Why You Need an SEO
And How to Get One You Can Afford
To hire a full-time seasoned pro to be your internet marketing director would cost $180,000, easy, in annual salary alone, bare minimum. And that is if you are lucky enough to find an expert to work that cheap.
The True Cost of In-House SEO
To hire a full-time seasoned pro to be your internet marketing director would cost $180,000, easy, in annual salary alone, bare minimum. And that is if you are lucky enough to find an expert to work that cheap. And by an expert, I mean a hardened veteran of SEO like myself, who has been around since the beginning and dealt successfully with every kind of situation.
On top of paying that kind of salary for an internet marketing director, you would also have to pay FICA, health insurance, 401k, other benefits and perks, reimbursement of expenses and so on as the employer. It's hard to estimate the true cost of hiring a full-time in-house consultant, but I think you get the point. It's more than the average small business can afford.
If you were good at making money on the internet, would you want (or need) to go to work for someone besides yourself? Would you choose to have your freedom and earning potential restricted? I know I wouldn't. For me, you'd have to include 100% autonomy and a very tempting incentive plan.
$180,000+
Annual salary for in-house SEO director
And let's not forget about your DIGITAL MARKETING BUDGET, the one your new director needs to manage, in order to run your internet marketing campaign and the things it will require.
But then I guess it should, considering it's THE #1 best way to increase revenue for most any kind of business.
Gone Are the Days of Set It and Forget It
Our Story
I'm Shelley Cates, the first SEO consultant in Dallas, TX. I started learning website design and search engine optimization in 1999. I have been running my own internet marketing consultancy since 2002. There was a day when I could easily rank a website and keep it ranked all by myself.
I could put you at the top of Google, Yahoo! and Bing and keep you there without much effort. All it required was paying a one-time fee to me for SEO implementation — no ongoing SEO expense or maintenance fees were required.
Clients would come to me, I would fix them up, and then they'd go on their merry way, for the most part never to need me for much of anything again. For some clients, this magic lasted for many years. Imagine it — ranking at the top of all 3 major search engines organically for free — year after year after year.
The New Reality
Gone are the days when you could throw up a website and rank it, when you could set it and forget it. Now it requires full-time dedication.
It was threatened for a long time, 3-4 years before it finally happened. It wasn't complacency on my part really, not as much as it was a lack of time to provide proper attention. Let's face it — time is not slowing down. In fact, it's speeding up. Everything is, and the internet is no exception!
It's a full-time job to keep one website ranked well now. The competition is insanely fierce and keeps growing and splintering off into more diverse niches, and Google keeps changing and raising the bar for what passes as quality and rank worthiness. One person — and usually even one company — can no longer do it all.
They Work To Grow Their Profit Margins as an Agency — We, as True Internet Marketing Consultants, Work To Grow Yours!
Yes, there are SEO companies who are one-stop shops doing EVERYTHING in-house, and they very well may be good. But here is the MAJOR difference between them and us…
Our Network of Independent Service Providers
We've built relationships with trusted service providers whom we have worked closely with for years. Each specializes in one or more of the components listed in the What You Need to Succeed Online section of this website. And because of the high volume of business we drive their way, 50-75% of their earnings or more, we qualify for the best pricing and customer service they have to offer as their #1 client.
Instead of reselling their services to you at a mark-up, we pass the best pricing we qualify for on to you. We earn our established fee as internet marketing advisers and overseers, not re-sellers.
Simple, Transparent, Effective
Affordable Monthly Consulting
Engage us as your Internet Marketing & SEO Consultants for a low monthly fee (compared to the cost of a dedicated employee) and we will work closely with you to establish and manage EVERYTHING you need for success online. The amount monthly will depend on how time intensive managing your internet presence will be. It could be $500 a month, which is our minimum, or $1,000 and up.
We won't be able to determine the consulting fee until we do the free analysis. In this we will assess your current status and needs, establish your budget with you, and create a customized plan of action.
One Point of Contact
You pay your monthly internet marketing budget to us, in advance, each month. We take our fee out of that, and secure all the other services you require on your behalf. You are our customer, and we are the customer of the service providers. This way you have one point of contact, one person to hold accountable, and one invoice.
At any time, if you don't feel like you're getting your money's worth, then you can be released to find a better solution, if you can. Our fee is earned for consulting and oversight and is an itemized part of your digital marketing budget and invoice. Everything is transparent.
And if one supplier falls down on the job, only that one has to be replaced, not an entire team. With an agency it's not so easy — you usually have to start completely over with everything. No one person or company, that I have seen, is proficient at or capable of performing EVERY duty related to successful internet marketing today. It takes experts in quite a few areas.
Check Out Our Rave Reviews From Past SEO Clients!
“Let me tell you, I'd be out of business without Shelley. Work was slow. I was desperate. I tried everything. Larger ads in the Yellow Pages was first, and it almost sunk us. I tried mailers. I tried knocking on doors. She finished in June, and the work started coming in in July. We thought it was just a summer rush. Then more calls. All from the website. We used to get 2 or 3 calls a week from it. Then the calls kept going up. We get about 20 calls a week from it now, and sometimes more. I get 3 or 4 emails a week from it, but most of the customers call us. Every single day we thank Shelley. I've got 60 workers now, instead of 15, year round.”
Dennis Rials
Dallas, TX
“The SEO service that Shelley provides is truly FIVE STAR! She has delivered on her goal to optimize my site for the search engines. When I investigated this process, I received quotes from companies requiring large up front fees plus monthly retainers. I doubt that any of these companies would have done any better. Shelley is honest and efficient. She is able to follow up on my requests quickly, often within a few hours. She has my highest recommendation…. On a scale of 1-100, where 1 is terrible and 100 is terrific. Shelley is a 101! Best investment I ever made.”
Scott Zashin M.D.
About Visual Rankings's Network of Independent Service Providers
We've built relationships with trusted service providers whom we have worked closely with for years. Each specializes in one or more of the components listed in the What You Need to Succeed Online section of this website.
We are also always open to learning about new relationships, and are willing to work with your existing suppliers, or anyone deemed to be in your best interest to partner with. We do not take kick-backs from any vendors either. We make our money managing your needs to our utmost ability, and they make theirs by servicing ours as their client, it's a win-win.
We call our existing suppliers our “team members” because that's what they are. We make a great team, and have working together down to a science. However, we choose to remain independent from them, which is in your favor, since it allows us to serve YOUR needs in the best way possible. Instead of reselling their services to you at a mark-up, we pass the best pricing we qualify for on to you.
Our “team members” love us! Why? Because in addition to the volume of business we send their way, we also deal with you, the client, so they don't have to. This saves them a ton of time and hassle. They get to focus on what they do best and so do we.
Ready to Get Started?
If you are interested in exploring working with Visual Rankings, please contact Jeff Tropiano for more information. He will provide you with a free needs evaluation and proposal.
The only qualifier, is that you can NOT be a personal injury lawyer in Texas, due to a non-compete in place.