After spending a couple frustrating hours of building links, submitting articles, researching key words and fine tuning the copy on their sites many of us are ready to throw in the towel. Search Engine Optimization seems pretty straight-forward, the thing that keeps most of us from doing it is the immense number of excruciatingly boring and time consuming tasks. There are links to build. There are directories to research. There are titles to write. There are directories to submit to. It’s all pretty exhausting.
So quickly, many of us come to one of two conclusions:
A. Purchase some tools that make the process easier.
B. Hire a company to do SEO for you.
Which of these two options should you put your limited budget towards. Let’s start by understanding what’s available.
Tools of the Trade
There are hundreds of great and useful SEO tools for free, and we’ve talked a lot about them in previous articles. There are only a few that we would actually consider paying money for:
1. WebCEO: www.webceo.com – The SmallBiz addition is about $200. WebCEO does a great job of researching keywords from your competitors’ sites. It also helps you analyze your own site for optimization and a whole lot more.
2. IBP: www.ibusinesspromoter.com – Standard edition is about $250. IBP’s specialty is submitting to directories and link building. It also contains useful tools for analyzing your site’s keywords and your competitors.
3. ISnare: – www.iSnare.com – iSnare is a great service for automating the article submission process. They submit your articles to over 1,000 article directories for a very small fee (under $2 per article). The only drawback is see with this service is that it takes them usually three weeks to approve an article and distribute it.
I’d also consider spending money on a few paid directories
1. Yahoo! Directory – http://dir.yahoo.com/ – $299 per year
2. Best of the Web – http://www.dmoz.org/ – $99.95 per year
Money spent on professional tools is quickly wasted if you’re not actually using them. All of the tools come with some kind of tutorials to get you up and running. I strongly recommend following the tutorials as soon as you purchase the tool. That way it won’t sit idling in your garage, wasting your hard-earned money.
Bring in the Pro’s
Just like owning a professional copy of Photoshop isn’t the same as hiring a professional graphic designer; Professional SEO tools won’t give you the same results as hiring a professional SEO firm. First you need to know what you’re buying. Price for professional SEO is based very much on how much they do. SEO firms fall into 3 categories:
• Premium Agencies ($10,000+ per Month)
Pros: they have several SEOs and they’ve worked with huge websites and in extremely competitive markets.
Cons: extremely expensive for the average company.
• Medium-Sized Agencies ($1,000-$10,000 per Month)
Pros: affordable for average companies. Several years of experience in very competitive markets.
Cons: maybe a little bit expensive for some startups. They won’t do such a great job if you are in an extremely competitive industry.
• Solo SEOs ($500 – $1,500 per Month)
Pros: very affordable.
Cons: most SEOs that charge this little are not that great. There are some exceptions, of course.
The Proof is in the Pudding
Whenever you hire a professional SEO company there are a couple due-diligence items we always recommend:
• Ask for Results – get a list of top 3 Google Rankings that they’ve worked on:
• Ask for References – The best SEO agencies will be happy to give you the contact information of at least 3 clients.
• Ask About Their Tactics – You want a firm that builds your reputation while raising your results.
This is a Guest Post by Zeke Camusio who is a serial entrepreneur, Internet Marketing expert and founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet Marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York. Let’s Do It!, his blog, is read by thousands of people all over the world.