How it’s unlikely a small business can balance the professional SEO cost and management with profit.

Search Engine Optimization is a term that you’re going to hear and read a lot about when you’re doing business online. SEO can get your website ranking in search engines, and when done right, it will drive traffic towards your site. If you want to be noticed, then SEO will need to be a significant aspect of your online marketing effort. If you run an internet based business, or any kind of business where your online presence is important, then you can’t ignore it. But does that mean that you should do SEO yourself, or would doing so actually be damaging to your business, and leave you in a worse position than where you started?

To answer these questions, it is necessary that you take an honest look at your skillset. What is it that you do in business? Are you a professional writer, a digital marketer, or do you have some experience in IT that could be used a stepping stone as you learn the basics, and the complexities of SEO? If the answer is no, or if you’re not sure, then it’s likely that performing your own small business SEO is not the best option for you. In fact, doing so could see your otherwise promising or successful business take a turn for the worse. Let’s look at why.

What is Your Time Worth?

The number one reason why it’s not the best idea to do your own SEO, is because it can take a significant amount of time to learn the basics. SEO is a constantly evolving discipline. At its most basic, you will be using proven strategies to ensure that your web pages are ranked in the world’s largest search engines. When you break it down and look at the complexities, you will be doing everything from writing website content and targeted copy, ensuring the code on your web pages is SEO friendly, using off-page strategies to develop valuable links to your websites, and you will even need to perform research to identify your search keywords, develop content strategy, and do competitor analysis to discover what the rest of your market is doing better. Do you have time to do all of this, or more importantly, do you have the time to learn all of this, and more? If you’re running a business, then you probably don’t, which is why small business owners often hire a professional SEO company.

Even if you were to learn some aspects of SEO, and implemented strategies that started to deliver results, the journey wouldn’t be over. Professional SEO is an ongoing process. Not only is it necessary to build a website and start ranking the pages using proven techniques, but the strategy needs to be long term, as all of your competition will be using the same or similar techniques. Online search engines are fickle in nature. Even with the best strategy, you will need to continue your efforts to retain a high search ranking. If you already know that 95% of people don’t look past the first page of their Google search results, then you can see why SEO needs to be never ending effort. A professional SEO company can afford to take the time to ensure that you maintain your search ranking, and therefore your market exposure. If you were to do the same, it would likely be at the cost of all of your other business tasks. What’s the point of developing a high ranking website if you neglect your core business in the process? Small business SEO is best left to the professionals, and doing so will benefit your business in the long run.

When it comes to cost, it’s true that a professional SEO consultant would represent an investment on your part, but rather than look at how much you pay, think about how much you will save.

• What is your time worth? You would spend countless hours on small business SEO. In many cases, a professional consultant will be able to do it faster, while you can focus on running your company.
• Can you afford the risk? Getting SEO wrong can result in heavy penalties for your website, which take more effort to reverse than simply getting SEO right the first time. With a professional, you won’t have this problem.
• Long term, SEO will help to drive traffic and generate leads and conversions. You’re making an effort in the growth and profitability of your business, which goes far beyond the search ranking of your web page.

It is clear that professional SEO consultants and marketing companies exist for a reason. Not every small business owner has the capability of performing SEO. Likewise, most business owners don’t have the time to learn and maintain their SEO strategy.

BMGcreative can perform professional SEO for prices that are small business friendly. Relying on the latest strategies, and employing a team of professionals who live and breathe SEO, our company is in the perfect position to give you what you need to grow your business online, allowing you to focus on your areas of expertise. Talk to us today about your unique situation, and we can help you to achieve your goals through professional SEO that is as easy as you picking up the phone.