For example, it's no secret that SEO consists of two important components - in-page optimization, and off-page optimization. In-page optimization means that you can make tweaks to your web page to ensure that your web pages are friendly to the search engines. Being friendly to the search engines help the bots to index and categorize your website, thus boosting its rankings. If the search bots have problems "deciding" the theme of your web page, you are in trouble.



Off-page optimization is more difficult to execute. It involves building as many inbound links as you possible can. But since you don't own thousands of websites, you can't possibly just snap your fingers and get all the other webmasters to link to you.

That is the basics of SEO. It's that simple. You can outsource all your SEO activities if you like, but be forewarned that SEO services don't come cheap. That's because a lot of time and effort is required to build links. It's not uncommon to find SEO packages costing thousands of dollars.

So what happens if you don't have that kind of budget to spare? You can, of course, try to build links using various link building services. Your first challenge, is to locate these service providers.

Here is an example. Let's say you have done your homework and you know that you need at least 2000 back links to beat the competition and rank well in the search engines. If you are going to outsource your link building activities, how much will that cost you? At $1 per link, you will need to spend $2000 before you can see the results that you want.

Or, you can try to save money by using article submission or web directory submission services. Suppose you buy a web directory submission package at $20, and your service provider submits your website to 500 directories. At 50% approvals, you will get 250 links. That works out to be just $0.08 per link. That's quite a substantial saving compared to links that cost $1 or more.

When you use a combination of article submission and web directory submission services, you get very good results, at a fraction of the cost. So never just sign up for an SEO package if you are on a tight budget. As for a breakdown of the services to see what is being done to build links to your site. That will help you save money, and instead of spending thousands of dollars, you'll probably just end up spending several hundred dollars.