How much should my business be paying for local seo?

Introduction

If you run a small business, then there’s a pretty good chance your also paying a local seo agency to help promote your business.

Yet, this is where many business owners can also get worried over whether or not they are paying the right fee.

After all, seo is very different from other forms of marketing. That’s to say if you were to send out a request for a quote, say to ten different agencies, well they are more than likely to all come back with different costs.

The reason being is seo agencies implement their work in different ways. Also, if the agency has been around for quite a while, and is respected at implementing good quality white hat work, well the fees are normally much higher.

So, with all these prices varying so wildly, how on earth is a business owner supposed to know how much they should be paying?

Well do not fear, that’s because as always, we can offer some valuable advice that will allow you an idea of how some agencies arrive at the prices that they charge.

How established are the competition?

It’s fair to say that some businessowners do not have the foggiest idea about seo, that’s to say they think of this form of marketing as kind of like a lightbulb. This means that when they start paying for the service, bang they expect it to be switched on and working.

But seo is the total opposite to other forms of digital marketing which can appear instantly, like PPC adds for example.

The reason being is this, as you know you will have competitors that are ranked on the first page right now, and the reason being is they may have invested in organic seo for a very long time.

So, this means that the businesses ranking signals, the signals that the search engines like Google read will be strong.

So that’s right, you guessed it the backlinks will most likely be strong, the content marketing, the technical seo elements as well.

So, there you have it, expecting instant results when the competition are likely to be very strong, and have a head start is often unrealistic.

And this brings us back in a full circle to our original question, that is your seo agency should gauge how strong your competitors are from the very start. This should then dictate the level of work that is needed.

So, if your digital marketing agency plucks a figure out of the air, or states that you can opt for a series of cheap seo packages, well they might not have considered how strong the competition are.

And your marketing investment may just benefit the agency, and in all likelihood be a drop in the ocean.

Which seo elements are needed

Just as a mechanic provides a quote for what work is needed in order to fix a car, well so should your seo agency.

If you got a new website, well the whole lot is going to need work. However, if you have a strong website, yet it may just need improvements in a few key areas, well your agency should quote accordingly.

With that said, the work that is needed will dictate the price, as different seo tasks will take longer than others. For example, building backlinks takes a great deal of time, and then on the other hand some business citations can be built relatively easily.

So, in a nutshell the seo agency should run an audit on your website, see what work is needed then offer a quote.

Why do I need to pay each and every month?

A lot of business owners recognise the need to invest in local seo, after all if a business is not listed on the first page, well it’s more than likely to be missing out on business.

So once a business decides it does require to invest in organic and local seo, a lot of business owners can quickly become perplexed by why they need to pay a monthly fee.

The reason being is most business owners would like to pay a one off fee, and that’s to say no ongoing costs.

But the reason that most seo agencies, including ours charge a monthly fee is because your competitors will be constantly looking to increase their businesses rankings as well.

So, this means that once your business is ranked number one, the competition will want to knock you off your top spot.

The reason being is rather simple, and that is the business that is ranked at the very top will normally receive the most visitors. That’s to say even the businesses that are ranked second and third normally do not receive the same amount of visitors.

So, in a nutshell, most businesses don’t just want to be listed on the first page, they want to be listed on the first page at the number one position.

This is why constant effort must be made to improve or maintain where a business ranks, and this is why most businesses pay a monthly fee.

How much does your business charge?

If you would like to obtain a no obligation quote, why not give us a ring?