By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-12-29 22:50:25 | Word Count: 664
SEO is a very long and involved process that takes time and financial resources to be effective. In fact, a successful SEO campaign takes at least 6 to 12 months to be implemented, and needs to be constantly monitored and maintained along the way. Anyone who tells you it can be done faster, for a lower price is offering you a gimmick. Quality SEO that is effective takes commitment, and there’s no way around it.
There are a few ways that you can come up with and implement an SEO strategy. First, you can try to do it yourself, on top of running your business. But, beware. If you don’t have the time, energy and money to properly go through all the steps involved in a successful SEO campaign, then don’t even bother – which is why most people don’t try to do it themselves.
[ advertisement ]
The other thing you can do is hire a team of SEO specialists to work in house. That is sure to get your site ranked above your competition, right? Yes, but at a high price. Consider that one SEO specialist will probably run about $60,000, and in order to properly implement your strategy you’ll need about 3 specialists, plus a web designer and a programmer. So, that’s an ongoing annual cost of well over $200,000. Not for you?
Another option is to contract your SEO services to a professional internet marketing company, like Optimum7. The average business will spend around $30K – $60K on an SEO campaign annually – still a lot of money but significantly less than $200,000 annually.
Let’s look at the complexities of SEO, why it takes so long, and what you would be getting for the money you spend to hire someone to handle it for you.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO has four main parts to a successful strategy. All of these parts need to be constantly monitored and updated in order to get an accurate picture of your SEO strategy, and how to better implement it.
* Keyword Research involves targeting what terms your users are typing into a search engine. That way you can make sure your content includes those words and you will pop up on top. Knowing what keywords your users are searching for is vital to keeping your site ranking high. It’s also constantly evolving, which is why it’s so important to keep on top of keyword research and consistently update your site with fresh keywords.
* Offsite Optimization is essentially the act of driving traffic to your site. You can accomplish this through social media like Twitter and Facebook, producing relevant backlinks, comparisons to other sites, and affiliate marketing – among other things.
* Onsite Optimization helps make sure your actual site ranks high in a search index by focusing on your htaccess settings, your meta information, your 301 redirects and your URL.
* Conversion Optimization simply means taking the information you collect and turning it into usable data that will help you turn your traffic into leads for your company, and turn leads into clients.
Properly implementing all of these steps takes a tremendous amount of time and commitment. That’s why SEO is fairly costly when compared to other marketing strategies. However, it can also be exponentially more effective if it’s done right.
Optimum7 is equipped to help you make it to the top of a Google search index. Contact us to put your business on the road to success when it comes to SEO. You can call us at 1-800-736-9618.
