SEO Report – Budgeting in 2011

With the economy still struggling, and everything becoming expensive, new startups need help managing their budget to ensure success.  Whether it is building a new website, having a logo designed or hiring a professional freelance writer to produce optimized content for our website, every little feature we add costs more today than it did even a year ago.  Even search engine marketing and search engine optimization costs are more expensive due to increasing overhead costs. The overall increase in the cost of SEO is something that has to be taken into account by many webmasters who don’t have the funding to get a perfectly functioning, maximum optimization website up inside of a month.

Some website owners think twice before hiring an SEO company or even a freelancer to implement SEO for their company. The thing to remember is that SEO is an on going process. There are several phases in SEO. Certain phases follow a natural timeline while others can be handled chunks at opportune moments. You have to think ahead and focus on segmenting these phases and implementing them in  such a way that your funds are spent in a steady flow instead of blowing your budget at the very beginning. Decide what the priorities are and do those first, then build on a solid foundation.

While spending a bulk amount of money at one go is to be avoided, be aware that initially you may have to pay up for the setup costs followed by monthly maintenance and continued optimization and fees. You will also be required to spend a considerable amount of money on link building, but once your initial links are set, new ones can be built on an ongoing basis and as you emphasize social media others will begin to link to you.

One advantage of a phased approach is that it will  make your efforts look more natural. Link building in particular should be accomplished in several phases. Rather than buying a 10,000 links package, you can phase in slowly at 1,000 links per month. This will leave funds with you instead of being locked in. You can simply spread the cost out over time. A sudden hike in your links count is not good for your website anyway.

Similarly, you can channel funds slowly into your website updates. Instead of adding some five hundred articles in a single month, space it out over a period of two to three months with a few pages added each day.  This will make it look that your website is regularly updated with fresh content, which the search engines respect. Simultaneously, you will be benefiting in that you will also be spending only small amounts from your budget each month on each type of SEO.  Since SEO is ongoing, it is best to get used to the idea that you will always be spending a certain percentage of your profits on SEO.

You can also reduce your SEO budget a great deal by finding an SEO service provider that is capable of delivering results on a consistent basis, or your SEO spending will only increase month after month without seeing any tangible results. Your SEO service provider should also offer their services at competitive prices. Check out SubmitEdge for our all inclusive SEO packages!