SEO
The price of an SEO campaign involves many steps, including:
- Industry analysis
- Competition analysis
- Keyphrase research
- Keyphrase selection
- Keyphrase implementation (title tags, meta tags, website copy, etc)
- Linkbuilding
- Search engine submission using sitemaps.xml
- Directory submission
- Monitoring and reporting
Each is equally important and vital to your campaign. A good-value SEO campaign from an experienced web developer should cost $2,500 to $10,000 up front, depending on the competition and focus of your market.
A lower quote suggests the web developer is not experienced enough to obtain the results you need. And a higher quote is a good indication the agency is too large to offer a competitive price.
Basic (presence on search engines for relevant terms)
- $1,500-$3,000 setup / $150 monthly
Advanced (top 5 ranking for specific search terms)
- $3,000-$4,000 setup / $500 monthly
Market Leader (no holds-barred, all-out national SEO blitz)
- $4,000-$7,000 setup / $800 -$2000 monthly
Choosing an SEO provider can be a challenging process. Quotes vary widely; SEO prices range from a couple thousand dollars to well into five-figures, and it can be difficult to determine if you are getting your money’s worth.
The reason SEO prices vary so considerably has to do with the two types of agencies that sell and price SEO campaigns, and the way each views SEO price. The two primary providers of SEO services are advertising agencies and web developers.
Traditional advertising agencies who have recently decided to venture into online marketing operate using the “billable hours” business model for pricing SEO. This practice began as a way to catalog expenses over a long, ongoing, multilevel advertising campaign. But it is impractical for establishing an SEO price.
Advertising account executives price advertising packages based on the total amount of time that will be required to complete the client’s deliverables, regardless of what they are. They sell media “campaigns,” not services. The SEO price you pay is for the time of advertising agency’s creative staff, not the SEO as a product.
Pricing based on time can be very costly and vague. “Time” can include any action that relates to your project, even visiting competitors’ out-of-date websites. When you sign up for hourly-based SEO pricing, you are locked into a contract to pay the time it takes them to complete the service, regardless of the quality or revisions necessary. And the larger the ad agency, the higher the per-hour SEO price.
However, SEO price quotes are much lower at web development agencies because our business model doesn’t revolve around billable hours.
Web development/internet marketing companies price SEO and other internet services on a “per-product” basis. The services are viewed as a product, not the time spent on them, enabling web developers to price them effectively up-front (and drastically cut costs).
Unlike ad agencies, most internet businesses begin as the founder working on the side as a freelance webmaster. As the operation picks up and the client list grows, the price-per-hour business model becomes less and less desirable. It’s easier for both client and vendor if a set SEO price can be established up-front, with any necessary monthly monitoring reflected in the agreed-upon price.
Web development deliverables (a website redesign, SEO, an ecommerce shopping cart, etc.) have a standard and streamlined process of implementation, resulting in accurate and reasonable pricing. And because our focus is internet marketing and website development, you know you’re getting the best possible online presence from experienced web designers and developers.