Why Cheap SEO is Bad
Cheap SEO, or as it’s often framed, affordable SEO is a topic that that thousands of small business owners Google every month in the hopes of finding a magic solution to help them grow their business while keeping their cost down. Unfortunately, once you understand the economics of SEO agency labor, you’ll see that it is impossible to get good SEO results while paying only a few hundred dollars per month.
In this article, I will:
Show you how to identify cheap SEO vendors
Explain why it’s impossible for an agency to offer cheap services AND deliver results
Tell you things about owning an agency that most SEO agency owners may never disclose to you
Highlight how inexpensive SEO services hurt websites
Share what you should realistically expect to pay for a good service based on your needs
Help you determine what you should do when deciding whether SEO is a good investment for your business
What Is Cheap SEO?
First, let’s define what "cheap SEO” means. Cheap search engine optimization services are characterized by monthly recurring fees of anywhere between $100-$1000 per month. This is the common price range for offshore SEO agencies & novice consultants starting their career. They will typically advertise themselves as an affordable SEO service.
Many of these inexpensive vendors also offer SEO packages that are usually broken down in 2-3 pricing tiers. The tiers will differ by the amount of deliverables clients receive each month and/or by the type of work performed. A package offer will look something like this:
Affordable SEO Package 1 ($150 per month) - 3 blog posts, 3 guest post links, 10 local citations.
Affordable SEO Package 2 ($300 per month) - 5 blog posts, 5 guest post links, 20 local citations.
Affordable SEO Package 3 ($500 per month) - 7 blog posts, 7 guest post links, 30 local citations.
Cheap SEO Can’t Afford to Be Good SEO
The basic problem with cheap SEO is that it simply can’t afford to be good. It is impossible for a digital marketing agency to be profitable while A) charging low prices and B) staffing & arming itself properly to deliver great results.
High-Quality Digital Marketers Cost More
In order to deliver great results, agencies need experienced professionals on their team. Consider the cost of a single SEO manager. The average salary of an SEO manager is $93,000 per year (or $7750 per month). To pay that salary alone, an SEO agency needs to maintain 15 clients in the $500 range every month.
Now, add the monthly salaries of expert strategists ($81,000 per year), copywriters ($58,000 per year), data analysts ($50,000 per year), and technicians ($87,000 per year), and you see how the labor costs quickly add up. Add to that basic operational costs such as accounting, HR/administrative staff, office space, etc and the economics simply don’t work out.
Common Solutions Cheap SEO Agencies Use to Reduce Labor Costs
One of the ways SEO agencies combat labor costs is by hiring offshore labor. Unfortunately, those workers are often poorly-qualified and lack the necessary expertise + experience required for successful campaigns. There are some rock stars who live in other countries (and we do a great job of finding & hiring them), but by and large, cheap labor from other parts of the world is low quality.
The other way SEO companies address labor costs is by outsourcing their campaigns completely by using white label SEO service providers. As you may have guessed it, most of these outsourced solutions are offshore vendors staffed by the under-qualified laborers mentioned above.
Neither of the above cost-cutting solutions are good for business owners whose entire livelihood may depend on the campaign’s results.
There is a third solution that large agencies use - forcing each employee to manage a high number of accounts. There are two problems with this model:
The employee cannot dedicate enough time to each campaign, leading to poor performance on all campaigns.
The intense workload causes employee burnout & poor performance.
Both of the issues above cause a high employee turnover rate, deteriorating work quality as they commit more resources to HR.
Enterprise SEO Tool Fees Contribute to Operational Costs
In addition to labor costs, the cost of premium SEO tools make it impossible to offer services cheaply. Agencies who offer low-price SEO cannot afford professional-grade tools that are required for good campaign results.
Affordable SEO providers commonly depend on inexpensive or free SEO tools. While there are many great free resources, they’re all limited. Reputable SEO companies with amazing results use enterprise-grade tools whose annual total cost is in the five figures. For example:
Ahrefs, one of the most popular enterprise SEO tools, costs $10,000 annually for an Agency-level account.
MOZ, the original enterprise SEO tool, costs $5750 for an Agency-level account.
SEMrush, a popular SEO & SEM tool, costs $4,000 annually for an Agency-level account.
Screaming Frog, key tool used for technical analysis, costs $186 annually for a single license.
The above are just some of the basic/popular tools. There are many other tools heavily in our rotation that add to the annual costs.
Cheap SEO Hurts Your Business
The problems with cheap SEO extend beyond a poor return on investment. Work performed by low-cost vendors usually causes algorithmic penalties that can be difficult to reverse. This means your website’s organic value is actually harmed rather than improved. Typical outcomes from low-level SEO work include:
Capital Invested Returns Little to No Results
The most common issue with cheap SEO services is that they simply don’t live up to their promise. You’re not saving money if there’s zero return on your investment. In most cases, you won't be able to recover the costs if the agency is unable to deliver on its promises.
