Ongoing SEO: Why SEO Isn’t a One-Time Thing

You’ve spent several late nights really working hard on your website’s content and layout. You may have even tried to manage your SEO, expecting to see it skyrocket to the top of the search rankings.

You get some initial traction, but suddenly, it drops. You’re frustrated, confused, and don’t understand what happened. Well, that’s because SEO isn’t a one-time thing you can just set and forget!

SEO is an ongoing process that requires ongoing effort and innovation. Imagine you plant a garden; you wouldn’t only weed and water your plants once, right? Just like a garden, your website needs continuous updating and optimization to maintain and improve its level in the search rankings. Let’s talk about ongoing SEO and why you need it.

SEO – An Ongoing Process that Leads to Success

Many of our clients who aren’t familiar with SEO have a lot of questions. One of the most common is how often they need to reassess their SEO efforts.

Our answer? It’s an ongoing process, not a “one and done.” You must roll up your sleeves and keep at it rather than letting it fall to the wayside. You need to keep up-to-date and work to boost your search engine rankings.

The digital landscape is always evolving with new competitors entering the market and search engine algorithms being updated. If you don’t keep up, you risk falling behind.

Businesses that perform well with SEO are the ones who understand that the process is ongoing. They consistently put the work in to make sure their online presence is up to date.

SEO success doesn’t occur overnight; it’s an ongoing SEO process that will come with great rewards for those who remain committed.

Why Ongoing SEO is Essential for Your Website’s Success

As we’ve discussed, search engine algorithms are always evolving. If you look at Google, it’s consistently updating its algorithm (between 500 and 600 times per year!) to make sure they’re delivering the top results to their users.

If you don’t keep up with these changes and manage your SEO strategy, you can fall behind your competitors quickly.

Another reason ongoing SEO is essential to your website is that it’s likely to change over time. You’ll add new pages, services, and products – as such, you must ensure each additional is properly optimized for SEO. That meansincorporating relevant keywords, making top-tier meta descriptions, and making sure your website is structured for ease of use on both traditional platforms and mobile.

Every industry evolves, which means your competition inevitably will evolve, too. Top spots for search engines will always be in high demand. As new, fresh competitors enter the market, everyone involved is going to have to double down on their SEO efforts, and so should you.

Make sure you don’t let those hard-earned rankings and stay ahead by regularly updating your SEO strategy.

Key Tips and Tricks for Effective SEO

What does a good SEO strategy look like? Obviously, each approach will vary based on your industry goals, but there are a few key things that should be a part of an effective approach.

On-Page Optimization

If you want to see your numbers fly, on-page SEO is your starting point. Make sure to sew your targeted keywords into page titles, headings, as well as all content – making sure to optimize your meta descriptions and images, too. You’ll notice in time that your website is ranking better and attracting more suitable traffic.

However, it’s important to know this isn’t a one-time task. Impactful on-page optimization is an ongoing process. This can include writing updated content (such as blogs) or updating current pages. Regardless, you need to keep SEO best practices in mind every time to create a new piece of content. By keeping consistent, you’ll help maintain your website and even improve its search engine rankings.

Technical SEO

This is the more technical side of things. Technical SEO involves optimizing the back-end elements of your website, such as site speed, mobile-friendly application, and crawlability. These are the elements of your website that aren’t visible to users, but that doesn’t mean they don’t significantly impact your search engine rankings.

A lot of technical SEO is like “housekeeping” – conducting ongoing and regular SEO audits to identify any technical SEO issues. This often involves tasks such as adjusting your website’s code, fixing broken links, and optimizing your website structure overall.

Link Building

Link building is another powerful element of a good SEO strategy. Utilizing high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites can completely boost your website’s overall authority, and the more authoritative you are, the more Google is likely to promote you.

Just like we’ve mentioned before, however, link-building isn’t a one-and-done effort. To maximize its effectiveness, you must seek new opportunities to get those backlinks. You can do this through guest blogging and creating valuable, informative content that is likely to attract links.

Boosting Your Business with Local SEO

When you’re a small business targeting a specific location, local SEO is your best friend. Adjusting your website and digital profiles can help you fly through the search rankings and bring in more customers from your local neighbourhood.

Some essential tricks for optimizing local SEO include claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile listing (once called Google My Business), encouraging your customers to leave reviews and local citations. Like other methods we’ve mentioned, this needs to be an ongoing effort to maintain and improve your local visibility.

In-Depth Analysis

Good SEO isn’t an achievement you obtain and never have to fight for again – it’s an ongoing effort. You need to make sure to measure results based on your SEO plan and metrics and balance their effectiveness. You need to adapt your approach based on your metrics.

You need to regularly measure the effectiveness of your results and adjust your strategies based on elements like organic traffic, search engine rankings, and conversations to see what is and isn’t working.

You can use tools such as Google Analytics which can give you a lot of insight into how well your website is performing while tracking your ranking in search engines. Make sure to monitor your progress based on specific keywords and phrases. Staying on top of your data and using it for your SEO efforts ensures you’re always able to adapt your strategy.

FAQ: Understanding Ongoing SEO – A Breakdown of What We Discussed

1. Why isn’t SEO a one-time effort?

SEO is an ongoing process because algorithms constantly evolve. Competitors are always going to be updating their strategies to match the shift in user behaviour. This is why you need to make regular updates to ensure your site remains visible in search rankings.

2. How often should I update my SEO strategy?

A general rule of thumb is to update your SEO strategy quarterly, at a minimum. You need to monitor key performance metrics and adjust as needed.

3. What activities are included in ongoing SEO?

Ongoing SEO involves keyword research, content creation, technical audits, link-building, and monitoring website analytics.

4. Can I pause SEO once I’ve reached the top rankings?

Pausing your SEO efforts is counterproductive because it can result in a gradual decline in rankings as competitors continue their efforts. Search engines prioritize fresh optimized content over old news. This is why consistent maintenance is required.

5. How long does it take to see results from ongoing SEO?

Results of ongoing SEO can take weeks to months. This is determined by several factors such as competition, the quality of your optimization strategy, and your website’s starting position. You need to combine patience with consistency.

6. Is ongoing SEO expensive?

The cost of ongoing SEO varies depending on the complexity of your website and your overall goals. Most agencies will work within an established budget, but you also get what you pay for it. However, it can be a cost-effective investment compared to other marketing efforts, as it has the potential to deliver long-term, organic growth, which can increase sales.

7. What are the benefits of ongoing SEO?

Ongoing SEO builds brand authority improves site traffic and boosts user experience. These efforts can also contribute to better conversions and revenue with time.

8. Do small businesses need ongoing SEO?

Yes, all businesses, even small ones, will significantly benefit from ongoing SEO as it helps compete with larger companies.

9. How does content play a role in ongoing SEO?

By regularly creating high-quality content, you can improve your SEO. It makes your website relevant, attracts new eyes, and offers opportunities for backlinking.

10. Can I manage ongoing SEO on my own?

While if you have some experience with SEO, you could manage your SEO independently. However, if you’re not very SEO savvy or simply don’t have the bandwidth to regularly manage SEO efforts, it’s more effective to outsource to an agency.

Need Help with SEO? Trust in TrafficSoda

Don’t go into your SEO strategy feeling like you’re in the dark, TrafficSoda can help. Our leading SEO and content development services can help you climb up those search engine rankings.
Contact us today.

