Uncertainty is rising in numerous parts of the world. With an increased focus on rebuilding the global economy and boosting consumer confidence, your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts must stay on track to set your business up for success.
SEO is indispensable to digital marketing. While many advertising techniques have emerged throughout the years, SEO remains one of the most cost-effective digital marketing solutions that bring targeted results and long-term profitability.
Over the past years, the global market has transitioned from a synchronized growth to a widespread slowdown. Recent events have brought about changes in the business landscape, including disrupted supply chains, reduced business investments and slow productivity growth. As companies continue to take measures to stay afloat, SEO cost and relevance become a talking point in the marketing industry.
Is SEO still worthy of investment in 2020?
Thrive weighs in on the significance of SEO in this ever-changing digital marketplace. In this post, we discuss:
• How much SEO costs
• Why businesses need cost effective SEO solutions
• How an SEO company can facilitate your business growth
Maintain a robust digital presence and stay top of mind with your target customers with search optimization cost effective solutions.
Before we delve into the significance of SEO in marketing your business in 2020, let us first answer one of the most intriguing questions almost all companies have: how much does SEO cost?
Everything You Need to Know About Search Optimization Cost
SEO pricing varies depending on several factors, including a digital marketing agency’s years of experience, terms and conditions, project demands, budget constraints and package inclusions. Besides these factors, one of the most critical considerations in determining SEO services cost is marketplace dynamics.
How competitive is your niche market? What are the demands and requirements in your target locations? How does your business fare in your industry?
The average SEO cost can vary dramatically from business to business and based on the amount of traffic available in a particular niche market. For instance, a website tune-up for a law firm in the suburbs may get the site to the top of local search rankings. Meanwhile, the same optimization practice for an identical law firm in a metropolitan area may only increase its rankings slightly. This is because the amount of traffic and the level of competition differ in these two locations.
Other considerations in determining the SEO cost are your site structure and existing digital presence. Is your website SEO-friendly? How much keyword-rich content does it have? What technical SEO issues does it encounter? Are your business listings consistent and accurate?
Companies with little to no digital presence might be charged with higher search optimization costs than businesses with established websites. This is because older sites tend to have a robust and hard-earned backlink profile. Newly-built websites, on the other hand, require more intensive optimization efforts.
Now that we’ve established the key factors in identifying SEO services cost, let’s look at the average SEO pricing models for 2020.
Common SEO Pricing Models
How much does SEO cost? SEO costs can range from hundreds to several thousands of dollars per month, depending on the agreed terms. Here are various ways SEO consultants price SEO services:
| 2020 SEO Services Cost | |
| Hourly Rates | $80 – $200 |
| Monthly Retainer | $750 – $10,000+ |
| Project-Based SEO Pricing | $5,000 – $30,000+ |
| Results-Based SEO Campaigns | For this option, SEO pricing is dynamic. You pay nothing until the set goals are reached. |
In 2019, Ahrefs surveyed 357 digital marketing agencies, consultants and freelancers to determine key statistics in SEO pricing models. Results revealed that 74.71 percent of participating SEO companies charge monthly retainer fees and the most popular SEO pricing tier is $2,500 to $5,000 per month.
Keep in mind, however, that SEO pricing models vary from agency to agency to fit the diverse needs and budget of clients. The entirety of your company’s digital presence remains a significant consideration in finalizing the SEO services cost.
Is SEO Cost Effective in 2020? Is It Still Worth It?
Yes. SEO is one of the best digital marketing investments you can make.
Economic uncertainties and global trade slowdowns have forced many businesses to make tough decisions and marketing budgets are often the first ones to get slashed. While this might seem like a reasonable move, reducing your SEO budget or halting your search optimization efforts for good could potentially cause your brand more harm than good.
Statistics show that 93 percent of online experiences begin with search engines. What’s more, 81 percent of customers perform an online search before making a purchase. These numbers highlight the important role SEO plays in boosting your market presence. Let’s delve deeper.
Why SEO is a Smart Choice for Business Owners and Webmasters
This year has seen one of the largest economic shocks the world has experienced in years. Many businesses were affected by the deep recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have shut down while many are struggling to keep their business afloat. It is critical to implement reforms on your marketing strategies now to support sustainable growth once the pandemic abates.
Capitalize on cost effective SEO solutions and set the stage for a strong recovery.
