If you are serious about your business, chances are that you are using a professional organization to help you with your SEO. What you may be having trouble with is how much money to spend. Spend too much and you may get a terrible return on investment. Spend too little and your campaign may not take off.
Since every business is different, your budget should be set up to address your needs and goals. However, there are a few best practices that you can follow. If you want to know what is the ideal budget for your businesses’ SEO campaign, read on!
Think of Your Business Aspirations
What is the end goal of your business? What would you need to achieve before you can call your business a success?
If all you want is to serve your local area properly and generate a decent amount of business from there, then you can afford to spend a smaller amount of money on your SEO campaign.
However, if your plan is to open new branches and eventually serve in the entire state (or multiple states), then you should plan for that accordingly. It is best to start building up some online presence in the areas you plan to expand to right now.
This way, it will be easier for you to get up and running when you expand your business.
Keep Your Marketing Budget in Mind
SEO, while important, should not be the only marketing that you do for your business. There are numerous market channels that serve businesses well.
As such, you should consider all of the options available to you and decide what percentage of your marketing budget should go towards SEO.
If you have any professional marketers on your payroll, then it is best to consult with them. The ideal method of developing your business may be to have a professional organization come up with a cohesive long-term strategy.
Think of Your Budget in Absolute Terms
Considering the size of the market and the strength of your competitors, is your marketing budget adequate?
If it isn’t, then there is no need to fret. SEO is a fairly low-cost method of marketing that can be hugely profitable. However, it takes time for SEO’s results to become apparent.
If you have an adequate marketing budget, then you should spread your money in between SEO and other more conventional means. This way, you can future-proof your long-term sales while increasing your sales in the short-term as well.
So, What’s a Rough Estimate?
In general, you should expect to spend between $1000-2000 on your SEO campaign. However, the number can be as low or as high as you want it.
The initial costs of setting up your SEO campaign will also vary based on how robust your website is. For example, it may turn out that your website is not coded with SEO in mind. This would require technical SEO before you can move on to optimizing the content on your website and starting a content marketing campaign.
Another factor to keep in mind is how reputable the SEO consultant you hire is. You may be able to find someone to work as a freelance consultant for as low as $5/hour, but you will need to be extremely lucky to get a good SEO audit from such a consultant.
An extremely expensive consultant that charges $200/hour, on the other hand, may give you a comprehensive audit, but his audit may not be much better than someone who charges $100/hour. As such, you need to find the sweet spot and vet all of the people handling your SEO carefully.
Should I Look For a Professional Organization or Individuals Instead?
Individuals are generally cheaper to hire than entire organizations. However, it will be quite difficult for you to keep all the individuals on the same page. Even if they are all talented and do their job properly, your SEO strategy may not be cohesive enough to rise above the competition.
An organization, on the other hand, can allow you to take a hands-off approach. As long as you select a competent organization to handle your SEO, they will be able to define a strategy based on your goals and execute it flawlessly.
Another thing that you may want to consider is delegating the entire marketing arm of your business. With an ad spend of your choice, you can pretty much forget about marketing and instead focus on making sure that your clients are always satisfied with your service. However, just keep in mind that to justify the cost of such an endeavor, you should be a business with a large target market and the ability to sufficiently expand your operations.
Contact Auguste Global Now!
Auguste Global has been serving businesses for years and knows how to take your business to the next level. Whether you are looking for someone to take over your SEO or your entire marketing budget, Auguste Global has you covered.
Contact us now to book an appointment and consult with us.