Opportunity Costs
Even at $500 per month, you’re wasting $6,000 annually and, more importantly, you are wasting valuable time you could be using to build up your website’s organic value. You’re basically paying to stay behind your competitors and waste your potential.
Poor Representation of Your Company
It takes professional marketing strategists, copywriters, editors, and social media specialists to present your brand in the best and most accurate light. Inexpensive SEO companies are more preoccupied with keywords and outdated hacks. In their attempt to get results by any means necessary, they may:
Showcase your company on low-quality / spammy websites.
Produce amateur-grade content on your behalf that reflects poorly on your company.
Project a weak or inconsistent image that turns customers away from your brand.
There are hundreds of ways for these vendors to misrepresent your brand - and none of them are worth the risk.
Questionable & Down-right Illegal Strategies
Building organic equity & brand authority takes a lot of time. Cheap SEO companies don’t have time on their side because their clients demand quick results. Many take shortcuts like using black hat link building schemes and plagiarizing other websites’ content.
The problem with most of those strategies that go against Google’s recommended best practices is that they might work for a little while. However, Google always catches on because they update their algorithm daily (including a few core updates annually) in order to identify and de-value such strategies. Your site will likely lose all of those gains and then some.
Potential for Google Penalties
If black-hat strategies are used, you will earn a penalty at some point. Google may impose a manual action for the links cheap SEO agencies typically build. This can be notoriously difficult to address, as your only choices are to manually disavow every link or contact every website owner (many of whom will never respond).
Perhaps even worse are Google’s algorithmic penalties. Site owners won’t know which part of their site Google’s algorithm found to be penalty-worthy (content, links, etc) and it takes a real SEO expert to figure out the underlying issue.
The other big issue with algorithm-based penalties is that it may take months before your corrective actions are recognized and your site is reconsidered for ranking purposes. Such penalties are lifted when that part of the algorithm is updated, which may take weeks or months.
Possible Complete Removal from Google’s Index
In extreme cases, your site may be completely removed from Google’s index. This can be devastating for a business, and it can take a monumental effort to recover. You have to meticulously find and resolve every violation of Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. Then you have to submit multiple reconsideration requests until your site is finally re-indexed. And when that happens, you may have to restart your SEO efforts from square one.
How Much Does Good SEO Cost?
The cost of SEO services from a reputable agency is going to be determined by the agency’s business model as well as your campaign needs such as: type of campaign (local VS national), industry, competition levels, and existing organic value of your brand & website.
Based on industry surveys, research, and our own pricing, here are some basic things you should know:
Good SEO Service Time Requirements
Every campaign needs a budget. For agencies that charge by the hour:
Local SEO services should require a minimum of 18-20 hours per month
National SEO services should begin at around 27-30 hours per month
Hourly costs are typically $75 and up for good vendors
The actual time estimates will increase with the level of competition - it’s easier to rank a local niche store than an injury law firm.
Average Hourly Cost of a Reputable SEO Company
In general, you should expect to pay between $75 to $150 dollars per hour for good SEO services.
Based on the information above, here are some examples & calculations to help you predict the cost of your SEO campaign.
If you run a local tire shop, you should expect to pay no less than $1,350 ($75 x 18 hours) per month for SEO.
If you own an online boutique competing nationally, you can expect to pay a minimum of $2,025 ($75 x 27 hours) per month.
How Long Does It Take Good SEO Agencies to Deliver Results?
The timeline for a successful SEO campaign is always fluid. The type of campaign (local vs national), age of your domain, your existing brand presence, and dozens other factors influence the amount of time & effort it may take a good SEO agency to generate results. Generally speaking, you need to go into an SEO campaign knowing two things for sure:
Your commitment to SEO has to be long-term. This doesn’t mean you have to stick with the same agency, but it does mean you need to be 100% certain you want to invest in search engine optimization & digital marketing.
You will need at least 6 months of funds to invest in any campaign. This is the average amount of time most SEO agencies will (rightfully) predict before their work starts to really impact your business.
No SEO Is Better Than Bad SEO
Cheap SEO is the reason why many small business owners become jaded in regards to search engine optimization. This is the unfortunate truth about an industry that is fraught with charlatans who are more concerned with making a quick buck rather than establishing healthy long-term relationships with their clients.
However, aggressive traffic & revenue growth are attainable when you partner with a proven SEO agency. When done correctly, the organic channel can drive up to 20 times the amount of traffic as paid advertising. But it’s always worth your while to pay for professional help. If you’re not ready to invest and commit to a professional campaign, don’t do it at all. Not only are cheap SEO services a waste of money, but they can cause serious harm to your site, and that will end up costing you far more down the line.
If you can’t afford proper help at the moment, don’t waste time and money on low-end vendors. Wait until you are financially secure to invest in premium digital marketing services, and then see for yourself how effective they can be.
In terms of identifying a trustworthy SEO agency as your growth partner? That’s the million dollar question we’ll cover in a future post.