Marketing on a Tight Budget? Why SEO is Your Secret Weapon

Managing marketing on a tight budget requires a lot of forward thinking, precision, and the ability to be highly efficient. If you harness the right strategies, even a small budget can go a long way.

Today, TrafficSoda is going to share some cost-effective strategies to help you build your business without draining the budget. We’re going to explore SEO tools, tricks, and other best practices to stretch that budget.

Create a Clear and Concise Marketing Strategy

When you’re working on a tight budget, having a well-planned strategy is your best friend! Know who your audience is; what you’re hoping to achieve; and what makes your brand unique and desirable. When you map out a clear plan, you create a pathway that avoids pitfalls and maximizes efficiency.

Narrow Down Your Target Audience and Objectives

To maximize your marketing on a tight budget, you need to know who you’re speaking to. You need to define your ideal customer and to do that, you need to narrow down their needs, and preferences and trigger them to buy a product or service. Then you can follow the SMART goal system: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. With a pinpointed audience and clear objectives, you’re going to see a greater ROI for every penny spent.

Identity Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

Having a solid USP is what gives your brand a heartbeat. Your Unique Selling Proposition is what sets your brand apart from everyone. Consider what value you can offer customers that sets you apart from your competition – something they can’t find anywhere else! Your USP needs to be at the very core of your business messaging and be geared toward resonating with your audience.

SEO On a Budget

Target Long-Tail Keywords

SEO is admittedly complex, and it oftentimes feels like the figurative goalpost is always being moved. Focusing on long-tail keywords can help you reach your target audience by actively searching for specific solutions with limited expense. Improving your SEO not only drives traffic forward but also gets your brand out there.

Conduct Keyword Research

You can utilize external tools like Google Keyword Planner to discover new long-tail keywords that are relevant to your targeted audience. These terms usually have lower competition than more common keywords but also reflect your buyer’s intention.

On-Page SEO

Make sure to optimize each of your web pages with relevant keywords in titles, headers, and meta descriptions – trust us, this simple action can make a dramatic difference in your rankings over time.

Social Media Marketing

Prioritize Engagement Rather Than Focusing on Followers

Engaging with a more intimate audience is usually a lot more fruitful than having a large but unengaged following. Having a smaller but active audience allows you to tailor your content to truly resonate with them, which builds a community that trusts in your products or services.

Opt for User-Generated Content

While it may be nerve-racking to ask your customers to share their experiences, it’s truly a fruitful endeavor. By featuring user-generated content on your socials, you not only amplify your reach, but you build a sense of being authentic and willing to listen to your customers.

Actively Participate in Social Trends

Keep a keen eye on emerging trends and popular hashtags that align with your brand’s vision. By joining in on the fun, you not only seem like a trendy brand, but it also increases your organic reach.

Master the Art of Internal and External Linking

Make a conscious effort to build internal links between the content on your website and try to aim for backlinks from credible sources. Backlinks indicate that your brand is trustworthy, enhancing the customer experience and SEO.

Collaborations and Partnerships

Collaborate with Similar Brands

Collaborations with brands that complement yours can help you reach a wider audience at a minimal cost to you. Effective partnerships create value for both parties involved by increasing your visibility and fostering engagement.

Collaborate with Local Influencers

When you have a consumer-focused brand, partnering with small, local influencers is very budget-friendly. This allows you to reach a more niche audience that has a good, engaged relationship with said influencer. This creates a more direct exposure for your brand.

Content Collaboration

Content collaborations, such as guest blogs or informative videos can help expand your reach while saving your team some time. When you collaborate on content, you can hash a deal to cross-post and improve invisibility for both brands.

Optimize Content Creation

Repurpose Your Content

You can extend the lifespan of your content by posting it across multiple formats. Consider a well-performing blog as a key example – you can adapt this into a video tutorial, a series of social posts, or even a helpful infographic. This can extend your reach without adding additional costs.

Build a Respectable Blog

To build a comprehensive blog, you must structure it to answer all your customer’s top questions. Work with your content team to craft in-depth blogs that address these questions while optimizing for search engine keywords. Try targeting long-tail keywords as this is a highly effective approach because they’re far less likely to have significant competition.

Craft Compelling Video Content

If you have the resources, don’t be afraid to experiment with short and informative content. TikTok is a popular application where content can be quickly viral and it’s easy to connect with an audience. This makes it an essential asset if you want to try something new.

Measure Your Overall Success, Even the Small Things

When it comes to measuring your overall marketing success, it’s important to remember that every little bit of success matters. Whether that’s going from getting 5 likes on a social media post to 10 – that’s still an upward trend! However, there are several key metrics you need to keep track of to measure your business’s overall success.

Measure and Optimize Your Approach

When you have are marketing on a tight budget, you need to be adaptable. Make sure you measure your campaign performance, review the relevant data, and make sure you’re ready to spin on your heels and readjust your approach based on what the data shows.

Monitor Key Metrics

Track your metrics ranging from conversion rates, engagement, cost-per-acquisition, and every relevant metric to make sure your current marketing efforts are being maximized.

Take Advantage of Free Tools!

If you don’t currently have the budget for analytics tools, you should take advantage of free tools like Google Analytics and social media insights to help monitor your overall performance. This way, you have the data to make informed decisions.

Refine and Elevate

Marketing on a tight budget is a continuous process that requires patience and experimentation. It’s an opportunity to practice and refine your process to make sure you’re making the most of your budget.

Additional Strategies

Now that we’ve gone through the thick of it together, let’s go into some more general strategies you can adopt to help make the most of your marketing on a tight budget.

Craft an Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is an essential way to get new customers engaged with your brand, all while you can maintain current relationships with your customers. Email marketing might not be a new thing, but it’s generally reliable when it comes to getting a good ROI on your marketing investment. Here are some key tips:

• Be extremely thoughtful and make sure you’re using your creative chops, make those subject lines snappy!
• Make sure you have an obvious call-to-action in every email that encourages your customers to take the next step.
• Run AB tests and make sure you know what copy resonates with your customers.

Use Infographics

Infographics, despite seeming simple, are a powerful marketing tool. They break down complex subjects into attractive visuals that are easy to digest. They’re easy to share and are a great tool for getting referral traffic and links.

Elevate Yourself with TrafficSoda

At the end of the day, SEO copywriting is the backbone of marketing on a tight budget. You’re able to develop your voice, your values, and your best first impression. Not to mention how to truly capture Google’s heart! Whether that’s creating unique website copy or blogs, having SEO-optimized content can make or break your online visibility. In comes TrafficSoda! We have the SEO copywriting services to meet your needs. Our professional SEO copywriters will work alongside you to make clear, concise, Google-optimized content that is sure to appeal to your audience.

• New Website Copywriting
• Content Refresh
• Content Optimization for Conversion
• Existing Content SEO Optimization
• Skyscraper Content to Rank for Specific Keywords
• Blog Writing

Contact us today for more information.

Should the Google Search Algorithm Leak Change Your SEO Strategy?

Unless you’ve been off on vacation the past two months (or, you know, just aren’t glued to SEO news feeds like we are) you’ve probably heard about the massive Google Search algorithm leak.  

The short version is this: in March of 2024, thousands of pages of internal Google documents were released to Github, revealing some of the secrets behind Google’s search algorithm – the system that decides which websites show up first in your search results. 

This is a big deal.  

For Google, a company that has prided itself on decades of algorithm secrecy, the leak is a rare and embarrassing misstep – a crack in the tech giant’s armour.  

