Should you invest in SEO for your Schaumburg business? How much money should you set aside for SEO?

The cost of SEO is determined by several factors, including who you hire to execute your SEO strategy, your website’s positioning against your competitors, how aggressively you want to drive results, and more.

This top-rated SEO agency in Schaumburg, Illinois is going to answer some of the most common SEO pricing questions below.

SEO Labor Models: Do-It-Yourself vs. Professionals

DIY SEO appears to be less expensive than hiring a professional SEO agency in Schaumburg, Illinois at first glance. The primary cost of DIY SEO — apart from monthly fees for one or two SEO tools — is your time.

Optimizing your website for search engines is not as complicated as it may seem! In fact, many basic tenets of SEO are pretty straightforward. However, taking the time to study, execute, and stay current on SEO best practices and strategies, is substantial.

We have discovered that many business owners do not have the mental or physical capacity to add focused, tactical SEO to an already overflowing to-do list. Because time is of the essence, many business owners prefer the other labor model: outsourcing.

For businesses that lack the resources to handle SEO internally, outsourcing through a Schaumburg SEO agency is often the best option.

Another advantage of outsourcing is gaining access to a multi-departmental team that works in synergy. At Digital Destination, we specialize in SEO, but we also have vibrant SEM, social media, and web design and development teams. To make the most informed decisions for our clients, our SEO specialists consult with our SEM specialists, social strategists, and developers and designers regularly.

SEO Pricing Models

SEO agencies in Schaumburg often bill their clients on a monthly basis. In this model, clients pay a flat fee, outsourced specialists perform all of their SEO duties — content creation, on-site optimization, keyword research, and more — and marketing goals can be tweaked and changed over time.

Hourly consulting, project-based pricing and fixed-price contracting are some other payment models. Fixed-price contracts — such as SEO copywriting paid per word — varies significantly between agencies.

You Get What You Pay For

The price of quality SEO in Schaumburg is often startling to business owners. According to a Search Engine Journal survey, more than half of small business owners do not budget for SEO.

Many well-meaning business owners go with the most affordable route, assuming that SEO works like any other A-to-B process. Unfortunately, some SEO scammers try to exploit their benevolence by making guarantees they cannot live up to.

This can be disastrous for your online presence. Aside from wasting your money, inept SEO agencies frequently engage in “black hat” practices that, while providing quick results, do not comply with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If Google detects “black hat” SEO on your website, your website could face a penalty or sharp drop in rankings, or may even get delisted from Google.

Cheap SEO does not always indicate “black hat” practices, although the quality of the work does — to some extent — correlate to cost. Therefore, hiring the cheapest SEO agency is probably not the best decision for your website’s long-term growth.

Looking for the Top-Rated SEO Agency in Schaumburg, Illinois?

Are you looking to partner with the top-rated SEO agency in Schaumburg, Illinois? If so, you’ve come to the right place. At Digital Destination, we are passionate about providing our clients with real, measurable ROI. We set realistic expectations, then deliver outstanding results. Our team of SEO experts can help you evaluate your online marketing needs and chart a course for long-term success.

Contact us today to get started.