SEO on a Budget: 3 Moves That Actually Work

1. Team Up with Local Charities or Organisations

Good SEO isn’t just about keywords. It’s about building credibility and getting quality backlinks...without paying for sketchy link-building schemes.

One of the best ways to do this? Partner with local charities or organisations and offer to write blogs that benefit both your audience and theirs.

I did this with an Edinburgh-based IT company, writing a post for a Scottish dyslexia charity about tech tools that support people with dyslexia in the workplace. They got useful content. We got a strong backlink. Nobody spent a penny. It’s a simple win-win that works better than begging random websites for links.

2. Start a Medium Blog and Link Back to Your Site

This one surprised me. I started writing high-quality articles on Medium and linking them back to our website. The result? A serious SEO boost...especially for our Web Designer London page. We're now sitting comfy on page 1 for Web Designer London and this was one of our strategies! (Obviously...plenty more though!)

Why does this work? Google trusts high-authority sites like Medium. So when you post genuinely useful content there (not just SEO fluff), it drives real traffic to your site and strengthens your backlink profile.

The trick? Write content that people actually want to read. No keyword stuffing. No filler. Just solid, useful articles that naturally link back to your services.

3. Use Featured.com to Get High-Quality Backlinks

AI-written guest posts on spammy blogs won’t help your SEO. But getting featured on high-quality websites? That’s a game-changer.

We’ve been using Featured.com to land backlinks on high-domain authority sites...including GoDaddy. Recently, we were featured in their website design strategies article, alongside other industry experts. These kinds of mentions boost credibility, drive traffic and help with rankings - all without spending a fortune. Check it out here.

The key? Choose wisely. If a site looks like it was built in 2005 and still has a hit counter… maybe give it a miss.

SEO Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

A few well-placed guest blogs, smart content distribution and securing features on strong sites can do way more for your rankings than throwing money at ads and hoping for the best.

Google values authority and relevance...and lucky for you, those don’t cost a thing if you know where to look.