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Is your Internet Marketing company ripping you off?
Recently I had a number of businesses contact me regarding companies selling them Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google Adwords Advertising (Adwords) and even Yellow Pages services. When I identified what they were being charged for I was shocked. Here's what you need to know:
- If you're paying a monthly fee for SEO then something is wrong. If it was done properly you should just keep getting found for the words you wanted to get found for. Many Internet Marketing companies, especially those selling from Australia and India, add a "Management Fee" and do absolutely nothing for it except send you automated email reports each month that Google does for free anyway.
- If someone is selling you Adwords, be careful. If they charge you directly for Adwords then they are making a commission off how many website visitors they get for you. This leads many dodgy Internet Marketing companies to try and get as many visitors to your website as possible even they are unlikely to buy anything such as a website visitor from India when you only sell your products in New Zealand.
- Should you be advertising in Yellow Pages and other Directories? Depends, if your customers are in places where it's hard to get the internet but they get local Yellow Pages or a local Business Directory then the answer is Yes. However, take these stats into account:
- 74% of consumers use a search engine to find local retail or services. (Nielsen NetRatings)
- Google owns 93% of the NZ search engine market share (Returnonnow.com)
- 80% of searchers will not search past page 2 of a search results page [Many won't look past page 1] (Google)
If you'd like me to analyse what your Internet Marketing company is doing for you then contact me and I'll do a free 15 minute assessment.
Often, after blogs like this, I get asked to quote to do SEO and Adwords. These are our packages that I recommend to most of my clients that the "dodgy" Internet marketing companies charge $2,000 - $4,000 a year for:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): $559 + GST
- Google Adwords Campaign: $280 + GST
Total Cost: $839.00 + GST (One-off charge)
Note: You will also need to allocate about $100 per month to pay Google directly for Adwords advertising.
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Brynn