How Much Should You Pay for SEO?
SEO experts and Internet marketing consultants don’t always agree on SEO pricing and budgeting, but on average the SEO budget recommendation works out to 4 - 5 times the cost of the website. In other words, if a company’s annual website budget is $15,000.00, SEO and Internet marketing should be between $60,000.00 and $75,000.00.
To their extreme detriment, most website owners have it exactly in reverse. They’ll invest only a paltry 5 to 10% into SEO and Internet marketing.. The results will almost always be a disaster. The most drop-dead-gorgeous award-winning website without traffic is like having boxes of Clio-winning four color glossy brochures stacked neatly in the storage closet.
Small companies often feel they can’t afford to invest in SEO. They’ll build a budget site for two or three thousand and then throw a few dollars after it with a $24.95 site submission package. What they should have done is invest $500.00 into the site and $2,500.00 into first rate SEO and Internet marketing, developing the backlinks that provide a top-5 ranking on Google, Yahoo Search and MSN Search. Even a butt-ugly website (while not recommended) with a flood of qualified traffic will always outperform the pretty site with little or no traffic.
Some SEOs like Vancouver SEO expert, Cole Wiebe, offer monthly SEO plans at very reasonable rates. Even a small company can afford six to nine months of Advantage SEO or Extreme SEO to drive serious traffic to their site.
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Thanks. I’ve been looking for exactly this formula. The 80-20 rule applies to just about everything.
Scott
Hm, but internet marketing and especially SEO can’t be guaranteed. For example, I work as SEO and I never know if desired results will be achieved. So imagine a company which invested $20000 into SEO and as time goes by, traffic stays at point ZERO. What to do then?
It’s like a car with no service in the world. The car can be perfect, can be luxury, can be simply outstanding, but what if it breaks down? You have no guarantee that someone fixes it. It’s the same with SEO. Moreover, it is my personal experience… Some sites of mine have nice positions for tons of phrases, but some sites wait for their break-thru (I simply can’t handle everything).
But you’re right… Many companies or individuals invest into small stupid packages with no final effect.
Actually, results can be guaranteed. At ColeWiebe.com (and there are a few other SEO firms that offer the same) we offer 100% guaranteed top-5 search engine rankings. We deliver or the client gets their money back. (www.colewiebe.com/seo_services.html) We also offer ‘partnering solutions’ that not only guarantee top rankings, but also traffic and conversion results. In other words, we get paid proportionatey to the actual sales that result from our work. (http://www.colewiebe.com/seo_partnering.html) We realize that very few SEOs have the success rates we do and therefore would be crazy to offer the performance guarantees we do. We’ve been working in SEO for ten years and have the confidence borne of experience to offer the results.
Cheers,
Cole Wiebe
Cole, sorry, but could you mention any phrases which colewiebe has top5 rankings for? Something really competitve of course. Or tell us about a few of your clients and tell us the phrases as well.
I am sure that if I gave you a project to gain top3 (because I don’t want top5) rankings for really competitve phrases, you wouldn’t be able to deliver the results. Why? Because you’re not Google and you can’t control their databases and rankings algorithms.
Thanks for posting a very valid question Jan. Regional keywords like ‘vancouver seo professionals’ have provided us with plenty of new business. With every client we work at developing a realistic list of keywords that will drive traffic to their website and then work on traffic flow to convert vistors into customers. At the end of the day, it’s not about showing off how many really competitive phrases we were able to score in the top 3, Alexa ratings or even high PageRanks (although we don’t have anything against impressive numbers); it’s about profit for our clients. With a realistic niche keyword list we have absolutely no problem reaching our 90 day and long term objectives and delivering results that count on the bottom line. We beleive that getting really competitive phrases into the top spot - perhaps gaining recognition at the next SEO summit - is to Internet marketing what winning the big awards is to web design. It may impress ones peers but it rarely does anything for the client’s balance sheet.
Cole
well it is true in this post that more than developing a website it costs high to go for SEO. because more than developing a site the work for SEO is quite hard work to develop ranking for the site to get list in top place in search engine and also to get traffic and business.
i do agree with cole comment that its not like we have to see the price its we have to see how effective is the work from SEO companies.
i’m agree with above person….as a webmaster i’m saying its easy to develop a website but its very hard to get high pr and getting traffic and to lead website in top place in search engine….i too agree with cole comment…..
I am having my own website, and I have doubt in payment to SEO now I have cleared about how much should pay to SEO. I aggred to your words that SEO experts and Internet marketing consultants don’t always agree on SEO pricing and budgeting, that’s why when compare to small companies often feel they can’t afford to invest in SEO.
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