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1 Billion Monthly Local Searches -- How to Tap into This Astonishing Market is Finally Revealed
Search Engines Becomes the Preferred Way to Find Local Businesses! by Kamau Austin
Do you have a website that fails to generate decent traffic? Have you failed to make search engine marketing a part of your promotion of your business because you...
4 Simple Methods To Multiply your Profits!
4 Simple Methods To Multiply your Profits!
By Dimitris Fatsiletos
You got your Order and gained a customer!
Congradulations! Your marketing efforts have paid off.
What next? Simple.--Leverage it to Maximum!
One of the most...
Double Your Income With This Best Kept Business Secret
What is the one element that your business can't survive without? Here's a clue. Without effective implementation of this one element, your business is sure to fail. Is it a great business plan? Is it dynamite web copy that sells? Is it super...
Podcasting Tools
Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley Podcasting is increasing in popularity and, realizing that many are interested in providing audio content in a podcast, we have assembled a collection of tools that make creation, promotion and listening to podcasts...
The Business Case for SEO
It’s interesting how potential clients have preconceived notions about which aspects of search engine marketing have the most value. In fact, they tend to fall into two camps that are 180° apart. The first camp believes completely in the value of...
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Why is SEO so expensive?
Why is SEO so expensive?
By Chris Genge
One of the questions our firm often gets asked is, "Why is search engine optimization (SEO) so expensive?" The simple answer -it isn't.
SEO is the most cost effective form of advertising with a low cost-per-acquisition (CPA) and high return on investment (ROI). Studies have shown that dollar for dollar, SEO is the best form of advertising... online and offline!
SEO is proactive... the customer is actively looking for the products and services you provide. Traditional advertising is passive... you are hoping to spark someone's interest and get them thinking about buying your products and services.
Compared with other forms of advertising, Internet marketing via SEO is very inexpensive. Think about how much your business spends on television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and even yellow pages ads. If you were to break these costs down on a monthly basis, SEO would probably cost the least and still deliver better results.
To test this, we looked into advertising in a couple of national US magazines as well as newspapers, yellow pages, and radio spots in some major Canadian cities. The following table represents the average cost per month for each.
Advertising Medium---- Audience Reach---- Size, Type, Frequency---- *Cost Per Month
Bus. Magazines (US)--- United States----- 1/3 column, B/W, 1/mth--- $12000
Radio (CAN)----------- Local------------- 30-second, 60-spots/mth-- $6000
Newspapers (CAN)------ Local------------- bus-card size, B/W, 4/mth-$2000-$2500
Yellow Pages (CAN)---- Local------------- bus-card size, B/W------- $180-$365
SEO------------------- World Wide-------- 10-20 Keywords----------- $249-$499
* Guidelines only as actual costs will vary depending on market conditions, geographical location, and your own preferences.
It is difficult to provide precise numbers because there are so many different variables that can come into play. What we tried to do was keep the variables as consistent as possible from one medium to the next. The
ads in the business magazines were the most expensive but they provided the greatest audience reach (next to SEO) and because the size of the ad was larger than the newspaper and yellow pages ad. Radio came in as the next most expensive. We asked to run a 30-second commercial that would be aired 60-times in a month (the recommended number of airings was 100). Newspapers came in third only because the frequency option we selected was one ad appearing once per-week (Saturday issue) and because the size of the ad was fairly small. The yellow pages came in around the same cost as SEO, but what good is a yellow pages ad to an online business? SEO on the other hand, had one of the lowest costs, provided the greatest audience coverage, and with a 24x7 frequency.
Which of these forms are you currently using? How effective have they been? Do your own research and see what you come up with. Because of the variables, your numbers will be different than ours, but when you break them down to measure the overall costs (CPA, ROI)... the majority of you will see that hands down, SEO is the best option.
It doesn't matter what form of advertising you are using... for online success, SEO really is the most cost effective and efficient way to promote your business. That's why SEO is gaining in popularity with everyone from small one-person operations to large, multi-national Fortune 500 companies.
SEO lets you target your message to the right people at exactly the right time... when they are looking to buy... at a fraction of the cost of other advertising media and a better ROI.
About the Author
Chris Genge is the President of 1st on the List Promotion Inc, a website promotion firm that specializes in search engine optimization and pay per click management. Chris writes on current and emerging search engine marketing theories and has been involved in the SEO industry since 1997. He and his team focus on researching and implementing the most effective search engine optimization techniques. To learn more visit http://www.1stonthelist.ca/
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