Are you frustrated with scam companies trying to sell you their SEO plans? Do you find yourself trapped in never ending monthly payments? Let’s put a rest to your frustrations.

In this day and age, business owners do realize the importance of SEO and importance of improving your ranking but what they dont understand is why SEO is so expensive. Many people have asked the question about expensive cost of SEO campaigns.

The Internet is flooded with articles on how to optimize your website for search engines so it makes one think that they can do it by themselves. It arises a question that if its that simple and easy then why it is so expensive. Let us find out that why is it costly to run and maintain a search engine optimization campaign.

Let’s start of with reasons due to which SEO campaign might be costly.

When you have to find keywords that are competitive
When you have dreams to achieve national ranking (In contrast to local rankings)
When you are conducting detailed research and content writing
When you have to create a complete new website with prior little or no SEO
When you have added expenses of creating a brand and making online visibility

An effective and good SEO requires time, effort and skill. And these three things cost money.

Now there are few reasons due to which SEO campaign might NOT be expensive.

When you are dealing with products or services that are not widely known
When you don’t have to work from scratch and there is an already poorly managed SEO campaign in hand
When you are dealing with local search i.e. with cities that are close to you

The Cost is Relative

Cost is very subjective for each client. What one client may view as costly can be a good bargain for the other client. It all depends upon client’s budgets, business size, site and niche. Hence it is appropriate to custom design SEO campaigns according to each client’s needs.

It can be really hectic to explain the costliness of SEO campaign to anyone and it is more convenient to explain this in person. However, I have mentioned a few important points that will help you understand that why SEO is time consuming and costly.

SEO Takes Time

Good SEO does not happen over night. Rather it takes 6-12 months of commitment and hard work to find right keywords that satisfies users search intent. The better keywords you have, the more traffic will be drawn to your website. Hence it is very important to put in considerable amount of time in finding right keywords.

It takes a lot of planning in designing a good SEO campaign which includes on-page SEO, social marketing tasks, and continuous website improvements. You may start seeing the result of a good SEO campaign within a month but it takes 6-12 months to fully achieve client’s ambitious dreams.

SEO Takes Research

Just as a lawyer charges his client for the time that he invests in researching a particular case. In the same manner, a client is charged by whatever time is being spent in researching and reporting his SEO results.

Designing an effective SEO campaign involves an extensive research. Research involves getting information about client’s target market. It also includes learning about client’s competitors or rivals in the market. Knowing the weaknesses of competitors gives an extra advantage and it can be a key factor in success of SEO campaign. Since successful SEO campaigns require in-depth research therefore it increases the cost significantly.

SEO Takes Expertise

To score a good spot in Google search, certain high level of expertise is required. SEO is an art and the company will charge you for providing artistic services. If you want to secure good ranking, no matter what algorithm shift takes place, then you will have to pay company for their expertise. This expertise may range from simple tweaks to widely known SEO techniques. The techniques are used in accordance with client’s goals and hence charged accordingly.

Dirty secret of SEO companies

Most of the SEO companies are involved in dirty business. They will charge you a monthly fee in order to maintain your rank. One of the trick they use is to legally forced you into a contract so there is no way for you to leave the company even after finding out about their dirty tactics.

Even if you break the contract and leave their company, they will make you lose all of your rankings. Although this isn’t the right way but that is the sad reality of this business. Scam SEO companies have given bad name to authentic SEO professionals.

How do you lose your ranking after ending the contract?

When you pay monthly fees to SEO companies, they buy links with that money. This is a crime and it is strictly against Googles recommendations. You can get your website permanently penalized for committing this crime. On top of that, whenever you end the contract and stop monthly payments then company won’t buy any further links (that were maintaining your rank) and it will result in downfall of your ranking.

This is the biggest scam of SEO companies and many clients become target of their dirty tactics.

SEO doesnt have to be expensive

Don’t think that SEO is always going to be expensive no matter what. Sometimes SEO companies are expensive than private SEO professionals. Moreover some SEO companies are relatively cheaper than big names. Hence it’s very important to thoroughly evaluate all of your options before making a decision.

Another perspective is to look at it as investment rather than cost. SEO can be inexpensive if you think how much return you can get from your investment in the long run. It isnt a one-time thing rather it is along run investment that can bring fruitful results for the business. Hence it is really important to invest in good SEO campaign and reap the benefits in the future.