For the rest of us, this leak is significant because it suggests Google Search might not work the way Google led us to believe. Specifically, it raises concerns that Google might be using more data to rank your website than they’ve let on – things like how often people click on your site, what they do after clicking, and even what they do on other websites. 

Google, of course, is downplaying the whole thing (although they did confirm that the documents are real). They say the info is outdated and taken out of context. 

But let’s be real: Google isn’t exactly known for being an open book about how their search engine works. So, the details in these leaked documents could be one of the few glimpses we get at what really goes on behind the scenes. 

What does this all mean for your small or mid-size business? Should you be scrambling to change your SEO strategy? That’s the million-dollar question we’re here to tackle.

Unpacking the Massive 2024 Google Search Algorithm Leak

The leaked documents in question were confirmed to be the blueprints for Google Search’s Content Warehouse API – the system that stores and processes tons of data about websites. 

While the documents don’t give away Google’s entire formula for ranking websites, they do reveal some intriguing points that hadn’t been confirmed up until now: 

1. Google seems to be sizing up websites based on some kind of authority rating.
2. How users click on your site in search results and how long they stick around might mean more to SEO rankings than Google has let on.
3. Google uses data from its Chrome browser to track user behavior across the web (not news) and this might have a big impact on site rankings (definitely news).
4. And much more. The documents hint at all sorts of other factors, from keyword stuffing penalties to special considerations for “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) topics like health and finance.

If you’re worried about how your website might be affected, we’re here to help. Don’t leave your online presence to chance – book a free consultation with our SEO team. 

Now, let’s dig into what each of these factors could mean for your website.

1. Google Keeps Proprietary Site Authority Scores – But We Don’t Get to See Them

If you’ve dabbled in SEO, you’ve probably heard of Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Score (DS). These are scores created by SEO tools to predict how well a website might rank on Google. They’re often useful, especially when it comes to competitive analysis, but they’re not official Google metrics. 

Before 2024, Google repeatedly denied using any kind of site-wide authority score like DA or DS to rank websites. They claimed it didn’t exist, and generally discouraged us from fixating on scores put together by third parties. 

Then came the leak… 

Buried within those documents was a clear reference to a “SiteAuthority” score. What the SEO has taken this to mean is that Google does have a way of sizing up a website’s overall credibility, at least in specific subject areas. 

This is a big deal. It means Google might be playing by a slightly different set of rules than they’ve let on. 

Now, we don’t know exactly how Google calculates this SiteAuthority score, or how much weight it carries in their overall ranking algorithm. It might not even work the same way as those scores from SEO tools. 

But what we do know is that Google is paying attention to more than just individual pages. They’re looking at your website, and this SiteAuthority score could be a big part of that evaluation. 

2. Clicks Might Count for More Than We Thought

For years, Google insisted it didn’t use clicks to decide search rankings. But many SEO experts weren’t buying it. They suspected that clicks played a bigger role than Google let on. 

The recent leak finally confirmed these suspicions. Buried in those documents was something called Navboost – an algorithm that tracks and analyzes user clicks. 

So, what’s the big deal about Navboost? In short, it learns from your clicks. It remembers what you clicked on, how long you stayed on a site, and what you did next. This information helps Google figure out which websites are most relevant and helpful for specific searches. 

We first got a glimpse of Navboost during Google’s antitrust trial back in 2023. At the time, Google downplayed its significance, but this leak suggests it might be more important than they admitted.

Here’s what we’ve gleaned about Navboost so far:

• Click Data: Navboost is all about clicks. It stores data on clicks for up to 13 months, learning from user behavior over time.
• Search Intent: It focuses on improving results for navigational queries (like searches for specific websites), but it likely influences other types of searches as well.
• Personalization: Navboost may tailor search results based on your location, device, and past clicks.

The leak basically confirms that user behavior plays a significant role in how Google ranks websites.  It reinforces the idea that creating a positive user experience isn’t just good practice – it’s essential for SEO success. 

If your website is easy to navigate, engaging, and keeps visitors clicking and exploring, Navboost is more likely to see it as a valuable resource and potentially boost its rankings. 

On the other hand, if your site frustrates users or doesn’t meet their needs, Navboost might take note and adjust your rankings accordingly.

3. Your Visitors’ Chrome Data Might Impact Your Rankings, Too

Ever notice how Chrome seems to know what you’re interested in? Well, that’s because it’s quietly tracking your online activities.  

With billions of people using Chrome worldwide, Google’s got a treasure trove of data on how we browse the web. This isn’t new.  

And guess what? The leak suggests they’re using this data for more than just showing you personalized ads. They’re likely analyzing your clicks and browsing patterns to figure out which pages on your website are the most important. This can even influence those handy little Sitelinks that appear under some search results, guiding users to the most relevant parts of your site. 

Now, before you start feeling like you’re living in a fishbowl, let’s address the elephant in the room: privacy. Yes, Google’s data collection methods raise some serious questions. As SEO professionals, we’re committed to ethical practices and respecting user privacy. 

But here’s the thing: understanding how Google uses this data is crucial for effective SEO. It’s about working with the reality of the situation, not necessarily endorsing it. 

The leaked documents hint at just how extensive Google’s data collection is. They’re not just looking at what you do on their own platforms – they’re tracking your clickstream across the entire web. This data helps them paint a detailed picture of your interests and preferences. 

This contradicts some of Google’s public statements about user privacy. But by understanding the true extent of their data collection, we can tailor our SEO strategies to align with the factors that matter for ranking.

Why Should You Care About the Google Search Algorithm Leak?

Okay, so Google’s got some secrets. Why should that keep you up at night?  

Here’s the thing: how Google ranks websites directly impact how many potential customers find you online. And if Google is playing by a different set of rules than they’ve let on, your current SEO strategy might not be as effective as you think. 

This leak gives us a peek behind the curtain, revealing potential factors that could be making or breaking your website’s ranking. It’s like finding out the referee in a football game has a secret preference for one team – you need to know the rules to win the game. 

Staying ahead of the curve is everything in the digital world. You need to keep tabs on how Google Search is changing and adapt your strategies and potentially outrank your competitors. And if there’s reason to believe that Google isn’t always upfront about how Search works – which many SEOs believe there now is – that makes the task a lot more difficult.

So, What Should You Do?

If we’re being honest, there’s no easy answer here. Google’s always been tight-lipped about its algorithm, and this leak hasn’t exactly made things crystal clear. So, take a deep breath – it’s not time to throw your current SEO strategy out the window just yet.

Proceed with Caution, But Don’t Stand Still

While it’s wise to be cautious about making drastic changes based on incomplete information, this leak does offer valuable insights. It’s a reminder that Google’s methods are always evolving, and what worked yesterday might not be the best approach tomorrow. 

The key is to strike a balance. Don’t panic, but don’t ignore the potential clues hidden in these documents.

Focus on the Fundamentals

Even with all this uncertainty, some things remain constant in the world of SEO. High-quality content that provides real value to your audience, a smooth and user-friendly website experience, and a strong reputation with other reputable websites are still the cornerstones of good SEO. 

Like building a house, a solid foundation is essential, regardless of the latest trends in architecture.

The Bottom Line: Your SEO Strategy Needs to Be Proactive

This Google leak is a reminder that it’s not enough to set up your SEO strategy and forget about it. To stay ahead of the competition and maintain visibility, you need to be proactive and adaptable. 

