We will explain the fundamental areas behind this powerful digital marketing method. By taking out the technical jargon we will make SEO simple to understand. Helping you understand the different types of SEO, how important SEO is for your business and how much SEO marketing services can cost.
What does SEO stand for?
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) “is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines”.
Let’s explain this in simple English, in our interpretation;
SEO is the process of optimising website content so search engines such as Google place it in the top search results when a user searches for a product or service that your business offers.
Why is SEO important?
With good SEO practices, your business can organically drive relevant and high-quality visitors to your website without having to pay for advertising. For example, if your website or webpage is on page one of a search engine result page (SERP) for a specific keyword it’s going to bring a lot more organic traffic than if it was on page 5.
Statistically, 75% of page clicks are given to sites ranking on the first page of results. 42% of those first page clicks go to the number one position. The click-through rate (CTR) significantly increases as page ranking increases, so the higher your website ranks the more traffic you will organically acquire.
Want to know why SEO for eCommerce is important? Read our introduction to eCommerce SEO article.
How SEO Works
Understanding how SEO works is rather simple, the answer is in the name “search engine optimisation”. The main goal for any search engine like Google or Bing is to serve up the most accurate and relevant content to any search query.
Simply put, the whole idea is to optimise your website or webpage so search engines see it as a relevant and reliable source to be served up for specific search queries. But now you are probably asking; how do you optimise your website? This is exactly where SEO marketing comes into play.
What is SEO Marketing
There are a number of popular SEO marketing methods that come into play. Among the different methods there are three types that are most important, Technical SEO, On-page SEO and Off-page SEO. These are the main three types of SEO you will hear about the most, let’s explain each one in a little more context.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves adjusting the technical parameters of your website that affect how search engines rank your website. The main objective of technical SEO is for search engine “crawlers” to “crawl” your website and index your website with ease! The more efficiently search engines can crawl your website, the healthier your website will look. Healthy crawlable websites are prioritised by search engines, effecting your website ranking significantly.
On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO refers to everything that happens on website pages. The goal is to make your page content more SEO friendly, with natural keywords relevant to your business and industry. It's Important to know that search engines look at your website as a whole but the ranking they do is on a page-level basis. This means each website page must be treated equally.
Dive deeper into on-page SEO with our On-page SEO: A Basic Introduction.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is a slightly different approach, while Technical SEO and Onsite SEO concentrate on website infrastructure and content, off-page SEO focuses on techniques to promote your website online. The objective of off-page SEO is to give your website more visibility online and obtain a higher domain authority. Popular websites with high domain authority have an increased chance of ranking in the top search engines results, making off-page SEO a valuable strategy for your business.
Dive deeper into off-page SEO with our Off-Page SEO: The Ultimate Guide.
Our SEO Checklist
SEO can be a big pill to swallow, so to help set the foundations for any successful SEO project we recommend following some basic best practice steps. Hereunder is our basic SEO checklist:
How Much Does SEO Cost?
Many businesses struggle with not knowing how much to budget for SEO services, this is because there is no specific fixed cost. Every business requires a different level of service.
To put it in a nutshell, it comes down to a matter of positioning. How your website compares to competitors and how fast you want to make progress. These two variables are what will determine your SEO service cost.
Before determining a budget to spend on SEO, you must determine what you would like to achieve from any SEO strategy and plan how to measure it;
- What is the desired outcome for my business?
- How should my business measure success?
Only after determining these two points then should you think about a budget.
Building a Budget
After determining your SEO goals (desired outcome) and tactics needed for success, a distinct action plan and budget to support your efforts is needed.
According to Google SEO , “in most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
Time and volume of work needed are two factors that can affect cost. For example, if you want to get somewhere faster the volume of work needs to be increased to get there quicker, it's the same with SEO. So with this in mind your budget should reflect this.
The right budget is also one that you can afford for a minimum of four to twelve months. SEO is no overnight success, it takes time to implement and tweak. Therefore reinforcing that a lower budget will take a longer journey.
So What’s The Cost?
The cost to hiring a top-level SEO agency to carry out Local SEO campaigns will be upwards of £500+ per month. A national or international campaign will require a budget between £2,500 and £5,000 per month.
If your budget is not in the position to retain a top level SEO agency you still have a couple options. With a one-off fee a SEO audit is a good way to gain actionable insights and recommendations about your websites SEO. Another method would be to gain expert evaluation and recommendation about your website content and keyword analysis.
How Can Clear-Click Help?
If you're interested in learning more about how SEO can benefit your business, take a look at our SEO Services. Should you need an SEO expert but not sure where to start, contact us and our team of SEO experts would be happy to get to know you and your SEO needs.
