Trust Numbers. Distrust Promises
The greatest SEO minds in the world would never just look at your site and say, “We can promise you a 500% increase over 6 months.” Because they would know not to. They know there is a lot of research and testing involved.
So don’t waste your time or money on anyone who claims they can boost your SEO by X%, without knowing very much about you.
It is OK if they show you case studies that show you how they have achieved big results for other people. Because that’s data-driven proof. In fact, you should be wary of anyone without case studies or success stories to show you.
Let Us Show You How Affordable SEO Services Can Be
You don’t need to spend big dollars to see big results.
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, we also have offices in over 80 countries. We use our knowledge and expertise to make a difference for businesses all around the world.
Get in touch with us when you’re ready to turbo-charge your SEO.
Stay Connected