Like many other companies, a financial strain may tempt you to scale back on your SEO budget. But the truth is, adopting long-term, data-driven SEO strategies places your business in the best possible position to rebound once the economy starts to recover. Additionally, building a robust online foundation now allows you to be more prepared to face crises that may arise in the future.
More reasons your company needs cost effective SEO services:
1. Establish Your Brand Authority
Now, more than ever, local SEO is crucial in demonstrating your business’ thought leadership brand. SEO is a long-term strategy that yields positive results. Investing in SEO now can not only increase your leads and ranking for your target keywords, but it also can also help you establish greater brand authority.
Businesses that rank high in search results gain higher online exposure and improved brand recognition. Likewise, companies with a well-developed SEO strategy are considered as trustworthy information sources by search engines.
2. Improve Your Organic Rankings
SEO plays a big role in positioning your company in front of the right audience and influencing their decisions. For example, online users searching for “online grocery delivery near me” are likely to go online grocery shopping and acquire delivery services from a company providing this specific service within their local neighbourhood. The same principle applies to other businesses, such as restaurants, plumbing companies, neighborhood gyms and financial services providers.
Without a robust SEO strategy, your business won’t rank for your target keywords or show up in relevant search results.
3. Acquire Valuable Leads and Traffic
Generating qualified leads is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks in digital marketing. The good news is SEO complements your lead generation tactics. Results-oriented SEO strategies create brand awareness and attract prospective customers ready to take action, such as signing up for a newsletter, contacting a business or buying a product.
Additionally, SEO involves link building, which streamlines your link acquisition process and brings in high-quality traffic to your target pages. The more authority sites that link back to your web pages, the higher your online visibility and ranking potential.
Thanks to local SEO, a plumbing company in North Texas has increased its website traffic by 80.9 percent and has acquired an average of 24.6 online leads per month.
4. Move Your Page Visitors to the Bottom of the Sales Funnel
The core benefit of SEO extends beyond creating brand awareness and driving organic traffic. Cost effective SEO services allow you to connect with prospects at each stage of their buying process. By producing engaging, relevant content, targeting the right keywords and optimizing for micro-moments (intent-driven moments of consumers, such as obtaining information, ordering foods or booking a hotel reservation), you can move customers from the awareness stage to the conversion phase.
A good example is a retro toy manufacturing company in the U.S. After only two months into its SEO and Amazon marketing campaign, the company has generated a 350.26 percent increase in sales volume and a 451 percent increase in unit sales. With continuous search optimization, these numbers are likely to grow month-over-month (MoM).
5. Drive Foot Traffic to Your Physical Stores
Statistics show that 72 percent of customers who perform a local search visit a store within a five-mile radius. SEO is an effective strategy for local brick-and-mortar businesses that aim to divert foot traffic directly into their physical location.
With combined SEO and social media marketing efforts, more prospects can see your business online and explore your brand offerings. SEO also allows you to engage deeper with your customers through their preferred platforms and drive them in-store.
6. Increase Your Online Engagement and Conversions
SEO boosts your site rankings for targeted keywords. The more people that can access your website through search results, the higher your brand engagement rate. Likewise, positive brand-related content increases your conversions by leaps and bounds. This is because combined SEO and online reputation management (ORM) efforts allow you to create strong brand recognition and control your brand narratives.
7. Cater to Changing Consumer Demands
Potential customers are searching for your products and services online. If your business does not appear on top of search results, your prospects will move to your competitors. SEO keeps you abreast of the latest market trends and industry changes, allowing you to refine your optimization strategy to adapt to consumers’ changing demands.
Although average SEO cost varies per agency, SEO services, in general, give you access to data and analytics that enable you to deliver a personalized brand experience to your customers across all digital marketing channels.
8. Expand Your Business Reach
Franchise SEO makes it easy to manage your company image and ensure brand consistency throughout your franchisees. Additionally, enterprise SEO allows you to maximize conversion opportunities and generate more sales. Capture your customers’ attention across your target locations by improving your site navigation, producing geo-modified, high-quality content, optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) profile and ensuring name, address and phone number (NAP) consistency across local listings.
9. Reduce Your Marketing Expenses
Although there is no single cookie-cutter SEO pricing package for every business, SEO cost is significantly lower than other digital marketing services. SEO reduces your ad spending and lowers your cost per lead by 61 percent compared to outbound marketing practices, such as cold calling, direct mail and telemarketing.
