Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is the process of improving your website's traffic or volume of hits from search engine results. Basically, there are ways you can improve the ranking of your website in the search results so that your site is listed near or on the first page.

What many people don't realize however, is the amount of work that is required to accomplish this. This amount of work usually comes with a pretty large dollar sign attached to it. The thing to remember is your ROI could possibly pay for this in matter of months, or weeks or possibly days! This comes down to your service and what you charge and how frequently you get work.

Costs for a company who specializes in this kind of work could easily start with a minimum of $1000. However, you need to realize there will always be maintenance required to keep your standing. This is not a one time fee where you can get the work done and wipe your hands. Maintaining this would be required to keep your standing.

Listed on "Affordable Search Engine Optimization Company's" website are the following prices:

Basic Start-Up Package: $1,999
3 Phrase Advanced Package: $2,950
9 Phrase Professional Package: $8,000
12 Phrase Enterprise Package: $12,000
SEO Consulting Service: $500/hr
Team Consulting: $1,200/hr

Maintenance Programs: Range from $300 - $10,000 per month

As you can see, prices can soar pretty quick. And if you scroll down a little further on the above site you will see a chart listing some services and the low, mid and high end pricing of each.

Simple SEO techniques can be done such as editing the content of the site as well as the HTML code to include relevant specific keywords. These keywords are specific to the content and services of the website itself. If you were in the design field, you could include words such as Designer, Graphic Designer, Print Ads, Logos and so on. Keywords can also be included in the writing of your actual content. Within the first 1 or 2 paragraphs of each page, include keywords that are relevant to that page, or on the home page, listing your services.

There are many easy methods for the average Joe/Jill to include that will not promise him/her first page rankings in a search result however, it will help to a certain degree.

If you want first page rankings, than you need to consider spending some money on getting it professionally done.

A Marketing Strategy
Something to keep in mind while considering SEO is this: Is SEO an appropriate step for my website?

Not all websites require effective optimization. Other marketing strategies can be more effective for increasing your website's hit rate. Paid advertising on other websites, creating a high quality website that is attractive and drives visitors to it, address technical issues to allow for indexing of your website pages, setting up analytics programs to measure the success (or failure) of areas on your site and as Seomoz.org reports,

"Search marketers, in a twist of irony, receive a very small share of their traffic from search engines."

Their main sources of traffic are from links placed on other websites.

To end this, Search Engine Optimization is not a small task. The biggest thing to consider, In My Opinion, is whether or not you are financially able to support having a service like this done on your own website. Is it worth it? Are there better marketing strategies that can drive traffic to your site aside from search engines? I believe the answer to the last question is, "Yes, there are other ways you can market your website without spending outrageous amounts."

If you would like to find out how you can better market your website without going through the route of SEO, contact me and we can look over your existing website and stationary material to work towards a marketing strategy that best fits your current situation.