How Much Does SEO Cost? A Guide for Businesses

Did you know that Google provides 91.75% of search results worldwide?

Businesses not focusing on showing up at the top of the Google search engine are missing out on traffic, conversions, and ultimately a nice paycheck at the end of the day.

You might be confused and concerned about the cost of SEO. More and more businesses ask, “How much does SEO cost?” because they know they need it, but they’re afraid it’s not within their budget.

We are going to help you understand SEO costs and more. Continue reading this article to get the help you need.

The Basics of SEO

Before you get into the cost of things, you must understand what you’re paying for.

Remember that you want to work with a reputable SEO marketing firm. You don’t want to work with companies that fly by night and those that could actually hurt your rankings more than help.

Some basic SEO tasks need to take place, and if the people you’re talking to can’t tell you how SEO is done, you need to move on. SEO is not magic. SEO is easy to understand and shouldn’t be hard to explain.

The basics behind SEO are that you need to let the search engines know what your content is about, and after you let them know what it is about, you need to prove that your resource is the best.

Google and other search engines want to provide the best results for their users, and it’s the job of the SEO company to prove your right to be at the top of the search engines.

Good SEO Versus Bad SEO

You might not have known that there are bad SEO companies. We’re not talking about SEO companies that don’t do a good job—which we are sure they are out there too.

We’re talking about SEO companies that use practices directly against what Google and other search engines say is acceptable. These practices are often known as black hat SEO.

Some examples of black hat SEO might be buying links, spamming comments, forum comments, etc. Keep in mind that these practices might get you short-term results, but if Google sees that you’re trying to game the system, you might get thrown into the sandbox. If you go there, your website might not be seen again.

What Should SEO Cost Per Month?

One of the most common pricing methods for SEO is paying per month. When you pay monthly, you’ll usually get to pick from SEO service packages.

Basically, the more work you want done, the more money it will cost monthly. This makes sense for other businesses, but it might be a little confusing if you don’t understand SEO.

With the SEO industry, you might only pay as little as $500 per month or over $5,000 per month. It depends on your business size, the amount of work needed, and how quickly you want to achieve your results.

Budgeting for SEO

After you’ve learned search engine optimization pricing, you might be concerned about whether you can budget for it. Adding something else to the mix might seem like a bad idea, but it can be very positive.

After you start seeing results from SEO, it will begin to pay for itself. Know how much money you make on average per sale from your website, and then do the math and see how much it will be worth to you.

When you start to understand how much you’ll gain by investing in SEO, it becomes much easier to put out the money.

If you don’t want to take the money away from another part of your marketing budget, figuring out what to do can be challenging. You may need to cut down on something making your business life easier, but your business can live without it—at least for a little bit.

That might mean mowing your own lawn, processing your own payroll, or something else to fit your SEO plan into the budget.

Choosing an SEO Plan That Works for You

Now that you have some idea about SEO and what to do, it comes down to picking a plan that works for you.

If your market isn’t competitive, you might not need to spend thousands of dollars on SEO. On the other hand, if you’re competing on a national playing field, you might need to put that much money out to make a difference and start to see results.

Speak to a quality SEO firm and ask them the hard questions. You don’t want to look for a company that will tell you that you should only go for the most significant package, so you do need to let them know what budget you’re working with.

When the SEO company you will use knows what budget you’re working with, they can help you choose the right fit and explain the benefits of choosing that package.

How Much Does SEO Cost? – Now You Know

Now you understand and know the answer to “How much does SEO cost?” Now it’s time to put what you’ve learned into action and get your piece.

If your fishing pole isn’t in the lake, you can’t catch any fish, so get your website out there and start reeling in the customers.

Do you want to learn more about SEO and other Internet marketing strategies? Keep going through our blog to get the help you need.