Simply put, SEO is the process of increasing your online awareness by ranking higher on internet search engines for the keywords that matter specifically to your business.

For example, let's say you are a concrete contractor trying to reach more customers for driveway repair. Well, what are your customers searching for on Google to find you? A good assumption may be "concrete contractors near me" or "driveway repair companies."

Well, Google is going to determine what websites to show within their algorithm for that particular search based on various sets of criteria. And the search results, also known as SERPs, will change every single time depending on the location of the searcher and the keywords that are typed in.

What if you came up number 1 in that search? Well, according to data provided by Google, an upwards of over 70% of website traffic goes to the #1 result. And nearly 90% of the traffic goes to the top 3 results. If you aren't in the top 5, you should pretty much forget about any type of search traffic coming in from Google or other search engines.

This is where SEO comes in and why KC based companies should be investing in their marketing. You could generate an enormous amount of leads to your business if you were in the top 3 spots of Google for the search terms in your industry.

By hiring an SEO firm to strategically make your domain URL more powerful over time, you can increase your revenues by building out a pipeline for your customers and clients to find you on Google.

It depends.

But the short answer is, SEO is a long term investment that can take months and sometimes years to pay dividends. It's entirely dependent on your competition and how hard it is to rank for specific key terms in certain geographical areas.

Some keywords are easy to rank for, while others are incredibly difficult. Typically, local SEO is a lot easier to rank faster (~6-8 months) for than national based (> ~1 year) search rankings. However, again, it simply just comes down to the competition you're going up against.

As a quick tip - don't ever trust a company who says they can get you to the top of Google in 3 months. Or worse, faster than that. Good SEO must be done safely and strategically. And anyone promising you results like that are going to absolutely destroy your chances of ever ranking again. Google will place you on page 10 for violating it's terms of use and you'll never see the light of day again. You must use reputable companies who use white-hat, AKA, safe methods of growing your search presence.

The cost of instituting an SEO plan comes down to how fast you want to rank at the top and how competitive the keywords are within your niche. It also depends often on how expensive your product/service is, and what your margins are like.

SEO costs are charged on a monthly basis and can range anywhere from $500/mo locally - $25,000/mo nationally. But for most local companies with 1 location, you should expect somewhere between $500-$2500/mo.

Again, anyone coming at you with lower prices than that, just run for the hills. Any reputable company is going to charge a healthy amount because they know how much labor is involved in this stuff. If someone proposes an amount less than that, it means they are either not doing what they say they are doing, or they are using scammy black-hat methods that will ruin your URL and domain.

Let's break down how the pricing often works:

Take for example a company who may want to rank locally for "residential painting contractors." Well, most home painting projects can range from $3000-$10,000, or even higher. Compare that to a handyman who may be trying to rank for something like "handyman repair company" where the average service price is around $250. Wouldn't the painting contractor be more likely to spend more on their marketing in order to get a job worth $7500 compared to the handyman who could only make $250?

Yes. Which is why there are a ton of painting contractors in any given city who are trying to invest in their SEO. Which is also why painting contractor SEO is much more expensive than the handyman's pricing. There is more competition and the businesses are willing to pay a lot more for their marketing services. That drives up the competition and drives up the price for everyone.

So the long answer here is that it depends on these factors:

1. Do you want to rank locally or nationally, or both?
2. The more locations you have, the more expensive it will be because you have to rank in multiple places instead of just 1.
3. The more competition you have, the more expensive your SEO.
4. The more expensive your product/service is, the more expensive your SEO usually is. This is NOT always the case, but is usually the norm.

If you haven't found out by now, every company or digital marketing agency will approach their SEO strategy a little differently. And though this tends to be a trade secret for most companies, we aren't opposed to talking about it.

In order to not write a novel here, we'll sum it up with this

1. Great content on your website
2. Powerful white-hat link building strategies
3. Website and page speed - we design websites and develop them on Wordpress, giving us the ability to get these puppies humming.
4. On-site SEO where we make sure the content is written for search engines to read appropriately
5. We send social signals on social media marketing outlets to help show that you're a living, breathing company.

There are a few other strategies that we use to rank locally on Google for our clients, but we'll leave that for another time.

There are a lot of great SEO agencies in Kansas City, and nearly too many general digital marketing companies to count. We don't believe in talking bad about our competition, so let us tell you why you should consider hiring us:

• Our results speak for themselves
  • When looking at hiring an SEO company in KC or really any type of online marketing business, always have them show you proof of their past success. Why? Because many people can get into digital marketing and pull one over on you because they know the "lingo." But very few have the proof to back up their claims. Make them show you.
  • At Segalo Media, we believe in the bottom line. Our sole goal is to make our clients more money and make them more valuable over time. If something doesn't apply to increasing the revenue, we don't do it. That's why we look at things like call counts and online lead forms. If we aren't making your phones ring and filling up your email inbox with leads, we're not doing our job. Don't just pay for marketing and hope it works - get a company who can show you proof that they know what they're doing.
• We are as honest as they come
  • Sometimes, digital marketing companies don't exactly tell you everything you need to know to make a good decision on who to hire. For example, it's notorious for agencies to take on work doing something they've never done before. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it should be disclosed because there is a realistic chance they won't be successful with your project.
    • At Segalo Media, we will not only tell you about our track record, we'll show you. In fact, we'll even tell you right now that there have been past projects we haven't been successful in. We know our strengths and our weaknesses, which is why we really hone in on our marketing referral engine that rests heavily on search engine optimization.
• We provide reporting on EVERYTHING
  • I don't know about you, but it's really aggravating when you pay for something and don't know what you're getting. That is notorious and highly prevalent in SEO and digital marketing niches. That's why you need to go with someone who isn't afraid to let you look under the hood.
    • At Segalo Media, we not only let you look under the hood, but we put your vehicle up on the lift and let you look at every square inch. Under, over, around - we show you every single thing we're doing, how we're doing it, when we're doing it, and why we do it. For many clients, they don't care to look at any of this, but it sure does provide some peace of mind to know what you're paying for.
    • Investing in your marketing isn't cheap, so don't trust a company just because they tell you to trust them. Make them SHOW you with marketing analytics and data.
• We constantly evolve and keep up with trends
  • The internet and online marketing changes rapidly year to year. For example, did you know the Google updates its search algorithm an upwards of 8-9 times PER DAY?! If you hire a company that is stuck in their ways and are still using the same strategies they've always used, you're going to get competitors like our clients who are eating their competitor's lunch.
  • At Segalo Media, we know our crap :). Plain and simple. We constantly change the way we approach our strategies to keep up with the consistent changes and trends.