Are you a small business owner? If you’re like us then you are constantly brainstorming ideas to grow your business’s exposure and generate more leads. If you are reading this article you might have heard about search engine optimization (SEO). Free traffic to your site sounds amazing right?! But you probably have no idea how much SEO will cost for your small business. That is what this article will cover. Make sure to read to the end. We’ll give you some actual pricing for local SEO packages you might be interested in.
What is SEO?
First, a really quick, high-level overview of what SEO is.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO encompasses a large number of activities. All of them are aimed at generating organic traffic to your website from the search results of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO can include everything from SEO strategy, SEO audits, technical SEO, keyword research, local citations, SEO optimized blog posts and web page copywriting, link building, local SEO, etc.
Which activities should be performed will depend on your business’s goals, the findings of an SEO audit of your site and online presence, and the strategy set for your business.
How Much Does SEO Cost For Small a Business?
The cost of SEO depends on if you are doing it yourself or hiring an agency to do it for you.
How much does SEO cost if I do it myself?
Some business owners decide to do their own search engine optimization. But SEO is something that is best left to the experts unless you know what you are doing. If you are just starting out then it might seem like magic. At the very least, it will surely seem very confusing and frustrating. This is because of the steep learning curve, which is becoming even more true as old SEO tactics are becoming more and more obsolete.
Although SEO produces “free traffic” from search engines SEO takes a lot of hours to produce quality results. As they say, “time is money.” So if you want to do your own search engine optimization and are learning on the fly then you will most likely waste a lot of time (and money) trying to get results yourself.
If you decide to be your business’s own in-house SEO you should first make sure you know what you are doing.
If you need local SEO for your local business you should consider finding a local SEO expert. The same goes for organic SEO, link building, SEO copywriting, technical SEO, etc.
But if you plan on doing your own SEO then the cost will be equal to the hours you spend on it, multiplied by your hourly rate, plus the cost of any software and tools you use.
In the end you may find that it’s actually cheaper and easier to hire an agency with years of experience that knows exactly how to get results efficiently.
How much does SEO cost if I hire an SEO agency or expert?
The answer to this question is the famous “it depends.” What does it depend on? Glad you asked!
It depends on the agency or freelancer you hire. The cost will incur for their seo services will typically either be on a project basis, monthly retainer basis, or hourly (time and materials) basis.
If you hire an SEO agency on a project basis your cost will be quoted out for that specific project.
Hiring an agency on a monthly retainer basis means the cost will be equal to the agreed-upon monthly cost. Your retainer will typically include a given number of hours that the firm will not exceed.
If you hire an agency on an hourly basis then the cost will be equal to their hourly rate times the number of hours they worked per billing cycle.
Agencies can have hourly rates of anywhere from $100-$200 or more. You may receive a discounted rate if you meet a minimum number of hours per billing cycle.
Lastly, some agencies, like us offer SEO packages that come with predetermined services and flat pricing structures. Check out our local SEO package pricing and services. We also have flat-rate pricing for SEO copywriting, Google My Business profile set up, and optimization, among other services.
If you are looking for pricing on SEO services we would love to help. We are SEO, Local SEO and content experts. We can help your business gain more exposure, traffic and convert more leads. So contact us now to get started and get a free proposal.