Search Engine Optimization Can Save You Money
The importance of SEO for today’s businesses is huge, so they tend to spend quite a lot of money on it. It’s a good investment too since there’s no better way to promote your business online than through great search engine optimization. However, investing in SEO can actually save you quite a lot of money. In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the SEO practices you should be using if you’re looking to save money.
Get to Know Your Online Market and Target a Specific Niche
Read customer reviews and feedback in order to get an insight into other businesses. Staying on top of your competition is really important because you’ll want to stand out and target a more specific niche than them. While marketers usually go with a broader audience, they’re also spending more in order to achieve it. By choosing a specific niche, you’ll not only become more relevant, but you’ll also be using less funds to get there. It’s vital to understand your online market for any SEO steps you’re going to take.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important things when it comes to SEO. Traffic estimates for each keyword will let you make the best out of your resources. Always try to focus on keywords that have lowest possible competition (but still enough traffic), or you’ll be competing with hundreds of thousands of websites for top ranking phrases. And that’s not all because good keyword research will also reveal negative keywords which can save you a ton of money once you start your keyword advertising campaign.
High-Quality Content
Having a blog is great and can help you bring more visitors to your website. However, even if you don’t want to start a blog, you should always try and publish some of your own quality content on a regular basis. Content marketing is the real deal in today’s world and you don’t want to be missing out on it. Try not to overwhelm your users though, find the right balance and stick with it. Oh, and keep in mind that content doesn’t have to be a wall of text. Images and videos are content as well, and they’re way easier to digest. Just remember to insert your keywords in their titles and descriptions and you’re good to go.
Responsive Website Design
When Google updated its algorithms back in 2015, websites that weren’t mobile-friendly quickly felt a drop in SERPs for mobile users. It’s only natural that Google wants only mobile-friendly websites to show up in search results on mobile devices, so you just can’t afford not to go with it. More than 60% of all searches today are done through mobile devices. This is exactly the reason why responsive web design is important, plus you won’t have to link to two separate URLs and ruin your traction. Having two separate websites for both platforms will cost you more and have lousier results, so it shouldn’t even be a consideration.
Social Media Channels
If you’re just starting out or running a small business, you should consider focusing on one social media platform that goes best with your business. This will not only save you time and money, but you’ll also get the chance to test the campaign before starting an offensive on all the platforms. Being social media friendly is of absolute importance today, so it’s no wonder every reputable SEO agency recommends it as a way for increasing your traffic and boosting your reputation. Once you’re proficient at the platform you started on and got a sense of how you want to be running things, you can then start channels on other platforms – one at a time.
Always Aim for Quality over Quantity
Today, SEO is all about user experience. If the users are happy with your website design, speed, and content – it’s likely that your rankings will improve. One killer blog post is worth more than twenty average ones, and same goes for quality inbound links over low-authority ones. Producing quality content is difficult though, and it takes time and money, but in the long run, it’s far cheaper simply because it’s immeasurably more successful.
Conclusion
Saving money doesn’t necessarily mean you should be going with cheaper options. It’s all about investment vs. returns ratio, so consider that when you’re pulling your SEO moves. You could be investing very little in something that won’t improve your rankings at all and if that’s the case you’re just wasting money. Over time, you’re bound to learn what works for you and your business and you’ll be able to adapt your SEO strategy and allocate your funds more efficiently. Just remember that investing smartly in SEO is probably going to pay-off in the future.
