If you’re reading this page, then it means that our plucky little article about SEO packages has made it to the first page of Google.
How do we know that? Well, unless you’re one of the 0.92% of people who scroll past page one and onto page two of the Google search results, then it means that you found us on page one of Google.
Amidst a sea of Australian SEO companies offering SEO packages at various price points, this article has found its way to the top as an informational resource and a warning for businesses looking for a ‘quick’ SEO package solution for their business.
We’re here with a friendly warning about SEO package providers and some information about the caution and health scepticism that you should take when shopping for ‘SEO packages’ in Australia.
What are SEO Packages?
SEO packages are ‘off-the-shelf’ SEO services offered by SEO companies to help businesses improve their SEO presence. In theory, there’s nothing wrong with SEO packages, however, when we take a closer look at traditional SEO packages, it’s important to understand exactly what you’re signing up for.
If you opt for a basic SEO package, then you’ll get the lowest number of resources and time spent on your campaign each month. Conversely, if you opt for a premium SEO package – probably named something like Gold, Diamond or Platinum, then you’ll get a ‘premium’ offering that includes MORE content, MORE links, and MORE support – or at least that’s what they promise.
How are SEO Packages Different to Customised SEO Services?
It’s a fair question, how exactly is an SEO package different to a customised SEO service offering?
In a nutshell, SEO packages provide a standard on-site, off-site, technical, content, and reporting solution that does not always cater towards the unique requirements of a website.
As an example, an SEO package provider may offer X number of words, X number of backlinks, X number of technical resources, and X number of meetings each month.
While an SEO package of this nature may address the four pillars of SEO, it does not do them in a way that addresses the unique challenges faced by a website. Based on the unique requirements of the website, it may need more on-site, more content, or more technical resources to achieve the best SEO outcome. However, when websites are lumped with a standard ‘SEO package’ offering, they are simply receiving deliverables for the sake of fitting into the work flow of an SEO agency instead of receiving the customised support that they may need.
A customised SEO service offering will address the unique requirements of a website. This means considering key factors, such as:
- The goals of the business
- The current position of the business
- Previous SEO work
- The age of the business
- The content requirements
- The previous off-site (backlinks) work
- The technical support requirements
By understanding the current position of a business, an SEO company that offers customised SEO services can then cater their SEO strategy and quote for these services towards the requirements of the business.
Why do companies offer SEO packages?
Ok, so we’ve explained how SEO packages differ from customised SEO services. We’ve also provided a pretty comprehensive warning about why cookie cutter SEO packages aren’t a match for customised services.
So, if off-the-shelf SEO packages are inferior to customised search engine optimisation campaigns, why exactly do other SEO agencies continue to push them?
The answer is quite simple. SEO companies offer SEO packages because they are easy to sell and easy to manage from a workflow perspective. Think about it, if you’ve got a sales team and they are only selling three products, they’re going to get very good at selling those three products.
It’s easy to train salespeople to sell a product, however, it’s not easy to train SEO professionals to understand the unique requirements of a business.
Effectively, by offering SEO packages instead of custom solutions, SEO companies can hire a sales team to handle all of the client onboarding. On the other hand, when you offer customised SEO solutions, SEO agencies need to have SEO consultants and experts that can assess the website before offering a solution.
SEO packages are kind of like a doctor prescribing an exercise plan without understanding your unique health conditions. In some cases, the fitness plan could be helpful, but in other cases, they may be prescribing something that exacerbates previous issues and does not get to the root of what actually needs to be addressed.
The truth is this; by productising SEO marketing into neat little packages, digital marketing agencies can dramatically reduce the sales time and cut out the need for customisation in the sales process. The winner is digital marketing agencies offering SEO – not the businesses that they work with.
Pros of SEO packages for SEO agencies
We’ve already voiced our admittedly cynical stance on SEO packages. But it’s important to provide clarity for would-be SEO clients around why some digital marketing agencies continue to push generic SEO packages.
1. Easy to sell
Like we mentioned above, when you limit the number of SEO packages into three or four different offerings, it becomes easy to train sales people to sell them.
The sales team doesn’t have to talk about the unique pain points of a business, instead, they can launch into a features and benefits spiel with the prospective client.
