Paying for professional SEO services can be a tough pill to swallow. I get it. I appreciate the DIY thing as much as anyone else. But my experience in this business affords me the ability to point out that there are legitimate reasons for opting for paid services. Suffice it to say that SEO is not as easy as it appears on the surface.
If you have been doing DIY SEO all along, allow me the opportunity to perhaps broaden your horizons a bit. I will start by saying that paid SEO services are usually better than DIY. Below are some compelling reasons explaining why.
Keyword Research Is a Comprehensive Exercise
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. They always have been and always will be. That being the case, success in the SEO realm rests almost entirely on how an organization conducts keyword research. Appropriate research is not a one-off project. It is a comprehensive exercise that begins on day one and continues for as long as an organization pursues SEO.
Keyword research informs organizations about how they will target customers. It informs decisions regarding on-site content, page optimization, link building, and more. Even negative keywords play a role in SEO success.
Content Is Still King
When I first got into this business some 15 years ago, we had a credo that is still in effect today: content is king. Think about it. The internet is nothing but one large, oversized collection of content. Content is what everybody online is seeking. Why does this matter to SEO? Because SEO and content are intrinsically connected.
A professional SEO agency knows how to create search engine-friendly content that also resonates with website visitors. When you pay for SEO services, you are getting expertly produced content that could include everything from blog posts to videos to infographics and press releases.
What’s Under the Hood Matters
The parts of a website visitors never see (a.k.a., what is under the hood) are just as important to SEO as the clearly visible parts. Making the hidden aspects SEO-friendly is what technical SEO is all about. Furthermore, this is one aspect of SEO that so many DIYers fall down on.
According to Webtek Digital Marketing out of Salt Lake City, UT, DIYers often don’t know how to do the technical stuff. It is understandable. Still, a lack of strong technical skills is good motivation to pay for SEO services.
Success Requires Tracking
Moving on, it’s one thing to learn some SEO basics and employ them the best way you know how. It is an entirely different matter to track the results of your SEO efforts so that you can improve them over time. And just as DIYers tend to fall down on the technical aspects of SEO, they also don’t tend to be very strong in the analytics department.
Analytics in SEO is all about tracking and analyzing data from each campaign. The data tells professional SEO experts a lot. It guides them as they modify existing campaigns and prepares them to develop better campaigns in the future. Without that data, how do you even know that SEO is actually working for you?
You Get What You Pay For
I guess the best way to sum all of this up is to say that you get what you pay for. Unless your business is SEO, going the DIY route is not going to yield the best results. If you want the best SEO has to offer, consider investing in paid services. You have very little to lose but an awful lot to gain.
