How Much Should A Business Pay For SEO?

June 3, 2021

Thinking about your budget for SEO services? It’s projected that digital advertising spending will increase to $389 billion in 2021. And even though digital is the primary marketing channel for many businesses, the question of an online marketing budget can be a difficult one.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO (search engine optimization) aims to boost the quality and quantity of website traffic from search engines—optimizing your content, so search engines show your site on page one for a high traffic keyword. When considering budget, it’s important to remember that SEO should not be considered a once-and-done process. If optimization is not performed regularly, you can expect to see your rankings and organic traffic decline. Your monthly budget should consider your current position compared to competitors and how quickly you want to make progress.

Average SEO Budget

It’s been found businesses that spend more for SEO services report higher satisfaction rates: those that spend more than $500 per month are 53.3 percent more likely to be “extremely satisfied” than those that spent less. And it’s important to know the difference between professional SEO agencies and individuals without experience, outright scammers, and those who rely on tactics like link schemes to manipulate rankings, which violate search engine guidelines. Your website could get a penalty from the search engines, which would vastly decrease your website’s visibility.

Set SEO Goals

You should set specific goals for your SEO before you set your budget. Your goals should have measurable results—focusing not only on SERPs (search engine results pages) but also on bottom-line metrics like organic traffic sessions and revenue. It would help if you also had a clear timeframe: Google itself notes it could take four months to a year for a campaign to show desired results.

The Cost of SEO Summary

The budget will also depend on the range of the campaign. A local campaign through a top-level SEO company could cost $500+ a month, while a national or international campaign could range from $2,500 to $5,000 per month. Some SEO companies may offer a “trial” with no contract to get a peek at their services. Although a monthly campaign is recommended for most organizations, if it’s not in your current budget to work with an SEO company for several months to a year, some SEO companies may offer a one-time service like a website SEO audit, content development, or keyword analysis.

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