If you’ve decided that SEO is suitable for your business and you’re ready to add an SEO campaign to your digital marketing strategy, you’re probably wondering “how much of my budget do I allocate to SEO?”. With organic searches being responsible for 53% of all trackable website traffic, having a budget for SEO is a wise investment in the future of your business that can have long-term effects. SEO is a cost-effective strategy with a great ROI, but it can be tricky to figure out how much of your revenue should go toward your SEO budget.
Why Do I Need A Budget For SEO?
An SEO strategy has many moving parts that work together to improve organic search results. But organic doesn’t mean results “just happen”. Search engine optimisation requires commitment and consistent attention and analysis from your SEO agency to get the best results. Setting an SEO budget is the best way to make sure your SEO strategy isn’t lacking and has everything it needs to achieve your business goals.
What Will Affect My SEO Budget?
There will be a few factors to consider that will affect the amount of money you allocate towards your SEO budget. Your revenue and your competitors will affect your SEO marketing budget and how you choose to spend it so it’s worth thinking about these aspects separately.
Your Revenue Will Affect Your SEO Budget
Just like all budgets, the amount of money you set aside for your SEO budget will depend on what your business can afford. You’ll need to consider how much money your business turns over monthly and how much you’re willing to spend on search engine optimization. Thankfully SEO budgets are flexible and can be easily adjusted to reflect your needs.
It’s also important to consider your current digital marketing efforts and how they might affect your business. Is your current digital marketing strategy working effectively? Can your current marketing budget be spent more efficiently? Depending on your type of business, transferring parts of your digital marketing budget into your SEO budget could prove beneficial if you are looking to achieve long-term results.
While PPC (Pay-Per-Click) delivers very quick, positive results, the ads stop when your PPC budget is spent. The beauty of SEO is that it continues to positively impact your website long after the first changes are made so it’s often beneficial to combine both types of digital marketing.
Your Competition Will Affect Your SEO Budget
It’s useful to do your homework about your competitors when creating your SEO budget. When your hire an agency to execute your SEO campaign, they’ll get to work at investigating your competitors buy conducting a competitor analysis. The competitor analysis will reveal which keywords your competition are using and how well they rank on google for them. The complete investigation will highlight any gaps between you and your competition and your SEO budget will determine how quickly you can match and surpass your competitors efforts. You’ll find out how often they post content and what content appeals to your shared audience. Your budget will pay for the time and effort needed to complete elements of your SEO strategy like keyword research, on-page SEO and any other types of search engine optimisation you’ll need to stay ahead of your competitors.
Being in a highly competitive market will also mean spending more on your SEO budget to stand out from the crowd. Outranking your competition requires a consistent approach in your SEO efforts with regular reviews and analysis. It’ll take time and effort to see results so you’ll need to budget for that. Additionally, if your business fits into a niche where your competitors are websites with greater authority, you’ll need to increase your SEO spend. Government websites, news agencies and information-driven sites may have greater authority with Google and have created more EAT trust. EAT trust refers to the amount of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness your website possesses in the eyes of Google. If Google views the content of your website and considers it to be reliable, accurate and written from an expert’s point of view, this will increase your EAT rating.
The length of time you’ve been in business may also affect how much you’ll spend on SEO. If you’re a new company or you’ve recently changed your domain name, you’ll need to increase your SEO spending to catch up. Businesses that have practiced effective and consistent SEO for a long time can benefit from the longevity of SEO and they may have a head start when it comes to improving rankings on Google. As well as helping you to rank on Google and build EAT trust, your increased SEO budget will help you build brand awareness, which is essential when improving your online presence.
What Will My SEO Budget Be Spent On?
When you hire a digital marketing agency to handle your SEO budget, you can tailor the services to suit your needs. You may need a combination of SEO services or just one, it will all depend on the results you are aiming for. SEO services include:
- SEO content writing – Your search engine marketers can create unique, SEO-driven written content for your website in the form of blog posts, articles, product descriptions and landing pages that will satisfy the user’s intent and provide value as well as conform to the best practices laid out in Search Quality Rating Guidelines.
- On-page SEO – SEO experts will ensure all elements of on-page SEO are implemented on your website like using appropriate headings, keyword research and creating good URLs, all of which will make your website more visible on search engines.
- Off-Page SEO – Digital marketers will ensure that off-page SEO techniques like creating quality backlinks and increasing social media shares are being used effectively to build your brand awareness.
- Technical SEO – Improving the page speed of your website, creating a site map and making sure your site is mobile-friendly will greatly improve the user experience on your website.
- Analytics – A reputable digital marketing agency will provide monthly analytical reports so you can see how effectively your SEO budget is being spent and whether you need to adjust the amount of the services being utilised.
- Agency Fees – Part of your SEO budget will go towards paying the agency for the improvements they make. Some digital marketing agencies will charge you by the hour for SEO. You and your SEO marketers will agree on how much time needs to be spent on your website each month and which elements of SEO will be best suited to your business. At SEM Consultants, we offer competitive and flexible monthly SEO packages that are customised to meet your goal objectives. Each month we provide a detailed analysis of how our SEO efforts have affected the organic traffic to your website.
How Much Should I Spend on SEO?
As an experienced digital marketing company, we recommend spending between 5% and 10% of your revenue towards your SEO budget. With a budget of 5% being the bare minimum and 10% on the higher end of the scale, the amount you choose to spend will depend on how much money your business turns over. For example, a small business with an annual revenue of £200,000 would spend just over £800 per month if it used 5% of its budget on SEO.
How quickly you expect to see results will affect the percentage of revenue used for your SEO budget. If you are playing catch-up with your competitors, for example, you’ll want to make sure your website is full of relevant SEO-friendly content. In this instance, you will benefit from using 10% of your revenue so that your site can be optimised and indexed by Google quicker.
If you’d like some expert advice and support on how to leverage your SEO budget, SEM Consultants provide SEO packages that can be tailored to your business’s needs and objectives. Contact our team of digital marketing experts to find out more about SEO marketing.