Affordable SEO

Affordable SEO

Affordable SEO shouldn't be confused with cheap SEO, which should be avoided altogether. SEO pricing can vary greatly between agencies and measuring whether a service is like-for-like is an extremely difficult task for anyone looking for affordable SEO services.

Confusing affordable SEO with cheap SEO is a common mistake many business owners make.

Our definition of affordable SEO is a reasonably priced, comprehensive SEO service, whereas cheap SEO suggests very low cost where the provider will likely be cutting corners with very little added value. Being disappointed with poor SEO results is one thing, but the possibly of having a damaged SEO profile should be avoided at all costs which is commonly a result of cheap SEO practices.

The reality is that SEO requires an understanding of what the client is trying to achieve, and only at a stage of full understanding can a strategy of how to achieve these objectives be considered. Beyond planning comes delivery, which takes incredible skill, tenacity, and adaptability to deliver results on the SEO project.

Things to consider are the technical SEO, ensuring that load times are fast, and elements are correctly laid out on-page. Content needs to be perfect, and a further content strategy developed to ensure fresh, relevant content is being created that is of a high enough standard to be worthwhile. Off-site SEO, including backlink building and digital PR have their parts to play in assuring results.

If you consider this very brief overview of what it is to deliver an SEO project, you can see that affordable SEO is a very different prospect to cheap SEO. Furthermore, you can see that a company or freelancer offering SEO for £95 per month simply would not have the ability to deliver success. As an SEO agency, our offering starts at an affordable entry level of 6 hours per month, and even then each project is considered in line with what the objectives are to ensure an adequate amount of hours to deliver results.

A frequent conversation that we have with prospects, and somewhat alarming, is how businesses have partnered with SEO agencies and results have been dire. This common conversation can be attributed to many different reasons, but most commonly through discussion, we have learned that so-called SEO agencies and freelancers make grand promises of where they're going to rank, usually within unreasonable record speeds. It's often companies who are offering cheap SEO that are setting unrealistic expectations, which leads frustration at best and financial loss and SEO profile damage at worst.

Our affordable SEO packages work for both local SEO and national SEO, where a local strategy will produce prominent search results of your business within the vicinity and service are of your business. This kind of SEO typically works very well for trade business and businesses that have shop fronts, where the objective is to drive footfall through the door, or where a prospect needs your service within a localised area. This kind of project relies on a different SEO strategy than one requiring national exposure.

How to spot and avoid cheap SEO:

There are a few obvious tell-tale signs of cheap SEO, but the most common we hear about is when the sole focus is on how many keywords the SEO company is going to get you ranked for. Focussing only on how many keywords detracts from what the goal really is, which should be increasing volumes of traffic from organic search, using keywords that are highly relevant, with the right user intent, with a view of improving the number of conversions. generally speaking, conversions are either lead and enquiries in service-based businesses or sales for ecommerce businesses.

Another way of telling the difference between affordable SEO and cheap SEO is to ask to see past results. A legit SEO company will always be able to show you past or current projects whereas less experienced SEO companies, or ones that maybe cannot produce the results will not be able to provide you with any examples of their work. This should raise a red flag, but sadly all too often, people with a lack of SEO understanding are sold by pushy sales teams who say all the right things, with very little intention or knowledge on how to back up their claims.

To labour the point, pushy sales teams offering something with a deadline or at a highly discounted price that's raising tomorrow creates a pressured environment and an urgency to buy. Partnering with an affordable SEO agency is very different to a cheap SEO experience.

Link building is another area where cheap SEO can cause real damage. Some unscrupulous companies try to play the system by building lots (and lots) of poor-quality links. These can be identified by their spammy nature, being built on completely unrelated websites which are often over optimised to promote a certain word, also known as an anchor text. This kind of behaviour rarely works and if it does, it's not likely to work for long. The worst-case scenario is that you'll receive a penalty and leave you wish you'd never engaged with cheap SEO.

Recovering from working with a cheap SEO company is possible, however it'll need an initial audit, followed by a plan of action to undo and start applying the main principles of SEO. Recovery can often take longer than most clients can bear and in some extreme cases we've seen clients starting again, which is a sad situation and a long journey.

As the Old adage goes, if it's too good to be true, then it probably is - or in the world of SEO, it definitely is. Cutting corners might create some quick wins but these will undoubtedly be short term. The resounding answer is to choose affordable SEO that will generate real results over cheap SEO.

If you're looking to grow your business and want to explore the SEO packages available to you, get in touch with our friendly team of experts who will be happy to have an informal discussion about your SEO.