SEO Cost – Does it Need to be Expensive?

This entry was written by a guest author.  The author’s views below are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Evolve:  The Science of Search

In an SEO FAQ  blog post not long ago, I answered the question: ” Why is SEO so expensive?”

There are some people who think SEO is expensive.  This is, of course, a matter of perspective.  If you go online because you’ve bought into the scam still being pitched that you can make big money with almost no investment, and you set up a website for under $1000 using offshore labor, then the idea of paying $500, $1000, or $1500 a month might sound expensive for SEO costs.  If you’ve heard this lie we suggest watching this great video below:

Sorry that you have been misled, but the scam is a lie.  Well, not completely.  You actually CAN make more money online with less investment than offline.  Here is why:

1. It costs a lot less to set up a website that can distribute goods or services, or even just information products, than it takes to set up a chip stand that serves a community like mine (population under 5000 people).  With $5000-$10,000, you can have an online presence that is in a position to compete with major international brands (that does not mean your website will be as fancy as theirs, but you can be in a realistic position to compete).

2. It costs a lot less to compete against major brands in the search engines than it does through radio advertising (go ahead, call your local radio station and ask), TV advertising (don’t even bother asking) and glossy magazine ads.

The fact is that the big brands have the money to spend.  If Burger King can spend $300 million a year on advertising and GM can spend over a billion dollars each year, surely big brands can outspend you online.  Suddenly an SEO budget of $500, $1000, or $1500 a month sounds like peanuts.  And it is.  That’s because SEO is so cost effective when it comes to identifying prospects and delivering them to your sales team.

And the big brands do not always win the SEO game, although many of them do have an advantage.  Try searching for “winter boots”, ” garlic press” and “gourmet coffee” to see how well ordinary businesses compete with the big brand websites.

In many niches, SEO peanuts will work just fine. Don’t expect to rank #1 at Google or Bing for “cars” or for “books” or for “food” on that kind of budget.  But for the majority of niches, that price range is reasonable, and even in most fairly competitive niches the price to compete – I mean really compete – is way below what it would cost to compete against established brands offline.

There is a great article posted by Evolve over at YouMoz about How To Choose an SEO Company.

Establish a reasonable budget from the start, and you’ll find SEO is a very cost effective means of promotion.

This post was written by David Leonhardt an SEO consultant in Ottawa, Canada.  For more think-outside-the-box SEO marketing ideas, subscribe to his blog, where he is now offering a free SEO white paper for small business.