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Here’s the truth:
SEO is one of the best investments you can make for your business. But when it comes to SEO pricing you might be asking yourself…
How much does SEO cost?
With so many factors affecting SEO pricing you probably can’t find a straight answer anywhere.
In this guide, you will learn everything you need to know about SEO pricing and how much you can expect to pay.
What Will I Learn?
SEO pricing varies depending on the scope and scale of services.
Different SEO companies have different pricing models but here are the four most common SEO pricing models you can find:
Why are there so many different SEO pricing models?
Well, because each model is designed to help customers achieve their SEO goals in different ways.
Hourly rate pricing is when an SEO company or consultant charges you for each hour of SEO work they provide.
With the hourly rate option, you can contact an SEO company to work a set number of hours and pay them based on those hours.
An hourly rate is a great option if you have a tighter budget and are willing to take more control over your SEO campaign.
Need some help with your SEO? Check out my SEO consulting services and book a call. In just an hour I’ll be able to diagnose all your SEO problems.
Project-based SEO pricing is when an SEO company charges you a set amount to complete a specific project.
There is a clear beginning and end for project-based SEO. This requires typically less ongoing work and project-based SEO is usually defined by very specific KPIs.
If you have very clear goals on what you want to achieve with your SEO, the agency may offer you a project-based rate to accomplish those goals.
Monthly retainer is when the client pays a monthly fee for an agreed list of SEO deliverables.
This can include a full range of SEO services such as:
…Depending on your goals and the kind of work your website needs to achieve those goals. But overall, monthly retainers are one of the most popular SEO pricing models.
Why?
SEO is a long-term investment. As a client, you want your website to get as much visibility as possible in the SERPs.
Monthly retainers usually mean the agency will take care of all of your SEO, end to end.
You don’t have to worry about a single thing.
You pay a predictable monthly rate and the agency makes sure your website is growing in both rankings and organic traffic.
Monthly retainers are an attractive option because they are straightforward and hands-off.
Looking for complete hands-off SEO? I recommended Search Logistics for customised SEO packages that help you achieve your business goals.
Self-service is just as the name says. You go to an agency’s website, choose the SEO work you want and pay for it within a couple of clicks.
Why would you do this?
Wel, because it’s really simple. There is no need to:
Note: This doesn’t work for all SEO services. I would not recommend it to get white label SEO services, for example.
However, self-service SEO does work well for services like link building. These services have clear deliverables which allow customers to order and pay online almost immediately.
Let’s take the example of LinksThatRank.
LinksThatRank offers a complete end to end link building service you can trust.
They have simplified the buying process making it easy to choose the links you want and check out fast.
The cost of SEO services varies from agency to agency.
Trust, me you can find all types of prices out there. You can find cheap SEO agencies promising excellent results for as little as $300 per month.
But that cheap dollar sign comes with some risk…
When it comes to SEO…
You get what you pay for.
If the company is charging you as little as $300 a month and promise you the world (high search traffic, guaranteed Google rankings, etc), you can be confident they cut corners to achieve the results you’re after.
Why?
Quality SEO takes a significant amount of time and effort. It has a lot of moving parts and requires a number of different skill sets.
Beyond just the services, with a reputable agency, you also get better customer service and professionalism.
Quality SEO is always worth every penny.
Cheap SEO is just that – cheap!
You can expect a dodgy service using black hat SEO techniques such as:
…Which could result in penalties from Google.
While you might see an SEO boost in the short run, it will eventually catch up and you will end up with negative effects.
Take it from me:
I have been doing SEO for many years now and have worked on many websites that have had SEO penalties from Google. They’re hard to remove and difficult to recover from.
So if you’ve been hit by a penalty, you can either hire my team to remove it or follow my step by step Google penalty recovery process.
Quality SEO requires a number of skilled professionals for every campaign.
An SEO campaign can require:
All of this is going to cost a lot more than $300 per month!
As you can see, SEO requires a lot of resources and skillsets from a number of different experts in their fields.
So how much can you expect SEO pricing to be?
For an hourly rate, you can expect to pay anywhere from $100 to $250 per hour for a quality SEO company. This largely depends on the work being completed. For more well-known SEO consultants you can expect to pay $400 to $700 per hour for their services.
Project-based SEO will usually cost around $1,500 to $5,000 for a smaller project. For large SEO campaigns that require more work, you could expect to pay as much as $25,000+.
