Are SEO Services Worth It?

An Honest Answer from Someone Who Sells SEO

Let me be straight with you right from the start.

I sell SEO services. So you might think I'm biased when I answer the question "are SEO services worth it?"

But here's the thing: I'm going to give you the most honest answer I can, including situations where SEO might not be the right move for you right now.

Because if I tell you SEO is worth it when it's not, you'll waste your money and I'll lose credibility. And if I convince you it's not worth it when it actually is, you'll miss out on massive growth and I'll miss out on helping you succeed.

So let's talk honestly about whether SEO services are worth the investment for your business.

The Question I Hear Every Week

"Why shouldn't I just spend the money on Google Ads instead?"

Business owners ask me this constantly. It's a fair question. With Google Ads, you pay money and immediately start showing up at the top of search results. With SEO, you pay money and wait months to see results.

So why would anyone choose SEO?

Here's why: Google Ads stop working the second you stop paying. SEO keeps working long after you've made the investment.

Let me give you a real example.

When a Skeptic Became a Believer

Fine and Dandy Aussiedoodles came to me spending a lot of money on Facebook and Instagram ads every month. They were hesitant to invest in SEO on top of that ad spend.

I told them, "If you spend the money on SEO, we'll be able to replicate your online traffic with just organic traffic. Eventually, you won't need those ads anymore."

They didn't believe me at first. Who would? It sounds too good to be true.

But they eventually listened. We built out comprehensive SEO focusing on bottom-of-funnel keywords (searches from people actively looking for Aussiedoodle breeders in Western North Carolina).

Now? They get more traffic than they ever did with paid ads. And they no longer need to run those expensive Facebook and Instagram campaigns.

They went from spending $500 a month on ads to paying us $250 a month for ongoing SEO after we overhauled their site. And they're outselling on organic traffic what they were doing with paid ads.

That's why SEO services are worth it. The investment pays for itself, and then it keeps paying dividends.

Click here to learn about our approach to SEO for Waynesville clients like FADA

Another Example: When SEO Blew My Expectations Out of the Water

Heavenly Fudge came to me relying entirely on paid ads to make sales. Every dollar in revenue required ad spend. It was working, but it wasn't sustainable.

We implemented strategic SEO, and the results honestly shocked even me.

They started selling more fudge in a week than they were selling in an entire year before.

The SEO investment paid for itself in two months. Not two years. Two months.

Their ROI was 25x what they spent on SEO services. I can't share their exact dollar figures (they prefer to keep that private), but trust me when I say the return was massive.

Now they have sustainable, growing revenue without being dependent on expensive ads.

So Are SEO Services Worth It? Here's My Honest Answer

I've worked with dozens of businesses across Western North Carolina and beyond. And I'm going to be completely honest with you:

I personally haven't ever found a business that wouldn't see some benefits from improving their SEO.

I don't know if there is any business that wouldn't benefit from good SEO. Maybe a business that gets paid by not showing up on Google? (I'm being sarcastic, obviously.)

Click here to see my approach to SEO

SEO services would only not be worth it if:

• Your site is already perfectly SEO optimized (extremely rare)

• You genuinely don't want to grow your business

• You're going out of business soon and need immediate cash flow, not long-term growth

That's basically it. For everyone else, SEO is absolutely worth it.

But What About the Timeline? How Long Before It Pays Off?

This is the biggest concern I hear: "SEO takes too long."

Here's the reality.

Generally, SEO can take two to three months before Google really starts to catch up with the improvements being made. You'll see some improvements in the first month, and then it scales from there.

However, if your website has existed for a while and already has some domain authority, these impacts can be seen as soon as 8 hours when focusing on bottom-of-funnel keywords.

I've seen it happen. We optimize a page for a specific high-intent keyword, and within hours it's ranking and driving traffic.

The slowest SEO payoff I've experienced was actually my own personal website because I was building it from scratch. When you're brand new to Google, you're essentially invisible and you have to claw your way into visibility. That takes time.

But most small businesses already have a website that's been around for a while. You have some domain authority already. We're just optimizing what exists and adding strategic pages to capture more searches.

Our approach: we focus on fast-ranking, high-intent, bottom-of-funnel keywords at first to drive traffic to your page faster. But before we really see crazy numbers, we must be patient as Google sees your page improvements and rewards you with rankings.

What "Worth It" Actually Means (Let's Talk Real Metrics)

When I say SEO services are worth it, what am I actually measuring?

Not just rankings. Not just traffic numbers. Those are vanity metrics.

