SEO Services Pricing
When comparing SEO pricing you really need to be focusing on value. Your best results will come from customized SEO services rather than "SEO Packages". Why? every business is in its own unique situation. From the level of your existing rankings and your objectives, to competitive pressure, you need services that fit your needs.
The typical SEO agency pushes "SEO packages" which are effectively a one-size-fits-all approach. Pushing SEO packages make it easier to sell to potential customers. Unfortunately, these generic packages usually omit things you need and include things you do not need. These SEO providers rely on you not understanding proper strategies, tasks, and methods.
The recommended approach to finding the best SEO services for your website is to focus on your specific situation and needs. What does your website need to have competitive ranking and produce leads? Define that and then determine what is a reasonable cost for services.
Search Engine Optimization Pricing
Customized SEO Services vs. SEO Package Pricing: A quick online search will return a multitude of SEO providers and seemingly no consistency in search engine optimization pricing. How to evaluate the quality of services, tasks to be completed and what to expect make the selection process a challenge for most business owners. This page can help you to understand how to understand search engine optimization pricing and why rates vary.
The Typical SEO Starting Point
Where most people start (and go wrong). Buying a SEO package pricing offer from a directory sales rep (think, yellow pages rep) or foreign company is usually the first experience with SEO providers. Their SEO price-point packages are presented as if SEO was a commodity – which it is not. Too many business owners have bad experiences with these packages. They go from one bad service to another and never seem to learn why things don’t turn out well.
How to turn things around. Your results (and ROI) skyrocket when you find an agency that invests time to assess the competitive situation, analyze website code and content, and then create a custom SEO strategy. At this point your new SEO company can execute on the things that really matter for your business.
Why Do SEO Prices Vary?
Search engine optimization pricing can vary greatly because of the diversity in provider’s business costs, scopes-of-work and assessment of what is required to satisfy client objectives. Elements such as the amount of time required to achieve objectives, current rankings vs. desired rankings and level of services all impact the cost for SEO services. Unfortunately, when buyers do not understand what constitutes value or quality they default to buying based on price.
Keep Moving Forward
Don’t go backwards. Certainly your budget drives decisions but deciding to accept a cheap SEO price will take you back to the bad experience you’re trying to leave. Here’s why:
The truth about cheap SEO prices is that it usually means one or more of the following; you will get a package of easy-to-do tasks that have minimal impact, work done overseas by low-skilled people, corners are being cut and lousy customer service. Our saying is, "Good work isn’t cheap, and cheap work isn’t good". As an SEO company. with over 20 years experience, we have heard countless new customers recap the problems caused by hiring an SEO company based on price rather than reputation. It is important to understand what determines SEO pricing and what you it may mean to you.
It is absolutely impossible for any legitimate SEO company to maintain an office, employ quality staff, use licensed programs and software, make a profit and offer lowball SEO pricing. Doing good SEO work takes many hours of focused work and skilled optimization specialists are not cheap. Truthfully, you would be far better off spending your budget on less work from a quality agency versus a lot of meaningless work from a low-quality agency.
Understanding SEO Pricing
First, look at price from a different perspective. What you spend does not really matter if you are seeing a positive ROI. Price matters most when you’re not receiving value. Choose a SEO company that can deliver what you need at the lowest reasonable cost. Consider the following:
Moderate SEO prices offered by freelancers or solo-practitioners may seem attractive; however you have to ask yourself "how many clients can one person service and make a living?", and "do they really have the infrastructure and resources to do quality work?". Using freelancers is a high risk proposition because most freelancers are working to make some extra cash and don’t operate a real SEO company. The odds are that you are paying a lot for very low quality work.
The bottom line on SEO pricing is that you’re paying for expertise and time. If you hire a good SEO company the hourly rate for SEO services is at least $125 per hour. This rate will vary quite a bit depending on the cost of living where your SEO company is located.
The best approach to an SEO services agreement is to define the types of work to be done, and get an expectation of how many hours can be invested in your services for your budget. Keep in mind, a SEO plan has to be fluid, includes a lot of moving pieces, and work done will rarely be the same each month.
If you can find a reputable SEO provider who accepts a modest fee you must keep in mind that they cannot afford to invest a lot of hours into your work. In this case the SEO company is doing what they can to help your rankings but may be unable to keep pace with competitor SEO investments. You may have hired a great SEO company but they need a larger budget to enable your business to compete. What they provide may be a fair exchange but not provide what you need. Generally speaking, SEO work should cost a minimum of $1,000 a month; however this base line number will be higher for highly competitive situations.
Expensive SEO prices are common with large SEO companies that have high overhead costs. Hiring the most expensive SEO company does not necessarily mean you are getting the best value. If you’re subsidizing bloated staff and luxury office space, you’re not getting the full value of your budget. Large SEO companies are better for corporations with extremely large digital marketing budgets.
The best SEO prices for a small to medium sized business are found with well structured SEO companies that maintain a low operating overhead. Confirm that the SEO company has the necessary services, software and personnel to do proper keyword and competitor research, and active program management. Ask them to prepare a customized SEO strategy that is designed to achieve your objectives and listen to their ideas on what needs to be done. Finding a competent SEO company which can deliver results in a timely manner will convert an expense into an investment; and therein provide the best SEO price you could want.
