Are you about to blow some cash on SEO? It’s time to rethink if you’re going to make the right decision. It might make perfect sense or your choice could be a colossal mistake.

Get my new guide, “Are You Wasting Your Money on SEO?” today and explore 10 aspects of SEO before you spend a dime on this outstanding marketing opportunity.

The SEO resource touches on diverse SEO topics, including:

– Misconceptions about the ways SEO is or isn’t tied to web development
– Impractical keyword phrase choices
– How to regard SEO in light of other outstanding online marketing efforts
– Why SEO still isn’t a one-time activity
– Sizing up the SEO expertise
– Understanding the scope of a project

Quite frankly, search engine optimization can be a waste of money. If any of these 10 perspectives and situations applies to you, it may be time to hold onto your cash and use it for something else.

It’s not that SEO is flawed. It’s misunderstood. People expect miracles and walk away, feeling either disappointed or angry that it didn’t pay off.

I’m not saying search engine optimization (SEO) is dead or it’s so easy that it just happens without even thinking about it.

But businesses, already short on cash, need to seriously wonder whether they should be diverting their limited budgets to SEO when they have some other things to tackle first.

It’s not easy to suggest holding off on SEO spending because I know SEO works. I make part of my living helping businesses succeed with search engine optimization strategies.

SEO should never be listed among the worst online marketing disciplines ever conceived. But you owe it to yourself and your business to weigh the key considerations the guide covers.

Here are a few excerpts:

Build It and They Will Come:

If that’s your attitude, don’t think for a second that SEO is going to be your cure to online marketing ills.

It doesn’t happen often, but I still speak with small business owners who mistakenly believe that SEO will just kind of happen when a web site is built. Maybe they read an article or attended a free seminar at a hotel. The executives put a few SEO techniques into play and think they will be at the top of Bing, Google and Yahoo! for their favorite keyword phrases.

It’s such a shortsighted perspective.

Leaving SEO in the Hands of Web Developers:

I’m not saying web developers can’t succeed with SEO. Many won’t for one simple reason: they’re not keyword professionals. Knowing the mechanics of SEO like page titles and keyword-rich URLs will only take you so far.

Too often, business owners have told me they assumed their web developer took care of the SEO. What good is it to pay for some SEO if you don’t rank for relevant keyword phrases? If you rank poorly, other web sites benefit from the search engine traffic, not you. Where is the return on investment?

It’s Just Not A Priority:

Sometimes other marketing consumes budgets and resources. If you spend a little on SEO – and refuse to make a commitment – then the limited amount that you do free up could be a poor use of your money.

Representatives of a Fortune 500 company reached out to me in 2013 and confirmed that the company doesn’t have an SEO strategy. Really? I guess SEO will seem like a complete waste of time and money if it doesn’t make your radar. A highly competitive keyword phrase ranked #5 on Google for them. The problem was that they didn’t have a plan to pursue related keyword phrases that could perform better with some effort.

SEO sometimes needs to take a backseat.

Often, companies know all about SEO and would like to consider it. But it doesn’t get on the priority plate when other forms of marketing work well – and rightfully eat up limited resources (time and money).

For example, if your email marketing programs are pulling their weight, why divert money from them for SEO? Of course, the company’s overall budget could be reviewed and some money allocated to SEO. But if other efforts are working, SEO may not be needed – at least not now.

Unfortunately, businesses will never know what SEO could accomplish.

And that’s the reality. SEO can be a waste of money or it can help out if you have a sound strategy – and the budget to meet your expectations.

Should you pull money from something that is working? If things are tight, maybe not. At some point, you may need to take a risk. My point is that SEO isn’t going to have an immediate impact in many cases. If you don’t commit the time and money, then why start at all?