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Save Money With Expert SEO Insights Before Hiring An Agency
Written by Alex L, founder of Inseomnia.
Same Same But Different
I have spent the past 15 years highly active in three distinct fields: wellness, diving, and SEO, acquiring what I believe to be expert insights regarding them. One interesting similarity all three industries have in common is self-proclaimed authorities who have managed to make people believe they can achieve expert knowledge in their fields by taking one of their 100-200 hour certification courses full of generic theoretical understanding.
I’ve always believed in the power of genuine, real-life gained expertise over quickly or falsely given certifications, whether on the yoga mat, in the depths of the ocean, or navigating the complexities of search engine algorithms. My approach to SEO, much like my teaching in breathwork and freediving, is rooted in authenticity and a commitment to cutting through industry noise.
Last year, I launched Mindfulness Freediving, a program that not only challenges the industry’s image of breathwork and freediving but also serves as a testament to effective, no-nonsense SEO strategies. The success of this project across multiple countries and highly competitive keywords stands as proof of what’s possible when you combine deep industry knowledge with strategic SEO marketing.
I’m not here to claim I have all the answers to search engine optimization. Instead, I’m sharing my experiences and insights in the hope that they might help others navigate the often confusing world of SEO. My goal is simple: to empower businesses and individuals with the knowledge to make informed decisions about their online presence, potentially saving them significant time and money in the process.
What I offer isn’t revolutionary – it’s a return to fundamentals, focused on quality, relevance, and genuine value. If you’re tired of the hype and ready for a more grounded approach to search engine optimization, I invite you to explore these insights drawn from real-world successes and challenges.
Case Study: SEO Success Without The Use of Archaic Tactics
In July 2023, I launched a website for my breathwork and freediving program, Mindfulness Freediving. The idea from the get-go was to use it as a proof of concept to illustrate what’s possible with actual expert SEO knowledge. Today, within just one year, the website achieved remarkable rankings across multiple countries.
• For the keyword “breathwork” which according to Semrush is a Very Hard keyword to rank for, when typed with its targeted country, Mindfulness Freediving ranks on the first page on Google in 30 countries, namely Argentina Bahrain Brunei Brazil Cambodia Chile Colombia Croatia Dahab Hungary Kenya Kuwait Laos Malaysia Maldives Mauritius Nicaragua Oman Peru Philippines Qatar Romania Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Tunisia Vietnam Zanzibar.
• For the keywords “breathwork training” which according to Semrush is a Possible but competitive keyword to rank for, when typed with its targeted country, Mindfulness Freediving ranks on the first page on Google in 50 countries, namely Argentina Bahrain Brunei Brazil Cambodia Chile Colombia Croatia Czechia Dahab Egypt Estonia Ethiopia Hungary Israel Italy Japan Kenya Kuwait Laos Luxembourg Malaysia Maldives Mauritius Morocco Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Oman Peru Philippines Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Seychelles Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tunisia Turkey Vietnam Zanzibar. It also ranks on second page in 20 additional countries.
• For the keywords “mindfulness meditation” which according to Semrush is another Very Hard keyword to rank for, when typed with its targeted country, Mindfulness Freediving ranks on the first page on Google in 20 countries, namely Argentina Bahrain Brunei Chile Colombia Dahab Ethiopia Hungary Kuwait Nicaragua Norway Oman Peru Romania Saudi Arabia Serbia Seychelles Slovakia Slovenia Zanzibar. It also ranks on second page in 20 additional countries.
You are encouraged to cross-verify these rankings, keeping in mind that minor changes may occur due to IP address and location variations, but most of the rankings should be consistently close to what I mentioned.
These results were achieved without your typical run-of-the-mill SEO agency practices:
1. No paid backlink strategies (except links from my blogs and websites)
2. No premium SEO tools (only the free version of Semrush was used)
3. No social media campaigns or use of influencers
4. No Google or any other social media platform Ads
This success challenges many common SEO agency tactics that impose high fees for services that either fail to deliver results or could be achieved through simpler, more cost-effective means, and demonstrates that expert SEO doesn’t require substantial financial investment.
Debunking SEO Agency Myths: An Expert's Take & Tactic
The Backlink Obsession
Apart from the links to a few blogs that I wrote myself, one of them ranking on the first page for the keywords “breathwork dangers”, a keyword that according to Semrush is difficult to rank for, I did not use any backlink strategy or pay for third-party backlink providers to rank these websites in multiple countries.
