Cheap SEO Packages – Are they any good? Most business owners will try a cheap SEO Package at some point, hoping for that magic bullet. Is it money well spent? In search engine optimisation campaigns, what you pay for is what you get. Here are five convincing reasons why you should avoid cheap SEO packages.
Even in the digital era, few marketing tactics divide opinion as much as SEO.
The 3 types of service in SEO – Good, Fast & Cheap
Good, Fast, and Cheap – You can pick only 2…
- Good & Fast – won’t be cheap
- Good & Cheap – won’t be fast
- Fast & Cheap – won’t be good
When you begin to understand what goes into a typical professional SEO campaign run by a team with know-how, experience, and a proven track record, you will realise that attempting an effective SEO Campaign on too low a budget is never worthwhile.
Most business owners have opted for an SEO Campaign at one time or other. Cheap SEO packages tempt many and, after several months, most are unimpressed with the return on investment.
SEO is perhaps more crucial in today’s competitive internet economy than ever.
The secret is in your budget, as well as an ability to discern effective SEO services from those that are simply inexpensive or easily available.
We’ll go over this in more detail below, as well as highlight the primary reasons to avoid SEO solutions touted as ‘cheap’ or ‘fast win.’
SEO and Its Importance
Let’s begin by assessing the significance of SEO, which remains the single most successful marketing method for increasing web traffic.
However, the process is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in highly competitive industries where many brands compete for a viable market share.
Companies that invest in high-quality SEO and achieve consistently high rankings will have a competitive edge over their competitors. Businesses who opt for Cheap SEO Packages will invariably waste budget.
This brings us to the shifting nature of client behaviour, which has transformed significantly as the web has grown exponentially. Buyers are increasingly likely to research, reference, and purchase items online, using the web and its capabilities to find critical information such as comparable pricing and availability.
Statistics show that there are more than 3.5 billion searches every day on Google alone. As a result, firms that rank high in Google’s organic search results for important keywords and phrases are in an excellent position to educate customers and compete for their business, all while laying the groundwork for a long-term relationship.
Why You Should Avoid Cheap SEO Packages
With these considerations in mind, it’s difficult to argue against the relevance or success of high-quality SEO in the digital age.
In fact, the continued emergence of tech-savvy millennials as the dominant consumer demographic (who accounted for 54 percent of all online purchases in 2017) will only serve to increase the relevance of digital marketing and SEO in the near term, with this group known for its desire to research products independently and curate their own content.
As previously said, execution is critical if you are to capitalise on such trends and successfully employ SEO on behalf of your brand. This implies you should spend in tailored and high-quality SEO rather than seeking to save money by using a low-cost service with a one-size-fits-all approach.
If you’re still not convinced, consider the following persuasive reasons to avoid inexpensive and economical SEO solutions.
1. Cheap SEO packages cannot meet even basic SEO requirements.
High-quality content, site infrastructure, and backlinks are the three primary drivers of SEO.
As you might anticipate, these three operations also require the most manpower and money, accounting for a sizable portion of your SEO budget.
Even at this stage, the conventional offering of cheap SEO packages begins to lose credibility. This is because organisations that provide low-cost services do so because they lack funding, which prevents them from producing high-quality, long-form content or securing guest post placement on high-authority sites.
Long-form content must be well-structured and exceedingly instructive, and it takes a tremendous amount of expertise and effort to create.
Firms selling cheap SEO packages sometimes utilise software to harvest old internet articles and spin them into “new” pieces, often at the expense of structure and precise language.
Given that this information is a direct representation of your brand and website, it is a behaviour that can seriously harm your reputation.
Not only that, but small businesses typically lack time to do basic link outreach, which often results in the growth of low-quality connections with little value.
This should be avoided at all costs, as building a large number of dubious connections is an outmoded strategy that can actually impair your brand’s online performance in the present day (more on this below).
2. Poor Link Building Doesn’t Move the Needle
When link building became popular as a marketing strategy, there was a strong emphasis on quantity over quality. Simply said, the firms who gained the most connections to their website would receive more favourable organic search results, implying that interesting content and consistent link outreach were unnecessary.
The problem is that while inexpensive SEO firms prefer to deliver such a service today, the nature of link building has altered significantly in response to Google’s ongoing algorithm modifications.
Investing in such a service puts your brand in danger, since Google is increasingly likely to penalise instances of poor quality, bulk link building, as well as the businesses who commission these techniques.
If you find yourself dealing with a company that promises to provide a low-cost SEO solution, they will almost certainly try to sell themselves based on providing many links.
This is meaningless without the necessary quality, as cheap backlink packages are likely to be produced using automated software and subsequently published on low-quality websites with no relevance, trust or authority.
Make no mistake: the most likely outcome of such a campaign is a waste of financial resources, since Google increasingly ignores such links.
However, with such high quantities of activity, your brand may face a Google penalty, which might result in your site being removed entirely from organic search results.
To reverse such a punishment, both time and money are required, thus it is significantly more efficient and cost-effective to just hire a professional SEO service provider in the first place.
3. One Size Certainly Doesn’t Fit All
When it comes to low-cost SEO packages, you’ll most likely discover that companies offer the same alternatives and prices.
This is a clear red signal for seasoned marketers since no two firms are identical, and effective plans must always be personalised to each unique client’s needs, circumstances, and ambitions.
In truth, there are several factors that will decide which package and growth plan is best for you.
These include fundamental aspects such as your budget and the sector in which you operate (as well as its level of competitiveness), as well as your current SEO status and if you’re recovering from a recent punishment or Google penalty.
