Cheap and affordable are not necessarily the same thing, and this applies just as much to SEO companies as it does many other things that you spend your hard-earned money on.

The key to something being affordable is that it provides good value for money. So, when you are looking for an affordable SEO company, how do you ensure that this is what you are getting?

The first thing to understand is that expert SEO support is not cheap. SEO involves a lot of detailed work that takes time and effort, so you must expect to pay for that work. Given this, if the amount you are quoted for an SEO package is too good to be true, then it probably is. To be affordable, the SEO company you are considering needs to provide everything you need, within a time scale that suits your needs, and do this within the budget that you have available. In terms of budgets, it is important to remember that affordable is a relative term.

The marketing and SEO budget of a small start-up and that of a multinational corporation are very different, and therefore so is each company’s understanding of what is affordable. This is why you need to look for an SEO agency with experience in your type and size of business. Not only will they understand your business better, but they will also better understand your budgetary constraints.

A cheap SEO service however, is likely to want to maximize their profit, while doing as little work as possible to help you achieve your goals. This also means that they are less likely to plough money back into their business to achieve that status required to hire the best staff or create the contacts needed to offer aspects such as good back links; which are vital to improving your rankings. 

But, how do you tell the difference when you first approach SEO companies. The key here is to listen to not only what they say they can offer, but also to the questions that they ask you. A company that is looking to offer you value for money wants to know about your business, your needs, and your goals.

They will be looking not only at what they can do for you on your budget now, but also how they can scale up what they offer as your business grows. Such an affordable SEO company sees the value in helping you achieve now to secure larger budgets in the future as your reach and needs grow. A cheap SEO company, however, is less likely to ask questions as they will have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to SEO.

Quality is another indicator of whether the company is affordable rather than cheap. Poor content is a disaster for your website and ultimately your business. Given this, the quality of the content offered by the company is vital. Look not only at examples they offer you but also ask for links to websites they have worked on, so you can see how the content looks when it is live.

Also, search for these websites using the most common search engines and see where they rank. While you cannot expect every website to be in the number one spot, you should expect a reasonable number of them to rank on the first page. 

Determining the difference between a cheap SEO company and an affordable SEO company could be the difference between the success or failure of your business. You should never jump at the first one without first exploring what it is that is being offered for the money they are asking for.