There is absolutely no truth to the myth that search engine optimisation experts are too expensive. Search engine optimisation is generally far cheaper than any other marketing campaign you can conduct online or offline. It costs less than direct mail, renting e-mail lists, banner ads, print ads, or booths at trade shows.

Yet most companies shy away from consulting search engine optimisation professionals and instead rely on their own in-house "experts". According to a recent study by iProspect, 97% of Fortune 100 companies are difficult to find in search engines --45% don't even use meta tags, the most basic form of optimisation. Since a lot of companies are doing such an astonishingly bad job of search engine optimisation, you'd think they wouldn't let the cost of outsourcing be a deterrent.

While a few experts may come with six figure prices tags, most have reasonable fees. A few thousand dollars can cover the cost of optimising an entire site and positioning it in the top 10 search engines responsible for more than 80% of web traffic. That means a fairly small investment could raise your site traffic by as much as 75% --a lot more potential than most other marketing campaigns.