SEO for small businesses on how to make your budget go further
Small businesses will face many challenges over the coming months, as the entire world’s economy recovers from the recent pandemic and the many issues that it caused.
One lesson that we’ve all learned from this global crisis is that digital marketing and SEO are crucial to any company’s survival.
It’s tough to estimate the average cost of SEO, as it depends on a variety of factors. How many tasks you can bring in-house and the providers that you use for outsourced SEO practices can have an effect on the cost of your strategy.
For small businesses, keeping these costs down is paramount, particularly in these trying times. However, getting a service cheaply doesn’t always mean that you’ll get quality support that will benefit your business, so you need to be savvy when you’re cutting your firm’s SEO costs.
To help, here’s a practical guide to making your small business’s SEO budget stretch further and still achieve your firm’s goals.
Make A Plan Before You Start
There are many aspects of SEO. From blog content writing through to link building, optimising your landing page content to adjusting technical aspects of your website; the practice of optimising your site for search has many facets. As such, it can be tough for business leaders to know where to start. That’s why you need to set SEO targets and then work out what you need to do to achieve them. It would help if you then worked out what techniques will help you to achieve your goals and then how many of them you can undertake in-house. Then you can review service providers to find outsourced SEO agencies that can help lighten the load.
Choose Flexible Service Providers
When buying SEO services for your business, such as content writing, link building and website audits, you need to make sure that you get exactly what you need. That means finding flexible service providers that offer unique, customisable packages that you can tailor to suit your business’s needs. If for instance you build a package with UK Linkology, then you’ll be able to create custom backlinks that will match the exact budget you’re working to. By using custom services like this, you can control exactly what you purchase.
Review Subscriptions Regularly
A lot of online SEO solutions, such as keyword trackers, auditing solutions and content optimisation tools, charge users a subscription fee each month. Usually, you can cancel at any time and aren’t tied to a contract. However, you need to cancel your subscription, and if you don’t then you will be charged whether you use the tool or not. It’s easy to take on free trials or pay for an initial month’s subscription, then forget about it and never use the tool again. As the money’s still coming out of your account, you’re still paying for the product whether you use the tool, and the provider won’t remind you about your subscription. So, you should review all of the subscriptions and make sure that you make the most of them, and if not, then you should cancel them to ensure that you don’t waste your precious SEO budget.
Check Out Free Resources
Many SEO service providers and industry experts provide free resources, such as webinars, blog posts, whitepapers, podcasts, vlogs and more. These free SEO resources help them to strengthen their own SEO, showcase their expertise and even funnel potential customers through their sales process. If you’re looking to improve your small business’s search engine rankings without spending a lot of money, then check out the free resources available to you and use all of the ones that will benefit your business. Make sure that you’re careful and don’t accidentally sign up for any paid services without checking that you need and want them.
Split The Tasks Between Team Members
With any in-house SEO tasks, you need to make sure that you spread them between your team members. If one skilled member of your team is handling a lot of your business’s SEO, then they won’t be able to use their expertise properly. Spreading the load will allow your staff to do the work that you hired them for, as well as supporting your SEO strategy. That will mean that everyone can use their skills to their best advantage and won’t have to spend too much time on these small tasks. If you’re taking on a lot of your SEO in-house, then you might want to consider hiring an expert to cover these tasks or think about outsourcing more of your strategy.
Leverage Free Advertising Platforms
There are many free platforms, such as social media, that can help you to promote your website cheaply. Most social media platforms offer free business accounts, with the option to pay for additional advertising. So, if you want to save money on your digital advertising and drive traffic to your website, you should leverage social media accounts and make the most of them by publishing on them regularly. This might sound time-consuming, but by using your website’s blog and sharing popular memes and quick commentary, you can bolster your business’s online presence without spending a lot of money. You’ll also be able to engage with a wider audience and potentially generate leads for your company.
Explore New Opportunities And Tools
SEO is fast-paced and there’s always something shiny and new out there to help businesses to improve their rankings. If you want to keep making the most out of your budget, then you need to make sure that you check out every offering, both free and paid for, and that you choose the right tools, services and solutions for your company. Set a time every year or half-year to audit your site, check that your website is achieving your goals and then review the new ways that you can improve your site’s SEO. Stay focused on learning about SEO, as the industry changes regularly and new solutions could benefit your organisation in the future.