As companies start to review advertising budgets and look for efficiencies in their spending behaviour, search engine optimisation (SEO) has become a critical component of any business’s online marketing strategy. With the intense competition for online visibility, businesses must invest in SEO to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract potential customers. In this article, we will explore the importance of SEO, the services offered by SEO agencies, and the factors to consider when selecting an SEO agency in Dublin, Ireland.

Is SEO Worth It?

SEO is a long-term strategy that involves optimising your website’s content, structure, and online presence to make it more visible to search engines like Google. The question as to whether it’s worth it or not is down to your own specific situation. By improving your site’s ranking on SERPs, you can attract more organic (non-paid) traffic, which is valuable for several reasons:

• Higher website engagement: looking at any Google Analytics account you will notice that organic traffic has significantly higher engagement metrics including time on page, pageviews per session and other engagement metrics.
• Higher conversion rates: Organic traffic often converts better than paid traffic because users who find your website through search engines are actively looking for information, products, or services related to your business.
• Cost-effective: While there are costs associated with SEO, it is generally more affordable than other digital marketing strategies like pay-per-click advertising.
• Long-term results: SEO efforts yield sustainable results, with a well-optimised site continuing to rank well and attract organic traffic over time. Once you turn off advertising, your traffic is gone.

What Does an SEO Agency Do?

An SEO agency is a company that specialises in helping businesses improve their online visibility through search engine optimisation. SEO agencies generally have expertise in both research and technical aspects of digital marketing as the SEO process does require significant planning, intelligence and technical acumen to execute effectively. Some of the core services offered by SEO agencies include:

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves optimising your website’s infrastructure, such as its URL structure, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawling/indexing efficiency. This ensures search engines can crawl, understand, and index your site effectively. An SEO agency can help you with:

• Website digital audits: Identifying and fixing technical issues that hinder search engine crawling and indexing.
• Schema markup: Implementing structured data to help search engines better understand your content and improve SERP appearances.
• XML sitemaps: Creating and optimising sitemaps to aid search engines in discovering and indexing your site’s content.
• Site speed optimisation: Improving load times to enhance user experience and search engine rankings.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO focuses on optimising individual web pages to rank higher and attract more relevant traffic. This includes creating high-quality, keyword-optimised content and ensuring proper formatting and meta tags. An SEO agency can assist you with:

• Keyword research: Identifying target keywords with high search volume and low competition.
• Content optimisation: Crafting compelling, keyword-rich content that engages users and satisfies search intent.
• Meta tags: Writing optimised meta titles, descriptions, and headings to improve SERP click-through rates.
• Image optimisation: Enhancing images with proper file names, alt tags, and compression to improve page load times and search engine rankings.

E-A-T & SEO Content Strategy

E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is a set of criteria used by Google to evaluate the quality of content. An SEO agency can help you develop a content strategy that demonstrates E-A-T and improves your site’s visibility:

• Topical Authority mapping: understanding the scope and breadth of content required to become an authority in your specific target topic
• Authoritative content: Crafting well-researched, in-depth articles that establish your brand as a leader in your industry.
• Content marketing: Promoting your content to reach a wider audience and enhance your brand’s authority.
• Reputation management: Monitoring and addressing negative reviews, comments, or mentions to maintain your brand’s trustworthiness.

Link Building

Link building involves acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks to improve your site’s authority and search engine rankings. An SEO agency can help you with:

• Outreach campaigns: Identifying and contacting influencers, bloggers, and journalists to secure backlinks and improve your site’s online visibility.
• Guest posting: Writing high-quality, relevant content for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your site.
• Broken link building: Identifying and replacing broken links on other websites with links to your relevant content.
• Competitor analysis: Analysing your competitors’ backlink profiles to identify potential link-building opportunities.

Benefits of an SEO Agency

Hiring an SEO agency can provide numerous benefits for your business, including:

• Expertise: SEO agencies have the experience and knowledge to develop and implement effective SEO strategies tailored to your business’s unique needs.
• Time-saving: By outsourcing your SEO efforts to an agency, you can focus on other aspects of your business.
• Ongoing support: SEO is a dynamic field, and algorithms are constantly changing. An SEO agency can provide continuous support to adapt your strategy and maintain your site’s search engine performance.
• Comprehensive approach: SEO agencies can manage all aspects of your SEO strategy, from technical and on-page optimization to content marketing and link building.

Ways of Working with an SEO Agency

There are several ways you can engage with an SEO agency, depending on your needs and budget:

• Full-service SEO: The agency manages your entire SEO strategy, providing end-to-end support from initial analysis to ongoing optimization and reporting. This is generally the most costly of the different options.
• Project-based SEO: The agency works on a specific aspect of your SEO, such as a digital audit, link-building campaign, or content marketing strategy. This involves an upfront investment, but balanced out over the year, it is less costly than a full-service retainer.
• Consultation and training: The agency provides guidance, recommendations, and training to help you develop and implement your own SEO strategy. 

Generally, the best approach for most companies is to engage the SEO agency to do the planning and initial technical elements and keep the agency on a retainer going forward for specialist and technical tasks, while transferring knowledge internally to a project champion for the day to day management of SEO. This tends to be a happy medium in terms of cost:benefit, with a higher upfront cost, but lower retainer costs with the benefit of knowledge transfer of day-to-day management.

How Much Does an SEO Agency in Dublin / Ireland Cost?

The cost of hiring an SEO Agency in Dublin or Ireland varies depending on factors such as the size of your business, your SEO goals, and the scope of services required. Some common pricing models include:

• Monthly retainer: A fixed fee paid monthly for ongoing SEO services, which can range from €1,200 to €5,000 or more, depending on the agency and the level of service. Hourly rates in Dublin can range from €80 per hour (smaller agency / freelance} up to €200 per hour (larger agency / consultant). At the lower end, you need to manage expectations precisely to ensure you are aware of what you are getting for the investment – typically there will be a number of resource hours per month split across different tasks. Ensure to be very clear where the hours are going and set KPIs.
• Project-based pricing: A one-time fee for a specific SEO project, such as a technical SEO audit or link-building campaign, which can range from €1200 to €10,000 or more, depending on the project’s complexity. Project-based SEO is good if you have a specific issue or challenge that you want the SEO agency to address, but don’t want or haven’t budget to engage on an ongoing retainer basis.
• Hourly consulting rates: SEO consultants may charge an hourly rate for their services, typically ranging from €100 to €200 per hour.
• SEO training: SEO training can be expensive and generally most training will have a minimum engagement time, e.g. 4 hours. 

Final Thoughts

My own preference and advice when working with our clients is to recommend a hybrid approach, tackling immediate quick wins with an initial SEO project and then engaging us on an ongoing manageable retainer, transferring knowledge and skills in house to your team to look after the more time-consuming day-to-day activities. This saves retainer costs and focuses the expertise on the more challenging and technical aspects. Over time, the in-house team’s expertise grows and the agency can be retained for more strategic and oversight activities, providing the best return on the SEO investment

If you are interested in discussing how we can help your company with this approach, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

by :

Eamonn O'Raghallaigh, PhD