SEO FAQs
Small Business Owner Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To follow are 7 of the top FAQs that I have been asked by business owners while teaching my SEO classes. Chapter 8 of the book version of The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization includes many more FAQs and the 2-disc DVD Learning Series includes over 40 questions (1 has been included here).
Q1: Is investing my time toward SEO really worth it? What are some typical results that will benefit my site?
A1: Excellent question, because if the results are insignificant, you would be better off investing your time and cash toward other areas of your business. If your site is not currently optimized, and you implement the 15-step process that I teach in this book, it is highly likely you will realize the following two primary benefits:
- Dramatically improved rankings in 30 days or less
- Doubling of your Web site’s monthly unique visitors within 90-days or les
And, if you purchased the companion DVD to this book, you already know that I will guarantee these results with my 110% money back guarantee. How is that for an awesome return on investment?
Oh, I recommend that you take a baseline measurement of your current traffic statistics before you begin the optimization process, so you can compare before and after results. Simply make a note of the month, day, and year you upload your first batch of optimized content pages/files so you can compare the number of monthly unique visitors before and after optimization. For example, if your Web site attracted 1,000 unique visitors in June 2009 before optimization, you will have this statistic available when you evaluate July’s results using optimized content.
Q2: How much time does it take to optimize one page of content?
A2: It is important to recognize that you will not be as efficient in implementing the SEO process when you first begin as you will be once you have about ten pages under your belt. With that said, you will likely need to invest about one and a half to two hours per page of content that you decide to optimize as you build your familiarity with implementing the process.
However, once you move past the learning curve, you will be able to optimize a page of content in an hour or less. Plus, as you develop new content pages, optimization will simply become part of the process, and you will automatically begin writing pre-optimized content. You will no longer write content and then have to go back later to optimize it. Your experience with the process will remove the re-work and subsequent inefficiency.
Q3: My Web site contains about 40 content pages. Do I have to optimize all 40 pages?
A3: No, you do not have to optimize 100 percent of the pages within a Web site, and there are some pages you will never optimize due to their lack of content. For example, I do not recommend attempting to optimize miscellaneous, non-product-or-service-related pages, such as: Contact Us, About Us, and Privacy Policy. So, if your Web site consists of 40 product or services pages, I recommend starting with just 25 percent of the pages — 10 pages, in this instance — as you begin your learning curve for this process.
This will likely take you anywhere between ten and twenty hours to complete, which is obviously a significant chunk of time. However, ten optimized pages are enough to provide you with some significant results. Plus, once you see what those ten optimized pages can do for you, I suspect you will be motivated to optimize your remaining pages, as well as add new pages. The key is to get started. The efficiencies will follow along with the results.
Q4: How much time will I need to devote toward SEO every month, or can I just optimize the content and then forget about it?
A4: SEO is an ongoing process in order to generate the best results. For example, let us say you optimize a page of content, and then Google ranks it in the Top 10. If you are good enough to get into the Top 10, I suspect you could work your way into the Top 5. You may need to add another paragraph or two of optimized content to your Top 10 page. Or, you may need to build the number of inbound links to your Web site through additional partnerships or distributing articles. I cover all of this during Step 15 of the process, and it is not as complicated as it might initially seem.
To sum up, there are ongoing adjustments you can make to ensure your pages are ranked as high as possible, but there is obviously a trade-off between investing time into SEO and other aspects of your business. Perhaps a Top 10 ranking is good enough.
Q5: At what point does it make sense for me to outsource the SEO work to an experienced vendor?
A5: I recommend optimizing several pages yourself so that you can get over the learning curve of doing the work yourself. Plus, having this knowledge will make you a more informed consumer when/if you decide to meet with vendors. You will not feel intimidated if they start throwing terminology and processes around in an attempt to impress you.
I have developed some rules of thumb, or thresholds, for business owners to consider as they decide when to keep SEO in-house or when to outsource:
- Five to ten optimized pages will likely require about five to ten hours per month for you to manage properly, and can probably be done easily in-house.
- Ten to fifteen optimized pages will likely require about ten to fifteen hours per month to manage properly, so you may want to begin interviewing potential SEO vendors for future projects.
- Twenty or more optimized pages will likely require about twenty hours per month to manage properly, so I recommend outsourcing at this level. You will have developed a significant amount of SEO experience at this point and will have become an educated consumer. Plus, off-loading 20 hours of monthly work to an experienced SEO vendor will be a boost to your personal productivity.
Q6: How much do SEO vendors typically charge to optimize a small business Web site?
A6: Prices tend to range from $500 to $1,500 per month for high-quality SEO work. The range is driven by the number of pages being managed each month, at a rate of about $75 to $100 per hour. Most SEO vendors will charge a set-up fee equal to approximately one month of the service plan you decide to contract. The vendor will likely optimize the selected pages during the setup process and then manage the pages throughout the remainder of the contract period. Plus, quality SEO vendors often perform some amount of link building work as part of their monthly fee.
Q7: Can investing time toward SEO boost my site traffic to the point where I can reduce my online advertising spending?
A7: Yes, SEO can have that benefit. When I was in the private sector, I consulted with a dot com business owner who had increased his monthly gross revenues from an average of $10,000 to $100,000 per month within just 30 days when he decided to launch a Google AdWords campaign. I was stunned. However, the Google AdWords campaign was costing him about $2,000 per month. He wanted to see whether we could use SEO to help boost unique visitors to the point where he could reduce the amount he paid out to AdWords. I was able to score him several #1 rankings in Google, along with a bunch of Top 10 rankings. As a result, unique visitors increased. However, he never scaled back on the advertising spend because he was afraid of disrupting his revenue stream. I cannot say that I blame him. He had developed a highly profitable business model.
With that said, say your Web site is receiving on average about 5,000 unique visitors per month due to a Google AdWords campaign. Then you decide to implement SEO without making any adjustments to AdWords. Over the course of 90 days or so, you notice your unique visitors increase from 5,000 per month to 8,000 or even 10,000 per month. Theoretically, you could reduce your AdWords expense significantly, or perhaps eliminate it altogether, which would bring monthly visitors back to 5,000. However, I think most business owners in this situation would likely leave things alone and enjoy all the benefits of 10,000 unique visitors.
