I remember the very first website I designed for a paying customer. That was way back in the 1990s, when the public internet was still brand-new. The funny thing is that my client knew more about SEO than I did. Even way back then, he knew how important SEO would ultimately be to an emerging internet.
I mention this to set up a question: does your company utilize SEO services? That is assuming you have a company website. If not, getting a website up and running is your first priority. If you already have a site, whether you utilize SEO plays a significant role in how effective your site is as both a marketing tool and an online calling card.
The Basics of SEO
Maybe you’re not utilizing SEO services because you don’t even understand what SEO is. SEO (search engine optimization) is a group of strategies and tools leveraged for the purposes of ensuring that a website performs well on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
Webtek Digital Marketing, a Utah SEO and digital marketing firm, explains that the majority of all web traffic originates from search engines. So to maximize the amount of traffic coming to your site, it needs to perform well on organic searches. That is the point of SEO. Deploying sound SEO strategies makes it easier for people to find your website when they search online.
DIY and Paid SEO Services
With an understanding of the basics, it is time to move on to the differences between DIY and paid SEO services. In a DIY scenario, you do everything yourself. You handle:
- Keyword research
- On- and off-site optimization
- Link building
- PPC advertising
- Technical SEO
- Tracking and analytics.
Investing in paid SEO services means hiring a professional to do the work for you. There is a middle ground option: doing the work yourself but investing in automated tools that make it easier. One way or the other, to the extent that you utilize SEO, your website will perform better in organic searches.
What You Get with Paid Services
We finally get to what you are missing out on if you don’t utilize SEO services. First and foremost, you’re missing out on industry expertise. You might understand the basics of SEO well enough to get by on your own. But unless SEO is what you do for a living, you are not an expert. Paid professionals are experts. They understand how it works better than anyone else.
You’re also missing out on a ton of analytics data that can make all the difference in the world. Professional SEO providers have access to highly technical tools capable of producing tons of helpful data. All that data is leveraged to continually improve performance.
Not utilizing paid SEO services means you are missing out on the potential for content marketing to revolutionize how you reach your customers. Effective content marketing is one of the best forms of marketing dollar-for-dollar. It is hard to match content marketing’s value when it’s done right.
It’s Ultimately Your Choice
It goes without saying that whether you utilize SEO services or not is your choice. You have the right to operate your business in whatever way you see fit. Just know that SEO is no longer an option if you want your website to be of any value. It needs to perform well on organic searches or it’s essentially useless.
Paid SEO services can help you make the most of your website. If you cannot afford them, at least make use of the free automated tools from Google and others.