Here's what actually matters:

Sales. Are you selling more products or services?

Phone calls. Are potential customers calling you?

Appointments set. Are people booking with you?

Lead forms. Are qualified leads reaching out?

Foot traffic. Are people finding you online and then visiting your physical location?

These are the metrics that prove SEO is worth the investment.

For The Pressley Group (an insurance agency), we measured worth by the number of quotes written. More quotes mean more potential customers, which means more policies sold.

For Heavenly Fudge, we measured actual product sales. Were people buying more fudge?

For Fine and Dandy Aussiedoodles, we measured inquiries from qualified buyers and ultimately puppy deposits.

Every business is different, but the question is always the same: is SEO bringing in more revenue than it costs?

For my clients, the answer is consistently yes.

The Real Cost Breakdown: Is It Actually Affordable?

Let's talk numbers because this is where the "worth it" question really comes down to reality.

Most small businesses I work with were spending $20,000 to $50,000 per year on traditional marketing like billboards, newspaper ads, and direct mail with zero measurable results.

Strategic SEO services typically cost around $5,000 per year for ongoing optimization.

That's a tenth of the cost for exponentially better results.

"But wait," you might say, "I saw SEO services online for $500 a month. Why would I pay you more?"

Great question. Let me be honest about this.

Someone getting paid $500 a month to do SEO isn't going to have the focus level to dig as deep as I do for the bottom-of-funnel keywords that actually convert.

At that price, they're likely focusing on volume of clients, so you will never get the individual attention and daily checking of your site that I do.

I'm writing this on Thanksgiving night after I did an audit for all of my clients to see where they are growing, what keywords to start attacking for Christmas, and what pages are working for Black Friday.

Cheap SEO services are almost always:

• Outsourced to people who don't understand your market

• Cookie-cutter approaches that don't work for your specific business

• Focused on quantity (managing 50 clients poorly) over quality (managing 10 clients exceptionally well)

You get what you pay for. And with SEO, paying for cheap services often means paying twice (once for the cheap service that doesn't work, then again for someone to fix the damage).

When SEO Isn't the Right Move (Yes, I'm Being Honest)

Alright, let's talk about when you shouldn't invest in SEO services.

If you need cash flow THIS MONTH, not in three months: SEO is a long-term investment. If your business is in a cash crunch and you need revenue immediately, paid ads might be the better short-term play. Once you stabilize, then invest in SEO for sustainable growth.

If you're not willing to wait 2-3 months for meaningful results: Some people want instant gratification. SEO isn't instant. If you can't commit to the timeline, don't waste your money.

If you're not willing to invest in quality content: SEO requires good content. If you want to go the cheap route with AI-generated garbage, you're going to get penalized by Google. I've seen tons of businesses try to do SEO with AI tools and create absolute garbage slop that Google punishes them for. Some literally got wiped off Google entirely.

If you're not willing to do it right, don't do it at all.

The Alternative: What Happens If You Don't Invest in SEO?

Let's say you decide SEO services aren't worth it. What happens?

You won't show up on Google. Your competitors will.

You won't grow. At least not from clients finding you online.

You'll lose potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands in revenue. Especially if you're in a tourist-heavy market like Western North Carolina where people are constantly searching for businesses like yours.

This happens all the time, especially to restaurants. Amazing food, great atmosphere, but tourists can't find them when they search "restaurants near me." So they eat somewhere else.

The opportunity cost of waiting another year to invest in SEO is massive. Every month you wait is another month your competitors are capturing customers who could have been yours.

What About DIY SEO? Can You Do It Yourself?

Honest answer: Yes, if you have the time and you're willing to learn.

If a business owner has the time to research keywords, research their competitors, write high-quality content, and know exactly what to do when building pages so that keywords are well utilized but not stuffed, then yes, business owners can do their own SEO.

But here's the reality: most business owners don't have that time. You're already running a business, managing employees, dealing with customers, handling operations.

SEO requires consistent effort, ongoing research, and staying up to date with Google's constantly changing algorithms.

Where DIY makes sense:

Business owners can give ideas of what customers might be searching for. This helps narrow the focus on the best keywords. You know your customers better than anyone.

You can write content about your business better than anyone because you're the expert in what you do.

Where DIY falls apart:

Technical optimization (site speed, mobile responsiveness, schema markup, proper header structure)

Competitive keyword research (knowing which keywords you can actually rank for vs. which ones are impossible)

Avoiding Google penalties (there are a million ways to accidentally hurt your rankings if you don't know what you're doing)

I've seen businesses waste months trying to DIY their SEO, make it worse, and then have to pay someone to fix the damage they created.

