A common question I get from small and medium sized business owners is just how much they should be spending on search engine optimization. The reality is that your SEO efforts should be based on the number of websites you're trying to improve rankings for as well as the number of keywords you are managing. Regardless of the number, search engine optimization requires time and effort. Whether you are focusing on search engine optimization or pay-per-click marketing, you must make an investment in time, resources, and dollars to achieve you goal.

Often times search engine optimization is compared to PPC. This is an unfair comparison because pay per click marketing has an immediate and direct cost. The costs associated with SEO are more indirect but just as expensive. Consider you time, effort, and work associated with any optimization effort. The costs involved with search engine optimization come in when resources are needed to analyze your web site from an SEO perspective. You may also spend a great deal of time doing keyword research and analyzing your competitors. In each of these scenarios, you are either paying a professional to do the work for you or spending your valuable time managing these tasks. As a result, you are spending money.

Even if you are managing a project by yourself, you are experiencing costs. What is your hourly rate in terms of dollars? What is your time worth? These factors should be part of your cost calculation. Be sure to calculate the value of your time and the time spent by others on your team who are focused on SEO related efforts. Each of us can calculate our value by taking an annual salary and dividing it by two thousand hours. This is based on working for a full, 40 hours per week. How much is your time worth? Consider this factor before determining the true cost of your search engine optimization efforts.

After doing the initial review of your website and determining the SEO to do list, your effort will be spend on the particulars of optimizing your site. This is time consuming and requires a great deal of effort. You can decide to do this work on your own or outsource this work to a third party of search engine optimization firm. You must first determine your cost of doing the work and the opportunity cost associated with other activities. Spend wisely because time is the one thing you cannot get back. Consider the expense associated with having someone else perform specific SEO related tasks. One of the best ways to save money is through prioritization. There are a variety of software applications that can help you make the most of your search engine optimization.

It's essential to know which tasks can help you achieve specific outcomes and find the most cost affective way to complete them. Once you've prioritized your to do list, consider the expense of software, your own time, or a third party in getting the work done. You want to find the most cost effective solution to complete your search engine work.

The practice of SEO is not free. In fact, when you consider all of the time, resources, and money spent on SEO, you might be surprised at the dollars required. This is because the resources needed for an effective search engine optimization campaign can add up. Online resources, online tools, your time and the time of others committed to your search engine efforts can be significant. Consider all of your options before investing in SEO. Spend your time and money wisely and only pay for results.

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