Last year I was browsing a popular classified website called Kijiji. I had some time on my hands and I wanted to see if anyone could you my search engine optimization expertise so I did a search for SEO.

I quickly found out that people weren’t really serious about their SEO efforts on this website.

I made a screen capture of the image to remind me of this ridiculousness.

Today I decided to share this with you in this blog post.

When I started getting interested in Search Engine Optimization most people didn’t even know what it meant. I was able to make websites rank number 1 in Google for competitive keywords very quickly.

However I was only able to do it because I had the right tools and the right mindset.

SEO changed a lot over the years and big players like Google influenced this game a lot but some of the key principals of SEO still remain and that’s why SEO often cost more than the website itself in most cases because it takes a lot of efforts to achieve great SEO results.

First you got to study your competition, then you have to research different keywords using tools like Google Key Words Market Samurai (which is what I use).

These tools can be quite helpful but you have to know how to use them to be able to achieve the results that you want without being band from Google.

Every time someone talks to me about SEO I know I will have to do some extensive research to be able to improve their ranking. The search alone and the reporting can cost a few hundreds. Then once the research is completed a SEO action plan needs to be establish and implemented.

This is essentially the reason why I always laugh when I see things like “my budget is $20″.

In my honest opinion, someone with $20 shouldn’t be looking for SEO services. That’s kind of insulting.

Would you go to the dealership and ask for a brand new Lexus for 10k? Of course not. Stop embarrassing yourself and think before you talk or write stuff like that.

If you’re an SEO provider and someone approaches you with such a request people take the time to educate them on what SEO is, why SEO is important and how much it cost.

SEO is very valuable and profitable art. Don’t waste your skills and your time on people who don’t respect your knowledge.

You may be starting and may need something to add to your portfolio but “SEO at $20 per month” is not what you want to add to your resume or your portfolio.

All these hours spend learning, the courses that you may have taken, your computer, your bandwidth, your Market Samurai license and the electricity you spend needs to be accounted for.

Let’s go gang! The power is in your hands! You have the knowledge, don’t waste it.