This means: 

• Keeping an eye on industry news and updates, like this leak, to understand how Google’s algorithm might be changing.
• Focusing on fundamentals. Don’t neglect the core principles of SEO – quality content, user experience, and building a strong online reputation.
• Being willing to adjust your approach based on new information and insights.
• Partnering with experts to help you navigate the complexities and stay ahead of the curve.

TrafficSoda, now a part of the awesome REM Web Solutions team, is committed to helping businesses thrive online. Our team of SEO experts stays on top of the latest trends and algorithm changes, including leaks like this one. 

We offer comprehensive SEO services that can help you:

• Analyze the impact of this leak on your website
• Develop a tailored SEO strategy
• Optimize your website for maximum visibility
• Track your results and make data-driven adjustments

The Google leak is a wake-up call for businesses that have been neglecting their SEO. Don’t let this opportunity slip away. Contact us today for a free consultation and let us help you navigate the ever-changing world of SEO.  

Ready to take the next step? Click here to schedule your free consultation and discover how we can help your business thrive.

Stay Ahead of These Game-Changing 2023 Local SEO Trends (It’s Not Only About AI)

Best SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost in 2023?

SEO pricing 2023 varies a lot by industry, location, what’s included in the SEO package and more.

Without knowing a lot about your company, it’s hard to give a concrete answer on exactly how much you should budget for SEO in 2023. However, we can give you a general idea.

Based on the average cost of SEO services in 2023, you can expect to spend:

• $2,000 to $7,000 per month for an average monthly SEO package
• $100 to $350 per hour for SEO consulting
• Starting at $2,000 for project-based SEO work

It’s a wide range, we know. A lot depends on the industry and needs of your company, as well as the breadth of experience of the SEO agency you choose.

It’s also important to understand what those numbers mean, because cheap SEO services are almost always too good to be true and cost you more in the long run.

Quality SEO is complex work that requires specialized expertise and tools.

To further help you decide your SEO budget, we’ve broken down the information further. We hope this helps you better understand exactly where your SEO costs should fall. We’ll go over:

1. Why you should invest in SEO
2. What actually goes into pricing an SEO package
3. What a decent monthly SEO package must include
4. SEO consulting: The alternative to a done-for-you SEO package
5. How much small businesses should be spending on SEO
6. Red flags to watch out for when it comes to low-cost SEO
7. Ways to keep SEO costs down without cutting corners

Let’s take a detailed look at how much SEO costs in 2023.

1. Why Should You Invest in SEO?

Fact: organic search accounts for 53% of all web traffic on an average website. Meaning if you’re not showing up in Google Search, you could be losing out on more than half of your potential customers.

And SEO is the most reliable, long-term strategy for getting your website seen by the people who buy what you sell.

That’s not to say it’s a magic bullet. SEO doesn’t work overnight. But when it’s done well, SEO is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that works alongside PPC advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing delivers lasting (and often increasing) value over time.

• Pay-per-click advertisements get your name out there quickly, but at a cost, and that cost fluctuates as the ad auction changes. SEO takes time, but once it’s established, it delivers a steady flow of relevant traffic for free.
• Social media platforms are powerful, but different platforms go in and out of fashion all the time. SEO leverages the value of stable search engines (mainly Google and Bing) that continue to gain influence on our lives.
• Email marketing gives you the freedom to say almost anything, but you can only communicate with existing leads and customers. SEO helps get your message out to new people who are specifically interested in what you offer.

It’s not so much a question of whether SEO pricing is worth it in 2023, but of how much you should invest in SEO based on your business’ needs and goals. Understanding the different types of SEO services available and how those services are priced will help you make an informed decision.

2. What Goes Into the SEO Pricing and SEO Packages?

Pricing for SEO packages largely depends on:

• SEO Agency Experience: You get what you pay for. Seasoned agencies tend to cost more, but they also know what works. They won’t waste your time on unproductive or outdated SEO strategies.
• Project Scope: Large-scale SEO campaigns will not only need more content, but also more labour and resources, while small-scale campaigns have a smaller price tag.
• Location: SEO agencies charge different rates depending on the demand for their services and the number of potential customers or clients in their area. This is where remote work is advantageous for agencies and clients alike — it lets agencies reduce operational costs without sacrificing quality or talent, which translates into cheaper rates for you.
• Pricing Model: There are different SEO pricing models, and each impacts the cost of SEO in a different way. An hourly or project-based model may be more cost-effective for you if you only need a few specific SEO fixes.
• Business Size (Startup vs. Mid-Market vs. Enterprise): Larger enterprises tend to require a broader scope of work, including more extensive website optimization, content writing and link building, so they require more expensive SEO packages.
• Existing SEO Strategy: SEO pricing depends on the state of your existing strategy, including existing website, backlinks, and content. Starting from scratch will obviously require more work and a greater cost since there’s more ground to cover. Having to reverse an existing SEO penalty will also require specialized penalty reversal work before or concurrent with SEO optimization.
• Goals: Want to dominate a particular keyword? Overtake specific competitors? Get a certain volume of traffic per month or year? Your goals play a big part in how much SEO costs, since you’ll need different approaches depending on where you want to end up.

Ultimately, what you budget for SEO isn’t just about what others are spending. Instead, it’s about what you need and want from your SEO campaign.

3. What Does a Monthly SEO Package Include?

A monthly SEO package usually includes a mix of SEO tactics to support an SEO strategy created based on your business’s current SEO standing (rankings, work already completed, penalties, etc.), goals, budget, and competitive landscape.
An SEO package priced at the higher end of the SEO pricing spectrum ($7,000 per month) will include more services than one at the lower end ($2,000 per month.) It could also include going after more, or more competitive, keywords.
When a company is new to SEO and starting from scratch, monthly SEO services will likely include research and setup tasks that lay the groundwork for success, including:

• Keyword and competitive research
• SEO Audit (on page SEO, technical SEO, off page SEO)
• Set up analytics

After the foundation is laid, monthly SEO services tend to transition to technical fixes that improve the health of your website to maximize SEO results, including:

• On-Page SEO fixes
• Off-Page SEO fixes
• Technical SEO fixes

Afterward, the focus generally shifts to ongoing optimization and content creation. Depending on your needs, it might take the form of a specific number of content pieces per month, or ongoing on-page and off-page SEO optimizations.
Overall, what a monthly SEO services package includes is subject to your company’s current and future goals, as well as your budget. Get in touch to learn more about the SEO services we can provide you on a monthly basis within your budget.

4. What’s Included in SEO Consulting?

If you already have an in-house marketing team with some SEO or content writing experience, you may be able to benefit from SEO consulting services, including:

• SEO Audit: The first step in implementing an SEO strategy is a detailed SEO analysis of your website that identifies exactly what’s preventing you from getting the results you want.
• SEO Recommendations: Second opinion on your current SEO plan with recommendations on tactics and keywords, etc.
• SEO Training: Providing training on SEO content, linking, technical SEO, and other SEO tactics to your in-house marketing team.
• SEO Implementation: Usually project-based services which can include fixing an SEO penalty, performing SEO audits and fixes, working on keyword projects, and compiling reports as needed

If you’re not sure if you need SEO consulting or a full SEO package, we offer free 20-minute consultations — for those who are interested in learning more about our professional SEO services without the commitment.

5. What Should SEO Cost a Small Business?

There is no reason why a small business can’t invest in SEO, even if you’re starting with a smaller budget.

In fact, small businesses can often benefit the most from SEO since they can’t just throw money at advertising like their large competitors can.

