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“Am I paying too much for SEO?” This is a question you might find yourself asking as you plan your budget. SEO has long been shrouded in a bit of mystery, with costs that seem to fluctuate as much as the algorithms themselves. So, how do you ensure you’re not getting ripped off? How much do you actually need to spend to see real, tangible results?
In a world where SEO is less about technical tweaks and more about producing high-quality, informative content, the rules are changing.
Last year’s Google Helpful Content Update is a case in point, signalling a shift towards rewarding content that truly serves users over the optimised, keyword-stuffed pages of the past.
Understanding this shift is crucial as it directly impacts how you should think about your SEO budgeting.
By the end of this article, you’ll be perfectly clear on exactly what focus areas you need to prioritise as part of your SEO strategy and how much you need to budget.
How Much Should You Budget for Technical SEO Optimisation?
The first thing you’ll need is to check that the nuts and bolts of your website are tight.
Think about it like this: a technical SEO audit is a bit like going under the hood of your car. You wouldn’t want to drive cross-country without making sure everything’s running smoothly, right?
This audit looks at your website’s framework to spot any issues—like slow load times, broken links, or sloppy tags—that could drag down your search engine performance.
So how many audits should you get and how often?
Getting at least one detailed audit each year is smart. It keeps your site’s foundation rock solid so you can build a killer content strategy on top.
However, if you’re serious about SEO, it might make sense for your business to invest in ongoing technical SEO optimisation.
Now, you might wonder how much cash to throw at this. Well, the price tag varies depending on how complex your website is and how thorough the audit needs to be.
Let’s take a look at how much you might need to budget if you invested in ongoing SEO optimisation.
As a rough guide, we charge our clients $9,000 per month for ongoing SEO Optimisation (and $14,000 p/m for larger companies with greater needs). This price also includes working across your business in other areas, as you can see in the image below:
You might see this and think, isn’t it better to just spend on a pure SEO Agency to save costs?
Here’s the thing: pure SEO Agencies are a waste of money. Times have changed, and optimising your website for SEO month in month out without also producing high quality content is a waste of resources.
We don’t believe in just SEO, and that’s why we can give our clients a greater impact on revenue with a more holistic approach.
As such, rather than only offering SEO, we tailor our time to the highest impact activities for your business.
How Much Should You Budget for SEO Blog Articles?
Content is still king.
In today’s SEO realm, it’s all about crafting valuable, spot-on content that answers your audience’s burning questions and meets their needs head-on.
This should be where you funnel most of your SEO budget.
Why? Because compelling content doesn’t just pull visitors to your site; it engages them, keeps them around, and boosts your chances of turning them into customers.
Even better, genuinely helpful content lifts your site’s credibility and nudges your search rankings up the organic way.
With Google’s Helpful Content Update, this is even more relevant than ever before.
Ok, so content is important. But how do I implement this?
The key is to create content that is genuinely helpful to your audience. If you can do this, you’ll boost your site’s authority and ranking.
Here’s how you can do just that:
Read:How to Write Blog Articles that Rank & Generate Leads
The second key is to do it consistently. We recommend writing three articles every week because we’ve found this to work best.
Read:Why Your Business Needs to Write Three Articles Per Week
So, how much should I invest in producing content?
This depends on whether you outsource your content production or manage it in house. If you manage it in house, you’ll need a full time Content Manager.
Read: How to evaluate potential content managers for your team
Depending on where your business is at, we typically recommend investing in an in-house team and hiring a Content Coach.
This has a few benefits, including:
- Greater quality control
- Significantly faster execution
- Employees are happier, more skilled and feel more valued
- Saves money in the long run
- Finite/limited time period for payments
- Increases the value of the company because you own the systems and processes
If you manage your content in house, budget for at least one full time person for content production, and a Content Coach to train your team.
At RedPandas, we offer Coaching Services called ‘They Ask, You Answer’ Coaching, which includes marketing and sales coaching, with the single goal of significantly increasing your leads, sales and revenue. You can see our costs around coaching here to get a better idea of budgeting.
If you outsource your content production, the cost for that is going to depend on the agency and the volume of content you’re looking at generating.
However, we don’t recommend outsourcing your content production for these reasons:
- Speaking in your brand’s authentic voice is a challenge
- Speed of execution is slower
- You’re competing with the agency’s other clients
- When the bills stop, so too does the results
- More expensive in the long term
So, What’s Next?
Determining how much to budget for SEO doesn’t have to feel like a shot in the dark. Remember, there’s three key areas to consider for your SEO Budget:
- SEO Audit (at least once annually)
- Technical Optimisation (ongoing or annually, dependent on your needs)
- Content Production (aiming to manage this in house and hiring a coach to train your team)
Perhaps you’ve invested in SEO before, but nothing has worked. If that’s you, then check out this article on what you can do about it.
Read: 20 Tips on How to Improve SEO, Even if Nothing Else is Working
