How Much Should You Budget for SEO Services?

The internet is a crowded marketplace, with millions of websites vying for the attention of consumers and visitors. A key digital marketing tactic to attract visitors is SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, as businesses do everything they can to rank and appear in the top spot – or very near – on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). 

In Q1 2023 alone, ad spend by businesses has increased by 8.2% overall; a marked increase in Q4 2022 of 6%. For marketers managing their annual budgets, SEO is a major priority. In fact, 61% of marketers say SEO is top of the list. 

 

But why is SEO so important to businesses these days and why should you allocate money towards it? With so many consumers heading online to search for goods and services, even if they do finally buy in-store, your website is your new digital shop window. But you need to make sure your ‘shop window’ is visible to drive traffic to your business. 

 

The advantage of spending money on SEO tactics is that businesses can maximise their spend by targeting their ideal audience, at the right time. It avoids wasting time and money on broad marketing campaigns that don’t hit the right people. Whether it’s SEO or local SEO, your budget is more likely to generate more conversions, and ROI (Return on Investment). 

So, before we talk about how much of your budget to allocate to SEO, let’s talk about why you should be focusing on SEO in the first place. If you’re wondering why search engine ranking matters, websites in position one on Google get 81.5% more clicks than position two. Indeed, 69% of digital traffic is generated from local and organic searches. 

 

Now you’ve got your head around these statistics, here are the top five benefits of SEO for your business: 

 

Unlike online advertising, SEO results won’t be immediate. It takes time so you’ll need to commit to an ongoing SEO strategy. It’s a long-term activity that needs to be monitored and managed. Google determines that generally, you need to allow at least four months, if not a year, to see the benefits of your SEO activity. 

But before you start thinking about money, you first need to decide on your goals; what you want to achieve from SEO. Make sure they are measurable and achievable or you’ll soon lose faith in SEO. Some goals to consider are: 

 

 

Look at your competitors and compare how your website and online presence is against theirs. For example, do they have more backlinks than you? How does their content differ from yours? Does your website architecture stack up against theirs? 

Once you have your goals and a strategy set out, you can start to plan your SEO campaign. Don’t try to meet all of Google’s ranking criteria. There are more than 200 – and probably more to come – so it’s almost impossible to achieve that. So, there are three main SEO areas you can focus on and still see great results. They are: 

 

So, to get back to how much to spend on SEO, it largely depends on whether you’re hiring a company to manage your SEO on your behalf or are handling it in-house. Budget essentially comes down to what you can afford and what you hope to achieve, particularly as your monthly spend will be over a period of six months to a year, and probably beyond. On average, most businesses spend between £400 and £1,000 a month but if you can’t afford this, you can still get the results you want on a smaller budget. 

At it’seeze, our network of website consultants throughout the UK and Ireland are skilled at designing and developing websites that are fully optimised and effective, delivering a great customer experience online, as well as helping to generate enquiries as well as sales. Our new SEO Manager will make optimising your website easy and affordable. Get in touch with us today to start your it’seeze journey.