Search Engine Optimization is a technique to make your online business easily discoverable by searchers looking for answers to questions and solutions to problems. For a business to thrive, it needs audience visibility.
Prospects search using specific words or phrases called Keywords. Search engine algorithms like Google and Bing analyze keywords and present searchers with the most relevant results. Google considers over 200 elements when determining where to rank a page in the search engine results page (SERP).
What if two sites have equally relevant content to a user’s query? Sites Google deems as having more “expertise, authority, and trust (E-A-T)” appear higher in SERPs. Our SEO consulting services help you build effective keyword and content strategies for each phase of the journey from prospect to buyer. And, we give you sound advice on tactics improving your site’s E-A-T. A few more reasons why SEO matters?
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- More Cost Effective
There are two types of online traffic: organic and paid. Organic and paid search complement each other. But, if you only have the budget for one service, SEO is the sustainable path to long-term growth and produces assets with lasting value. Conversely, while PPC can generate traffic quickly, keyword bids in certain markets are cost prohibitive and bring a lot of low-quality traffic. For instance, keyword bids in insurance and legal services can range from $100 or more every time someone clicks your ad!
Organic results display below the top three paid ads at the top of search results. Data shows organic results are viewed as more trustworthy than paid results and generate higher quality traffic. Whereas many people clicking on paid ads have high bounce rates because overtly promotional paid search content elicits “sales resistance.” Visitors often enter a paid ad with skepticism. Especially in B2B contexts.
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- High-Quality Traffic
It is not the traffic but relevant traffic that matters. SEO helps in driving quality traffic towards your websites. It makes your website something the customer is already looking for.
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- Impressive Return on Investment
Return on investment is the primary consideration. Average return on investment in traditional marketing is 2.5% compared to 275% or $2.75 for every dollar spent with SEO.
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- SEO Establishes Credibility
Before becoming customers, prospects travel a well-established path, often referred to as a “sales funnel.” They move from a point of no awareness or interest, through interest, consideration, and comparison, and finally to purchase. People have different questions at each phase of the buyer journey. SEO establishes credibility by anticipating and answering questions that solve prospect’s problems.
How do you prove the value of SEO Consulting?
First, it’s important to keep in mind SEO takes time and setting realistic expectations is important. Skilled SEO consultants will evaluate your current efforts and capabilities against your competitors and provide you with key performance indicators for gauging the effectiveness of their services. We’ll compare your baseline metrics the start of our services to the traffic and conversion increases over the term of our efforts and calculate the ROI of our services.
How to Prove the ROI of SEO?
Return on investment means what you are getting back after investing a certain amount. So basically, it is the difference between SEO gain and SEO cost.
ROI= SEO Gain- SEO Cost
SEO COST= Cost of services+ cost of software or tools
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- SEO-Cost
SEO costs include all the financial resources being spent on SEO efforts. To make ROI calculation more precise, you need to see if the service provider is a freelancer or an agency? Freelancers are usually involved in many tasks, and SEO of your website could be one of them. Therefore, you need to record how many hours they work dedicatedly for you and what hourly or monthly charges you agree with them? Similarly, if you are getting SEO services from an agency, you need to look at their price structure. Usually, the charges vary according to services. However, some services have fixed costs.
The second important consideration is which software or tools you are using to execute your SEO strategy. SEO costs also include the prices of tools and software you are using. You might be using a few features of the software. Therefore, have the expenses related to software or tools into SEO cost.
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- SEO-Gain
SEO gain depends on multiple Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you need to monitor. You need to check the performance of the following indicators.
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- Search rankings
- Organic traffic
- Bounce Rate
- Organic CTR
- Soft and Hard Conversions
- Site loading speed
- Pages Per Session
- Organic impressions
You need to keep a close eye on the factors above. Improvement in the above KPIs will show that your SEO strategy and SEO costs are paying off.
What do SEO consulting services include?
SEO consulting services include analysis, strategy, and direction for optimizing your site to increase traffic and conversions from organic search. Clients have different needs but typical SEO consulting services include:
SEO Audit
The cure begins with diagnosis. Before offering any service, an SEO audit is essential. Is your technical/on-page SEO off? Are you going after the wrong keywords? Do you need more backlinks and a process for getting them? Do you have bad backlinks hurting your rankings? Do you need content recommendations for prospects at each stage of the buyer journey? Or a combination of all the above. An SEO audit helps determine your needs.