This won’t be news to true SEO experts, but it proves again that backlinks are often one of the least critical factors in ranking, yet they are frequently the most monetized by SEO agencies and SEO content creators, with many charging premium rates for backlink building.
While backlinks are important, paying for them can be as ineffective as buying social media followers. Often, these purchased backlinks are of low quality and can harm your site’s reputation. Organic backlinks from high-quality content are far more beneficial. This is what I did, I focused on creating high-quality, relevant content and made strategic use of my network.
The Premium Tool Trap
Semrush, a platform used by SEO professionals for keyword research, competitive analysis and other tasks, charges small agencies around $250 per month to have access to its pro features. When you hire an SEO agency or expert to take care of your website’s SEO strategy, even if they don’t mention it, most of the time they will be using Semrush for your campaign, and will include a “Semrush tax” in your quotation.
The thing is, if you have a freshly built website or one that is yet to rank on Google, you don’t need Semrush pro access to monitor a website that is yet to be properly crawled and indexed. Unless your website was built with SEO in mind from the ground up (a service very few web designing agencies offer), it will take your website weeks to months before it appears on Google rankings.
I used only the free version of Semrush, along with Google Search Console, Analytics, and a thorough understanding of SEO principles to monitor the Mindfulness Freediving websites and help them achieve top rankings.
Fun fact, the Mindfulness Freediving website ranks higher in many countries than those of seven-figure breathwork methods like Wim Hof and Soma Breath, which are probably spending thousands of dollars a year on Semrush. They can afford it, but can you as a start-up, budding entrepreneur or small-medium enterprise?
The Social Media Mirage
It has become almost like an industry standard nowadays for SEO agencies to bundle SEO services with social media marketing, promising rapid growth, even if they know very well that today’s social media algorithms favor viral content, which is often superficial and does not contribute to meaningful engagement or long-term success.
The SEO success for Mindfulness Freediving was achieved without relying on social media profiles or influencers, focusing solely on optimizing the websites and their content to rank high on Google.
Why pay to be visible on a platform whose focus is to distract its audience when you can invest in SEO to position yourself to be found by people who are looking for your products or services?
The Google Ads Necessity
Many SEO agencies insist that running Google Ads is essential for online visibility, claiming it’s the fastest way to get results. While Google Ads can be effective for certain campaigns, they are not needed for SEO success. Besides, a click on an ad does not contribute to the overall authority of your website related to its niche. Moreover, there’s a dark side to Google Ads that many agencies and SEO courses fail or forget to mention: the risk of click fraud.
Competitors and malicious actors, including unscrupulous SEO agencies, can use automated bots or even hire low-cost workers to repeatedly click on your ads, significantly impact your advertising budget and ROI. This practice, is a form of Black Hat SEO tactic that can waste your advertising budget on fake clicks, preventing your ads from reaching genuine potential customers.
Avoiding using Google Ads or any other paid advertising platform, I instead focused on creating valuable, optimized content and improving the websites’ user experience to make them achieve top rankings in multiple countries. This demonstrates that well-executed organic SEO strategies can yield significant results without the ongoing cost of paid advertising or exposing yourself to the risk of click fraud.
SEO Success Without Gimmicks
The SEO industry often thrives on complexity, leading businesses, especially start-ups and small-medium enterprises, to overspend on agency services. As an SEO expert who has achieved significant results without expensive tools or tactics, I can attest that effective SEO is possible without breaking the bank.
Before hiring an SEO agency, remember:
• Question agencies that push expensive packages or tools.
• Evaluate the real value of bundled services for your SEO goals.
• Consider investing in SEO education to manage aspects of your strategy internally.
• Seek experts who know what they are talking about, and prioritize sustainable, content-driven approaches with demonstrable results.
By focusing on quality content, smart optimization, and leveraging unique insights, your business can achieve remarkable SEO results while saving thousands of dollars on unnecessary expenses, just like I did with Mindfulness Freediving.
With the right knowledge and approach, you can significantly improve your search engine rankings without the hefty price tag that some SEO agencies like to charge. Let your SEO strategy be like a Seed Evolving Organically. This is what SEO means to us at Inseomnia.