Why Do I Pay For SEO?
Search engine optimization is not something you can teach yourself in one weekend. It takes time, practice and experience to understand how to do it correctly. Sure there are lots of articles and lists of what you should be doing and what you shouldn’t but until you actually go through the motions and learn from your mistakes chances are you will miss opportunities in certain efforts.
SEO tasks such as, keyword research for instance aren’t as straightforward as one might think. If doing this on your own, are you 100% sure you got all your keywords for your industry? Did you use the right keyword research tool? When you pay a professional SEO person to handle your search marketing you can feel comfortable that the right tools are being used and all the research is being conducted correctly. I have seen clients tell me they will conduct the keyword research and I get an email a week later that has a list of ten of the broadest keywords possible for that particular industry. Now, if I let that go their SEO would go absolutely no where. After we conducted keyword research that list expanded out a great deal more allowing that particular client to have a much more robust search marketing approach.
Not all SEO people are out there just to take your money. We understand that it is a very strange industry filled with lots of intangible efforts. It is kind of like purchasing car insurance. Nobody really enjoys purchasing car insurance but they do anyways. When you start making it to the offsite optimization do you really feel comfortable guessing on how to put a link building campaign together? How do you know if your efforts are truly working? The research and the years of experience is what you pay for. Search engine optimization is combination of marketing and technical elements that have to be mixed in together precisely. The preciseness is what you pay for when you purchase SEO services and efforts from a reputable SEO company or freelancer. Can you really afford to sit around and hope you are doing your SEO correctly for yourself? What if you spend months and months and realize you started the whole process wrong because you failed to optimize your website correctly? If you are unsure try having an SEO professional start the process and then at least take a training course before you try to attempt to do it yourself.
13 Responses to “Why Do I Pay For SEO?”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Good post Nick! I wish everyone felt the same way. It’s always knowing why you’re doing something that’s important not just what you’re doing.
A woman called me from a referral and when I gave her the fee to optimize her site she was shocked…not because it was too high but because there was one. “Isn’t the internet free?” she asked.
Too many people think because there’s free information and software and apps that it’s easy to do yourself. That’s a big mistake.
Thanks for reading Victoria!
It is amazing to me how people sometimes don’t value our SEO time, work, knowledge and experience. I had someone the other day ask me to develop an onsite SEO and link building strategy for their site before they hired me, something that would take many hours to do right. Needless to say, I did not give them the SEO strategy and told them that I am not putting a sales pitch together but trying to see if we are a good fit to help their SEO efforts.
Thanks again & take care,
Nick
Great posting, Nick. So true, too.
Instead of comparing SEO to buying car insurance, I wopuld compare it to finding an auto mechanic. Instead of using someone who would make unnecessary expensive repairs, you want to find someone you can trust to take care of your car as if it were their own, keeping it running at as close to peak efficiency as possible for s long as you own it. It is the expertise and trust that you are paying for.
In the same way, you want your SEO done by someone who will treat your website as if it were their own. You want someone you can trust who has the expertise to get your website highly ranked, and keep it there for as long as your business is in business. It’s not easy, but when you find the right person, or firm, it is worth it to stay with them for the long haul.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for reading and your comment!
Great point and the auto mechanic SEO analogy is a great one that does make sense.
Thanks & Take Care,
Nick
Great post Nick,
I couldn’t agree more with Joseph – as a matter of fact, I do work in the Automotive industry, so the mechanic analogy is one I use often. As far as the value of a good SEO strategy, I have never had to work so hard for a sale, and in turn, had such a high rate of client retention.
Thanks again for the post,
Hi Taddeo,
Thanks for reading and confirming the SEO and mechanic analogy
Take Care!
Nick
I have begun using the services of Hubspot for SEO. So far I am very impressed with the tools and information avoidable and well worth the cost. What do you know of Hubspot?
Hi Bob,
Thanks for reading!
I am familiar with Hubspot’s SEO tools and although I have not personally used, them they seem good for the beginner marketer looking for guidance. Other really good SEO tools are: SEOMoz, SEOeng and a few others.
I always remind people that an SEO tool is helpful, but it can not solve any major problems or actually do any of the SEO work for you. For that you would need to learn SEO over time or hire an SEO professional to do it for you.
Take Care,
Nick
People who don’t have a lot of internet experience can be hard to work with, particularly when trying to get them to understand they are paying for a service. Google local listings may be free to use, but if you don’t know what you’re doing you have to pay someone to do it for you.
I think Joseph Shivell summed it up perfectly. If you are paying for SEO you need someone who cares as much as you do to look after your site. Our web design and SEO company and feel regular updates and clear goals should be apparent between us and our clients. So trust can soon be built up and our clients believe in our service. Whether your paying £20 a month or £2000 clients should know what they are getting for their money.
Good article, Nick. I agree SEOMoz and SEOeng are good tools. I did not have a good experience with Hubspot, especially when their founder and CEO said that all SEO companies are crooks at a small business seminar. Kinda slimey, so I tend to not trust a company where a major executive acts like that. Anyway, Good article and good dialogue.
Thanks for reading Brad and your comment!
Wow, that is crazy to hear that review about Hubspot. That does sounds kind of slimey to me! I wonder if anyone else had any good or bad experiences using Hubspot or any other SEO tools?
Thanks again & Take care,
Nick