Small Business SEO: Can You Really Afford It?
Let’s face it, when you look at it on paper, SEO is an expensive endeavor. Whether you do it yourself, use the services of a consultant, or hire someone else to do it for you, the cost can be overwhelming.
In fact, some SEO experts charge as much as $500-$1000 per hour. It is such an involved process that the price tag is understandably pretty significant. As a small business owner, you have to decide whether search engine optimization is worth the expense.
Can you afford to invest in SEO services? Can you afford not to? The key to affordable SEO is an efficient balance of necessities, time, and budget. Here are three things to consider as you decide whether SEO is right for your small business.
Necessities of SEO
Search engine optimization is a huge process, but not every component of SEO is necessary for every campaign. It’s no secret that the most fruitful campaigns utilize every type of marketing available, but doing everything doesn’t necessarily equal success. If you make sure that you’re doing the right things at the right time, then you can save time and effort while still creating a successful campaign.
Time to Invest in SEO
Time is the single most important aspect of SEO. It’s simply a time-consuming process. If you’re not spending your own time doing it then you’re paying someone else for their time. Because time is your most valuable resource, one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make is which projects you’ll take on first. Prioritizing your tasks will help you make good use of your valuable time. Tackle your top-priority tasks first and save the less-important ones for later.
As you consider your use of time, also keep in mind that SEO is part waiting game. Anytime you think about Organic search engine optimization, you have to remember that SEO results take a significant amount of time to show up online. Make sure you understand just how long it might take and how it will affect your business. Depending on the industry and the competition, better rankings take 4-6 months
SEO Budget
This is the primary factor in determining whether you’ll spend your own time doing SEO or hire someone else for the use of their time. But don’t let budget be your only consideration. Also keep in mind the value added when a professional takes care of your web optimization tasks. Determine the value added by an SEO professional by considering the quality of work and the potential of the search engine optimization work to get results for your business, however, more money doesn’t always guarantee a better product. On the other hand, remember that you often get what you pay for.
You can only determine the true cost of SEO by looking at your return on investment. Remember that the true value of search engine optimization is greater than the sum of its parts. Even a small increase in time, money, and energy invested can net huge results. By investing whatever you can, whenever you can, and wherever you can, you can potentially see a big difference in your business’s success. Reinvesting your returns can lead to even more success, and SEO suddenly doesn’t look so expensive anymore.
The Cost of Doing it Wrong (Doing it Yourself)
And while it may be tempting to do SEO yourself, small business owners should especially consider hiring an internet marketing agency or search engine optimization expert. Small businesses are already at a disadvantage when it comes to SEO simply because of size and budget.
Don’t risk putting yourself at an even greater disadvantage by doing it wrong or by inadvertently utilizing tactics that could harm your ranking or even get you banned by search engines like Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Even if you choose not to hire an SEO expert to take care of all of your optimization tasks, consider hiring a consultant to check the work you’ve done. This is a good way to keep careless mistakes from happening over and over again.
Seomul Evans
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/small-business-seo-can-you-really-afford-it-681823.html
Does a $3k tax credit really help a small business if it can’t afford to hire anyone after being taxed …?
for making over $250k in operating expenses?
yes it does
answer mine
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgPhYE4VrEVgmvCJagpaimnsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081013130408AAnDDLn
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A very small percentage of small business owners make over $250,000 in a year
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WEll considering the other tax incentives you’ve chosen to IGNORE in Senator Obama’s plan yes, besides a few slight adjustments, oh I don’t know, like maybe giving a couple of small pay raises and guess what, you’re making 248,000 again and out of the tax genius
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no it does not
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how do you make operating expenses?
its revenue, that is the word your searching for…and no, that isn’t what a business is taxed on. Its on profits/income, especially small businesses (I own one).
Very few small businesses bring in more than 250K in profits.
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No and honestly, I don’t think anyone will see a major change credit and cut wise in their taxes, no matter what is promised to us and businesses. Especially while we are now funding the bailout on top of everything else.
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Payroll and other employee costs are operating expenses
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No. An employer is going to create a job if they need it and afford it. If they don’t need it or can’t afford it, they still won’t create the job position. A 3K tax credit isn’t going to do anything for that…they’re going to need a lot more than 3K to pay the new person for the job they are going to do.
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Where do the "small Businesses" buy their supplies…insurance…credit? from BIG businesses…DUH!…who will pass on the increased taxes to their customers who happen to be small businesses. McCain/Palin 08
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Yes I believe that it does, and you own a small business not a huge retail store, why not go in and work it yourself or maybe have your children come in after school to help you work the counter. Yep you may have to do a little bit more work for your money but I feel that it is more about treating people equal, and what makes it right for small business owners to sit at home and let others run their business for them.
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No, and when he continues to lie and say he’ll lift capital gains taxes off of small business, it’s a lie. There are no capital gains taxes on small business.
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H mom of 3, I kinda see what you are saying but, what makes it right for a small business to have someone else run it for you is just that. Another person with a job making money to support their family. The more people are working the more the economy grows. And I dare say the the majority of small business owners want their businesses to grow not get smaller. In order to grow you have to expand which means more employees.
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It is basically welfare. Bottom line, this is how it’s going to be, currently, the top 5% of the populaton is paying for 45% of the taxes, while in contrary, the bottom 50% of the population is paying 10% of the taxes, which basically means the real middle class people are the remaining 45% of the population who is paying for the remaining of the 45% of the taxes. So if you have a job and go to work and pay taxes, you are in this 45%, so do the math, 50% of the population are currently leaching off you by relying on welfare and “refundable tax credits”… Obama’s plan is to increase those tax credit, so now 50% of the population will be paying even less than 10% of the total taxes. When you threaten to slap the hands of the 5% of the population who are currently feeding this nation, they are all strategically planning to move their income elsewhere already, trust me, it’s doable, my client is within that 5% and we could help him cut his taxes by more than half by moving it oversea… If all 5% of those people are doing the same planning, now, you’ll get 5% paying 20% of the taxes, 50% paying 5% of the taxes, where do you think the differences will come from to make up for it? Obama might promise the middle class will not see an “income” tax increase, but he is planning to increase social security (fica) tax instead, the difference is coming from somewhere, trust me, he cannot crap out gold, so under the democrat politic, rob the hard working people, the 45% of the people who go to work and pay taxes to help the lazy and the welfare who sit at home watching jerry springer and popping out kids… So ask yourself, if you are within the 45%, is it hard to get a job that you currently have? What does it take to be where you are? 50% of the population is currently think it’s too much and they rather sit home and leach off of welfare… I rest my case…
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I’m an International Tax Planner