SEO for Small Businesses: Can’t Work. Little budget, strong competition…
We believe that SMEs can do SEO successfully as well even with strong competition. Here is a SEO Pricing Guide for Small Businesses for a better understanding.
Is SEO worth investing in?
SEO is still one of the most important traffic channels in online marketing. Although it can be said that SEO has become significantly more difficult and therefore more effort and cost-intensive in recent years, SEO is still very valuable and the top traffic provider on the web. Compared to advertising via Google Ads, SEO is not suitable for a short-term strategy but offers even greater value in a long-term strategy.
If you have the necessary budget, trust, and patience, SEO will pay off with steady traffic growth, which can then be converted into direct sales. In addition, SEO is very easy to measure and has a lasting impact on the overall project. So you can say: that SEO is an investment in the future of a company and one of the strongest drivers for the digital success of companies.
Why SEO for Small Businesses
Large companies and companies that have been implementing SEO for a long time have a leg up on small businesses.
Nevertheless: SMEs also have advantages that corporations etc. cannot fall back on.
Smaller companies usually have even more potential in SEO
Logically, if a company has been implementing good SEO for years, the potential for new, relevant traffic becomes smaller over time. Explore more about how to start a small business.
If your company is still at the beginning when it comes to SEO, you can take advantage of quick wins, especially at the beginning, i.e. implement the measures that take up the fewest resources and promise the most ROI.
Small businesses can specialize
Smaller businesses can focus on niche markets and tailor their SEO strategy accordingly, such as SEO for wedding photographers. This allows them to establish themselves in these niches and be seen as a topic authority in the eyes of Google and its customers.
Google wants to help smaller sites
Google has announced that it will roll out an update in mid-2023. This update should help to display more hidden gems in the search (see here )
Then in November 2023, Google published that they had made changes to give small websites a better chance of top rankings ( source ). Google wants to reward content that, for example, provides valuable first-hand knowledge ( source ).
Small companies are more agile
Larger organizations are often more sluggish and make decisions more slowly. With a smaller team, you can make decisions more quickly and implement them even more quickly.
The SEO Budgeting
SEO agencies commonly offer a monthly retainer model, where Small Business clients pay a fixed fee per month for a defined set of services. These packages often include continuous tasks such as regular website audits, content optimization, link building, and performance tracking. Monthly retainers ensure consistent and ongoing SEO support, ideal for sustained and long-term optimization efforts.
For monthly SEO services, SEO costs on average $500 to $2500. You can also find hourly and one-time project packages. However, you need to remember that SEO prices vary and depend on factors such as your SEO pricing model, the reputation of the SEO provider, and more.
What determines SEO costs?
SEO costs depend on several factors, including the following:
Goals
Your result expectations affect how much you pay for SEO. For example, do you want:
- Should traffic increase by 1%, 15%, or 50% in the next five years?
- Doubling organic leads in the next six months?
- Get all URLs on the first page for a specific keyword list in the next two years.
Depending on your goals, you may need a competitive SEO package that prioritizes SEO optimizations across your entire website. In some cases, SEO providers will even say they don’t want to work with you because of unrealistic goals.
Agency reputation
Agencies that have a better reputation in the industry often have higher SEO prices.
The higher price comes with some benefits, including the following:
- Trust: You can often trust these companies when it comes to your search engine optimization.
- Performance: These SEO companies are often known for delivering results.
- Skills: Experienced SEO agencies can also do more, like local and e-commerce SEO.
- Convenience: You can also find all-in-one service packages with these providers.
Strategy scale
Your SEO strategy compared to Coca-Cola’s SEO strategy will likely have the following differences:
- Needed
- Considerations
- Goals
- Scope
The complexity of the strategy increases with the size of the company.
Typically, larger companies have more complex SEO strategies, which results in higher SEO costs. You need leading search engine optimization experts. In comparison, smaller companies have smaller campaigns that can be managed by SEO professionals with varying levels of experience.
Site size
The size of the website also affects search engine optimization prices.
This is because larger websites naturally target more keywords than smaller websites, causing them to require more SEO maintenance to maintain and grow those rankings. In comparison, smaller websites have fewer places for SEOs to work.
This SEO price factor also coincides with the strategy scale.
SEO focus
Where you choose to focus your SEO efforts can also impact the average cost of SEO.
Some examples are:
- SEO for electronic commerce
- Local SEO
- Voice search SEO
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO
- On-page SEO
- SEO audits
Depending on your needs, you may need one-off SEO support as opposed to ongoing SEO work. Or you may need a specialist in eCommerce SEO as opposed to traditional SEO, which may result in higher or lower costs depending on market saturation.
Add-ons
Additional services can also impact your search engine optimization costs. Some examples are:
- Write SEO content
- Graphic design
- SEO audit
- SEO web design
These can even extend to other digital marketing services like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which you’ll mostly find at full-service agencies. The advantage of this is that you can create a bundled service and manage your outsourced marketing in one place.
Conclusion
SEO is also worthwhile for smaller companies. Prerequisite: You do it the right way. If you start now to consistently build high-quality content and prioritize actions wisely, you will be successful in the long run, even with a smaller budget.
Of course, this also includes a sensible SEO strategy and the necessary time.
