“How can I justify the cost of SEO?”
“Why should I spend more on SEO?”
“How can I budget for SEO?”
If you consider SEO as a running cost, like power or coffee, you might question what you are paying for. As we like to say, SEO is a marathon, PPC is a sprint. That’s because SEO is an investment, not a cost, and should be considered as such.
SEO clients aren’t paying for a fixed amount of traffic every month: you’re paying for professional time spent on your website. This time builds into a significant and stable ROI as we make changes that support your site to be found and understood by Google.
That’s because a more accurate category for SEO is as an investment.
And a question I always encourage brands to ask is this: “Can you afford not to invest in SEO?”
1. If you’re not ranking, one or more of your competitors is.
How badly do you want to increase your market share and take some of the business your competitors are winning from SEO?
Taking Traffic from Competitors Requires Investment.
2. Unlike paid media, SEO should compound over time.
It might take longer to show an ROI than paid channels, but over a matter of months, those ‘clicks’ and ‘conversions’ become more cost-effective as traffic compounds.
Think longer term and forecast accordingly. 
3. Relying on one channel (e.g. PPC) is risky.
When COVID hit, so many businesses wished they’d started investing in SEO sooner. In the early uncertainty, many marketing teams had to pause paid spend on PPC ads.
Those who had invested in SEO as well as PPC still saw traffic, because they had the strong foundation of a properly optimised website.
And that’s without even mentioning the everyday need to diversify traffic sources. A sustainable business model should be able to acquire customers via multiple channels, in case one of them fails.
Diversify your digital marketing.
4. You need to invest at a level that lets you win.
Let us say the quiet part out loud: SEO only gets ROI once your site ranks in traffic-driving positions. You won’t see that return if you’re not investing enough resources to get you there.
Invest to win.
5. Your competitors aren’t standing still.
The longer you wait to invest at a level that lets you win, the further ahead competitors will get.
When you do decide to invest to win, you’ll have more catching up to do.
Invest in SEO: Beginning with a Sitewide SEO Audit
If you’re not getting an ROI from SEO, these are the questions you should ask your current providers:
- What’s the strategy? No, not a list of tactics. A strategy.
- What’s the growth forecast? When will the investment break even and how will the ROI grow over time?
The ROI is only as good as the provider. Long-term gains come from careful, measured approaches. Our digital marketing and SEO team spend time on your site each month, in proportion with your investment, to get you where you need to go.
Get Quality SEO From Today or Read more about our SEO Services.
