The Age asks ‘How does your business Google?’

In an article for The Age on July 9, writer Sylvia Pennington asks ‘how does your business Google?’

We urge you to type in what you do, followed by where you do it, and see where, or if, your business comes up in Google’s search results list.

We don’t want to rub salt into the wound – depending on where your business’s website shows up in the search results list – but one of our favourite sayings at GOOP is “the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google’s search results list.”

Page one of Google’s search results list is lucrative online real estate. Getting on page one for searches relating to what you do, where you do it, is no mean feat. And staying on page one is becoming increasingly more competitive as businesses become savvier online, in a bid to acquire Google’s top spot.

It’s no surprise businesses will pay big money for SEO services in order to get, and stay, on page one of Google’s search results list for key searched words. For those not familiar with the term ‘SEO’, it is short for ‘search engine optimisation’. SEO is the practice of making businesses more visible in the organic search results of search engines, particularly Google due to its overwhelming prominence.

How much should a small business pay for SEO services?

The Age article states businesses typically pay $800 to $2000 per month for SEO services.

To us, those monthly figures indicate SEO was an afterthought. If you need to pay $2000 per month for SEO on your website, the website was most likely built wrong in the first place. We’re not saying once you have a website you can set-and-forget and expect to stay on page one of Google’s search results – that is not the case.

At GOOP, SEO is core to what we do. Our clients are mostly small businesses and we have more than 700 clients Australia-wide. A standard website at GOOP will cost nowhere near $2000 per month.

SEO is included at step one – when you buy any GOOP website we include keyword research, keyword strategy and SEO copywriting. At GOOP SEO isn’t an afterthought, it informs the entire structure of a website before we build it!

Additional SEO-based activities are certainly available after your site is built, because as stated above, it’s not enough to set-and-forget. For example, GOOP provides monthly SEO-focused blog posts at a price that’s only a tiny fraction of the minimum $800 monthly spend mentioned in The Age.

It’s a tricky thing, determining how much your website should cost and, more importantly, what it’s worth.

Unfortunately, the website development industry is studded with dodgy website service providers and often the dodgiest of the bunch are the ones that tout themselves as ‘SEO experts’.

We’ve had many clients come to us knowing they need an effective online presence, but nervous and sceptical due to previously being burned by the empty promises and inflated costs of so-called ‘SEO experts’ looking to make a quick dollar.

If your website isn’t structured and built correctly from square one, monthly SEO services are unlikely to provide long-term benefit. You could simply be throwing money at the wall, hoping it sticks.

At GOOP, we make it simple. No smoke and mirrors, just genuine interest in your small business and building you a website that works!

We think it’s fitting to end this post with a quote from The Age article, by Google’s head of small business marketing, Richard Flanagan:

Disregard your cyber image at your peril.

GOOP’s small business festival event ‘It’ll cost how much?’ is now open for bookings. Come along and learn more about the cost, and worth, of a website. Alternatively you can contact us to discuss your needs.

Read The Age article ‘How does your business Google?’

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