Is SEO become a pay to play game?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:47 pm

This thought triggered after reading several questions on the group.

I have been wondering whether SEO has become a pay to play game? I mean you need backlinks to rank for high volume keywords because industry giants have secured their SERP real estate. So where does that leave small businesses in the same niche? Looking for more clarity on this!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:47 pm

SEO authority is built slow and steady.

Also, No business runs on charity so go PPC whatever the budget is.

Muhammad · Post by **Muhammad** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:48 pm

New business can target low volume keywords which will eventually help them to rank for big keywords.

I am using KGR technique and it really works.

But without backlinks, it takes time

Henry · Post by **Henry** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:48 pm

The thing is you can't get traffic off just only SEO. Look into using other channels or platform for the short term while your SEO efforts germinates.

Corey · Post by **Corey** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:49 pm

Of course it's pay to play - bigtime. You either pay money to an expert, of you pay with your own time learning and doing. Either way is fine, the option of doing nothing and just hoping is the only non-option. That's guaranteed failure.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:50 pm

Show me one form of marketing that is not pay to play.

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:50 pm

Backlinks are completely out of my work loop at this point. Real unique, and on-point content is still king - all day, e'ry day since May 1, 2010 - and now thanks to everyone jumping on AI content writing, just writing like you mean it still holds more search worth than that garbage. I reply to this specifically because I have a real estate example - it's just content and GMB activity, they love the results of it - took a year to get there, I'm invited to barbecues in year 2.. lol.. but really.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:50 pm

You’ve got to pay, but the question is do you pay for the work being done or the results you get? Why sink $1,000 a month into updating metadata on your site, maybe writing a blog post or two and getting some backlinks if it’s not going to result in growing your business?

When I had a computer repair business several years ago, I paid an SEO company quite a bit of money monthly and got zero sales from it for months. Now I talk with business owners all over who would happily give a portion of their sales revenue for good digital marketing, after they’ve gotten the lead.

Morgan · Post by **Morgan** » Sat Aug 13, 2022 5:51 pm

It was always pay-to-play. Sure, you can still get some results without a large budget, but you won't build a huge business around SEO without investing.

Better content, better backlinks, better technical SEO - that's what makes you better than your competitors.