White hat on a small business budget.
-
How can a small internet marketing firm build links and do SEO for small business clients? Seems to me the white hat link building would be next to impossible to do while making money at the same time. Say a small business client has $300 per month to spend on internet marketing... how can you possibly do white hat work for that kind of money?
If you can... then how?
-
Perhaps a focus on online PR, with the clients doing some of the legwork to drive ideas and initiatives? (PR Power by Amanda Barry-Hirst is a great book for small businesses).
-
That's what I meant when I started mentioning wages toward the end of my post.
Is the OP talking about $300/month in addition to someone's salary or AS someone's salary?How much do companies spend on SEO that is not part of someone's salary?
Does this include outsourcing graphic design for content creation? Buying links? Analytics software?If you have one SEO All-star on your staff who can do their own graphic design, web development, write content, and reach out for links - are there any costs other than their salary?
-
I have always considered SEO to be "free".
There are quite a few companies who spend over $50,000/month on SEO.
And, if you consider content creation to be part of SEO then an awful lot of companies are spending that much per month on SEO.
All that I put into it is my time, both writing content and working on our websites.
You can place a value on your time. If you are just starting out just assign yourself a wage. If you have an established biz then divide your average annual profits by the number of hours that you work.
If you do either of those you will probably conclude that $300/month is not very much at all.
-
This raises some interesting questions.
I have always considered SEO to be "free" (aside from my subscription to Moz)
All that I put into it is my time, both writing content and working on our websites.When you say $300 is that including the wage of whoever you want to do your SEO?
or do you mean $300 in addition to their (or your own) wage? -
Hi,
Depending on your client niche you can host an event. Events are an easy way to build a lot of links:
"Why are they easy? So long as you have an interesting event that is put on by a legitimate organization, you’re very likely to get accepted by most event listing sites. Many of the event sites require a simple form consisting of an event title, description, when and where the event takes place, and of course, a URL for more information. And as long as your event is valuable to the people that will attend, the outreach portion can be much easier than other link outreach methods."
Check the full article here: http://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-link-building-with-local-events
-
how can you possibly do white hat work for that kind of money?
As SEroB says, if they are in a not-to-difficult local niche that might be enough to be effective.
If they are competing in a sleepy little product niche with mostly naive competitors then spending that $300 on one piece of really great content per month (hitting different keywords with each) might be enough to get some traffic flow that will pay back long term. It is possible that the competition is weak enough that a few pedestrian content pages will pull in traffic (but not links).
If the company has a person who can write this content then you might get a couple great pieces per month and use the $300 to promote them.
However, if they face any real competition at all then it might be best to tell them... "What would happen if you sent 10 soldiers out when 10,000 are needed? Right... you got your ass kicked and wasted 10 soldiers."
I think that it is going to take $xxxx/month (or whatever). If you are up for the fight I think I can help you but I don't want to lead you into a fight that you can't win.
-
I suppose this depends on the type of business.
As you know, $300 wont get much. If local SEO is relevant to the business, I'd go that route.
Otherwise, you're dealing with a company who is not sold on the value of SEO. And do you really want to deal w/ that?
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adding external links to other businesses
Hi,
Link Building | | LisaBabblebird
I'm looking to add some external links to a website. The homepage has a section showing the logos of clients the company has worked with. Is it worth making these logos links to the clients websites? Some of the clients are household names. However, I've noticed that very few websites do this. Would it add any value?0 -
Any white label link building providers like Audience Bloom?
Have used the services of Audience Bloom and do think they are great in being able to provide white label link building services: http://www.audiencebloom.com/services/link-building/white-label-link-building-services-for-agencies/ They are quite expensive though and so we are wondering if any one can help to provide other similar and credible companies like them that offer white label link building but at a lower cost. We would appreciate the advice here of anyone that is unbiased and unaffiliated in providing an credible recommendations. Thanks so much!
Link Building | | Gavo0 -
Looking for a reliable SEO company at a reasonable budget
Good day I've tried to contact most the recommended seo companies MOZ has but loads of them are mostly for MID-LARGE business and are out of my budget I have a monthly budget of 750-1,500 USD The niche is related not competitive and should be easy to rank, stoped doing seo 11 months ago and still rank 4-8th for the keywords im interested in anybody knows any good company for my budget? thanks a lot
Link Building | | recreoviral1 -
Why isn't SEOmoz a BBB accredited Business?
I'm just curious. I help run an online resource-based business. Recent'y, I've done a fair amount of research about becoming a BBB accredited business and it all seems to point to it being worth the money. No only for the link, but also for the potential increase in conversion due to the trust that comes along with their brand. It just seems to make good business sense. But I noticed that SEOmoz isn't accredited, and it made me wonder if there was something I wasn't considering? I mean, why wouldn't they want a valuable link like that? Does anyone know anything I don't?
Link Building | | CobraJones950 -
Setting up Web 2.0 sites in your own name or business name?
I'm interested in starting a link wheel strategy. However, when it comes to setting up the web 2.0 sites I'm unsure as to whether to set them up in my own name or in my business name. My initial thoughts were that it would appear more natural in my own name but if I have many sites linking to the same page, isn't that bad for SEO? Does anyone have any advice?
Link Building | | AAttias0 -
Why is Business.com a valuable link when they are all nofollow?
Earlier today, I received a $50 off coupon for a Business.com listing. Back when I was really learning about directories, lots of people recommended getting one of these listings because editors actually review it to make sure the website linked is of good quality. Even the SEOmoz Directory Guide regards it as a good link. Now, it seems like every outbound link from Business.com has a 'nofollow' tag right when they link to the target website. Furthermore, the actual business listing doesn't even link to the website! Let me take, for example, web design companies: http://www.business.com/internet/web-design/ This directory has tons of 'nofollow' links. On top of that, if you take any of the companies listed and do a search for their business page, the business page doesn't even have a link to their website! That doesn't exactly seem like it's worth $300 a year... Any chance there is something I'm missing here? I'm not fully understanding this, it seems.
Link Building | | CHEATERS0 -
Is it a good idea to have some backlinks point back to your business listing on the various directories?
During my link building campaign Ive been doing competitive research. I noticed that one of my competitors, who ranks very well organically and locally, has several back links pointing back to his business listing page on the various directories, such as Manta, Yellowbot, and so forth. Ive seen one of their profile pages with a PA as high as 65, where mine has a PA of 1. They seem to be heavily involved in spammy and shady techniques. This is why I'm asking if this is a recommended practice?
Link Building | | MFC0 -
I'm interested in knowing link building strategies for regional businesses.
I'm not just interested in sites to target, but also how to manage anchor text when you are targeting phrases that include a keyword + a geo modifier. Thanks!
Link Building | | medtouch0