Generally, a small business’s SEO costs fall within this average range:

• $2,000 to $7,000 per month for a monthly SEO package
• $100 to $350 per hour for SEO consulting
• Starting at $2,000 for project-based SEO work

SEO agencies usually offer tiers of service, with the most comprehensive option costing more than the most basic.

Small businesses that are just getting started in SEO often start with a smaller package that includes things like keyword research, monitoring, and a focus on a small number of realistic keyword targets , then scale up once they see results.

6. Are Cheap SEO Services Worth It?

We mentioned above that you can expect a monthly SEO package from a professional SEO agency to range from between $2,000 and $7,000 per month.

Professional SEO Consulting runs from $100 to $350 per hour.

What if that’s just too much? Is it worth digging to find an even cheaper SEO service?

Here’s why the answer is always no.

While they may seem like a great deal at first, cheap SEO services often use manipulative tactics that go against search engine guidelines and cost you more in the long run.

Google and Bing are well aware of these shady practices. In fact, they deploy advanced machine learning algorithms to actively hunt down and penalize websites that use manipulative black hat SEO practices.

That can cause you to lose traffic, get blocked-listed, and potentially forfeit all of your future search traffic to your competitors.

Cheap SEO services are a huge risk to your company and brand so it’s important to know how to avoid them. The biggest red flags that you’re dealing with shady, cheap SEO providers include:

• Big Promises for Low Price Tags: Long-term SEO success takes a lot of manual work that can’t be done on a budget. You either have to settle for a small number of keywords or pay more later for the work that needs to be done.
• No Long-Term Strategy: Cheap SEO companies offer short-term solutions, but this isn’t realistic. Either they aren’t doing their job or they’re just looking to get quick and easy money from unsuspecting customers.
• No Transparency: Having visibility over the SEO process allows you to assess the results and make necessary changes. Never trust an SEO company that isn’t transparent with you.

If you’re looking for a quick fix to your online marketing strategy, don’t fall for cheap SEO pricing. Contact a reputable agency and see what can be done quickly and on your budget.

7. How to Keep SEO Costs in Check & Get the Best ROI

You don’t want to risk your business’s success by hiring an agency that offers SEO on the cheap.

At the same time, quality SEO doesn’t have to break the bank.

If you’re on a tight budget, making smart decisions in a few key places can help keep your costs down in order to get the most bang for your buck.

Here’s a quick lowdown on keeping costs in check while still getting the best SEO ROI:

• Focus on High-ROI Keywords: The best keywords to target aren’t always long-tail keywords or even competitive keywords — just the words and phrases that have the best chance of producing a good return on investment for your business. Any SEO work you pay for should start with solid keyword research to inform decisions about what to target.
• Test Keywords with Advertising First: Keyword research is important but not always foolproof. One way to test the viability of target keywords is to bid on them through paid search (e.g. Google Ads) before investing in SEO for that same keyword. That way, if the keyword turns out not to be profitable, you won’t waste your time or money chasing it organically.
• Keep an Eye on the Competition: Studying what your most successful competitors are doing can provide valuable insight on your own SEO strategy. Always insist on competitor research as part of your SEO package.
• Play the Long Game: SEO is a long term investment and it’s important to be realistic about ROI. This is especially true for small brands who may need a little more time than larger brands to rank their content. You should be prepared to invest in SEO for at least 6-8 months to see results. If you don’t have enough time or budget for that, stick to other digital marketing tactics like PPC or email marketing to get your brand in front of the right people sooner.

At TrafficSoda, we are committed to helping you get the best ROI with a strong, strategic approach. Get in touch to learn more about SEO pricing and how businesses can keep their costs low while still achieving solid results.

Want More Specific SEO Pricing? Request an Estimate to Find Out How Much SEO Will Cost You in 2023

The average cost of professional SEO services ranges between $2,000 and $7,000 per month for a monthly SEO package, or between $100 and $350 per hour for SEO consulting.

SEO pricing in 2023 varies depending on the scope of your SEO needs, the competitive landscape, and your goals, as well as external factors like location.

If you’re still not sure how to budget for SEO in 2023, we’ll do the hard work for you. Contact us now for an estimate of what you can expect to pay for professional SEO services tailored to your needs.

2023 SEO Checklist: 7 Expert Tips to Guide Your SEO Strategy

Is SEO Worth It? How to Measure SEO Return on Investment

If you‘re here to learn how to measure SEO return on investment, then you’re already on the right track ‒ because you’re thinking about what actually matters. 

Sure, marketers can talk all day about how great SEO is…  

But let’s be realistic: the only real way to know if SEO is worth it to you is to calculate its return on investment. 

Yes, it is possible to reliably measure the impact of SEO on your bottom line. In fact, it’s much simpler than some marketers make it out to be.  

We’ll tell you exactly how to measure the ROI of your SEO, step-by-step, so it’s easy to know if SEO is worth it for you.

How to Measure the ROI of SEO ‒ and the Impact of SEO on Your Bottom Line

It’s all too common for business owners to invest in some form of SEO and, at the end of the day, have no idea if that SEO is actually worth it…or if it’s money going to waste. 

It doesn’t help that some marketers claim measuring the ROI of SEO is impossible. They’re either wrong, or dishonest. 

As long as you have the right data, the formula you use to calculate SEO return on investment is pretty straightforward.

Here’s a quick and easy formula you can use to determine whether SEO has been worth your money in a specific period:

• (Value of Conversions – Cost of SEO) / Cost of SEO

There it is. And in the rest of this article, we’ll explain exactly how to get the data you need to fill in this formula. 

Of course, we’d be lying if we said there are no challenges involved with calculating SEO return on investment. We’ll also help you cut through those challenges so you get the clearest possible picture of your SEO return on investment. 

But first, let’s grab the data we need to measure the ROI of SEO.

Step 1: Determine the Cost of Your Investment in SEO

First, you have to calculate how much SEO cost you over the timeframe you want to measure. 

When you work with a professional SEO agency, this step is as simple as it gets. You can find out how much you’re paying just by looking at the bill.  

If you do all your SEO in-house, or a hybrid of in-house and agency SEO services, the breakdown will be more complicated. Some of the costs you’ll need to factor in include:

• Any in-house staff who contribute to on-page and off-page SEO, including content creators and copywriters
• Web designers and developers who contribute to technical SEO, as well as setting up SEO tracking like Google Analytics (more on that later)
• Monthly or annual subscriptions to SEO tools like SemRush, Ahrefs, or anything else you use for traffic analytics, site auditing, keyword research, list management, etc.

When you add these costs up, you’ll have a figure that can be used in your SEO ROI calculation.  

Remember that these costs may change monthly. Don’t forget to take those changes into account when measuring your SEO return on investment for a specific timeframe.

Step 2: Measure Conversions From Organic Traffic

In a nutshell, organic traffic is any traffic to your website from a search engine that you don’t pay for directly.  

Whenever someone clicks on your site in Google search results ‒ as long as it’s not one of your ads ‒ it’s organic traffic. 

Since SEO is all about boosting organic traffic, conversions from organic traffic provide one of the best metrics for measuring the ROI of SEO. 

To get that number, we recommend using Google Analytics to track your organic conversions. You can use it for free and it just works. 

The way you set this up will depend on the way your business and website work, and we won’t go into too much detail here. Setting up conversion tracking correctly is extremely important, so we recommend getting help from an experienced developer or digital marketer. 

