SEO for $50/month or less?
April 07, 2010The reality for most small businesses is that quality SEO service is usually outside of their budget range. We’re often approached by customers who aren’t sure what to expect to pay for an SEO campaign. Many think that SEO, PPC, and social networking are simply add-ons to their existing website. Unfortunately, we have to turn down a number of prospective clients who do not have the budget to properly execute an effective SEO campaign.
Yesterday, Techcrunch announced the launch of DIYSEO.com, a low-cost SEO solution for small businesses.
The product is primarily targeted towards small businesses who have little resources to put towards the web, including real estate agents, small car dealers, restaurants, lawyers and part-time entrepreneurs. Offered at $49 a month, the program first has the users fill out a questionnaire, answering questions about the nature of their businesses, who their major competitors are, and more. From these answers, DIYSEO will recommend keywords, where to add links on the web, and other search engine optimization techniques. Users can choose basic strategies or more in-depth SEO services.
The site is geared towards small business owners who have no knowledge of SEO best practices, Meta tags, anchor text, or link building. The tools they provide have drop dead simple instructions so even the most novice website publisher can optimize their site themselves.
The site essentially provides what we teach in our consulting sessions, a detailed explanation of the SEO tactics we use, as well as tutorial on best practices and a link building strategy. The site also provides a way to track your progress as you complete each SEO task.
All of this sounds great. Any SEO is better than no SEO. But can this service really deliver? The most important part of SEO, link building, takes time and diligence to be executed properly. If you’re operating in a market that has significant competition, how will you outrank other sites that are optimized just as well as yours? In a year or two the market will become flooded with services like DIYSEO, and when that happens, those services will become less and less relevant as everyone will have completed basic optimization techniques. As much as this sounds like a good idea, I’m skeptical this type of service will have any significant impact for businesses that really need it.
