If you've been running a website, whether it's a full online storefront or just an online presence for your brick-and-mortar business, you've probably been told left and right that you need to hire an SEO service for it to truly thrive.
Are SEO services worth it, though?
Will your investment in yet another third-party service really help bring positive changes to your business? Will you see a return on that investment that doesn't make you groan in disappointment?
Well, the answer is yes and no. It depends on who you hire and why you hire them.
So, let's get to the bottom of it with this in-depth overview of what makes an SEO service worth the time and money you put into it.
Pricing is the first, and probably the most important aspect of whether or not an SEO company is worth it. If the prices are too low, that might be a red flag that they're cutting corners or simply aren't experienced enough to warrant a reasonable pay rate; which in turn can lead to lower-quality SEO content.
However, this does not mean that SEO needs to be expensive. It's quite the opposite, honestly.
SEO does take a fair amount of knowledge and expertise to execute properly and ensure that your business's needs are met, and there are a few different facets that a company needs to cover with its SEO service. However, it's not bogged down with tons of overhead costs, dozens of unnecessary employees, and other things that force other types of businesses to drive up their prices.
So, SEO service companies can keep their prices reasonable and budget-friendly without sacrificing quality or guaranteed results.
To compare this, you'll want to look at the SEO service's agency fees. These are the primary costs of any SEO service, and they're what you're guaranteed to pay. According to Ahrefs, an average SEO pricing in the USA is $2,816/mo (ours is $395 - $1,295/mo). Although, there is some room for fluctuation if other services or guarantees are offered to warrant any price increases.
Additional prices may present themselves with different SEO services, but it's important to make sure that these costs are warranted. The primary SEO service should encompass all of your main SEO needs. If a service appears to have chopped up its primary service just to charge you for every aspect of it individually, thus at a higher rate, then it's not worth it as an investment.
Additional services should be things that aren't reasonably covered by the primary service and warrant an extra cost to cover the company's time and energy spent providing them.
It doesn't matter if a company is the cheapest SEO service in existence if it doesn't know what it's doing or offers a subpar quality of service. You need to know that not only are you getting a good price for the services provided but that those services will make a difference worthy of the price.
There are a few ways to see if an SEO service is worth it in terms of quality.
The primary service you're paying for should include top-to-bottom SEO optimization for your site. This may include content creation that spreads links to your website across the internet, simple changes to existing content that makes it more search engine friendly, and a variety of other things that simply help you rank higher in search results over a given period.
If a company cannot perform even the most basic SEO tasks with their primary service offering, they're not worth it.
With that being said, anything that spreads beyond the basic requirements of an SEO service is perfectly reasonable to charge separately for. In fact, a good SEO service should have some extra offerings available (like Google Ads management, paid lead generation, etc.), given they don't offer an all-encompassing service at one flat rate.
SEO work doesn't show results overnight. Even the craftiest SEO specialist can't tweak a few words in a blog post and suddenly bring you thousands of new site visits and customers. No, this is one aspect of online business that takes a bit of time.
Look out for lofty promises that seem too good to be true. The service should be transparent about the amount of time you need to wait for results, and that should be a reasonable time frame of at least a month for meaningful results.
However, it's also unreasonable for a company to ask for upfront payments with no guaranteed results until a year or more in the future. At that point, they're basically pushing their end of the bargain so far down the road that it's no longer their problem, and if you're paying for SEO services to help fix serious drawbacks in your current business model, you may not even be in a position to get anything from SEO that far down the road.
Be reasonable, but don't accept something ridiculous, and don't trust the impossible.
Finally, you can tell if an SEO service is worth it by checking its reputation. If a service provider isn't delivering tangible results consistently, you'll be able to tell with a simple Google search. After all, these are major business investments for most companies. SEO can make or break a company, and lackluster results don't go over very well with clients.
So, if you're a little iffy on a specific service, or you just need a bit of reassurance that SEO can help a business dramatically, search for reviews from those who have already bit the bullet and paid for it.
Are SEO services worth it? As you can see, there is quite a bit that goes into that, and it largely depends on what agency you go with.
So, why not try AM Marketing SEO?
We offer INSANELY low prices, are transparent and realistic about how the SEO process works, offer all-encompassing SEO services without hidden fees or nonsensical business practices, and we're known for providing top-tier results and a professional, friendly attitude.
If you want SEO services worth every bit of the cost, book a call today and set up a free consultation. We're sure you won't be disappointed.
