Monday, July 27, 2009

The True Cost of Search Engine Optimization

. Monday, July 27, 2009
By Michael Fleischner

I'm often asked by companies how much they should spend on search engine optimization. As you can imagine, the answer to such a question depends on a large number of factors. An SEO budget could be based on the number of web properties you're managing, how much work there is to do, and who will be doing the work for you.

Whether you are focusing on SEO or pay-per-click marketing, you must make an investment in time, resources, and dollars to achieve you goal. Often times search engine optimization is compared to PPC. This is an unfair comparison because pay per click marketing has an immediate and direct cost. The costs associated with SEO are more indirect but can be expensive. Consider you time, effort, and work associated with any optimization effort.

The costs involved with search engine optimization come in when resources are needed to analyze your web site from an SEO perspective. You may also spend a great deal of time doing keyword research and analyzing your competitors. In each of these scenarios, you are either paying a professional to do the work for you or spending your valuable time managing these tasks. As a result, you are spending money. Even when working on a project by yourself, you are experiencing costs. What is your hourly rate in terms of dollars? What is your time worth? These factors should be part of your cost calculation.

The cost of doing things on your own are real. A great way to determine actual costs is by dividing your current salary by two thousand labor hours or the equivalent of a full year of work. This gives you an hourly rate. If you are doing much of the heavy lifting for your SEO efforts, this is essentially the price you're paying. It may not feel the same as paying someone an hourly fee but the impact is virtually the same.

Once you have completed a review of your web site, completed the necessary analysis, and determined the ideal keywords you are going to optimize for, the optimization process begins. And this work can be very costly. Again, you have to consider the time you are spending on SEO related activities and how much its costing you by not focusing on other, more challenging opportunities. The process of link building is an arduous one and can be outsourced to expedite the process or lower your costs.

One of the best ways to save money is through prioritization. There are a variety of software applications that can help you make the most of your search engine optimization. It's essential to have an idea of which tasks can help you achieve specific outcomes and find the most cost affective way to complete them. Once you've prioritized your to do list, consider the expense of software, your own time, or a third party in getting the work done. You want to determine the most cost effective solution to complete your search engine work.

SEO is certainly not free. You may consider it less expensive than other forms of online marketing because you're doing much of the work on your own. However, you should consider the value of your personal time and alternatives for reducing your workload and improving results. Whether you are thinking about online resources or additional individuals to do a number of the repetitive tasks necessary to build in-bound links and corresponding page rank, your analysis should consider costs and benefits. Even though SEO is not free, its worth every cent.

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Seo Optimization Now

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