Monthly retainers vary a lot. Expect to pay $1,500 to $5,000 per month for an average website. If you have a bigger website or are in a very competitive industry, $15,000+ per month would be considered reasonable.
SEO is complicated and it’s constantly changing.
There are a lot of pieces to put the puzzle together and achieve excellent results. There are two main reasons why SEO is expensive.
Good results don’t happen overnight. SEO campaigns take a significant amount of time to show results.
Patience is key because SEO usually takes a minimum of three months to see any improvement and often even longer.
You need to have the right strategy in place with the right team executing each individual part. You are paying an agency to work on and improve your results continuously.
Hiring an SEO agency means you get to sit back while they do the work.
Why do you invest in SEO? To get a high ROI, right?
SEO as a marketing tactic provides one of the biggest ROIs of any marketing technique you could possibly use.
How?
When your website ranks in the top-ranking positions for quality keywords, you get free targeted traffic from Google 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The flow of traffic to your website is constant and targeted.
It’s not like PPC advertising where you stop paying and the traffic also stops. Once you are in the top ranking positions, you get all of that traffic.
The average ROI from a high-quality SEO service is 748%. In other words, for every $1 you spend on SEO you can get back $7.48.
Not a bad investment, right?
Most reputable SEO agencies don’t provide generic monthly prices for full-service SEO.
Think about it: Every campaign is different and unique.
SEO agencies and professionals don’t just pull numbers out of thin air.
There are a number of factors that will influence the price you pay for SEO. That’s why most agencies do a website SEO audit before quoting a fee for the work.
They need to know exactly what they are dealing with to quote fairly.
What are the main factors that impact SEO pricing?
Here are five big elements I look at before quoting a price to a client.
The more pages your website has, the higher the SEO pricing.
Indeed, optimising a website that has a lot of pages requires significantly more time. Google looks at individual page metrics as well as entire website metrics.
If you have a big website you will likely have more on-page and technical issues.
Each individual page needs at least basic optimisation. Otherwise, it could affect how high your core target pages rank.
Want to rank multiple pages for multiple keywords?
Each target page needs to be technically sound and contain quality content.
On top of that, you need to build the authority of each individual main page which means building valuable links and even redesigning them in some cases.
In short…Big websites need a lot more work.
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I get it:
You have some big business goals to crush and SEO is part of making that happen. SEO goals can be boiled down to just three KPI’s:
To achieve each of these goals, you need to rank for the right keywords. But what if you have a lot of keywords?
Here’s the truth:
The size of the SEO campaign required to meet your business goals will directly affect the price you pay for SEO:
SEO is a powerful marketing tactic for both small and large businesses.
You just need to have the right budget in place to make sure you get the results you want.
Is your business in a competitive niche?
SEO can be competitive.
After all, there are usually only a small number of target keywords in a single niche or industry that really drive results.
If your SEO competitors:
…You are up against some fierce competition. This is why your SEO budget needs to match it so you can compete too.
Indeed, to get your site into the top spots in a very competitive niche will require a huge amount of work and a very clever strategy.
Most SEO agencies will do an initial SEO audit before they quote a price.
Indeed, they need to know what services are required to achieve your goals before they can quote you a price.
For example:
If your website needs to be technically redeveloped, this takes a lot of time, but… if your website just needs some on-page SEO adjustments, this shouldn’t be as much time.
The services you need can be simplified into two things:
The agency can see where you are with your SEO and where you want to be. By then, they can work out exactly what services are needed to get you there.
SEO companies that produce results are not cheap for a reason. The reality is every SEO company and professional values the work they do.
Every price is based on that value.
Most customers don’t like the hourly rate model because they feel that they are being billed for every little thing the SEO provider does.
But here’s the truth:
What’s important is not the cost per hour you pay but… the VALUE that you receive from the agency.
That’s why I always say when you are looking for SEO services, decide your budget first.
But remember:
As with most industries – if the SEO company has a reputation for getting excellent SEO results for customers, they will cost more. And that makes total sense.
There are tons of different SEO agencies out there. Each agency uses an SEO pricing model that best reflects the services they provide.
There are a number of factors that will impact SEO pricing. You just need to decide what’s important to you then find an agency that fits your business.
Looking for an SEO agency you can trust? Take a look at these client case studies.
Remember:
When it comes to SEO pricing – the most important thing is value.
Decide your SEO budget, find an SEO service that provides good value for money and has the capabilities to achieve the results you’re after.
Can’t afford to hire an SEO service? Check out my 45+ steps SEO checklist and start optimizing your own website.
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