Direcotry submission and the things to learn
Some are indeed diamonds in the rough, and will give you superb SEO for an excellent price. And the rest, probably the majority, are either poor at SEO, or dangerously inexperienced, or both. Can you afford to have Seo done twice, once by a cheap new company and once by a more expensive company to fix the job the cheap company did? As a small business, taking on the risk would be penny wise and pound foolish. To find genuinely affordable SEO, look for companies whose prices are low, but not at the bottom of the market. As you review sites of affordable SEO firms, do not be swayed by the advertising.