More on SEO, part 2

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4) Analyze your needs for SEO, then analyze your budget. Try to figure out how much you would stand to gain from having your site on the first page for your main keyword phrases. You may find that the costs of optimizing might well be more than your potential return. And remember this -- very few SEO pro's guarantee results at all, because you really can't guarantee anything in this business. What works for one business may do nothing for, or even hurt, the next.

5) Do you need to outsource your SEO, or can someone in house do it? Though nothing is a given or a constant, there are certain principles that tend to apply to search engine optimization. If you have an employee whom you can't keep busy, and this employee has writing skills and at least a moderate interest in marketing, tell him to start researching SEO. After a few days or weeks of reading up, he may be able to optimize your website. Depending on your business, your site, and your needs, you may find that boosting your position in the SERPs isn't as hard, or expensive, as you thought it would be.