The True Cost of SEO: What Small Businesses Should Expect When Investing in Search Engine Optimization

You have probably heard of SEO or at the very least, you have heard of the concept by now. SEO stands for search engine optimization; which basically means how and where you appear in search engines. It is every business’s goal to rank high on search engines. After all, that age-old tech joke still holds true: Where’s the best place to hide a body? On the second page of Google.

However, it’s not as straightforward (or low-cost) as you might think. In the same sphere that your business has to compete for physical foot traffic, it now has to compete for digital foot traffic. As a business owner, you invested in building your storefront, reputation and customer base. That upfront investment is also important for SEO.

To rank high on search engines not only means that you have more traffic coming to your website, but it also means you have higher quality traffic coming to your website. In order to achieve that high ranking and high-quality traffic, a lot of work is done behind the scenes at your marketing agency. Let’s dive deeper into the why and hows of SEO cost.

Google My Business

We can’t stress how important it is to have an updated and accurate Google My Business page. Google My Business verifies who you are, builds trust with your customers when you have accurate information, and delivers relevant search results to exactly what users are looking for.

Citation Tracking and Building

A citation is anywhere on the internet your business shows up as a “listing” format - name, address and phone number. Citations are a big deal to search engines and there are a lot of them to keep track of;  not limited to but including Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, Foursquare, Yahoo Local, etc.

When your citations are consistent and accurate across all search engines (even beyond Google), your business is shown to be reputable and trustworthy. At North of Eight, we monitor your citations for errors, fix them and execute citation-building campaigns for any missing gaps in order to improve your search ranking.

Reputation Management

Online reviews matter. At North of Eight, part of our search engine optimization services includes monitoring your online reviews and giving you an easy-to-read dashboard so that you can read and respond to reviews across the internet from one platform. Looking for more five-star reviews? Join the club! Our services also include review- gathering to get you those hard-earned testimonials.

Keyword Ranking

Keywords are words or phrases that people use in search engines. You want what people are searching for to match whats on your website. After all, Google became the powerhouse that it is today because it delivers almost exactly what users want when they search. We analyze the best keywords for your industry and optimize your website to ensure that you are ranking for exactly what people are searching for - giving you the right digital traffic that drives results.

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SEO doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without staking marketing dollars. Depending on where you currently rank as well as your budget, goals and expectations, the hard work the data nerds at North of Eight put in to your businesses’ search engine optimization is well worth the investment.