Seo - Why Is Search Engine Optimisation Expensive?

Why Is Search Engine Optimisation Expensive?

Many of our customers (http://www.internet-marketing-australia.com) find search engine optimisation (SEO) services quite expensive. From the client's point of view the results are intangible and the process is lengthy. Therefore, the clients are often reluctant to commit to the additional expense.

Typically, a call for SEO comes after the website is already up and running. The quoted price depends on the client's needs, industry, positioning, etc. The price varies a lot, yet the cost of optimisation is comparable to the cost of Web design.

Is it expensive? - You bet!

During the negotiations with the Web designers the client gets an expectation of having a beautiful and functional site developed for an X amount of dollars. The client is also getting a free hosting, free search engines submissions and other freebies. That is why the price looks reasonable.

Only at some later stage the client realises that there is not enough traffic (and potential buyers) coming through the website. Consultations with the Internet marketing gurus reveal that in addition to the extra cost there is a need to restructure the content - copy. Why was it not done during the Web design phase?

The answer is simple. Skill sets of Web designers, graphic designers, programmers and Internet marketing people are different. Each of the specialists focuses on a different aspect of the Web site. Thus, when starting the search engine optimisation, we come across design obstacles that take time - the client's - money to overcome.

Consider this: we discovered that the client's home page was overloaded with JScript and had only two sentences of actual readable text. To rectify the situation,we suggested and created new home page content (at least 250 words). We also asked the web designers to move the script out into a separate file.

The client had to pay for all the above services plus testing!

Wouldn't it be smarter (read: cheaper for the client) to consider SEO issues during the Web design phase, rather than after?

Customers would be happier, the websites would perform better...

Will the Web design firms have enough courage to approach SEO at the initial stage?

We hope they will?.

(Edited by Olya Crawley)

About The Author

Rkd Unger, Internet marketing consultant, founder of www.internet-marketing-australia.com; articlecity@smartstrings.com

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |

Search Engine Copywriting: Focus On One Topic
Perhaps the simplest of all the lessons I have learned about writing for search engines is to keep my pages simple. That is to say, whether I am thinking about my readers or about Google, there is a huge advantage to keeping most of your pages confined to a single topic.There are three approaches I take to the creation of a page, and each has a significant impact on how high the listing for that page appears on Google.>> #1 ? When I don't think about Google and cover multiple topics.There are times when a page is put up simply for the benefit of my readers and, for one reason or another, cov...(related: Seo)

Top 10 Little Used Seo Strategies
There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 to 30 spots on the major search engines. That's a lot of competition! So if you're having a hard time getting those spot...(related: Seo)

How Web Design Can Affect Search Engine Rankings
Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues when being promoted on the search engines. From a basic 3 page brochure site to a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, every web site needs to have certain design aspects in order...(related: Seo)

Black Hat Seo And The Sneaky Redirect
Are shades of grey SEO really Black Hat SEO?Black hat SEO is a strategy which gets a web page or entire site banned from a search engine.A shade of grey is when you use a black hat strategy but your site has not been banned yet. Remember the acronym for YET: You're Entitled Too!There are many different opinions on the subject of Search Engine Optimization. Many folks will deliver advice which will work to get you top 10 rankings but what is really the difference between Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO?There has been many good attempts to define Black Hat SEO. All are relevant and an example can be found at

The Myth Of Guaranteed #1 Ranking In Search Engine Marketing
You've seen the ads: Guaranteed #1 Ranking! There are no guarantees in search engine marketing and website promotion. If anyone tells you different, you should check quickly to make sure they don't have their hand in your wallet.Suppose you sell widgets. You want to sell more widgets, and the way to do that is to make sure that more people know about widgets, and that you are the place to buy their widgets. You might decide to buy a...(related: Seo)

Drive More Traffic To Your Website With Your Web Page Title!
One of the most overlooked, but important components, on your web page is the Meta title. The Me...(related: Seo)

Submitting To The Search Engines And Webcrawlers
When you want your brand new site to be indexed into major search engines, you usually go to their free submit page and submit your website, correct? Seems like the right thing to do, right?Well, many people fail to realize that not submitting your site is usually better than actually submitting it.Let, me explain.All the search engines, or the MAJOR ones, for our discussion here have what are called webcrawlers. Now, webcrawlers are little programs that go out onto the web and search or "crawl" around looking for websites that are not already indexed into their databases.Google search engine is a well-known engine...(related: Seo)

Look Out Msn Search, Here Comes Gbrowser
It is official, the search engine wars are in full swing. On Tuesday, February 01, 2005 MSN officially rolled out its new search solution to all of its websites, including MSN.com. This comes on the heels of growing speculation that Google plans to launch its own browser, possibly in an attempt to attack Microsoft's greatest strength in Internet Explorer. Is it possible that MSN actually rolled out their search engine to prevent Google from doi...(related: Seo)

How To Verify And Monitor Your Search Engine Listing On Google?
Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches is the overall goal a webmaster is trying to achieve when dealing with search engines. Search engine optimization is probably one of the most commonly used words among webmasters. In the Internet market becoming much more critical to business success this is almost natural.While the professionals know how to verify search engine rankings and listings, the normal user or startup webmaster might not know how to verify these things. The often just type their domain name into the search engine of choice and are happy if they get a result back that includes their domain name. But there is a little more these startup webmasters should know about.Every page i...(related: Seo)

How To Indirectly Get To The Top Of Search Engines
There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 spots of the major search engines. That amounts to a lot of competition! Even if your website can't get in the Top 20, you can use indire...(related: Seo)

Search Engine Metrics: Organic Search Vs. Paid Placement
Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the top method to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Source: Direct Marketing Association. Accordingly, the most cost effective way to market your web site online is to obtain several top 10-search engine rankings in the major search engines for your keywords.According to a recent Jupiter Research Survey, searching on the search engines is one of the main uses of the Internet among 79% of users. Source: September 2002 Jupiter Research Survey. So that being the case, whatever your promoting you'll want to make sure...(related: Seo)

Page Rank - A Quick Overview For Beginners
Page Rank (PR) is a specific value for a website page given by Google. It is Google's measure of the importance of a certain site page. The scale is between 1-10. Google gives your website high PR if it is popular. It's based on the number of votes other websites give for your website.Those websites give votes to your site by putting a link to it on their websites. When you link your site to another website, that means you vote for it.From this information, if you want your site to have a high PR, then you have to get as many votes as possible from other websites. In other words, make as many links as possible to your site and you will have higher PR!This is important because PR is one of the many ...(related: Seo)

Ppc V Natural Search ? A Cost Comparison Case Study
The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is undeniable. Each click costs virtually nothing, you only pay for the clicks you get, and you set your own daily budget so you know exactly how much you're going to spend. Most importantly, your listing appears instantly.On the other hand, a high ranking in the natural sea...(related: Seo)