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A few years back businesses were throwing 20-30k a month on search engine optimization; at least the bigger businesses were. The small business was hard pressed to find search engine optimization for much less that actually worked.

As of today the landscape of search engine optimization has changed. Many of the once coveted secrets of seo are now common knowledge. More and more people know how to do search engine optimization and since supply increased the prices have dropped.

Another factor is that alot of the grunt work of seo that would have increased costs has been diminished via outsourcing to India and other countries who can now do this mind numbing work for much less thereby allowing seo firms to lower their costs even more.

As an seo with around 7 years of experience I find that most of my time these days is spent in research. Google is pretty good at keeping us all on our toes with each update they make to their search engine algorithm. Scouring forums, chatting with colleagues and investing time in experimentation seems to fill many of my days lately.

Having relegated much of my own firm's grunt work to freelancers I am able to provide more and more value to my own clients for less dollars. In fact I find that my clients keep getting smarter and smarter and more confident about doing their own seo that I many times simply play the role of a consultant or seo coach.

As a consumer though I advise that people still be very careful about what they purchase even if it is cheap. Money is money and after all you still want results. The old rules apply here when searching for affordable search engine optimization and are as follows'

Get case studies from any prospective seo you might hire Get testimonials Check references Look for a proven track record and at least 3 years of online history in the industry Always make sure they have a money back guarantee Try dealing with a local firm based in the U.S. whether or not they use outsourcing is no matter as long as the actual company itself has a U.S. base. The reason being is that if something goes wrong it's very difficult legally if you were dealing with a company based somewhere like Bulgaria.

Honestly a lot of seo really isn't that hard but it does require an attentive eye and a lot of patience. There are tried and true strategies to achieve top rankings but the don't happen over night.

We actually just created a mentoring package for folks who just want to do it themselves and save money and do it the right way. It seems to be working well and I encourage those who are not happy with their current website traffic or search engine rankings to consider such a program as a viable alternative.

Copyright 2005 Charles Preston