Similarly, respectable SEO companies will want to understand your company’s structure and emphasis, paying special attention to whether it operates locally, nationally, or internationally.
They’ll also try to evaluate demand for your product or service and seek direction on your primary objectives so they can monitor their own performance and accomplish true outcomes on your behalf.
This sort of detailed fact-finding expedition is essential for effective SEO campaigns since it allows you to optimise your budget and allows service providers to modify their techniques accordingly.
Providers who ask these sorts of questions are also more likely to provide a significantly more effective service, which may help you make an educated selection.
Cheap SEO companies, on the other hand, are just interested in gaining a big volume of clients in order to increase profitability, therefore they will show little interest in your organisation or its primary objectives.
4. You lack the leverage to hold low-cost SEO firms accountable.
The desire of SEO companies that offer cheap SEO packages to emphasise a high volume of business is intriguing, as it results in a simplified business strategy that does not allow for long-term commercial partnerships.
So, not only do most firms offering cheap SEO packages have little interest in the company they represent, but they also face little accountability or fear if they provide subpar service (which they invariably will).
In fact, by the time you’ve become dissatisfied with their service and attempted to end the partnership, they’ll have already recruited other clientele and will be pleased to let you go.
This may be incredibly frustrating for business owners, who must face the potential of wasting financial capital and bearing sole responsibility for this error.
This is in contrast to the traditional corporate partnership, in which both parties have a common goal to nurture long-term engagement and overcome any conflicts that threaten this union.
Remember that if you receive a generic email from an SEO service offering cheap SEO packages, it is likely that this message was sent to every contact in their cheaply acquired database.
This technique is intended exclusively to generate a high volume of business and acquire one-time payments as fast as possible, and it is suggestive of a company that is not interested in long-term partnership or providing any semblance of value for money.
5. Low-cost SEO services cannot provide a long-term strategy.
Patience is said to be a virtue, and this is certainly true when it comes to SEO.
In truth, achieving favourable outcomes with SEO can take a long time, especially in competitive industries or for businesses that Google has previously punished.
Indeed, the early phases of an SEO strategy typically necessitate considerable financial input without providing any type of result, which may be difficult for those new to the technique.
While your organic search results may improve in the short term, it frequently takes much longer to get a coveted spot on Google’s first page in regard to your selected keywords.
Brands that appear prominently on Google’s first page gain the most in terms of traffic quantity and quality; thus seeing actionable results may take considerably longer.
This is another compelling reason to hire trustworthy SEO experts, since such an investment will support a longer-term plan that is more likely to produce results. A professional SEO Campaign will build an identifiable infrastructure for the future with quality content, improved site infrastructure and topically relevant, authoritative backlinks.
Cheap SEO packages, on the other hand, will be unable to produce much more than a basic, short-term strategy with little or no value for money.
What does a Professional SEO Package Entail?
At Augmun we have built up an enviable library of SOPs – Standard Operating Procedures – which we apply to every SEO task for our clients. Our SOPs are based on industry knowledge, accepted best-practice, and lots of testing.
The SEO landscape is constantly changing, our SOPs update in sync.
Whilst every SEO Campaign from Augmun is bespoke; there are some common elements…
- Site Audit – a site audit will identify structural errors and highlight the improvements that can be made to provide an effective infrastructure for SEO. We look at loading times, connections to analytics tools, the user interface and the user experience. This may take a few hours for a small website, or several days or weeks for a large site.
- Content Gap Analysis – a CGA shows us where you relate in comparison to your identified competitors online. Our unique CGA Dashboard identifies keyword research opportunities and helps to structure your Content Plan. Learn more about Content Gap Anaysis.
- Backlink Gap Analysis – a BGA identifies the relevant backlinks that your competitors have that you do not. It also identifies any potentially harmful backlinks to your website.
- Content Plan – a content plan will structure the publication of new posts and pages on your website.
- Backlink Acquisition – we identify and propose the acquisition of relevant and powerful backlinks to your website.
- Digital PR – digital press releases sent regularly will help acquire powerful backlinks and promote your brand’s visibility.
A Professional SEO Agency will also invest in advanced tools which help not only in research but also in reporting progress. Ask your agency which tools they use… Some of the best around at the moment include Semrush, Ahrefs, Sitebulb, Majestic, On-Page, Keyword Insights and more – with subscriptions to these tools often costing an agency thousands of pounds per month.
How much does a Professional SEO Package cost?
There are no one-size fits all packages. At Augmun we have a straightforward approach to pricing. Firstly, we establish exactly where you are right now regarding your online visibility. Secondly, we agree with you on a realistic target based on where you want or need to be. This could be measured in website traffic, sales, enquiries, and/or keyword ranking positions. Only then can we recommend a plan of action and cost our custom SEO packages out accordingly.
As SEO is a mid-to-long-term service, we normally suggest a monthly budget from £1500 upwards to cover the basics.
The Final Word on Cheap SEO Packages
While it’s simple to see the allure of cheap SEO packages in today’s business and economic climate, firms must follow the basic rule of value over cost when choosing an SEO agency.
This is especially true in the case of SEO, where the amount you pay and the sort of service provider you use directly impact the outcomes you may obtain.
This belies the truth that strong and effective SEO should never be cheap, as crucial variables like high-quality content production and authority link outreach take a substantial amount of effort and money.
The points in this piece should persuade you to favour high-quality SEO above cheap SEO packages service providers in the future. This will provide you with access to great service and the sort of long-term results that your company needs while also allowing you to optimise a significant portion of your marketing budget.
Chris Giles Snr built his first client website in 1995 and has remained at the leading edge of web development and SEO ever since. He is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM).
