If you’re tempted to put your money towards paid search instead of SEO, know this: The more you spend on paid search, the more expensive it gets. And the results don’t always pay. Low-end SEO agencies will subsidize their efforts by investing in paid search traffic, otherwise known as search engine marketing, or SEM.
Good SEO doesn’t come cheap. Nor should it—you’re paying the professionals for their expertise as well as their time.