Why SEO is not as free as they say!

 

What is SEO?

You may think it is not necessary to start with the question, 'what is SEO?'. But the answer to that question is crucial in explaining why SEO isn't free at all. So I'll do it anyway.

SEO consists of three parts:

• The technology (of your website)
• The content (which is on your website)
• The authority (of your website).

When we talk about the technology, it is about technical aspects such as loading time, indexability, how your website is built, etc.

When we talk about the content, it is about the texts, images and videos that are used on your website.

And when we talk about authority, it is mainly about the number of links that lead to your website.

Now that we all know what we're talking about, I'm going to tell you why SEO isn't as free as you might think.

Why do people actually say SEO is free?

Just like any other part of online marketing, blogs like this one, YouTube videos and e-books can go a long way.

But this does not only apply to SEO. This also applies, for example, to e-mail marketing or, for example, a channel such as Facebook.

So learning SEO is absolutely free to do. And then it is also free to be found by the search engines. You don't have to pay anything directly to Google to be findable.

And if you make the choice to spend twice as much time on SEO, this will in principle cost you nothing extra. That's exactly what people mean when they say SEO is free.

Why SEO is not free at all

To say SEO is free is to say it is free to become a top athlete.

The time you put in 'costs' you nothing, but the food, the shoes, the advice, the sports watch and all those other necessary things will certainly cost you money.

And that also works in SEO. You need the right tools, sometimes paid training, a website including hosting, a good domain name and of course a lot of time.

What they actually mean when they say SEO is free

I really understand what people mean when they say it's free. Basically what they mean to say is that getting started with SEO is free.

After reading a few blogs, you can easily find out keywords, write your first optimized content and become findable within Google.

But at some point you run into a wall. Your competitors have a faster website, better content and buy relevant backlinks every month.

And they do pay for their SEO. So I actually see it very black and white. Beginner SEO is virtually free, but expert level SEO is not.

Certainly not if you need help from an external SEO specialist or online marketing agency. And we haven't talked at all about the latter two.

Because they also cost money (which of course should yield money, but that is not the case everywhere).

Why does SEO seem more free than other online marketing disciplines?

My advice is often the same for 9 out of 10 starting entrepreneurs: spend the next 2 years all your remaining time creating valuable content.

If you do that well for 2 years, then I am sure you can build a business there.
Start with 1 blog per month and scale that up as quickly as possible. Scale that up to a number that suits you well. For me that is, for example, 2 blogs per week. Currently.

Whether you blog once a month or once a half-day, it will no longer cost you (money). For example, do you want to bring in the same number of visitors with Google Ads? Then of course it will cost you money.

Do you want to bring in the same number of visitors with your Facebook page? Then Facebook will limit your reach because you post too much.

What people mean when they say SEO is free is that content creation doesn't cost money. That writing an e-book or social media, for example, does not cost any money.

But do you really want to be on top of Google and beat your competitors on competitive keywords? Then SEO does cost you money.

So the statement that SEO is free isn't entirely fair.