Introduction

Many businesses rely on digital advertising to bring in new business.

Therefore, numerous Welsh businesses are constantly and diligently checking where their business ranks on Google.co.uk.
The movement of just a few places on Google SERPs can sometimes mean a difference of hundreds of thousands of pounds to some businesses.

Partnering with the right marketing agency is, therefore, for many businesses.

As we enter into what many predict as an economic downturn because of inflation and perhaps an inflation spiral, which we might be entering, more businesses than ever are closely scrutinising their digital marketing to make sure that it’s offering maximum performance.

As anybody who has invested in SEO services knows, it’s a constant slog. Energy is needed to improve various ranking factors (for example, backlinks and content marketing). Businesses must constantly work hard to improve their ranking factors, which are over 200+ that Google takes into account when determining a business’s ranking.

It’s only when you have the best, when you are the “cream of the crop”, so to speak, in terms of having good quality SEO applied, that you can rank at the top of Google.

Ryan Walsh, who has worked in search engine optimisation for over ten years, wrote the article.

We, therefore, know the pitfalls of choosing the wrong agency. Many websites come to us in a state where it is sometimes hard to spot where

SEO has been applied in previous years or been applied poorly.

This article discusses costs: what’s the price of outsourcing a business search engine optimisation?

We will also answer some frequently asked questions clients often ask us.

 

How much does SEO cost in Cardiff?

The SEO freelancer

 

Some SEO agencies turn up their nose when the word “freelancer” is even mentioned.

However, this is the wrong view, in our opinion. That’s because some freelancers can be godsends, brilliant in what they do, hard-working, diligent, and keeping on top of the numerous Google core updates as they are ruled out by Alphabet (Google).

Then you have the SEO consultants who don’t understand the history and complexity of the Google algorithm. They might dabble in offering SEO services, perhaps on a part-time basis.

These consultants can sometimes be overoptimistic and may not fully understand Google E-EAT and how the algorithm works. Therefore, hiring the wrong person could result in a Google penalty.

In our experience, the price range for a freelancer to improve a business’s local search engine optimisation is typically between £400 a month and £ 1000.

However, this heavily depends on all levels of experience and the competitiveness of the business sector in which your business operates.

 

Partnerships

Sometimes, during an SEO consultant career, they partner up with people who can offer the same services or services that complement their services.

For example, an SEO consultant might partner with a local web designer, perhaps another social media manager, and perhaps somebody who handles client enquiries.

These small agencies don’t carry the same overheads as a more prominent agency. We refer to these as small partnerships.
In our view, that’s precisely what our agency is, a small partnership, and we think this offers the best value money to customers.

We say that because under one roof, you can get all the services you need, from web design to SEO services, and the bill is not as high as it would be at a more prominent agency

 

SEO agency

The next more expensive option is to pick a more prominent agency. Yet, this can come with common pitfalls that many businesses are unaware of.

Sometimes, within a more prominent agency, you will have a handful of SEO consultants who know their stuff. They are worth their salt and well paid.

The businesses are attracted to these larger agencies because they have often worked for well-known brands, perhaps globally recognised brands in some instances.

You have to be aware that, in our experience, the excellent SEO consultants in those agencies may not work on all accounts.

Sometimes, SME businesses are attracted to larger agencies. Yet sometimes, some clients are appointed a more junior SEO consultant, so they are attracted to the bright lights of the agency, but they don’t necessarily get the skill set applied to the website that they thought they would.

Therefore, good consultants are generally reserved for working on larger accounts, such as the plc businesses.
Smaller businesses might be handed to more junior SEO consultants, and in some instances, you might even be better off hiring experienced freelancers with good reputations instead.

Agency fees can often vary between a minimum of a thousand pounds a month, and the sky is the limit up to quite easily 10k plus a month.
What we mean by that is cost often boils down to the competitive business landscape.

It’s a long road

 

It is essential to recognise that search engine optimisation is a long-term process.

You can implement so much work that you turn blue in the face, yet often, you don’t get the results from your work until a Google core update is rolled out.

What we mean by that is you can add quality content marketing, improve technical SEO, and improve on-page SEO.

Yet until you see major Google core updates, which typically roll out 3 to 4 times a year now, you will see the benefit of your work.
In short, SEO takes time.

 

Frequently asked questions: is it worth hiring an SEO freelancer?

This depends, as some freelancers use black hat methods that result in the business getting a penalty.

Research Google Penguin and Google Panda updates, as these highlight how search engine optimisation can be implemented incorrectly, resulting in a Google Manual Penalty. Sometimes, Google places an algorithmic penalty on the site.

In this case, freelancers who use black hat methods must avoid these things like the plague because they will ultimately damage your SEO.

Alternatively, you can find many freelancers with a good reputation who might charge reasonable rates and do an excellent job.

 

Is it worth picking an agency that has experience in my business sector?

 

Most definitely, the United Kingdom is awash with various marketing agencies.

Therefore, if you were to pick a company that specialises in your business sector, it is likely to have much more insight into your industry.
This in-depth industry knowledge might be reflected in content marketing. A significant update, the Google Helpful Content Update, will be released in 2022.

This means that if the content marketing is of excellent quality, the authors put a lot of work into it, and it offers quality and helpful advice; this work ranks higher on Google.co.uk.

Suppose you chose an agency specialising in your business sector. In that case, they should have much more knowledge and insight into the industry, the latest trends, and news impacting businesses in your sector.
If this work is written correctly and has a high Google EEAT score, it will rank higher in the SERP’s.

 

What are the downsides of using a freelancer?

Sometimes, for some SME businesses, it just makes perfect sense to pay a freelancer, say £750 a month, rather than an agency asking over £ 2.5k per month for the same amount of work.

The problem for freelancers is that there are only so many hours in the day.

What we mean by this is that freelancers often have to wear many different caps. One moment, they need to improve technical SEO; the next, they need to write content marketing and build links—therefore, they must be good at many different areas.

They often have to spend many plates simultaneously, as they usually work for several clients.

Therefore, the agency is sometimes better suited to some businesses because it often has specialists in different SEO disciplines.

 

 

Will you see results faster if you hire an agency?

This does depend on which agency you hire.

You might have a consultant who is so good they can cut the mustard, and their work is as good as any UK agency.

Again, the problem with hiring freelancers is time limitations, which might take them longer to complete tasks. Therefore, if you are a small team at a marketing agency working on your site, working on the copywriting and a technical SEO, and working on improving the off-page signals, then on to be they could bring about results in a shorter amount of time

 

How should you go about picking an agency?

One of the best ways to pick a company is to select one that ranks at the top of Google.

For example, if you were to type something like an SEO expert into Google, plus the name of your city or town, the top three results would often be the best to contact, as usually, they will have put a tremendous amount of effort would be put into getting there.

First of all, we would let their results speak for themselves. If the company is ranked at the top of Google.co.uk, this is generally a good indication that they know what they are doing.

That’s only one part of the jigsaw puzzle.

You should ask to speak to some of their current clients to understand how good their work is.

 

Why pick us

We are an agency with proven experience; we’ve been operating for over 10 years.

Packages with us start at £500 per month and increase depending on your business’s competition.

If you would like to partner with us, please get in touch with us today.