FAQs About SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the cornerstone of every successful digital marketing strategy. This is why businesses entering the online world are inclined towards investing in it.
However, as popular as it is, SEO has a bit of mystery around it. The term confuses and sometimes even scares small business owners. It seems like something from another world.
And so many business owners considering SEO often head to search engines to understand what SEO is. If that doesn’t help, they reach out to experts offering consulting in internet marketing and SEO services to get simple answers to some of their most pressing SEO-related questions.
These common questions exist in almost every new-to-SEO business owner’s mind. Below is a round-up of these questions – the top SEO FAQs – to help you get the answers you need before diving into the realm of SEO:
Top FAQs about SEO
SEO is a massive investment. And just like you wouldn’t buy a house before researching the area and the property itself, you would not (and should not) invest in SEO without clearing all the confusion you have about this online marketing strategy.
Here are some of the top questions many businesses ask most frequently, with simple answers to help clear your doubts and concerns:
1. How Much Does SEO Cost?
The burning question of the SEO world. How much does SEO cost?
The fact is, since SEO is not a commodity, it does not have a fixed price. Therefore, there’s no exact answer to this question. What you can get is a range to help give you an estimate of how much you might have to spend.
This price range also varies wildly, depending on who you choose to work with. Working with reliable, professional agencies may cost more. Going with in-experienced agencies or SEO professionals may be inexpensive but also risky.
There’s also a choice between working with an agency or hiring an individual SEO expert. When working with an agency, expect to pay anywhere between $500 – $10,000 per month (although most small businesses can have an effective SEO campaign for under $2,000). The prices may also vary based on the services included within the package. If working with an individual SEO provider, you may have to pay between $100-$300 per hour. This SEO expert may not offer everything that agencies do in their packages. Therefore, you may have to hire additional professionals for those tasks, which may further increase the overall cost.
At this point, your second question may be:
2. Why Does SEO Cost So Much?
Good question. $1,000 per month? And that is just a base starting point? Isn’t that too much?
That’s for you to decide.
But no. Really. Why is SEO so expensive?
Modern SEO is more than just plugging in a bunch of keywords.
Successful search engine optimization in modern times requires a lot of research, tracking, and continuous optimization. In other words, doing SEO is hard work. It demands effort. And that’s what the high price is partly for.
Besides the hard work and effort, you also pay for expertise. Promising SEO strategies build on sound knowledge and resources. You work with professionals having years of experience helping websites like yours rank higher.
This is similar to hiring a professional mechanic to fix your car. The payment is not for the result. It is for the mechanic’s expertise and knowledge.
It’s the same with SEO. You pay for the experience, expertise, and insights that come with it. Not just the results.
Now, since there’s no avoiding SEO and its expense, the question that follows the last one is:
3. Can I Do SEO Myself?
Of course, you can do SEO yourself. But should you? Not really.
Let’s revisit our mechanic example. Say your car’s transmission died. Will you fix it yourself? Of course not. You know you may end up doing more harm than good.
The same is true with SEO.
While many online resources tell you how to DIY SEO, doing it yourself is rarely a good idea.
Besides the right skills and in-depth understanding, SEO also demands a lot of time. You need to track SEO updates and optimize your website continuously. You must also analyze performance metrics and determine if your strategies are working. If they are, you need to continue doing them. You need to figure out better strategies to reach your SEO goals if they aren’t.
Ask yourself this: as someone with a business to run, is this something you can manage? The most likely answer is no.
SEO is a full-time job, and busy business owners cannot keep up with its demands, even if they have the expertise and skills to drive results.
4. How Long Does It Take to Get On Page 1?
There’s no definite answer to this question either. It might take a website anywhere between 3-6 months to over a year to start ranking.
However, getting on page 1 for all your keywords is something none of the reliable SEO service providers will ever guarantee. If someone tells you they can get you on page one, run, don’t walk, away from them.
