In the SEO sphere, there are some proven practices that should be followed by everyone, along with scores of variables that apply to individual businesses.

For instance, all the SEO service providers will have to embrace content marketing in one form or other to create a strong base for their SEO strategy. However, it is not necessary that every business has to be present on Pinterest or Instagram or conduct outreach for link building.

You will get great results if you dedicate a larger amount of your budget to your SEO initiatives. Not only will there be a huge volume of high quality content and links, but your website’s organic search visibility will correspondingly rise faster. But all businesses won’t have the same mix of online marketing efforts and taste success. Thus, if you notice the success of one company, you shouldn’t be only relying on reverse engineering their campaign for your business, one that is completely different.

Setting a budget for the right SEO campaign is a tough task and you will need to go through several considerations and with a total budget in mind, you could then assign it in parts to various components. A budget is not a decision that you take lightly and once you see the results you want, it’ll be easier to determine where your money should be.

There is a simple process that could be utilized to set the SEO budget:

1. Know how much you could spend

This is the very first step as this is where it all begins. It involves that you know your own limits. If you are building a startup, or a small business with limited cash on hand, you may be having some amount dedicated to the new marketing campaign. You could also be cutting down the other marketing strategies to divert more of your investment towards SEO. It is vital to know your own cash limit.

The decision could get even harder if your business is doing well and have extra money to spend. If you are still unsure about the effectiveness of the campaign, you could start with a small cap.

2. Set Objectives

Next, you could think about the things that you want to achieve with the SEO campaign. Is it traffic, leads, sales, brand awareness, or customer retention? SEO could do wonders for your business. However, what are you trying to achieve out of it?

These goals will also help you in making amendments to your budget. For instance, if you are only interested in local traffic, you could bend the strategy towards local SEO which is less competitive and generally more affordable. If generating revenue if your main goal, you will require to target only the relevant keywords for the company and that takes time.

3. Consider the SEO resource

Once you have an idea about the investment and the objectives, you will need to consider the resource from where you will get your SEO done. Normally, there are three resources:

l hire someone in-house l contract the work to freelancers l partner with an agency (like Mariposa!) When you contract the work to the freelancer, it is saves a good amount of money but it comes with the highest risk. When you hire someone to work for SEO in-house, it will limit the range of options you have based on their knowledge and experience. An agency may seem a little more costly, however, it comes with a near guarantee of results and a diverse range of expertise.

4. Analyze The Current Status On Organic Search

Take a look at your current status on organic search visibility. Is it appearing alright on mobile and has it been assigned the mobile-friendly tag by Google? Are all of your pages optimized with appropriate titles and descriptions?

Conduct an SEO audit of your website. Is the content marketing strategy in place for your website? Is it effective enough to hold the attention of your prospects?

SEO is a wonderful online marketing process that will always give you time to adjust the budget, tactics and make important changes to the campaign at various parts.