What do you pay for every month with SEO?

Are you investing in SEO and sometimes think to yourself:

“What am I paying for every month?”

SEO is an industry where the consumers often (not all the time) have very little idea of the details of what needs to happen in order for their website to improve in rankings and to gain more organic search traffic to help grow enquiries and sales.

It’s almost like it’s magic, “I paid some people some money and now my websites ranking well, I have no idea what they did, but now I’m swamped with business…”

Well… sometimes that’s the case, other times not so much, and that’s when business owners start to rightfully ask “What am I paying for every month?”.

Most SEO agencies in the marketplace today offer a similar pricing strategy, a recurring monthly fee based on the scope of the campaign and the competitiveness of the industry, but why is it this way? Does it need to be this way?

I don’t think so…

Sure, there is definitely a place for recurring SEO. For campaigns which are quite competitive or where the goal of the campaign is quite high then often a recurring campaign will be needed to continually evolve the campaign and progress.

But, for people in a less competitive space, or for local businesses wanting to get more of a presence online and grow their business, often a once off solution can do the job.

You should take several factors into consideration when choosing whether to invest in an ongoing SEO campaign or a once off solution.

What are your expectations for the campaign? If any of the following suit you, then you should look at an ongoing campaign:

  • Are you wanting to be top 3 for all your keywords, including the most competitive ones?
  • Is SEO going to take up the majority of your marketing budget, and your business will be relying on the leads it brings in?
  • Are you in a competitive industry, where SEO is a dominant form of marketing for your niche?

If any of these suit you, then you will probably be better suited to an ongoing campaign.

However, if any of the following sound like you then a once off package could save you tens of thousands of dollars:

  • You’ve never done SEO before and would like to test it out before committing to a huge financial investment
  • You’re a local business and just want to be featured in search engine results around your local area
  • You’re already a strong brand in your niche and you would like SEO to support in bringing in extra leads for your business
  • You’re currently doing SEO with an agency but not sure what they’re doing, or if they’re doing anything at all

I’m not saying there is no need for ongoing campaigns, but there are so many businesses that don’t need ongoing SEO and could save thousands, even tens of thousands with a once off investment.

I’ve seen businesses who are spending over $1,000 per month on SEO and PPC and don’t know what their paying for other than a monthly report which is too confusing to read.

If you feel like this is you, then do yourself a favour and try and find a provider who is offering a once off payment solution, like Berley Digital, and see if they can help.

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