Seo Costs

Hey everyone,

First of all I'm a new member and longtime reader of the forum. We currently have a website that has been around for a little less then a year. We have made it to page 4 on google for our #1 keyword (used boats) but can't seem to move up. The highest we've been is at the bottom of page 3 thus far.
I don't do any of the coding so SEO is and how to do it is a different language to me.

My main question is how much is it for a pro to help one out with SEO? I have tried to get links for months and after sending about 500 emails to marine related companies and webmasters google only shows us as having 2 inbound links. I know this is hurting us but there must be something else we can try to boost our ranking. We get "decent" traffic but like anything else it could be much better.

Any and all feedback and information is greatly appreciated.

Your problem isn't one of how much it will cost you to pay an SEO pro to optimize the site. It's a question of how much time, money, and patience you have. If it's a relatively new site, it's going to take a long time in a market like that (i.e. very hard to break in to). You'll need to accumulate a huge number of links to make it probably even to page one, and you'll need to be adding a ton of content consistently. Your top competitors have pageranks of 6, well over 100,000 indexed pages, links in the tens of thousands, and have been indexed since about the year 2000 (on average). To be honest, you'd be lucky to make it to page 1 in a year even if you were hauling axe (that word is censored right?). But, if you have enough patience and a big enough budget, anything is possible.

Good luck.

Who are you looking to contact? People in your area, or on the net in general?

If it's in your area, maybe look at some regional keywords such as "used boats New Jersey".

My point being, don't even try competing for "used boats" if it's that competitive. Find some niche keywords.

You need to reverse your strategy.

You've spent much time aking an email message, acquiring addresses, waiting for responses, follow-ups, etc...

The problem "what's in it for them"?

Create something that gives reason for other to link to beyond your self-serving need to acquire links.

As for cost & time for SEO... it don't need to take months and it don't need to cost any significant amount - it just need to be realistic... if you want to be the AMAZON of used boats on a national or internation scale the cost will be hundreds of thousands and take along time... but as already noted starting with your immediate area is not only cost effective these are easier sales since the buyer is local.

Once you have local secured gaining 'STATE' success is far easier, and from there 'NATIONAL' success is easier still.