Once you have Google Analytics tracking your conversions, calculating the value of SEO conversions is a breeze:

• For sales made on your website, simply segment conversions by channel and look at revenue for organic traffic. Narrow down the timeframe and you’ve got your number.
• For leads that come in through your website, this is trickier, because the actual conversion happens offline and not every lead converts. You need to assign a value to your leads overall and use that as your value. Best practice is to base that value on the average lifetime value of a customer multiplied by closure rate %.
  
  

Step 3: Use This Formula to Calculate SEO Return on Investment

After you’ve collected your data, plug it in to this formula to calculate your SEO return on investment: 

• (Value of Conversions – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment

Here’s an example.  

Say that organic traffic got you $100,000 in revenue over one year, and that the costs associated with SEO during that time were $20,000.  

Put these figures into the formula above and we get: 

• ($100,000 – $20,000) / $20,000 = 4

So for every $1 you spent on SEO, you got $4 back. This means you’re getting a 400% return on investment.  

Using this formula, you can calculate the ROI of your SEO campaign over any timeframe you choose, as long as you know both the costs and the returns.  

You can then use this data to help determine whether SEO is worth it for you or not…with a couple of important caveats.  

We’ll look at those caveats next.

3 Challenges of Measuring SEO Return on Investment

Real-time conversion tracking has made it easier than ever to reliably measure the return on investment of your SEO efforts.  

However, not even the best tracking tools can perfectly measure every facet of your organic search traffic. SEO is a time-consuming and complicated process with many moving parts. 

Because of this, quantifying SEO return on investment will always be a bit of an art as well as a science. 

Here’s what you need to know about the tricky part of measuring SEO and its ROI:

Challenge 1: SEO Costs Are Complex

First, measuring SEO ROI can be tough because of the sheer number of variables that contribute to a successful campaign. 

An effective SEO campaign is based on a number of variables, from high-quality content, to link building, to technical SEO and more. 

Having an agency handle your SEO makes quantifying these costs a breeze. You know how much you’re paying them, so use that figure in your calculation.  

Tallying the costs of your internal SEO efforts is harder. 

While PPC advertising has clearly identifiable click costs, SEO is about earning clicks rather than buying them. Those clicks are technically free. But the SEO you spend to get them isn’t. 

You have to consider things like the cost of in-house labour (which you can break down by individuals or tasks), the SEO tools you use, and all the time you or your managers put into running that team smoothly. 

It’s a lot, and you’ve got to get it right if you want a true picture of your SEO ROI.

Challenge 2: SEO Takes Time

When you’re doing SEO, it can be hard to tie specific investments and returns to work that was done in a specific timeframe. 

That’s because it can take a long time for SEO to pay off. Quick wins are certainly possible, but there’s no guarantee.

From our experience and that of other reputable SEO agencies, we can estimate it will take 4-6 months for SEO to start ‘working’, meaning it begins to produce measurable results. 

So, the simplified principle of comparing returns and investments over the same period does not quite work. It gives you a solid idea of whether things are working, but it’s not 1:1. 

One way to get around this is to calculate ROI on a category, page, or keyword level, rather than an arbitrary time period, as Ahrefs describes here. 

To learn more about SEO timelines, check out our blog post on how long it takes to get SEO results.

Challenge 3: Even ‘Perfect’ Conversion Tracking Isn’t Flawless

This problem isn’t specific to SEO.  

But SEO is no exception. 

The simple fact is that customer journeys are often more complex than any tracking software makes them seem.  

Yes, Google Analytics will tell you if someone converted after visiting your website through an organic search. However, there may be things going on behind the scenes that you aren’t aware of or can’t track.  

For example…say you watch a YouTube video about an interesting product. Then you Google that product, go to the website, and buy it.  

Organic traffic gets 100% of the credit for that conversion…but it was really the YouTube video that got you there, wasn’t it? 

Here’s another example with the opposite effect. Say you Google a product on your phone, find the website, and make a mental note of it. Later, you fire up your laptop and visit the website directly by typing the URL in your browser, and buy the product.  

Since you switched devices, direct traffic gets 100% credit…but wasn’t that really an organic conversion?  

You can see how customer journeys can twist and turn in ways that can skew your attribution.  

So, no matter how well your Google Analytics is configured, you cannot always pinpoint exactly how many conversions you owe to SEO. 

The more traffic and conversions you have, the more accurate it becomes, but it will never be perfect. 

This begs the question: why even bother?

What You’re Missing If You Aren’t Measuring SEO Return on Investment

Put simply, not measuring your ROI is almost as bad as not doing SEO at all. 

In spite of the challenges of measuring SEO ROI to pinpoint accuracy, you’re missing out on a lot of valuable data if you don’t do it at all. 

The average business generates 53% of its traffic through organic search. Meaning that SEO does have an impact on the bottom line for most businesses. You can’t afford to ignore it. 

And unless you know your return on investment for every dollar you spend on SEO, you can’t decide which strategies are working best, which you should scale, and whether something’s wasting your money. 

Since SEO is a long-term strategy that generates results over time, you may not see a positive ROI right away. But once you’re past that, SEO will begin to deliver a return and can continue to pay dividends for years to come. 

When that turning point comes, you won’t know it unless you’ve been actively measuring the ongoing ROI of your SEO work. And if you don’t know, you could end up pulling the plug on a profitable strategy just when it’s getting started.

If you need help moving the needle on your website’s search rankings, we are happy to help. Get in touch with our SEO Team to learn more about our services here at TrafficSoda.

On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO: Know the Differences for Best Results

SEO Timelines: How Long Does It Take to Get Results?

You might have heard that search engine optimization (SEO) is a quick and easy way to get

Here’s why that’s wrong.

The truth is…once upon a time, SEO could work quickly.

But as search engine algorithms have evolved and the online space has become more competitive, the SEO landscape has changed drastically.

Every business owner wants to see results come quickly. But when it comes to legitimate, proven SEO strategies, results simply don’t happen overnight.

Any agency that says otherwise is not to be trusted.

Below, we’ll cover the real factors that will affect how long it will take for SEO to get measurable results for your business, as well as the minimum time investment to really get your money’s worth from SEO.

How Long It Takes for SEO to Generate Leads and Sales

When it comes to SEO, business owners often ask, “How long does it take for SEO to work?”

Which usually means, “How long before I rank #1 in Google?”

This is the wrong question to ask because ranking #1 in Google isn’t the end goal. The goal is to generate qualified leads and sales opportunities.

In other words, organic search traffic is only as valuable to your business as the revenue it generates.

The real question that you should be asking is, “When will SEO start generating sales and leads for my business?”

Based on our experience and that of our colleagues at other reputable SEO agencies, we can give an estimated timeline of 4-6 months for SEO to begin producing some form of results, which could include:

• Overall improved average ranking
• Website being indexed for more keywords
• More traffic to your website and opportunity to close that traffic

The above timeline represents our average client experience. This is when things start to work, but not necessarily when you achieve your end goal.

There are numerous factors to consider when determining when you can expect to begin seeing SEO generate results. It would be impossible to cover them all in detail here ‒ but some of the most significant factors are:

1. Competition for high-priority keywords
2. How effective are the site’s inbound links
3. Healthy, SEO-friendly site
4. Regularly published content on the site

1. Importance of Competition in SEO Timelines

Generally, the more competing websites that your business is up against, the harder and longer it will take to see your website climb to the top of search engine results.

In a crowded industry, many of your competitors will have experienced SEO professionals behind them to improve and maintain their rankings. Understanding the level of competition based on your products/services and location will help you get a sense of how long it will take for SEO to get results.