For digital marketing agencies, the productisation of SEO makes it easy to close leads. If you’re an SEO agency looking to grow your business, SEO packages make a lot of sense. On the other hand, if you’re an SEO agency that is looking to add value to your clients’ businesses, then SEO packages make a lot less sense.
2. Limits options for prospective clients
Decision fatigue prolongs the sales process and results in lost sales.
It doesn’t matter whether you sell a product or a service, it’s important to make the process simple for your would-be clients and ensure that they aren’t overwhelmed with options.
So, when it comes to selling search engine optimisation services, limiting your would-be clients to one or two options (let’s say a bronze or a silver SEO package), you’re effectively cutting down on the number of decisions that are required to reach a sale – which is great if you’re looking to sell SEO.
3. Easy to manage workflow
Productising an SEO service into a neat ‘SEO package’ allows digital marketing agencies to simplify their workflow.
Because they are not providing any custom solutions, digital agencies know exactly how many staff resources are required to deliver the product (SEO in this case) to the consumer.
As a result, digital agencies can easily calculate COGS (cost of goods sold) and ensure that margins stay steady. When you offer customised SEO solutions, managing workflow and internal resources can become much more difficult and costly. Because you’re not rushing each client into a funnel, it means that greater expertise and resources are required.
4. Easy to assign packages to prospective customers
In the same way the SEO packages are simple for a sales team to sell, they are also easy for SEO professionals to classify and pass off to the salespeople. Let’s take a look at the difference between when we (an agency offering customised SEO solutions) receive a lead versus when an SEO package provider receives a lead.
What happens when we (a custom SEO service provider) receive a lead:
- Review lead
- Review current website performance
- Review competitors and understand the SEO gap that exists
- Review any previous SEO work
- Review current content
- Review current backlink profile
- Conduct technical assessment of the website to understand any technical requirements.
- Conduct keyword research to understand competition
- Respond to client to organise an SEO consultation
- Conduct SEO consultation where we explain current position in the market, what is required to close the gap, create a strategy that addresses the unique on-site, off-site, content, technical requirements.
- Send proposal to client
Now let’s compare that to a digital marketing agency that offers ‘SEO Packages’:
- Review lead
- Classify the lead into one of 3-4 different SEO packages
- Send to sales team to organise consultation
- Sales team pitches the features and benefits of SEO package without addressing the unique market position and requirements of the would-be client.
- Digital agency sends out generic SEO proposal with pricing and deliverables
As we can see, the ‘SEO package’ provider is about selling a product whereas a customised SEO solution provider is about understanding the pain points of a business and understanding what is required to provide value.
In this example, the company offering customised SEO is (in almost all cases) much better at doing the actual SEO work. Conversely – and credit where credit is due, the SEO package provider is usually much better at pitching and selling SEO services. Any why shouldn’t they be – when you continue to pitch the same features and benefits to each client without addressing their market position, you should get very good at it.
Pros of SEO packages for businesses
1. Limits decision making
Knowing how much to spend on SEO, who to choose as your agency, and which keywords you should be focussing on can be quite confusing.
For businesses, the idea of a predetermined, productised ‘SEO Package’ can be appealing. It provides an air of clarity over the pricing, and you get a sense of how much you are paying relative to your competitors. Of course, this isn’t true at all, all that you really get a sense of is how far up the agency’s priority order you sit.
Cynicism aside, there’s no denying that SEO packages can be appealing to businesses by virtue of limiting the number of decisions that need to be made. With that said, we still wouldn’t say that this is a good enough reason to opt for an SEO package vs. a custom SEO service solution.
Our gripe with SEO Packages
Our main gripe with SEO packages is that they are lazy.
The companies offer them are trying to keep clients in a box by productising SEO when it really should not be productised. SEO (and most marketing channels for that matter) require a level of customisation that can’t be met with a neat checklist.
At this point, we have audited more than 1,000 websites and we can say with complete certainty that the strategy for each website is never the same. Each website requires different input and different levels of resources from an on-site, off-site, content, and technical perspective to achieve growth.
From a business perspective, selling SEO packages makes a lot of sense for the digital marketing agency. From the perspective of a would-be SEO client, it’s selling them short and not giving them the respect that they deserve.
