SEO Isn’t Expensive—Bad SEO Is

SEO provides the best value out of all digital marketing channels.  To learn why, let’s play a game.  If you were a hotel owner, would you rather have: A. A luxurious property that’s costly to obtain but pays for itself within a year (and continues to generate tons of revenue)? OR  B. A run-down motel that’s dirt cheap to acquire but barely makes any money? Obviously, choice A is the way to go.  While there’s a sizable upfront cost, it’s an extremely valuable investment that will continue to earn revenue for you well into the future.  Good SEO operates the same way.  Doing SEO the right way isn’t always cheap, but the results speak for themselves.  SEO has the lowest cost-per-lead out of any digital marketing channel, and it provides a compounding ROI (return on investment) when done right. In other words, you’ll continue to generate leads and sales once you publish optimized content and achieve high search rankings. Cheap SEO is the equivalent of the run-down motel that doesn’t generate much revenue at all.  Sure, it was easy to obtain, but what good is it?  No one will want to stay there, and you’ll end up losing money over time, just like with cheap SEO.  You won’t rank higher on Google, and you’ll waste your marketing budget.  In this guide, we’ll rebuke the common belief that SEO is expensive. In actuality, good SEO pays for itself in the long run (and then some), while cheap SEO will do nothing but waste money.  Keep reading to learn how to tell the difference, including how to find affordable SEO services that work! 

What Cheap SEO Really Means 

First, let’s blow the whistle on cheap SEO services that don’t actually work, despite the promises of the shady practitioners who sell them. Even if you handle your SEO yourself, it’s worth knowing which tactics are worth the investment.  Otherwise, you may wind up sinking money into a losing strategy. An example would be buying lots of low-quality backlinks to quickly build up your link profile.  At first glance, the logic behind this tactic makes some sense.  If your website is lacking backlinks, and backlinks are what you need to rank higher on Google, why not pick up a bunch at a discount price? The problem arises when you understand Google’s search guidelines and algorithm updates.  Backlinks are how Google builds trust with websites, so they’re not something you should buy in bulk.  In fact, doing so is a red flag to Google’s algorithm and will likely lead to a manual penalty that removes your content from the search results.  Instead, Google wants to see that you acquire backlinks naturally through publishing great content.  Also, the quality of the website linking to you matters more than the quantity of links you have. 

There’s obviously a lot to know about backlinks. Check out our Learning Hub page on link-building to understand why high-quality backlinks are so important for SEO.

The point is that cheap SEO is high-risk and low-reward.  While the upfront cost may be low, you’ll get next to nothing out of your SEO investment.  Here are some more “budget” SEO tactics that you should AVOID:

• Creating thin content that contains less than 700 words 
• Using article spinners  
• Publishing AI-generated content with no editing or human oversight 
• Buying low-quality backlinks (from garbage sites) 
• Using private blog networks (dummy sites that only exist to link to other sites) 
• Not having a strategic plan or tools to use for ongoing analysis (like Ahrefs or Semrush) 

The thing about cheap SEO is that:

1. It doesn’t work (beyond some immediate results that quickly go away) 
2. It sets you back because you could have spent that time engaging in good SEO 
3. It leads to lost revenue 
4. It puts you at an extremely high risk for penalties 

Signs That You’re Paying for the Wrong Kind of SEO 

So, how do you know if you’re investing in the wrong type of SEO tactics? If you know what to look for, there are some telltale signs that will let you know something is off. Thus, this section will equip you with ‘red flag vision’ for SEO techniques.  First and foremost, the ultimate SEO red flag is when a service claims it can guarantee specific search rankings (most commonly #1).  NOBODY can guarantee search rankings.  Why? It’s impossible to predict how Google’s algorithm will rank content for a particular query.  While we know many of the ranking factors its algorithm uses (most, not all), nobody knows with 100% certainty how Google’s algorithm will respond to your optimizations.  This is because:

• There are COUNTLESS websites in Google’s index that compete for search rankings 
• You have no way of keeping track of all your competitors’ optimizations 
• There are hundreds of ranking factors, and another website may have you beat without your knowledge 

Therefore, SEO agencies that guarantee #1 keyword rankings are lying to you. What agencies CAN do is optimize your website according to proven best practices, analyze and outdo top competitors, and build authoritative backlinks.  These methods will improve your online visibility without a doubt, but there’s no way to guarantee that a specific web page will rank #1 for a certain keyword.  As you can see in many of our case studies, our clients often begin ranking in the #1 organic spot for multiple important keywords at a time, but we never guarantee rankings (they were simply a byproduct of our strategic SEO efforts). 

Common SEO red flags 

Other signs that you’re paying for bad SEO include:

• Vague reports or no reports at all on your progress. If your SEO agency isn’t providing you with frequent progress updates and detailed reports, it should immediately raise suspicion. This is usually a sign that they’re not actually delivering results (or doing any work for you at all). Honest SEO agencies are always transparent in reporting and results.

• • No real keyword or content strategy. Has your agency gone over which keywords to target with you? Have they clued you in on their content strategy? If the answer is no, it’s a red flag that you’re dealing with a dishonest agency (that’s likely up to nefarious tactics). 

