How much (and how often) have you spent on SEO?

[nightmaresonwax]

I haven't had my website optimized yet, and one of the things i am doing this year for my business is spending money on SEO and a complete web site overhaul.

At the moment all i have for in my budget is my website overhaul and 3 months of SEO. While i'd love to do it myself and save the money, I'm not really sure I can. I'm neither html/web code savvy or have the time, so I figure i'll put money into that and let the pro's do it.

I know that 3 months is just only getting started and giving enough time for Google to index their stuff, but it's all I can afford now. How much have you guys spent on SEO and how often do you do it?

[tim]

Spending money on SEO is for suckers. Read on the basics and do it yourself - just google "seo" or "Search engine optimization" and the best sites will be at the top of the results. Google aims to penalize people who use dirty tricks to get up the rankings.

You don't link to your website so we can't check it. The basics are:
- Have good, useful title tags with your location and what you do - "Vancouver Columbo Wedding Photographer - Joe Bloggs - Home". Have a different page title for each page.
- Have lots of keywords and good descriptive text on your home page. Don't overuse key words.
- Have a blog, and publish weekly, so google knows the site's alive.
- Use alt tags on your images.
- Get links to your website from as many other relevant, good quality websites as possible. Directories help as well.

I've never spent a cent on SEO, but i've spent some time on it. One easy way is to have a wordpress website and use SEO plugins. I post up how here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=966640).

[tman2782]

The only thing you should ever spend on SEO it time, and lots of it!

[memoriesoftomorrow]

Spending money on SEO is for suckers. Read on the basics and do it yourself - just google "seo" or "Search engine optimization" and the best sites will be at the top of the results.

This

[Picture North Carolina]

The only thing you should ever spend on SEO it time, and lots of it!

This

And this again.

Most of the "we'll improve your SEO" people / companies are scams.

Humorously, most of them have not only NOT managed to get themselves on page one, but you can hardly find their listings at all.

This old site (http://selfpromotion.com/) has been around for year and (honestly) looks like crap. But there's good info here and probably the best place to start your own campaign.

BTW, here's a quote from the site:

"99% of Webmasters don't need costly website optimization and submission services. Interestingly, 99% of “Search Engine Professionals” don't mention this -- they're too interested in charging you for their services."

[jonwhite]

The only thing you should ever spend on SEO it time, and lots of it!

Thats an oxymoron, if doing SEO stops you doing something that earns you money then paying a specialist to do it for you instead may be a good investemnt.

Having said that I have never paid for SEO myself (apart from buying some decent links on wedding websites) but I know the UK photographer that was position one in the UK for "Wedding Photographer" paid for it and he definitely thought it was worthwhile.

Getting a high organic position for a regional term on google (e.g. local town or county + wedding photographer) is reasonably straight forward but getting to page one for "wedding photographer" in your country is far more challenging.

Its big money for good SEO though, £500+ per month to have a shot at a national search term in the UK....... if it brings in the inquiries though maybe its worthwhile ?

[tman2782]

Thats an oxymoron, if doing SEO stops you doing something that earns you money then paying a specialist to do it for you instead may be a good investemnt.

While that is probably true, my comment was in the context. SEO in all honesty shouldn't take too much time at all, you just need to know where to optimize. I'm quite certain when the OP posted, he meant paying for those online SEO gimmicks or page submitters or whatever they like to be called these days. They are a total waste of time because only you personally know what you do exactly and how to market yourself to the searching community.

[Tanya De Leeuw]

If you really want to learn how to do it yourself ... here's an excellent free course: http://www.gnc-web-creations.com/seo-optimization.htm

To get good organic traffic, just have relevant text on every page, everything (keywords, etc) in moderation, links to/from relevant and reputable pages/sites ... it takes a bit of effort to get it up and running but once you work it into your routine, it takes mere minutes a week!

[nightmaresonwax]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Luckily i havent made any commitments so perhaps I can do this myself after all. I was initially fearful because i thought perhaps i need to know enough about html and coding to work on each page of my site, but i could at least start with basics.

[tim]

SEO is all basics, there's really nothing complex about it. If your site is plain HTML you'll have to edit it of course.

[Hikin Mike]

Save your money. Do the basics (read my SEO link in my sig) and you'll do fine.