In addition, the average SEO cost is simply a rough estimate. SEO pricing packages are tailored to your needs, financial capacity and current website performance. The search optimization cost may also change over time, depending on your online progress.
10. Future-Proof Your Brand
Challenges are inevitable aspects of managing a business. As consumer demands and industry standards change, you need an innovative approach to market your brand and remain relevant to your target customers.
Organic SEO and content marketing are timeless initiatives that can help optimize and future-proof your website. By capitalizing on cost-effective SEO solutions now, you can easily adapt to any changes in this evolving search landscape.
Big SEO investments can bring long-term SEO rewards. Take advantage of cost-effective SEO solutions and generate high-converting leads and traffic.
How an SEO Company Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
Today, consumer expectations are through the roof and market trends are continuously changing. Taking on complex digital marketing campaigns while managing business operations is not something all businesses can handle independently. Some do not have the skill, capacity and resources, while others do not have the time to learn or launch SEO campaigns.
To meet customer demands and stay on track with your marketing goals, you need to partner with a reputable SEO agency that understands your objectives. The right SEO company can help you soar above and beyond your targets at a reasonable SEO services cost.
More advantages of enlisting SEO services from a goal-oriented SEO firm:
❑ Holistic Digital Marketing Approach
SEO entails more than on-page optimization and content marketing. It also involves other digital marketing practices, such as off-page link building, email marketing, technical SEO and Google Analytics audit. These tasks require extensive research and planning to launch projects to successful completion. An SEO company oversees all aspects of your site optimization and internet marketing projects, so you don’t have to learn all the technical processes and try to fit them in your busy schedule.
❑ Niche Market Expertise
Each industry has unique demands, standards and regulations. Healthcare providers, for one, must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) when launching SEO and pay-per-click marketing campaigns. Dealing with different market structures is one of the strong suits of an SEO company. SEO experts take the time to assess your niche market to determine your marketing opportunities and threats.
❑ Comprehensive Campaign Reporting
With your tight schedule, tracking your campaign progress and monitoring your digital marketing platforms can be time-consuming. By hiring an SEO firm, you can invest your time and resources in your core operational and business activities.
An SEO company provides regular updates and reports, complete with details, such as your organic ranking, click-through rates (CTRs), dwell time and keyword performance, to keep you up-to-date with your campaign progress. All you have to do is wait for your scheduled consultations while your digital marketing partner handles the data collection and analysis.
❑ Cost-Effective SEO Solutions
SEO involves processes, such as keyword research, content gap analysis, link building and content optimization, which require the use of paid tools and resources. When you partner with an SEO agency, you don’t have to worry about investing in all these tools. You can leverage the resources of your SEO partner without increasing your budget for SEO software.
❑ Established Network Connections
Hiring an SEO agency makes it easy for you to position your brand in front of the right audience and get your content published in authority sites. SEO companies have a vast network of connections that you can use to build your digital foundation and promote your brand.
❑ eCommerce Optimization Skills
The eCommerce market is growing at warp speed. With more businesses transitioning to online selling, eCommerce SEO becomes essential. From Amazon SEO and eCommerce optimization to Walmart Marketplace integration, an eCommerce SEO company can help you set up and optimize your website to attract more customers and rank high in search engines.
❑ Results-Oriented SEO Strategies
Just like SEO pricing, there is also no standard approach to search optimization. You need tailored SEO strategies to boost your search rankings and dominate the competition. The right SEO agency develops data-driven SEO solutions aligned with your goals and unique branding. Doing so ensures your SEO efforts deliver profitable growth.
Custom SEO Solutions: Driving Positive Results and Long-Term Profitability
One of the biggest advantages of working with a full-service SEO company is getting search optimization solutions that deliver positive results at an affordable SEO cost. At Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, we help hundreds of businesses from various industries and locations realize their ranking potential.
In the past, we helped a professional audio equipment manufacturer in Tennessee improve its market presence and Amazon advertising strategy. Our SEO and digital marketing efforts have increased the client’s add-to-cart conversion rate by 18.59 percent and sales volume by 26 percent. With continuous search optimization and tailored online marketing strategies, we help more clients drive sustainable profitability. We can do the same for you.
Move ahead of the competition with Thrive’s cost effective SEO services. We create custom SEO packages tailored to your budget and needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our SEO account managers to find out more about our SEO services.