• One-size-fits-all packages. This is a major red flag. EVERY business has different SEO needs. If you find agencies claiming that they have the perfect SEO formula for any website, you should run away screaming! 

These are the top red flags you should look for when looking for SEO agencies to work with online. 

What Good SEO Actually Includes, and Why It Costs More

Have you ever heard the phrase, “You get what you pay for?” It refers to the level of quality you receive in relation to how much money you pay for a good or service.  Good SEO fully embodies this saying.  It costs more than cheap SEO (especially initially), but the quality you receive in return is far superior.  This fact is paramount for understanding the true cost of SEO.  Next, here’s a look at the components involved with strategic SEO (AKA good SEO). 

A customized strategy based on your business goals 

We’ve served over 200,000 businesses at this point, so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that each business has unique SEO needs. Each business will have its own:

• Business goals (like wanting to improve brand recognition or generate more sales) 
• Top competitors on search engines (each with their own SEO strategies to contend with) 
• Keywords to target
• Existing search performance (this is HUGE, as some sites are bogged down by thin content and poor backlinks) 

That’s why there’s no one-size-fits-all SEO strategy, even for companies that seem extremely similar.  For example, a local furniture company needs to enact a totally different SEO strategy than an e-commerce store that sells the exact same products.  The local store will need a local SEO strategy that includes things like Google Business Profile optimization.  The online store, on the other hand, needs to focus on traditional SEO to reach as wide an audience as possible.  That’s why good SEO ALWAYS includes a custom strategy based on your specific needs. 

High-quality content from expert writers 

If you want your content to lead to actual customer conversions, then it has to be phenomenal.  Particularly, it has to:

1. Target trending keywords that your target audience is actively using 
2. Answer questions, teach new skills, and entertain
3. Be easy to read (short paragraphs, bullet lists, etc.) 
4. Contain strong visuals (videos, infographics, images, etc.)  
5. Use CTAs (calls-to-action) to encourage conversions 

This type of content does not come cheap, but it’s more than worth the investment.  Sure, you could fill your website with surface-level insights provided by generative AI tools, but your target audience won’t want to interact with it (even if it’s ranking well).  So, do yourself a favor and hire expert freelancers and subject matter experts (SMEs) to create your content. 

Do you need top-tier content for your website? Our blog writing services feature the expert writers you need to reach the top of Google and appeal to your target audience!

Relevant link-building using white-hat techniques only 

Building backlinks is an aspect of SEO that you can’t afford to ignore.  Only high-quality backlinks built using white-hat techniques (meaning they don’t violate Google’s guidelines) will improve your search rankings. That means it’s worth investing in things like:

• Link Outreach
• Link Insertions
• Digital PR 
• Citation Building 

These methods ensure that you wind up with high-quality backlinks coming from trusted, relevant domains. 

Proper on-page and technical optimizations 

On-page SEO includes things like keyword usage, optimizing metadata, and adding keywords to image alt tags.  It’s another area that’s essential for achieving and maintaining high Google rankings, so you shouldn’t neglect it.  Technical SEO is just as important (if not more) because it deals with the behind-the-scenes aspects of your site that impact search performance.  These include:

• Site speed and responsiveness
• Site architecture 
• Indexing and crawling errors (which can cause content to disappear from Google entirely)  
• Optimizing schema markup (crucial for appearing in AI Overviews and Featured Snippets) 

Technical factors like these can make or break your SEO, so you should engage in regular technical audits. 

Transparent reporting with clear KPIs 

Lastly, you need to know whether your tactics are working or not.  Therefore, you need detailed reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) to let you know if you’re on the right track.  We’ve already mentioned that tools like Ahrefs and Semrush help with monitoring your SEO progress, but you should also use:

• Google Search Console 
• Google Analytics 4 

These are two free offerings from Google that will give you detailed insights into your search performance and audience behaviors, so they’re worth using. 

A Real World Example: Investing in Quality SEO = Results 

Before we wrap up, let’s look at a real-life scenario where investing in strategic SEO paid off big time for one of our clients.  This case study tells the story of Cornea Care, a new and virtually unknown eyecare site that was seeing 0 organic visitors.  Fast forward after investing in our managed SEO services (HOTH X) for approximately 6 months, and they’re regularly generating 20,000 organic visitors per month.  Just take a look at these improvements: 214 keywords in the top 3, a 19.4k increase in traffic, and 1,000 more backlinks.  Needless to say, they transformed from total obscurity to an overnight sensation thanks to the power of strategic SEO.  Their monthly traffic is now valued at $5.3k, and it continues to grow! 

Wrapping Up: Cheap SEO Isn’t Affordable – It’s Actually Expensive

In summary, don’t be fooled by inexpensive upfront costs offered by shady digital marketing agencies.  You may save money temporarily, but you’re signing up for a losing game in the long term.  Strategic SEO is quite the opposite.  There are upfront costs, sure, but they more than make up for themselves after the results start rolling in (like the case study above exemplifies).  Are you ready to invest in a winning SEO strategy instead of defaulting to the cheapest option? We’d love to have a free consultation call where we develop a custom strategy based on your needs and budget, so don’t wait to grab a spot on our calendar!