If you’re looking to gain a competitive edge in your industry and need immediate results, a monthly search engine optimization (SEO) services package could provide an affordable solution for your business. There are a bunch of SEO companies out there that claim to have the latest techniques, solutions and tricks to getting your business ranked in the search engines. So how do you determine what type of strategy makes sense for your business and how much should you pay?
To help you cut through the SEO clutter with lightning speed and garner wisdom from decades of research and application on thousands of businesses, we put together an overview of the benefits of a monthly SEO package and the various methods commonly used by SEO experts to help small and mid-size businesses dominate their industry on Google, locally, nationally and globally.
Whether you invest in organic or paid or both, the only solution you should invest in is one that has your target demographic in mind and generates leads for your business that you can convert.
Monthly packages can range from $750-20,000, with $1,000-7,500/month as the most common (our minimum is $1,500 per month). When evaluating the service offerings, you should only invest in methods that work for your industry and stay clear of marketing fads. The SEO strategist you choose for your business should be developing strategies for your industry, not replicating what others are doing. Internet marketing has been around since the 90s, and success on the Internet it is not and never will be as simple as making a viral video, an app or updating your listings. It takes decades to study this stuff, and since technology is ever-changing, the studying never ends.
An SEO services package usually includes blog articles. Don’t get hung up on the word blog. This is really just a news and information section of your website that allows your business a platform to show your influence, and you get to talk about your products and services. The articles that your SEO firm writes for you should include the keyword phrases developed during the research phase. They may also offer to help you get your content featured on 3rd party websites, called blogger outreach. Refer to link earning for more information on the importance of vetting these sources. For 400-600 words you can look to invest $300-1,000 per article if you are buying this service a la carte. Most SEO companies will bake in some number of articles each month.
Depending on the size of your website, the SEO company may recommend that you develop a content marketing strategy that helps build a larger digital footprint for your business. What this means is that you are going to build out your website so that consumers and date aggregators (i.e., Google) trust you, and people have something to do while they are in your sales funnel. The content can be blog articles, white papers, instructional videos, corporate videos, customer testimonials, and more. Blog articles and securing customer testimonials/reviews are usually included. The others will usually be billed at a la carte rates.
This helps with local SEO and there are thousands of online directories that can send leads to your website. By updating your directory listings, removing duplicates and completing every entry, your site will have a nice referral network and the consistency will give you credibility with Google, thus increasing your SEO. The price for one location can range from $500-1,000, depending on how many online directories they plan on reaching out to.
This is the most critical part of the SEO package. In order to effectively target customers through the search engines, you will need to develop a shortlist of keyword phrases that consumers use on Google to find your business. Most companies will create 8-12 for you (we generally over-deliver in this area). By using the phrases, over and over again, it will help catalog your website and all of your content in the search engines so that it is ready for the next search. This should not be a brain dump of every word anyone has ever used in connection with your business. It should also not include jargon, acronyms or industry slang. It needs to be based on your website analytics, competitor research, search engine advertising campaign data (i.e., Google Ads) and years of experience targeting consumers on the search engines. This research should be done every month you are in a contract with an SEO company and if you aren’t in a contract, you should invest in this at least quarterly. Some SEO companies won’t charge you for this and some may bill you for the research hours at $100-300/hour.
Good SEO companies are still recommending you earn links from influencers in your industry to your website. Make sure the 3rd party sites they suggest are influencers in your industry. These sites should be referral generators for you, not waste your time with customers you can’t service. Most SEO companies will include some number of links, ranging from 4-100, however, most publishers charge for links so be sure to plan for this in your advertising costs.
It’s not hard to figure out that having your business listed on maps helps with local SEO and Google search engine rankings. If you are a home-based or appointment only business, there are special ways to hide your address, but in only rare instances can you outrank a business with a brick and mortar. If you don’t have a Google My Business page, that will be one of your SEO company’s first recommendations. Regularly posting content and offers to your Google Page helps to boost your listing within Google Maps. If your SEO company is managing your directory listings, they will likely include Waze, Suri and other map-based directories in your listing management.
If you do not have a mobile responsive website, your SEO company may recommend that you have your website converted or rebuilt so that it’s mobile responsive with optimized graphics that load in less than 3 seconds. A responsive website means that it is easy to navigate on any size device. As more consumers use their mobile devices to check emails, watch videos, make business purchasing decisions, your business will need to adhere to this shift in consumer behavior if you want to remain competitive in your industry. The page load time, also called pagespeed performance, is very important as it impacts your bounce rate and the time people will spend on your website. These two factors are integral in securing Top of Page Rankings on Google.
This is the part where the keyword phrases get programmed into your website. They should be placed in the title tags, meta descriptions, keywords, and H1 headers, as well as throughout your content. If you have a small site (<20 pages), you can expect to pay $500-1,000 for on-page optimization. If you have a large site, you can break it up into phases, but it will usually cost more. You are paying for hours to research, write and code. This process is second behind keyword research as being critical for search marketing success.
In addition to generating compelling content that positions you as an influencer, your SEO company should help you review your website analytics to determine where your leads are coming from if they aren’t converting — why, if you need page redesigns and more. This constant review will generate updates to the code in your website and it should be changed with every learning. Some companies may include this and some may charge you a programming fee that is billed by the hour, $100-300.
A monthly SEO package could include creating or auditing your social media profiles. After an initial meeting to discuss goals, an SEO expert can help you develop a social media strategy that includes the social media channels that make sense for your business. It is important to develop content that people want to share and it is even more important to react when your customers and prospects react. Businesses use all kinds of social media channels to reach consumers including, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you don’t have profiles set up, you can expect to pay by the profile or a bundled package, ranging from $300-2,000 depending on the graphics you want for the page and how much content you want to pre-load.
This is the part where the SEO experts monitor your social media accounts and the activity during your monthly package. They will message people that indicate while they are online they might need your products and services and they will send them your content. They can also respond to questions and pre-qualify leads for you, depending on what type of business you have. Social listening and direct messaging are a very effective method for generating leads and understanding your business. Not only should you get leads from this marketing service, but you will also be able to take the consumer data they’re collecting and use it for business and product innovation. Social listening and direct messaging could be included in the package. It should be a lead generator, so if you have to outsource this service, make sure you can see the ROI in the type of leads they will generate for your business.
If you are interested in working with us, use the contact form below to request a consultation. We take our work seriously, which is why we have a 28-day qualification process for new clients. Spending this time on the front end getting to know each other and discussing your goals is the best course of action to secure your online success, as well as a respectful business relationship.
We have a 28 day qualification process for new clients. Before you meet with us, we will ask you to complete a series of questionnaires that will establish the business goals for website design projects and marketing campaigns.
Prospective clients that make the cut demonstrate the following:
After you submit the contact form below, an account manager will contact you to discuss your project and send the relevant questionnaires. Once you complete the questionnaires, we will schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation with you to discuss your objectives and determine if we are the right fit for each other. It is very important for you to have a clear sense of your budget before the initial consultation.
We require a minimum of $7,500 per project or a minimum of $5,000 a month in services with a 12 month commitment.