Search engine optimization continues to be a big deal these days, as online marketers work to drive traffic to their websites. Organic search, for most, tends to be the biggest driver of traffic. However, there’s big benefit to being gained for those that can design and populate a website with content to ensure not only a high number of visitors but a high number of relevant visitors. For those small business owners who are not SEO experts, it often doesn’t make sense to take a do-it-yourself approach. That just diverts you from focusing on your core business and, chances are, you simply don’t have the wherewithal to stay up-to-date on what is a constantly shifting area of digital expertise.
Many turn to external experts to help them, but who can you trust. The difficulty with this is that there are literally thousands of experts out there, and the cost of their services can be all over the board. Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential service providers based on the nature and quality of services they provide, and after speaking with at least three small business references, how can you tell if the prices they’re quoting you are reasonable? First, it pays to be alert to some key warning signs.
Warning Signs
At the outset, when getting quotes from SEO vendors, there are some warning signs that should send you running away from vendors who are trying to convince you that their price is right. This include:
- Providing a bid without ever doing an analysis of your site—and that means a thorough A firm that comes back to you in a couple of hours with a bid has probably not put much consideration into their proposal.
- Pre-packaged services. Every company’s SEO needs are different, so it’s highly unlikely that a pre-packaged SEO option is going to meet your needs.
- Front page guarantees. Effective SEO takes take; any agency worth their salt is going to invest a lot of time in working with you to achieve the results you’re looking for—including out-of-pocket costs for the agency. The good ones won’t offer a guarantee that you’ll land on the front page of Google.
- Really low rates. A rate that seems too good to be true; probably is! A couple of hundred dollars a month cannot feasibly buy you the time that an expert needs to do SEO the right way.
Factors that Affect the Price of SEO Services
Like most service providers, good SEO companies create custom quotes for clients based on the number of hours or amount of effort required for the task. SEO is an ongoing process for which it could take 4 to 6 months to see results, so many companies charge by the month, and some require a minimum number of months. Here are some key drivers that can affect the price of SEO services.
- Competition in your market. How many competitors are there in your space? Is your product more niche or mainstream? Does your company seek customers on a local, national, or global level? It takes more work to get the top search results on highly competitive terms.
- Your goals. How much improvement do you aim to see concerning the amount of traffic, and more importantly, the quality of traffic? How quickly do you hope to get there?
- The size of your website and variety of your products. Large e-commerce websites with hundreds of pages and products will require more time and effort to optimize each page and target all of the relevant keywords.
While it’s impossible to provide a specific figure for what you should expect to pay for SEO services, given the variability in clients and client needs, one way to approach this would be to determine what you would be willing to pay for each lead or sale generated and then back into the agency’s proposal from there. Purchasing SEO services and determining a fair price requires a lot of homework! Check out each agency carefully, ask for a custom quote, and consider the ultimate value of these services for your organization. Then make an informed choice.
About the author
Natalie Beach is a senior analyst at Clutch. She conducts research on the digital marketing industry. Clutch identifies leading software and professional services firms that deliver results for their clients.
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