Here we go over some of the most common questions and requests that we receive at our Sheffield office, form business owners all over South Yorkshire.
How much does SEO cost?
Depending on who you purchase from the cost of SEO can vary a lot, but for an agency services normally start around £300 per month, and for a consultant they can be a little less starting around £250 per month.
The benefit of using a consultant is there are less hard costs involved, are agencies have to pay for employees, premises etc, whereas a consultant can spend more of your budget on actually achieving the work.
Do you do SEO packages?
SEO packages are interesting, as they aren't really a very good way of displaying the tasks needed for an SEO campaign. As each situation will be so specific to you industry, and the level of competition in your area, packages cannot truly reflect the potential cost, and therefore we always recommend a custom quotation for campaigns.
I don't need SEO, nobody Googles my product or service right?
This is the most common mistake made among small businesses in 2016.
The search volumes for service based local industries are large, and growing every day. You're potentially missing out on thousands of customers a month, simply because you think "people aren't online".
Are SEO services safe?
Search engine optimisation is as safe as the person performing it. If they are sloppy, or rushing things, then they can create footprints which the algorithm may penalise you for. In general, practicing SEO onto a website is safe, and will do it no harm, unless you perform spam link building or keyword stuffing practices.
Do you do white-hat, ethical, Google safe SEO?
This is a common miss-conception, the difference between white-hat and black-hat SEO, and whether one way is ethical and safe for Google.
The truth is, all SEO is against Google's terms of service, so therefore all SEO is techinically unethical. But by the same standards, when you sneak your own popcorn into the cinema instead of buying from the premises is technically unethical, it all depends on your moral compass.
We prefer to give the power back to small businesses, helping them outperform their larger rivals with a fraction of the budget, by any means necessary.
How long does SEO normally take?
This again varies depending on how competitive the industry is. The more websites actively performing SEO to their sites in the top 10, the more competitive it will be. The most competitive industries online nationally are payday loans, gambling, and affiliate spaces, whereas locally they tend to be locksmiths, plumbers, and roofing contractors.
How has SEO changed now we're in 2016?
Below is a great video by Josh Bachynski, where he outlines the changes as we move through 2016 and beyond, including schema.org structured data, click through rate optimisation, and the importance of brand reputation on Google search results.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO involves optimising a website and business listing in maps to appear highly for locally relevant keywords, such as plumber in Sheffield.
This can involve local link building, implementing local business information such as schema.org markup, and making sure all business citations have consistent information on them.
What is online marketing?
Online marketing covers not just SEO, but social media, video, and paid advertising. It basically covers all online media platforms, where a business might be able to market it's product to a potential consumer. It contains areas such as social media marketing, online advertising, pay per click advertising, conversion optimisation, seo audits and other such search engine optimsation services.
What areas do you cover in South Yorkshire?
As we can perform SEO remotely, we operate in Sheffield but serve all areas of South Yorkshire from the Peak District, to Meadowhall, Rotheram to the Millhouses.
Are you a consultant, an agency, an expert or a company?
I am Matt Jackson, and I am the director of JP Digital Enterprises LTD, along with fellow director Andrew Porwol. We provide SEO consulting services, as well as offline marketing, business positioning, and other services, which can fulfill the role of an agency, expert, or consultant, depending on your needs.