For example, a small local massage therapy clinic will face less competition than a real estate brokerage business serving a large city, amongst many other real estate brokerage businesses. That same brokerage would face less competition than a national-level mortgage company with competitors in every market in the country.

Search results are all relative, and that is the key to understanding why SEO works differently for different businesses online

2. Importance of Inbound Links in SEO Timelines

Acquiring more inbound links will help your business achieve the SEO success you are striving for more quickly… but it is not all a numbers game.

Quality over quantity, like most things, is always the way to go. Having fewer, high-quality links from relevant websites will have a much greater impact on your overall results than having a greater number of low-quality links from other irrelevant websites.

Acquiring higher quality links are much harder to earn, having them on your website will make it more difficult for your competitors to replicate and compete with you. As well, higher-quality links last longer and keep their effective power.

The speed in which your business online can acquire links takes time, make sure to look out for any abrupt increase in links. This could identify an inorganic attempt at a manipulative ranking and negatively affect your business’ SEO.

3. Importance of a Healthy SEO-Friendly Website

SEO isn’t just about keywords and content. Your website’s internal workings also have a big impact on how it ranks.

When your website appears on a Google search results page, it becomes part of what Google offers its users. And Google cares a lot about its users’ experience.

So, a big part of its search ranking algorithm is focused on checking the ‘health’ of your website. It looks at technical aspects of the site that have an effect on the user experience, like:

• Site speed
• Crawl errors & broken links
• Mobile friendliness
• Site structure
• Navigation
• txt
• Sitemap

When your site is healthy and SEO-friendly, the work being done on the content and external links side takes effect much faster. On the other hand, a site that is not technically optimized for SEO will move slowly or not at all.

4. Importance of Content in SEO Timelines

Quality content published on your website plays a vital role in how quickly you will see SEO results.

There isn’t a set length/word count for SEO optimized content. It just has to be long and detailed enough to solve the visitor’s problem.

Along with quality content requires consistent content. Maintaining a publishing schedule will encourage Google to come back to your website to read and learn more about your expertise. It also encourages users to return, suggesting a positive user experience that Google’s signals will notice.

If you focus on producing helpful content that answers specific questions your target market may have, you will see results. Users will come, have a great experience and build trust with your brand (possibly reaching out) and Google has more information about you to determine where else you can rank.

SEO Timelines Then vs. Now

To explain why SEO doesn’t happen overnight, it helps to recognize a crucial difference between the early SEO landscape and what we see today.

Old SEO: When Low Competition Got Big Results

In the early days of SEO, it was possible to skyrocket a website’s search ranking by identifying and optimizing for a small number of high volume, low competition keywords.

The trick was to target keywords that were popular, but not competitive.

You could build an entire strategy around these ‘golden’ keywords, climb to #1 in the rankings, and have most of your traffic come from them within a few months.

Nowadays, it’s extremely rare to find a single keyword or small group of keywords that can drive a lot of traffic to your site.

People just don’t search like that anymore. Plus, the web is way more competitive today than it was in the early 2000s. There are nearly 2 billion websites today, compared to just 17 million in 2000, an increase of nearly 11 thousand percent.

New SEO: Targeting the Long Tail

Today, people are adding more words than ever to their searches to get faster, more specific results.

They’re asking specific questions that they need answers to, rather than searching individual keywords and seeing what comes up.

We call these searches long-tail keywords. And search engines like Google and Bing have gotten very good at delivering long-tail keywords relevant results.

Long-tail keywords are:

• Easier to rank for, because they’re less competitive
• Generate more revenue, because they’re more specific
• Account for a higher search volume in total than shorter “golden keywords”

Today, generating search traffic that brings you leads, sales, and revenue means curating a larger number of natural language or long-tail keywords searches that grow and change over time.

Is SEO a Good Investment?

When you have the funds and stamina to be patient with the results, as well as stay in the game for the long haul, SEO is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that all businesses should invest in.

A minimum of 4 to 6 months of SEO services will allow you the time and money to see the results that you want. For businesses that do not have a budget for SEO services for up to a year, we recommend a few key steps regardless:

1. Make your website SEO and user friendly – you may need a professional to help with this as a one-time project
2. Work on building out good quality content on your website if you build genuinely helpful content to your target market, it will pay SEO dividends down the road
3. Consider using additional funds towards paid advertising to start generating traffic to your website

It’s important to remain patient throughout the SEO process. When businesses fail to see results after a couple of months of SEO services, they are tempted to give up ‒ when they could actually see results in a matter of weeks. We often refer to this time period as the “trough of sorrow” in the industry.

We as agencies or individuals cannot control a lot of the SEO process. We don’t control Google, their algorithm, or what competitors do. The only thing we can do is understand what Google is looking for, give them what they want, connect with our customers and give them what they want, and we will start to see results.

SEO is not only a science, but also the art of adapting to changes in the industry.

Remember that SEO results increase over time, not overnight. Your results should be significantly better after 12 months than they were after 6 months.

To get the results that you need online for your business, professional SEO services are OFTEN worth the time, energy, and money that you invest.

If you would like more information about our SEO and digital advertising services, please do not hesitate to contact our SEO team here at TrafficSoda.

3 Fatal Risks of Cheap SEO Services (Avoid at ALL Costs)

Here’s the hard truth: cheap SEO is too good to be true.

Just because you’re better than your competitors in ‘real life’ (better products, better workmanship, better results, etc.) doesn’t always mean you’ll get a better search ranking.

Google and Bing search results are extremely competitive.

If somebody’s ranking higher than you, it’s likely because they hired an SEO company to optimize their website.

And the only effective way to outrank them is to beat them at their own game.

There’s just one problem…

Bad SEO is Worse Than No SEO at All

Many SEO companies are more interested in your money than your success.

Doing SEO cheaply is not only detrimental to your website traffic but can also harm your business’s reputation both online and offline.

The long-term risks of cheap SEO include:

• Loss of business revenue;
• Getting banned from search results, period; and
• Handing all your potential search revenue to your competitors

Those are the consequences we want to help you avoid. So, in this article, we lay it all out on the table.

Read on to learn all about:

1. How, exactly, cheap SEO can tank your business
2. Biggest red flags of cheap SEO
3. Black Hat vs. Grey Hat vs. White Hat SEO (and why it matters)
4. What GOOD SEO can do for your business
   
   

1. How Cheap SEO Can Tank Your Business 

Google and Bing are for-profit companies, and their customers are search engine users. This means that both Google and Bing want to give people the best, most relevant search results. Search engines have spent years building parameters to identify high quality, relevant search results.

The problem is that bad actors frequently reverse engineer these parameters to exploit rankings, which results in low quality search results and poor user experience. As a result, Google and Bing regularly update their algorithm to identify manipulative SEO tactics and suss out actions that are fake and spammy.

Cheap SEO services often use manipulative tactics that go against search engine guidelines.

Google and Bing actively scan the web for these shady practices using the most advanced machine learning algorithms available.

You might not get caught right away, but you must assume you will get caught at some point.

And when that happens, you can lose traffic, get block-listed, and potentially forfeit all your future search traffic to your competitors.

a. Cheap SEO Decimates Your Website Traffic

Organic search is by far the #1 source of website traffic online, and the most authentic.

If you successfully rank at the top of the search results, you will benefit from more clicks and visits to your website, presenting an opportunity to turn those clicks into customers.

