I wanted to put this quick post together to outline a few very important factors in SEO from an investment standpoint. First, you have to understand there are two different types of SEO campaigns you can utilize for your website. You have the option of FREE link building and then making use of some paid marketing methods that are very useful. I’ve always tried the FREE approach because it was cost effective but found that to get the results important to you, you’ll need to invest money into your campaign.
I will like to go over a few quick factors that answer the question of how much money an effective SEO campaign really costs.
My Evaluation
Personally, I’ve paid close to $600.00-800.00/mo over the last 2 months building links, writing content, tools, etc. It’s important to note that all my link building is white-hat and I don’t utilize any black-hat techniques that Google frowns on. For those of you NOT aware of black-hat link building, it correspond to any strategies that Google would find manipulative and against Google policy. So, you’re probably wondering where I invested most of this money when optimizing my websites. Here’s a quick breakdown of the costs and what you should be looking to spend going forward.
My Websites
It’s important to note that SEO really starts the second you purchase a domain and hosting. Without both of those elements, you won’t be able to establish an online presence. Currently, I have “5†websites and the total cost to have them online is roughly $60.00/mo.
This number obviously fluctuates as I am always adding websites to my PBN and for personal use. For you, the number will be different because you have your own websites, either 1, or several.
The Tools
Currently, I’m using several tools to track my progress like OpenSiteExplorer.org and SERPFox.com. OpenSiteExplorer.org keeps track of the DA and PA relevant to my websites and others I’m thinking of building links from. SERPfox.com is used for keeping track of my keyword rankings and if they’ve increased or decreased over several months. Obviously, my objective is to see if my SEO efforts are boosting my rankings in the SERP’s. Next,
For my websites, I’m using specific plug-ins to help protect my website. I use SEOPresssor.com as an LSI tool for keyword research when writing content and VaultPress to backup my websites just in case the unfortunate happens where I lose my WordPress files.
Here is a quick breakdown of the costs…
- SEOPressor.com – $5.00
- VaultPress.com -0 $10.00
- SERPfox.com – $10.00
- OpenSiteExplorer.org – $99.00
It’s important to note that these are the tools I find useful and you might disagree so won’t invest in the same tools. Either way, using these tools has helped streamline my link building research.
Writing Content
I make use of FREE and paid article directories that all require unique content. Before continuing, it’s important to note…
I don’t post duplicate content and each submission is made once. I invest a lot of money in writing unique, high quality content. Not to mention, I write close to 10,000/words a week producing content for my websites, guest blogging, etc.
I have an awesome team of content writers who I ONLY use for link building. Guest blogging and personal website content is produced by me. My team writes close to 50 articles a month for link building, all at different rates. With everything included, I spend around $350.00/mo on content writing.
Here are some of the places I hire content writers…
- Freelance.com
- Elance.com
- oDesk.com
Authority Link Building
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about link building and how to effectively use it to boost rankings. I use a combination of PBN’s, link directories, and article directories throughout the month. It’s important to mention that some are FREE, however, several of them do cost money, which makes complete sense. These directories and article websites have a solid reputation and are moderated regularly. I spend close to $200/mo on building links with them, and it averages around $9.99 a submission.
Many of my links are recurring as I try and change keywords around and mix things up. In the end, these websites are all white-listed and have high authority within Google. I check all of their…
- Page Ranks
- Domain Authority
- Page Authority
- Internal Links
- External Links
- Trust Flow
- Citation Flow
- Link Diversity
In the end, I have a solid link profile pointing to all of my websites from high authority websites that dominate Google already. I’ll invest the money, but I have a solid link profile from websites that actually provide value in the end. Next, you have to invest this money because alternative article directories are poorly moderated. With the recent Google updates, they’ll actually harm your websites instead of providing long term benefits.
Roughly, from the costs I’ve listed above, you can see they average roughly around $600.00-800.00/mo. However, the end result has been amazing because “5†keywords are ranking on Google homepage with 4 of them on the 2nd.
Wrapping It Up…
Going forward, with the recent Google changes, you’ll have to make sure relevance and high authority websites are where you focus your link building efforts. Unfortunately, many of these websites are paid but for a very good reason. They are highly moderated with their own SEO campaign, which helps their authority in the long run. This just adds more value to your link that is placed on their page. You can try FREE link building directories, etc, however, with experience, I’ve achieved much more spending money on effective link building strategies.