SEO Price Comparison Study
To get an idea of how SEO companies price out their services you may be interested in a SEOmoz study on average fees for SEO services in the United States.
Comparing SEO Service Pricing Options
SEO pricing plans are generally available for one-time, flat rate price or monthly billing.
Flat rate SEO plans are best for a defined scope-of-work that generally is a one-time task. Examples of SEO services that are suitable for a flat-rate or one-time fee are creating and integrating Schema structured markup, analytic scripts, Google tag Manager scripts, etc. With any of these services it may be necessary to later pay to have upgrades and revisions done.
Monthly retainer SEO plans are a smart move for growth oriented companies or a business that is in a highly competitive online situation. This type of program empowers the agency to handle a wide range of critical tasks. Examples of ongoing services are link building, adding content (pages or articles), Page Speed Optimization for on-page SEO. Many monthly retainer plans are applied to include related services such as social media marketing, PPC management, local search SEO, and more.
Our monthly SEO service programs include work for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. This is epecially critical for highly competitive situations. The holistic approach provides our clients with better value relative to cost control and quality of results.Finding a good SEO company
Online searches for SEO companies will easily find hundreds of SEO company websites. If you hire one of the good ones you can greatly increase your sales revenue. If you hire one of the bad ones you will lose money in what you pay, lost sales each month and what you will eventually pay to have another agency correct the problems. The problem for most business owners is how to find a good SEO company.
This page offers tips for finding the best SEO companies which are worthy of your consideration.
It seems like every website guy claims to understand SEO. The truth is that most don’t have a clue and do more harm than good. The best SEO companies have become SEO experts through experience, and ongoing study of SEO best practices. The leading SEO companies have a good portfolio of clients and references to share with you.
What is Your Situation?
Before you begin a search for a SEO company you should think about your situation and needs. You want the best possible results so making a good decision is extremely important. There are substantial differences in the qualifications and experiences of SEO agencies.
Some of the things you should determine about your situation and needs are:
- How unique is your business? If your business is highly specialized you probably need an agency with experience in your type of business. Having a good understanding of your business and industry enables them to make smart decisions on how and where to position your company.
- What are your time expectations? In most cases where a client wants immediate rankings the answer is funding PPC advertising while organic rankings are being developed.
- What is your budget? You know that you can’t run a business for $25 an hour, and SEO work requires a relatively substantial amount of hours each month. For a legitimate SEO agency expect to pay a minimum of $125 per hour or at least $1,000 per month. Clients with highly competitive markets should budget $2,500-$5,000 per month. While it may sound expensive, if you hire the right company this is a solid investment. As far as your online presence, you’re essentially paying to have a high-producing online salesperson.
- What work has already been done? Sometimes a new SEO company must first reverse prior work to amend penalties or remove outdated practices. Sometimes there is work in place that gives the new SEO company a head start. Let them know a little history on your website.
- Do you need other services? A smart move is hiring a company that offers a complete set of digital marketing services. Why? Your SEO, part of your overall digital marketing strategy, needs to be dovetailed into your local SEO, social media marketing, and other services. HOT TIP: Having a single digital marketing agency manage all of your services is your best way to insure consistency in targeting, brand identity, messaging, purpose, and direction.
Use more than price to make a selection
When searching for the best SEO company you need to carefully consider more than just SEO pricing. Thinking that all SEO companies are the same so go ahead and hire the cheapest company is a very bad decision. Think about how you feel about your competition that sells on low price.
How to Choose a SEO Company
Find a proven SEO company! Confirm that the SEO company has a business office and staff. Ask for live examples of client sites that are ranked well and ask specific questions about their SEO services and practices. Ask about on-page and off-page strategies and their overall SEO process. Don’t be fooled by false promises! Read Google’s statement that no company can guarantee SEO results.
How well is their site ranked?A simple method to evaluate prospective SEO services provider is to do a series of SEO service searches on Google and note the companies that are consistently on the first page of Google for their area. These SEO companies understand Google’s search engine algorithms and how to get rankings that increase website traffic. If they can’t get their own site ranked well, they probably can’t get yours ranked well.
A next step would be similar searches for their clients who target major metropolitan areas. Getting a client ranked in a small city is generally no problem, whereas it requires a true SEO expert to get clients ranked in a very large city. Also check out the diversity of their client base – broad experience indicates a better agency.
Do they actually do the work? Many of the small (cheap) SEO services actually do only the sales work and collections, and have the work done by foreign companies. This type of operation is doing a huge injustice to its customers.
Why E-Platform Marketing is a good SEO company to consider
E-Platform Marketing does not outsource to foreign countries. Our team manages every aspect of our clients’ marketing campaigns. We use industry best practices, specialized SEO software, and a wealth of experience to create custom solutions. We have extremely competitive rates for professional SEO services.
In Summary
SEO prices vary but results are what determines your ROI. Hiring a cheap SEO guy may seem smart, but when you’re paying money every month and your rankings don’t improve you’ve got a lousy ROI. More to the point, make certain your site is ranked for high value keywords with measurable traffic. Invest in a good SEO company and increase your traffic, phone calls and leads.
CREDITS and FOOTNOTES
- Photo by George Morina, available at Pexels