If you have the time and you're genuinely willing to learn, DIY can work. But for most business owners, hiring an expert is the smarter investment.

How to Spot Good SEO vs. Snake Oil

Since we're being honest about whether SEO services are worth it, let's also be honest about how to avoid getting ripped off.

Here's what bad SEO looks like:

They promise specific rankings or timeline guarantees. If someone is promising you'll rank number one in 30 days or guaranteeing a specific number of page views, that's snake oil. Even if you build perfect quality pages, there is no guarantee for ranking, and the timeline varies especially based on how competitive your market is.

They focus on looks more than quality of content. Most web designers make "pretty" sites but don't actually do SEO. The pages need a lot of love to get them into a usable form for search engines.

They don't use header tags properly. This is basic SEO and if they're missing this, they're missing everything else too.

They don't focus on keywords users are actually searching. Creating content around what you think people search vs. what they actually search are two very different things.

They create thin content or tons of AI content. More pages doesn't mean better SEO if those pages are garbage.

Here's what good SEO looks like:

They explain their strategy in plain English. If they can't explain what they're doing and why, they either don't know or they're hiding something.

They show you real results from real clients. Case studies, examples, actual data. Not just "we helped businesses grow."

They're honest about timelines. Good SEO takes time. Anyone promising instant results is lying.

They focus on bottom-of-funnel keywords. High-intent searches from people ready to buy, not just chasing huge traffic numbers that don't convert.

They customize the approach to your business. Cookie-cutter SEO doesn't work. Your business is unique, and your SEO strategy should be too.

Is SEO More Worth It for Certain Industries?

Great question. Let's break this down.

E-commerce: Generally, e-commerce businesses will make the most extra money from SEO vs. restaurants, retail, or services because you can scale nationally vs. mainly local. If you're selling products online, good SEO can reach customers across the country.

Restaurants: SEO is critical for restaurants, especially in tourist areas. People search "restaurants near me" constantly. If you're not showing up, you're losing customers every single day.

Retail Shops: Local SEO helps you compete with Amazon. When people search "handmade gifts Asheville" or "bookstore Waynesville," you want to be the top result.

Service Businesses (plumbers, HVAC, insurance, etc.): Extremely high ROI because most people don't have a service provider they already know. They search when they need help. If you're ranking when they search, you get the call.

Seasonal Businesses in WNC: You have to have good SEO to succeed as a seasonal business in Western North Carolina. You need to convert the most traffic possible during busy seasons and still stay viable during the off-season. You can only do that by being known and found online.

The bottom line: SEO is worth it for virtually every industry. The specific strategy and keywords change, but the value is consistent.

My Recommendation: Start with SEO, Then Scale

If a business owner came to me and said, "I have $5,000 to spend on marketing this year. Should I spend it on SEO or something else?" here's what I'd tell them:

Start with SEO.

Good SEO will make the investment back within three to six months. Then we can talk about either scaling SEO even further or running some paid campaigns to go 10x.

SEO builds the foundation. It's the asset that keeps working. Once you have that foundation, you can layer in paid ads for additional growth if it makes sense.

But starting with paid ads and skipping SEO means you're always dependent on ad spend. The second you stop paying, your traffic disappears.

Start with SEO. Build the foundation. Then scale from there.

The Bottom Line: Are SEO Services Worth It?

Let me give you the most honest answer I can:

Yes. For almost every business, SEO services are absolutely worth it.

The investment pays for itself within months for most businesses. It continues delivering value for years. It's 10x more cost-effective than traditional marketing. And it's the difference between being found by customers who are actively searching for what you offer and being invisible online.

I've seen it work for fudge shops, dog breeders, insurance agencies, ice cream shops, restaurants, and dozens of other businesses.

The businesses that invest in quality SEO grow. The ones that don't stay stuck or slowly decline as their competitors capture the customers they could have had.

SEO is always worth it if you're willing to do it right, be patient with the timeline, and work with someone who actually knows what they're doing.

Ready to Find Out If SEO Is Worth It for YOUR Business?

If you're tired of watching potential customers find your competitors instead of you, let's have an honest conversation.

I'll look at your current situation, identify opportunities, and tell you straight up whether SEO is the right investment for you right now.

No pressure. No BS. Just an honest assessment of whether SEO services will deliver value for your specific business.

Contact us for a free consultation.

Because at the end of the day, the question isn't really "are SEO services worth it?" The question is "are SEO services worth it for MY business?"

Let's find out together.