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[/s2If]If you tuned in to this article, I'm guessing you have a little bit of a conundrum. A brain itch, if you will. You've got a limited marketing budget, you need customers and you've got to put those ones and twos where they'll do the most good. (Welcome to the club!)
Oh, and you've heard about this search engine optimization stuff and you just want a straight answer to a simple question.
Seriously… Is SEO Worth It?
Well you've come to the right place because I have the definitive answer for you.
SEO is absolutely worth it… sort of.
Now before you hit the backspace button and bounce out of here, hear me out.
When I sat down to type out these sage words, I took a look around the Internet just to see what kinds of answers were already out there floating around.
I don't think I came across a single article where the author just came out and said “Nope! Nothing to see here! Keep it moving.”
So it seems that I may be about to break with tradition a little.
For quite a few somebodies reading this, SEO is 100% worth it, but it's going to leave a bitter after taste.
Ya' see, I know for a fact that at least one person reading this is going to bump into an SEO practitioner who is going to do everything they say they're going to do, and they're going to put a serious hurting on the old marketing budget to get it done.
When all is said in done, you'll look back and ask yourself “What the hell just happened?”
If I do my job right in the next few paragraphs, you'll know everything you need to know to avoid being that person.
So, is SEO Worth It in 2020?
Let me answer that by asking you a silly question.
Do you plan on being in business next year? How about the year after that and the year after that?
Of course you do! So, the answer to the question “Is SEO worth it?” is an unconditional yes.
That's because of the way people get their hands on information these days. For most people, the destination of choice for answering questions, both big and small, is a trip to Google.
Now I'm sure you're aware that the folks over in Mountain View, California, aren't too terribly concerned about the survival of your business.
What they care about is whether your business is the best answer to the question: “Who is the best [insert specialty here] in your local area?”
It doesn't matter to them how much of your marketing budget you spend on SEO. They're going to come up with an answer to that question regardless.
You can let Google figure it out on their own or you can do a little SEO and help them out.
But is SEO Worth Paying For?
Ah! Now we're getting to the juicy dollars and sense questions. This is where it gets interesting. Let's add a little extra flavor to the question to really make it fun.
Is it better to learn SEO or pay for SEO?
Now that's the relevant question. If you'll concede that SEO is a long term play and it's absolutely worth doing, this is just a matter of choosing which resources to use. You're either going to spend time, or you're going to spend money.
Is SEO worth it enough to take the time to learn or do you pay someone and speed things along?
Now that's a tricky question indeed!
The Answer Is In the Numbers.
The people I work with are the entrepreninjas and micro-businesses that most agencies overlook. These folks typically have smaller marketing budgets to work with. Even then my smallest hands-off done for you SEO package starts at $600 per month.
If you're an independent massage therapist with an average ticket of around $60 per visit, that's a major ouch. If you're a small fencing contractor billing between $900 and $1500 per job, your perspective is very different.
For most of my clients, learning SEO or ignoring it entirely is the preferred route to go compared to wrecking their entire marketing budget.
The biggest challenge to learning SEO, is that the Internet doesn't provide that many road maps. Trying to learn something geeky like SEO can feel like taking a crash course in Dothraki!
A Simple Solution to the SEO Rock and a Hard Place.
Is SEO worth it? Of course it is. But I've found that what my clients need isn't SEO. It's customers.
Web developers build websites and say that great website design will deliver more customers. It won't.
SEO is strictly about visibility. SEO professionals say that increased visibility will deliver more customers. It won't.
A pretty website and SEO can get potential customers to see you. But as the saying goes, good looks may get you through the door. After that, you'd better have something to say.
Local marketing takes those two things and combines it with a few other related factors to get prospects see you and then interact with you so you can convert them into customers.
And if that sounds a bit more complicated than SEO alone, it is. However, it's still not rocket science. There are basic fundamental tasks that are well within the wheelhouse of most business owners.
Once those fundamentals are taken care of, you can gauge the market to see how much extra work is needed to gain the positioning you need.
Is SEO worth it? Of course it is. Is it enough to get you the results you need. Probably not.
That's what our Local Marketing Coaching is for.
Figuring out the ins and outs of local marketing on your own is usually an unrealistic challenge. Now you have a roadmap to follow or a coach to provide guidance along the way.
If you're planning on staying in business and want to put the power of the Internet to work for your company, a little coaching may be the best fit for you. To find out click here to explore the program for yourself.
