Why is search engine optimization (SEO) so expensive?

One of the questions our firm often gets asked a lot is, “Why does SEO cost so much?” In reality, SEO is perhaps “the” most cost-effective online marketing strategy you can undertake.

Search engine optimization really is the most cost effective form of website advertising with:

• A low cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
• And a much higher return on investment (ROI)

Studies have shown that dollar for dollar, without a doubt SEO is the best form of advertising… online and offline.!

SEO Is Proactive – The customer is actively looking for the products and services you provide.

Traditional Advertising Is Passive – You are hoping to spark someone’s interest and get them thinking about buying your products and services.

“Why does SEO cost so much” is really the wrong question to ask. Compared with other forms of advertising, website promotion/ Internet marketing accomplished through search engine optimization is very inexpensive. Think about how much your business spends on television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and yellow pages ads. If you break these costs down on a monthly basis, SEO would cost the least and deliver better results. 

To test this, 1st on the List looked into advertising in a couple of national US magazines as well as newspapers, yellow pages, and radio spots in some major Canadian cities. The following table represents the average cost per month for each.

It is difficult to provide precise numbers because there are so many different variables that can come into play. What we tried to do was keep the variables as consistent as possible from one medium to the next.

Magazine Ads in the business magazines were the most expensive but they provided the greatest audience reach (next to SEO) and because the size of the ad was larger than the newspaper and yellow pages ad.

Radio Ads came in as the next most expensive. We asked to run a 30-second commercial that would be aired 60-times in a month (the recommended number of airings was 100).

Newspapers Ads came in third only because the frequency option we selected was one ad appearing once per-week (Saturday issue) and because the size of the ad was fairly small.

Yellow Page Ads came in around the same cost as SEO, but what good is a yellow pages ad to an online business?

SEO on the other hand, had one of the lowest costs, and provided the greatest audience coverage with 24×7 exposure.

Which of these forms are you currently using? How effective have they been? Do your own research and see what you come up with. Because of the variables, your numbers will be different than ours, but when you break them down to measure the overall costs (CPA, ROI)… the majority of you will see that hands down, search engine optimization is the best option.

Instead of “Why does SEO cost so much?” you might want to rephrase the question to “How can I take advantage of SEO for my Business?”

It doesn’t matter what form of advertising you are using… for online success, SEO really is the most cost effective and efficient way to promote your business. That’s why search engine optimization is gaining in popularity with everyone from small one-person operations to large, multi-national Fortune 500 companies.

SEO lets you target your message to the right people at exactly the right time… when they are looking to buy… at a fraction of the cost of other advertising media and a better ROI.

Read this Moz.com post on SEO Trends for 2020.

Let us show you how your website can benefit from highly successful, proven website promotion and search engine optimization strategies, please email [email protected] or call us toll-free at 1-888-262-6687.

Carissa Krause

Carissa Krause is a Digital Marketing and Project Specialist at 1st on the List. Over the last 12+ years she has worked in our Abbotsford office with clients on a wide range of projects that include areas like local SEO, project reporting, backlink profile review, content development, strategic planning, and more. Whatever the project may be Carissa focuses on achieving greater efficiencies and putting plans into action. When away from her desk you’ll likely find her drinking all the coffee while sitting on the floor driving cars with her two young boys. Learn more about Carissa.

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