Posted: March 13, 2015
Whether your business is just getting online or you want to revamp your online presence and Internet marketing strategy, you’re probably wondering how much to spend on SEO (search engine optimization). SEO budgets are not “one size fits all,” so the answer to how much you should spend will vary for every business. Pricing depends on which services you need, how in-depth each service is, and the current state of your website and supplemental web pages.
At Jumpem, we hope to provide you with the information you need so you can determine an appropriate Internet marketing budget. Let’s start with an explanation of SEO and Internet marketing and how they can affect your business.
Internet marketing is often referred to as a strategy or campaign, but really it involves any action taken to promote or market a business online. As you can imagine, this can cover a lot of things, such as advertising, web content, social media, backlinking, web design and SEO.
Similar to traditional marketing, Internet marketing often revolves around advertisements, but these adverts can appear on search engine result pages (SERPs), websites, social media sites and profiles, emails and other locations across the web. There are other similarities to traditional marketing, which includes television, radio and print media, like appealing to your target audience, but Internet marketing has a clear advantage over traditional methods. For example, with monitoring and analyzation tools, Jumpem can see who clicks your ad, which website they come from to your landing pages, and what actions they perform while on your landing page or website. We can see if they close the page immediately (what we refer to as a bounce rate), if they click through to the destination page and if they make a purchase or perform a call-to-action. Calls-to-action can include many different outcomes, but usually refer to registering to a website, requesting a quote or consultation, signing up for an e-newsletter, or registering for a promotion or giveaway.
ECommerce businesses often get the most out of successful Internet marketing, but every business with an online presence can benefit from marketing online. At Jumpem in Gainesville, we want to help your business grow through Internet marketing, whether you rely solely on your website for profit or your website is supplemental to your physical business location.
The foundation to successful Internet marketing is a solid SEO strategy. Through search engine optimization, your business can see real improvements to SERP rankings, site visitor numbers and more. While Internet marketing does include paid links and pay-per-click ads, it also includes placement on organic search result rankings. If you have the top spot on Google for your keywords and keyphrases, then a different strategy might be called for than if you’re on the third or fourth page of Google search results.
SEO also includes the content of your website, advertisements and landing pages. With optimized content, you can reach your target audience and appeal to those customers who are more likely to buy. Another benefit of SEO is that it is ongoing, so when Google algorithms change, or your competition changes its tactics, your business can stay in the running and continue to improve.
Link building, or backlinking, is an important part of SEO because it builds your websites credibility in the eyes of Google as well as increase the visibility of your business. Being a part of a link network is not easy to accomplish, so that’s why we at Jumpem offer all the services your business needs to improve its link building network. Creating high-quality content across your website and other web pages, including press releases, blogs and social media postings, can give bloggers, media outlets and other social media accounts reason to link to your website. When you provide informational, interesting and thought-provoking content that is relevant to your industry or your consumers’ interests, you increase the chance of building backlinks. Our link building services can reach out to the appropriate channels for your business for better results.
The short answer is: yes! You may be paying too much for your online advertising budget to compensate for a poorly ranked website. Using keywords and keyphrases, Jumpem can improve the ranking of your business website on organic search results. SEO is urgent for any business who doesn’t appear on the first page of results for relevant keywords, but it is an ongoing process that can benefit even the No. 1 ranked business. As Google’s algorithms change, your competition changes, and Internet marketing strategies shift, you want to keep your business ahead of the pack and prime for tweaks that will allow you retain your top spot or replace a competitor.
If you want to have complete control over your online marketing budget, then PPC may be for you. Through pay-per-click ads, you pay every time your ad or link is clicked. In order to make sure you only pay for clicks that are more likely to lead to purchases or completion of calls-to-action, Jumpem can optimize your ads through PPC marketing. You can also set a budget so your marketing never goes over that set amount. PPC marketing can have a huge effect on the pricing of Internet marketing as some businesses set low thresholds and other businesses invest more. This is completely dependent on your business, what you want to spend, and what amount will prove the biggest return on investment for your business.
Some businesses may find that their websites are so outdated that new designs are required to keep up with the competition. Website redesigns, or new website designs, as well as landing page designs and advertisement designs can affect the price of Internet marketing. Business owners are charged for the work completed, as well as for the hours it takes to design a website, so you can cut down on the costs by having a good idea of what you want before turning the project over to designers. At Jumpem, we meet with our clients to establish clear objectives and decide on what the website, landing page or ad will look like before we begin designing.
You may have noticed that some of our services aren’t right for your business. If you already rank in the top spots on organic search results, your Internet marketing strategy will differ from a business who doesn’t rank well. Or perhaps you’ve been putting all of your marketing budget toward PPC ads and haven’t bothered with rankings. As you can see, the price you should spend on Internet marketing depends wholly on your business and your goals for your online presence.
In Gainesville, Jumpem supports many small businesses through our management and maintenance services. These business don’t have the staffing to perform site updates, scheduled maintenance or content creation needed. Larger companies with adequate staffing may be able to handle these tasks, so we offer training to employees, giving you more control over your updates and maintenance.
At Jumpem, we recommend taking an all-encompassing approach to Internet marketing for those who need it. From SEO to advertising, and from web design to analytics, we can revitalize the online presence of your business, allowing you to grow and compete in your industry. As a Certified Google Partner, Jumpem is Gainesville’s leader in innovative Internet marketing. Let us help you improve your business through our best practices and proven results.