Have you ever bought cheap toilet roll, shoes, or electronics? Have you ever made the same mistake twice?
You get what you pay for and that applies to everything in life. If someone is able to manufacture a product or deliver a service at a very low cost, it’s never out of the goodness of their heart; it’s because either cheap materials are used, or because the amount of resources required were minimal.
There are several definitions of the word “cheap” and they both apply rather aptly to SEO:
- low in price, especially in relation to similar items or services.
- of little worth because achieved in a discreditable way requiring little effort.
With that in mind, is cheap SEO better than no SEO at all?
Is cheap SEO better than no SEO at all?
There’s a very important distinction between investing in SEO on a much smaller scale and giving your money to a cheap SEO agency.
For example, focusing solely on your local SEO will be more affordable than investing in a full-scale SEO campaign. In this case, with the right agency, it would be worth it, especially as a small business owner who can benefit much from local business.
However, actively seeking out the cheapest possible SEO agency is a total waste of time, effort – and indeed money.
In fact, hiring a cheap SEO agency is far more expensive than you might imagine. Here’s why:
- Cheap SEO agencies are either inequitable or inexperienced: in other words, they’re either offering cheap services because they use blackhat techniques or because they are so green that they have no idea what they are doing and are charging very little in order to on-board clients easily and figure things out as they go along.
- Blackhat SEO can damage your rep and get your website penalised: assuming that your chosen SEO agency is using blackhat techniques (e.g., keyword stuffing or spamming cheap links, etc.), Google will invariably pick up on the fact and penalise you as a result. This can seriously set you back and undo much of your hard work.
- Inexperienced SEO agencies will fail to deliver: and if in the event that you are working with a cheap SEO agency that has very little in the way of experience, the chances of them delivering you the results that you need to achieve a sustainable and scalable ROI will be slim to none.
- A real SEO agency will have to come in and fix it: when you do eventually realise that your cheap SEO agency has been failing you, not only will your initial investments have gone to waste, but you’ll also have to hire a reputable Brisbane SEO agency to come in and fix everything for you.
Conclusion: Remove “cheap” from your lexicon
In conclusion, cheap SEO is a complete and utter waste of time and resources. Remove the word “cheap” from your lexicon and replace it with: “reputation” and “results”.
When looking for an SEO agency to invest in, rather than look for the best deals, look for agencies that have:
- The most 5-star reviews.
- Lots of social proof.
- Real life case-studies and previous success stories.
If you shop around with the above three points in mind, as opposed to affordability, you’ll have a much easier time securing a deal with a truly capable SEO agency that can deliver superior results and achieve a sustainable and scalable ROI that will transform your business.
The same applies for social media marketing, PPC, video marketing, and all other forms of digital marketing. If you want to hire talent and avoid running campaigns that are littered with flaws, you need to avoid any agency who uses the word “cheap” in their content.
The question is: how much do you value the future of your business?
