Affordable Vs. Cheap SEO Services

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• Affordable SEO Services
• Cheap SEO Services
• Comparison Chart

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of connecting with your audience online and gaining visibility in the organic search results.

It is arguably one of the most important elements of an effective digital marketing strategy, and is an investment that every business should make.

But not one that should break the bank…

Luckily, there are plenty of affordable SEO agencies out there that can help grow your business online, but the challenge is separating the good from the bad; the trusted services from the cheap ones.

However, it’s easy to spot the difference once you know what to look for.

Discover the distinctive characteristics of affordable and cheap SEO services below and learn what to look for (and what to look out for!) when researching SEO agencies.

Affordable SEO services are an efficient way of implementing optimization tactics and strategies on a website to improve its online presence and visibility on search results pages.

Common traits of affordable SEO include:

• Results-driven
• Experienced team
• Long-term strategies
• Proven success

SEO looks different for every business because every business is unique. But not in the eyes of a cheap search engine optimization agency.

With that quick win mindset, you can trust that there will be little effort given to understanding your business, the unique goals you have, the industry you’re working in or the competitors in your market.

That’s because there is no difference in strategy from one client to the next.

They take the same approach with every account using a cookie-cutter technique to present you with a generic strategy that lacks customization and flexibility.

This means that both a local business and a nationwide organization could be implementing identical strategies; a shop that needs eCommerce SEO will be shortchanged; and a company that serves a worldwide audience, won’t receive a global SEO strategy to support them. All of these businesses’ unique needs will be met with the exact same approach, inevitably failing to give any of them tangible results.

These agencies tend to take no interest in your brand, products and services and they will certainly not address your core objectives—let alone ask about them.

Not to mention, they will fail to consider the circumstances you’re currently facing like if you’re recovering from a recent Google penalty, or perhaps you’re a brand-new business just getting started.

They can’t help what they don’t know (or in this case, don’t want to know) and rarely do these generic strategies see any real, targeted results.

Cheap SEO services can seem like the whole package at first, offering some on-page optimization. But, successful SEO goes far beyond that.

These cheaper packages in fact, are not only lacking customization, but are missing vital pieces of an effective strategy: the high-impact SEO actions that will actually help you gain visibility in the search results.

That’s because an agency that focuses on speed and efficiency does not have the time, expertise or resources to create the valuable assets necessary to drive growth, like content creation.

Content provides the much-needed support and context for your SEO, helping users and search engines understand the value you have to offer. But quality content takes skill and research to produce. And unfortunately, cheap SEOs are not willing to put in the effort.

They’ll create low-quality content, often “spinning” someone else’s work into their own words but with poor grammar and blatant structural issues. In addition to wasting your time and money, this shoddy craftsmanship could also reflect poorly on your company.

It’s no secret: SEO services are only as good as the team working on them.

So a team of experts, skilled in their profession will deliver expert guidance and effective strategies, while a team still on a learning curve may not have the drive or expertise to lead your company in the right direction.

More often than not, you’ll find that cheap SEO services are accompanied by the latter.

Though the price is enticing, you’ll receive an inexperienced, lack-lustered team that delivers the quick wins, executes the fill-in-the-blank strategies, and offers the bare minimum as your sole digital marketing advisor.

Customer satisfaction and success are not the top goals for these agencies. They’re only focused on quick production, with quantity trumping quality every time. And before you’ve realized what’s happened, they’ll already be onto the next account.

Cheap SEO agencies are built on making a quick buck and—best case scenario—scoring the quick win.

They thrive on short-term projects and one-off clients because they can implement their cookie-cutter strategy and quickly wash their hands of you to move onto the next. However, we both know that that’s not how SEO works…

SEO is a long game.

You need to establish a strong foundation to start, and constantly maintain and evolve your strategy for months, even years after that to start seeing results. So how could a quick win approach translate into success for your company when they’ve barely made a dent in all the work that needs to be done?

Cheap SEO strategies rarely touch on the future or sustainability of your online business, so you can expect that there won’t be any long-term relationship with the agency, and with that, no long-term plan for your SEO.

And to make matters worse, you really don’t have any leverage in the situation, making it difficult to hold them accountable. Unlike a reputable SEO services provider, these agencies don’t care about their image, their [poor] performance, or your satisfaction.

When it comes to cheap SEO agencies, you’ll find that they don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to earning your business.

However, they do have one trick up their sleeve that unfortunately works all too well.

That trick is promoting extravagant promises that they secretly can’t keep. 🤫

• Rank #1 in the search results immediately!
• We guarantee visibility and ranking within just a few days!
• Rankings to Page 1 in Google, Bing & Yahoo
• Money Back Guarantee. Don’t rank… don’t pay!

Now any real SEO expert would tell you that a guaranteed ranking in the search results is impossible. And that’s not due to the capabilities of an SEO team—that’s just because there are absolutely no guarantees with SEO.

And more importantly, how can a company guarantee anything before speaking with you about your business, goals, and SEO needs?

So yes, these extravagant claims to bring your business to the top of the ranks are too good to be true. But unfortunately, many business owners will buy into this marketing tactic.

And these outlandish promises then turn into high expectations which will quickly go unfulfilled when little to no results come from the agency’s efforts—or lack thereof.

The bottom line is, SEO can’t deliver immediate results. If an agency tells you differently, they’re making false promises.

At first glance, cheap SEO service providers are speedy and efficient with their optimization. But it’s when you look a little closer that you realize those characteristics are not as advantageous as they sound.

Cheap SEO is comprised of automated tasks that should be completed manually, black-hat techniques that go against industry standards and a team that will exert minimal effort.

These SEOs know exactly where and when to cut corners, and unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for your business.

This type of agency isn’t concerned with the repercussions that could come from the shortcuts they take, mainly because it will be your company that suffers the consequences.

It is very easy to spot a company that is cutting corners and turning to sketchy sources to amp up their web presence.

So, not only is your integrity as a company questioned, but these actions will lower your brand reputation in the eyes of your customers. This could lead to an eventual loss in revenue and a gradual decline in your online presence.

Since cheap SEOs operate solely in the quantity over quality mindset, they don’t really take the time to advance their industry knowledge or keep up to date on, or even use, recommended best practices. This leads to using spammy tactics that can put your website in danger.

Like link building—what was once a process that emphasized the quantity of links your site needed to earn organic traffic, has now evolved, falling more in line with Google’s algorithms and best practices.

But, cheap SEO services have not evolved.

They will still entice you with a high quantity of links, but those links will most likely be acquired through an automated software.

This type of low-quality link building could lead to a Google penalty, meaning your website could be deemed suspicious by a search algorithm or Google evaluator and your site may then be removed completely from the search results, halting any and all inbound traffic.

And it’s not just Google you have to watch out for—users have the ability to report a website if they see spammed pages or an abundance of paid links, as well.

These services do offer a nice price tag, especially to those businesses working within a tight budget.

But the true cost of cheap SEO is not immediate; it’s gradual.

Think about it. You’ll waste time on emails and phone calls trying to communicate with your SEO team; you’ll waste energy on correcting and revising their low-quality work; and you’ll waste even more money when you have to hire a new agency to get you back on track.

So although it may be easy to choose a cheap SEO agency, your company will most likely pay more for it in the end.

Characteristics of cheap agencies:

• Extravagant promises
• Low-quality website
• No long-term strategy
• One-off projects
• Automated link building tools