Poorly done SEO can tank your ranking, meaning customers won’t be able to find you and will click on your competitors instead.

b. Cheap SEO Gets You Block-listed from Google and Bing

Google and Bing’s top priority is to create a positive user experience, so penalizing manipulative tactics is smart business for them.

Using cheap SEO tactics will cause search engines to penalize and even ban you, banning you from appearing in search results at all until the issue is rectified.

A search penalty means a real and immediate loss of potential revenue for your business.

If you ignore the penalty, you will find it almost impossible to recover. Your site traffic will continue to drop steadily, leaving you behind the competition and low on stamina to make a comeback.

c. Cheap SEO Funnels Revenue to Your Competitors

Now, you’re block-listed from the search results. So, who do you think all those potential customers are going to click on instead of you?

You already know the answer.

Shooting yourself in the foot with manipulative SEO is like handing your customers revenue on a silver platter.

Plus, ethical SEO practices can take weeks or months to have an impact. So, the more time and money you waste on cheap SEO, the longer you will have to wait for results on good SEO when you finally switch gears.

It’s not worth the risk.

2. How to Spot Red Flags for Cheap SEO 

Hiring cheap SEO services can have serious immediate and long-term consequences to your business that can be difficult or even impossible to recover from.

To avoid them, you need to know what to look out for.

First, there’s some SEO industry jargon you need to know. These are the labels we use to separate cheap, manipulative SEO tactics from legitimate SEO: white hat, gray hat, and black hat.

1. White Hat SEO services follow the search engine-approved guidelines for optimizing a website. White hat SEO focuses on improving the user experience and creating high-quality content. There is zero risk in using white hat SEO.
2. Black hat SEO services rely on manipulating and violating search engine algorithms against guidelines to improve your search rankings. The short-term goals of black hat SEO services are to get you fast-paced wins to fool you into thinking their services have the best and fastest results on the market. Manipulating the algorithm is not effective because it can never keep up with Google’s constant updates, which results in your rankings being wiped out due to unethical practices. Black hat SEO is extremely risky.
3. Gray hat SEO services test the limits of what search engines allow, exploiting ‘gray areas’ in the guidelines. Once a gray hat tactic becomes known, search engines often crack down hard, which will cost you the same way as black hat SEO. The results do not stick well over time and require repeated work. Grey hat SEO is very risky.
   

No serious business should never engage in black hat SEO. Your website will no longer be trustworthy to users or search engines, and recovery could take years.

Although gray hat SEO is often sold as a ‘medium risk for a medium price’, which can be tempting for businesses on a tight budget, the risk is high and the results are not sustainable. Business owners should avoid this trap at all costs.

Overall, white hat SEO services are the only kind worth your money and time because the job done will be the safest and most beneficial for your business online.

So, how do you know when a company’s pitching you cheap, black/grey hat SEO? There are a few key phrases and promises that agencies will make that should ring alarm bells:

a. Big Promises for Low Price Tags

SEO is not rocket science, but it is not as simple as you might think. It’s not just sticking a bunch of keywords and tags on a website.

Achieving long-term success with SEO takes a lot of manual work that cannot be easily accomplished on a shoestring budget. Either you settle for a very small number of keywords, or you end up paying for the work that really needs to be done.

b. No Long-Term Strategy

Cheap SEO companies will offer you short-term solutions, but this is not realistic.

SEO is a long-term strategy. It takes time to gain the rankings you deserve. If the company you are considering offers no plan past one month, they are more than likely a scam. They are either not doing their job or just looking for quick and easy money from unsuspecting customers like you.

c. No Transparency

Do not trust any SEO company that doesn’t offer you transparency into what they’re doing. It is important that you have visibility over the SEO process so that you can assess the results and make changes as needed.

The best SEO companies will offer a full audit of your site and provide explanations for any errors found. They will also provide recommendations for how to fix these errors, give an overview of how to improve rankings, and show rankings progress.

d. Inexperienced Team

One of the most important things to look for when choosing an SEO company is their expertise and experience.

Do they have a website with a portfolio of websites that they have previously optimized? Do they have testimonials from satisfied clients? Can you find any information on them at all?

An experienced SEO company won’t mind telling you who’s on their team and should be eager to tell you about their experience. If they’re not transparent, they could be hiding something.

e. Guaranteed Results

No one can guarantee a #1 spot on Google.

It is an outright impossible claim to make for an agency, as SEO is a competitive practice that depends on hundreds of signals which can change at any point in the day.

What can be guaranteed are solid and safe practices that can win better results when done properly over time.

Agencies that claim their services will guarantee a specific result in a specific timeframe is one of the biggest warning signs for cheap, black hat SEO that will hurt your business.

What About Using Negative SEO to Attack Your Competitors? 

Usually, SEO is about trying to boost your own company’s search ranking. Negative SEO is when one company uses manipulative tactics to hurt a competitor’s rankings instead.

Negative SEO is gray hat SEO. A negative SEO campaign against your industry competitors is risky because the traffic attacks can be traced back to you.

Search engine algorithms can detect bad links from good links when competitors create spammy backlinks to tank your SEO and organic rankings online.

Search engine algorithms can detect bad links from good links when competitors create spammy backlinks to tank your SEO and organic rankings online. Google will penalize websites for building spammy backlinks that use anchor text to improve their ranking by matching the exact keywords.

Any mentions of negative SEO practices should be shut down immediately, the risk is simply not worth it.

3. The Long-Term Value of Affordable White Hat SEO

White hat SEO isn’t cheap, but it’s effective – and it can be affordable. When done well, SEO is the most cost-effective and reliable way to reach your target customers and understand what they are looking for when they search for businesses online.

Investing time and money into effective, white hat SEO services will benefit your online traffic, leads, and sales in the long run.

1. Search is the #1 source of website traffic. Organic search is a key way people find your website and become customers, whether you sell products or services online or offline. Being highly visible on Google and Bing is money in the bank.
2. SEO builds trust and credibility. SEO creates trust and credibility by providing a positive user experience that is easily discoverable on search engines. Establishing authority online through good content results in natural backlinks that boost your ranking. Online credibility takes time, working towards your goals of authority and credibility online takes time, patience, and affordable SEO services from an experienced agency.
3. SEO boosts local businesses. Using SEO will improve your local engagement and traffic online by connecting users to your business based on their location. SEO professionals can do this by optimizing the businesses website content and including local citations and backlinks to guide the user to their product or service. An experienced agency can provide effective, local SEO services at an affordable price.
4. SEO is quantifiable. With SEO, you can measure your progress using analytics. A competent SEO agency has people dedicated to connecting the dots and assessing the improvements made through SEO. This information can also be used to maximize ROI and ensure that your SEO remains affordable. Hiring a team that is knowledgeable about tracking analytics and SEO data is essential.
5. Good SEO means a better user experience. Google is dedicated to providing a positive user experience through relevant search results. Search engine optimization also means optimizing your user experience, so people love using your website and come back for more. Optimizing your website’s user experience will also help maximize the ROI from both SEO and other digital marketing efforts.
   
   

Bottom Line: Avoid Cheap SEO Services at All Costs

Cheaping out on SEO is never the way to go. This will only cost you more money and more problems in the future that could potentially be irreversible.

We hope that you now understand the risks of cheap SEO services and the benefits to investing in white hat SEO services that put your success first.

TrafficSoda has built hundreds of successful SEO strategies for companies, like you, looking to increase traffic, leads, calls, online purchases and more. When you’re ready to jump in with a personalized plan, reach out for your free strategy proposal.