Google controls the websites’ ranks and releases very little information about how it does that. SEO experts use this information to develop intelligent guesses on what would work and help websites rank. This is why they will never promise a #1 position in a fixed time frame.
The rank isn’t certain, but SEO’s value still is. SEO promises more than just a high rank. When done right, it upgrades your website’s performance, user experience, and quality of its content. These factors can eventually increase your website-driven leads and conversions, ultimately helping you reach your goal, i.e. an improved bottom line.
5. Why Does SEO Take So Long?
3-6 months? That’s a long time for a website to start ranking. Why?
Google ranks high authority websites. Building such high authority takes time. This is one of the reasons why SEO takes time.
Apart from that, Google also takes its sweet time understanding, analyzing, and trusting a website. It has its own meticulous set of ranking factors that it considers for a website before the search engine can assign the website a rank.
Finally, the SEO process involves a lot of research and continuous optimization. SEO experts develop research-based strategies, implement them, and track results. Based on these results, they fine-tune the strategy until the website starts going up in rank. All of this… you guessed it, takes time.
This time adds up, resulting in the 3-6 months wait time SEO experts give before you can see tangible results.
6. Should I Do PPC with SEO?
PPC, or Pay-per-click, is a search advertising tactic that helps a website gain exposure in search results.
So, should you invest in PPC while you are doing SEO? There’s nothing wrong with that. If you want to rank higher quickly and are looking to drive traffic sooner, PPC might be a viable option. However, going the PPC route will add to the expense, especially when you are already doing SEO.
Talk to your SEO service provider and discuss your options. Do you need PPC? Or is SEO enough for your goals? A reliable SEO expert should be able to help you with that.
7. Why Do I Need to Continue SEO Once I Start Ranking?
Do you stop eating healthy once you hit your goal weight? No. Why? Because you know if you stop eating healthy, you may put the lost weight back on. This is why healthy eating is a lifestyle. You’ve got to keep doing it.
Similarly, SEO is not a once-and-done thing.
Google updates its algorithms hundreds of times a year. Discontinuing SEO may result in your website not being optimized according to the latest ranking factors. This may eventually lead to a drop in your hard-earned rank.
Moreover, Google prefers ranking up-to-date websites. Abandoning SEO after your website has hit the rank may disrupt the supply of fresh content to your site. As a result, your SEO progress may stagnate, and your website may lose its rank.
8. How Do I Select A Quality SEO Provider?
There are hundreds of thousands of service providers offering consulting in internet marketing and SEO services. All claim to be the best. All promise excellent results. Who do you trust?
You can check an SEO provider against a few factors to see if they are worth your time.
First, a reliable, professional SEO service provider would have worked with numerous clients before. Therefore, they would have perfected their SEO process over time. Ask for it.
Besides that, a reliable SEO agency would have a diverse team of experts. Anyone claiming to be a jack-of-all-trades cannot do successful SEO. This is why all successful SEOs have a team of experts to take care of the various areas of search engine optimization, from content creation to technical optimization and more.
They will have years of proven experience, many success stories, and positive reviews and testimonials to support their claims. So, consider an SEO agency or provider who has the experience and excellent reviews vouching for their expertise.
A blog on the website would give insight into the agency’s expertise. So, look for that as well. Any agency with a blog that helps you understand more about SEO and digital marketing is a sign this agency may be reliable and experienced enough to handle your SEO.
Finally, since SEO is a long-time thing, you also want to prioritize exceptional work ethic and integrity.
Landau Consulting, an NJ SEO company, has helped many businesses enjoy the perks of successful SEO with their intelligent strategies, proven expertise, and superior work ethic. With a diverse team of experts, Landau Consulting empowers small and medium-sized businesses with all the services they need for successful SEO.
You can check out what our clients say about us or contact us directly with your questions. We will be happy to help you out.
The blog reflects some of our expertise. Consider checking that out as well.