We’ve entered birthday season in our family. My kids, my sister’s kids, my husband’s family…90 percent of the birthdays in both of our families fall from March to June. Needless to say, we’re buying presents on a regular basis.
Now, I know that’s a chore for most people, but I love buying gifts for loved ones. They’re rarely just one thing, and I can count on one hand the number of times they’ve been just a gift card or money. Instead, I look for many small items throughout the year that I can put together into a package that I know (okay, hope) the recipient loves. Each gift is themed, with the items included carefully chosen. Sometimes too carefully chosen — it’s not uncommon for gifts to arrive late, too, but that’s a different blog post.
The struggle comes in wrapping them up. Box with wrapping paper or bag with tissue paper? How do I make the items fit in a package that isn’t quite the right size or shape? And will the recipient be able to look past the wrapping to see the value inside the bag?
I like to think of affordable SEO packages as a birthday gift you give yourself and your company.
- Each part of the package should be built to meet your specific needs and interests.
- Each part of the package should enhance and build on every other part of the package.
- The present needs to be given on-time to have the biggest effect.
- The present needs to fit in your budget.
- The present needs to bring value to your life.
Just like I don’t wander store aisles aimlessly looking for presents — usually — I wouldn’t go wandering the Internet randomly trying to piece together the best SEO package for my company. Instead, take a look at what SEO packages should contain and see why an affordable SEO package might be the best gift you buy — and receive — this year.
Affordable SEO Packages: What You Need to Know Before You Buy
I wouldn’t buy a Chevy toy car for my Ford-obsessed nephew. Why? Because I know what he likes. Understanding your own SEO needs before you start looking can help you truly pinpoint a package that will work for your business needs.
Start by looking at SEO packages. A search engine optimization package is put together by an agency or firm that specializes in several different SEO services and techniques. The challenge lies in finding the company whose services and prices best fit your needs now — and in the future. I wouldn’t spend $100 on a jacket for my daughter in the size that fits perfectly right now. As most parents can attest to, keeping your children clothed through all of their growth spurts can add up, so you want to get the biggest bang for your buck.
When you’re looking for an affordable SEO package, put together an SEO strategy that meets your needs today and in the future. The idea with search engine optimization is that you’ll organically — think unpaid — reach an increasing number of prospects and clients through search engines. As you get higher rankings, you have a better chance of being seen by people searching keywords that correlate to your products or services.
The most important things to remember? SEO matters. People matter more. Put together a people-first strategy, like you do when buying a birthday gift, and you’re already ahead of the game.
Building a Bundle Basics
Certain components are a requirement of a present — wrapping and the present. Others, like the bows and ribbons, are a nice embellishment. When you want to buy an affordable SEO package, take a look at these basic requirements before adding on the pretty, but not as necessary, fancy trappings.
- An audit: We’ve talked about technical SEO before, which is the behind-the-scenes structure of your search engine optimization work. An SEO firm should be interested in and excited to take a look at the architecture of your site, along with the content management system you’re using. Ensuring that you are up-to-date and meeting the requirements of search engines will make a difference from the get-go. The audit should also include an analysis of the on- and off-page activities you’ve been doing to increase your search engine ranking.
- Keywords: These words and phrases are the building blocks of a good SEO program. They’re the words your prospects are searching; success comes when you’re able to match them. An SEO package should include some level of research and analysis.
- Content creation: Quality content ties everything together. It adds value to the lives of the readers, making them more likely to share your page. When combined with keyword research, it helps you “produce content that effectively ‘answers’ that query,” Search Engine Land notes. And regular, consistent content updates keep your followers, fans, and prospects checking your site regularly, subscribing to updates, and seeking you out on other platforms. In other words, taking steps to enter your sales funnel, giving you SEO results and the best of presents: business building success.
A Look at How Affordable SEO and Birthday Presents Really Are Alike
Both Need to Meet Your Needs and Interests
Have you ever received a gift that just wasn’t for you? Many people will re-gift, but others just stash that too-small sweater in the back of a closet so that they can squeeze into it when Aunt Suzy comes to visit later in the year. The gifter didn’t know you well enough to meet your wants and needs through their gift.
