Four Reasons to Increase SEO Spending in 2014
Google has revolutionised the online marketing landscape to an extent few saw coming and most aren’t too pleased with. As of right now, the effects of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird are still hitting home with thousands of businesses – some of which have soared since the updates while others have all but sunk.
And in most cases, the general consensus is that these updates and those still to come make it an unwise move to intensify SEO efforts and spend even more money on the process.
Common sense? Well, it might appear so on the surface, but there are actually four very good reasons why it might be in your best interests to consider increasing your SEO budget in 2014 and beyond, as opposed to cooling it off a little.
Google Demands It
In order for any SEO to have any kind of value over the coming years, it needs to be the most hard-working and purely white-hat SEO the industry has ever seen. Google has made it abundantly clear that black-hat has no place in the future and that those daring to undertake any such tactics will be punished…severely. From keyword stuffing to article spinning to detritus content used for nothing but filler, use any of these cheap tactics at your peril.
As such, Google’s insistence of only the best SEO practices out there also counts as insistence of the most expensive SEO practices too. Google hasn’t specifically gone out there and told everyone to increase their marketing budgets, but by refining its consideration of SEO elements doing the rounds today, it’s made it clear that increased spending is needed.
Updates to Google’s Algorithms Aren’t Cheap
When and where Google’s updates creep out of the woodwork, the damage can be extensive and expensive. Both Penguin and Hummingbird should have driven the message home pretty conclusively, having left thousands of online businesses forced to completely rework their efforts from the ground up.
For example – content that’s there just as much to fill space as it is to inform and educate has to be replaced with killer content. Poor links need to be tracked down, removed and summarily replaced by those of value to the site. Overuse of keywords or use of the wrong keywords must be quickly rectified to avoid further penalties and so on and so forth.
All of the above processes and tasks don’t come free of charge, so it goes without saying that Google’s updates have a habit of being extremely expensive. And given the fact that there will be plenty more updates rolled out by Google over the years to come, it really only makes sense to plan ahead and expect that sooner or later you’ll be forced to either pay for some repairs, or invest in some preventative medicine.
Marketing and SEO Are One
Some folk have only just gotten out of the habit of assuming SEO is a one-time-only affair. Or in other words, they used to put their SEO strategies and elements in place, only to leave them to their own devices. Sadly, this doesn’t work…never has and never will. SEO, like all other forms of marketing, demands not only execution, but also monitoring, analysis and constant modification to bear any real fruit.
As such, the time has come to stop categorising SEO and marketing as two different entities – they are one and the same.
Good SEO is Worth its Weight in Gold
Last but not least, compared to each and every other form of marketing available today, the ROI successful SEO can bring home is truly spectacular. Small businesses in particular stand to earn the kind of traffic they’d never be able to afford were they to use conventional marketing methods – this is something that hasn’t changed since SEO first came into its own.