Search Engine Optimization
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. A search engine can include Google, Bing, Ask, and even Facebook. Most SEO professionals spend time optimizing websites for Google however many have found great success optimizing both Facebook and Instagram especially in the eCommerce Field.
SEO Companies
An SEO company will help you optimize your website for search algorithms. When you hire an SEO company you're typically paying for them to build you a website, fix technical errors and of course writing content for you to help your customers find you.
In the grand scheme of things SEO companies aren't really that expensive. Lets say you hire a minimum wage employee 40 hours a week to manage your website. If the minimum wage in your state is $7.25 then you will pay that person $1160 a month and this person is expected to do the basic obligations of the position.
When you hire an SEO professional to manage your website their job is to write and rewrite content on your website, this can be a blog answering a question that your customers commonly ask, a webpage to highlight a product or service, or a social media ad promotion. Typically if you hire a cheap SEO company to manage your website the quality of the articles tends to be worse.
Keyword research helps your SEO contractor decide what your customers are searching for to find your product or services. This is the most important piece of information to begin their job as they need to know what questions they need to answer in their content and blogs.
A backlink occurs when another site talks about yours. Google wants to rank the most relevant page for any given search. If your content is talked about by other sites then there is a good chance your page is relevant.
Your site likely will not get backlinks within the first 6-12 months unless you pay for them. A backlink budget can be included in the cost of services but often times when you hire an SEO company that budget is allocated towards content writing and site management.
For instance we do used to do Pay Per Sale Marketing, the initial $500 investment covers basic backlinks and content writing to get started so that we can optimize your site for leads. It typically takes 6 months to a year to get leads. We offer a backlink package for $400 a month to decrease that time as backlinks are not a primary part of our ranking strategy. If an agency is charging less than $3,000 a month for SEO services do not expect backlinks to be a part of their strategy.
SEO Problems
SEO typically goes wrong when there is a lack of communication, many SEO agencies set up the initial site then do nothing for months, even years, hiding behind the SEO takes time guise. While yes, SEO does take time and in 2026 has way less impact on your marketing as it did in say 2018, SEO doesn't take more than a few months to start seeing results on Long Tail Keywords. If you're not seeing anything they likely picked the wrong phrases and need to pick new ones in the next blogs. If you're flat out not ranking for those keywords, ask about it. Example, if a company says I am trying to rank for Windshield Replacement Mesa Cash Back like we did for PJ's Auto Glass. That should typically take no more than a few months. But Windshield Replacement Mesa probably won't rank anytime soon. Not without links as it is one of the most competitive niches in Arizona.
Due to the nature of SEO many people have created agencies with the sole purpose of scamming small business owners out of thousands of dollars. This is because marketing online has become a necessity as a majority of shopping is done online. We cover tips to avoid these scams in our blog.
PPC or SEO
Pay Per Click advertising is great for quick sales. If you can find a good strategy for pay per click it can make an immediate impact on your bottom-line. However, a poorly implemented strategy can ruin your business. We cover the key differences in our blog.
With PPC you will be paying for clicks and when you stop, leads will not show up ever again. With SEO, the reason it was so valuable for so long was a company would work with an agency for a year and leave them and typically keep their rankings in tact. Then hire another agency later. If you ask those companies they probably regret leaving their agency a few years later because when they needed help again they were forced to find a good agency again which isn't an easy task. Some agencies believe that the difference between $500 a month and $2500 is "quality" and they pitch you on advanced sales tactics to make you pay more for the same product. So, if you're with an agency you trust. Do NOT leave them even if you think they are doing nothing after ranking your site, because you'll be stuck looking again when the site does fall.
Discuss Your Project
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