Keyword Research
Keywords research includes searching all potential keywords related to your business or services. Keyword research evaluates:
- Keyword competitiveness
- Keyword intent (what keywords speak to prospects at top, mid, and bottom funnel)
- Keyword search volume
Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis evaluates your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to your competitors. Understanding where you are versus your competitors allows us to develop strategies that maximize the effectiveness of our SEO consulting services.
SEO Report
SEO report is a comprehensive report that tells about the quality of your website against the factors that are crucial for getting your website ranked.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
SEO is one component of search engine marketing (SEM) although SEM is often regarded as paid search efforts such as PPC, Display (CPM), remarketing, and other paid traffic channels. SEM provides value as long as you continue paying for results. SEO feeds relevant, properly structured technically optimized content on your website to search engines. SEO results in organic (non-paid) rankings and traffic. One key difference between SEO and SEM is that SEO results take time. But, SEO typically yields higher ROI over the long term.
Can I do SEO on my own?
“Can I do SEO on my own?” Of course you can, but do you have the time, knowledge, capabilities to pull it off effectively?
Every skill or technique takes time, practice, and effort to learn and master. SEO is labor intensive because of analysis, technical optimization, keyword research, content creation, and backlink outreach. Either way, there is an investment. Some people enjoy the satisfaction of growing their organic traffic with sweat equity. What is your time worth though? Is your time better spent elsewhere in your business?
Even if you decide to do your own SEO or keep it in-house, working with a consultant can illuminate you on strategies and tactics working today. Consultants can direct you to avoid pitfalls and unfruitful efforts. Working with consultants likely produces better results in less time than learning through trial and error.
Tools and technology are other factors to consider. Understandably, software manufacturers with valuable competitive analysis and SEO auditing tools know their value and charge accordingly. Agency consultants already have access to these tools and you don’t have to pay for them directly.
Should I use SEO or paid search marketing?
If you can afford to, do both! The two complement each other. In addition to driving revenue directly, PPC can also inform SEO. You can test keywords quickly by running paid media to them and seeing how they perform. If they perform well in tests, you can lower your paid search costs and increase organic traffic expecting the same results from those keywords with SEO.
Quick Facts about Website traffic:
- Paid and organic search both add up to 68% of the total website traffic
- Organic traffic is 53% of the total website traffic, and paid traffic is 15% of the total website traffic.
- Research shows that both SEO and paid search marketing drive 72% of the revenue that’s crazy high.
SEO is a long-term strategy that can be less expensive, depending on your strategy. SEO builds trust and authority of the brand. SEO results in consistent and sustainable traffic. SEO takes a much longer time to produce results and is ineffective for time-sensitive content. There is less control on performance, and change in strategy does not reflect results immediately.
Paid search marketing brings quick results, and you have greater control over the performance. You can change the strategy or technique immediately if it does not get results. It targets the right audience and brings higher ROI in the short term.
Based on the above facts and differences between SEO and paid search marketing, one can decide which strategy would better serve the purpose. One way of making an informed decision is to consult with an SEO consulting services provider.
How long do SEO results take?
An industry wide survey of SEO services reported SEO results
For instance, for SEO Consulting services providers, it takes 4-6 months to see SEO results. SEO results grow and compound over time. The traction of results at the end of 12 months differs greatly from six months.
According to Ahrefs, first page Google ranking can take two years. Even that figure depends on competitors, your resources, and the aggressiveness of your efforts. Therefore, the answer to the question “how long” lies in strategy, execution, competition, type of services or products, and desired results. Lower competition coupled with high demand for those terms yields faster results.
Another important factor to consider is whether your website is local, national, or global. Local SEO, National SEO, and Global SEO will influence the results and time to produce the results. Consistency and effective strategy produce results, and according to research, after 4-6 months, you start seeing the results. However, to see more sustainable and rewarding results, it takes longer than six months and even two years if the goal is to get ranked on the first page.