While search engine optimization is made up of a variety of closely intertwined activities and decisions, you need to make sure that these activities will actually further your image and drive traffic to your Web site. Say, for example, that the SEO firm proposes refraining from updating your blog or writing optimized content. With all of the evidence that shows the benefits of fresh and relevant content, it doesn’t seem to make sense to completely overlook the content creation and publication component. This is true for all of the different components that go into a comprehensive and creative search engine optimization program. Make sure the package you’re interested in purchasing includes, at least, technical and on-page SEO components.
Components in Both Should Enhance and Build on Every Other Part of the Package
SEO is marketing tool that calls into play many of the different pieces and parts of a solid marketing strategy. It requires creativity, in everything from content creation and the use of infographics to link-building and technical SEO. You might see some benefit from just writing and posting a blog, but if you want to optimize your content, the blog post will more than likely include a specifically researched keyword, graphics, subheads that help to maintain organization, and meta tags that describe the content to the search engine. Link-building, another important goal in many SEO strategies comes when you’ve presented quality content that adds value, making others interested in sharing your content.
In other words, you can’t have one without the other if you want your SEO to be successful. Look for an affordable SEO package that incorporates more than one facet of technical, on-, and off-page activity to see the biggest return on your investment.
Both Need to Be Given On-Time to Have the Biggest Effect
I am very guilty of giving late birthday presents, usually because I am trying to find a present that doesn’t exist. Once, trying to find a drink bottle with a both a filter and an infuser kept me from finishing the package and giving the gift for several weeks after. And while the recipient loved the gift I gave, I’m sure it would have been more meaningful had it made it to her on her birthday.
Affordable SEO packages are the same. The sooner you start looking for a package to manage your optimization activities, the better. You don’t want to wait until it’s too late to have your Web site’s structure analyzed to make sure it’s giving its best possible performance; building a strong, SEO site from the beginning sets you up for long-term success. True, better late is never, especially in SEO work. But it needs to be completed on-time and regularly if you want to see the biggest levels of success.
Both Need to Fit in Your Budget
I can’t think of many people who buy a gift for someone that is extravagantly outside of their means. Most have some idea of how much they will spend for their children, their children’s friends, other children in the family, and their own friends and family members. Sure, I’d love to gift each of my children with a trip to wherever they want. Realistically, though, that falls outside of our budget. It would be a great present, but one that we’d be paying the consequences for for many years.
When you look at affordable SEO packages, affordable should be the best that your money can buy, not the best that money can buy. The statement of spending money to make money can be absolutely true, and there’s something to be said about wisely investing your money in a business-building investment. At the same time, though, search engine optimization can be a lengthy process that might require several months of activity before you begin to see a change. It also requires consistency — just posting a blog sporadically, whenever you have a free moment, isn’t going to do much to increase your presence. Start by focusing on consistency instead of quantity. Evergreen pieces are guides and white papers that will always be relevant to your readers, and non-evergreen content can have a lifespan of one to three years. This means that your posts will last a while. Instead, start by blogging several times a week, on the same days. If you start on Tuesday and Friday, stay with Tuesday and Friday. This gives your readers and visitors an easy way to find your new content.
Once you’ve got a grasp on your schedule, look to increase the amount of posts. Studies have shown that older posts tend to perform well and increase in value, and that once you hit 16 posts a month, your traffic starts to exponentially increase.
All of this takes time, though, and securing an affordable SEO package now means you’ll have more room to grow financially as your needs for additional SEO work continue to grow.
Both Need to Bring Value to Your Life
Picking out a birthday present that the recipient enjoys requires that you know what the person likes. Whether the gift will teach them something new or bring them joy, you want the recipient to like and use whatever you gifted. To do that, it needs to bring value.
Affordable SEO packages should enhance your existing marketing strategy by elevating the work that you’re already doing. If you want to add value to your visitors’ lives (and you should, because Google is placing a high premium on people-first SEO work), you need to know what will help them. You need to know what keywords they are using, how long they’re spending on your site, and what social networks they’re frequenting. Components of your package should have specific individual goals that build toward an overall improvement goal.
If you’re not sure how to do that, give us a call today. Right now, we’re offering a free SEO analysis (how’s that for affordable?) with our SEO specialists. They’ll take a look at the work you’re doing and find a way to help you improve your results. Our professionals can help you create and implement an affordable SEO package that will give you regular, consistent results — every day will feel like your birthday! Speaking of which – I’d love to hear about your favorite gift. What did you give, or get, that truly made a lasting impact on your life? Tell me in the comments below.
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