Seo Fees?

Hello,

I am wondering. For someone who is capable of doing decent SEO - and get first page rankings, what would be a standard intial optimization fee and a monthly SEO maintenance fee?

Thanks

It is directly proportionate to the amount of competition.

I would like to see someone optimize a site for $100 to get on the top of "web hosting" on the other hand if the site is about "small town USA lawn mowing services" then it could probably be done for nothing.

So the answer is $24.95 to 100k per month.

jman hit it head on. It just depends on so many things. You'll have to contact each seo with your terms to see their pricing.

And right now, no one can guarantee first page rankings.

Hey critter,

jman, is correct in some aspects, its varies widely with the company you are dealing with and the experience of the SEO. Other factors to consider are the cost incurred by the company itself. A lot of the larger SEO companies, have to pay resellers, optimizers, submission fees, and then cover any administrative fees.
Doing SEO yourself is always free though, but you might be shoting in the dark on actually the best way to optimize your site. I always say its WORTH it to pay for an experienced optimizer to work with your site. But again, make sure they can back up the claims and related work experience.

I've always done my own SEO work and have been pretty successful. Well, at least before Florida! Even after the Florida debacle, I've got my #1 and #2 key terms back in the top 20 of Google. Before Florida I was #3 and #8! I am in the top 10 for both terms on Alltheweb, Inktomi, and AltaVista.

Then I have something like 40 smaller terms where I enjoy top 5 and top 10 positions on pretty much all the major search engines.

But the question comes down to the amount of time spent doing the work, writing the content, building the links, etc.

In spite of my pretty good positioning I am considering using an SEO firm. Just to save the time! I figured out how much time I spend a month and figured it will only cost me about $10 - $15.00 an hour to let someone else do the work. Just saving the time is worth it to me. I then could go out and do more PR and promotion work to affect other areas of sales!

excellent point albuck!

with all factors weighed in. the bottom line/hours worked is about 35 -75 per hour. But to charge a flat rate such as that would be dishonest. You want an initial commitment from the customer and a contract with a budget. Expectations can be high. It is tough to guarantee top placement for a lot of words. some people are happy on page two and some want position 1. I would be wary of people who guarantee top placement. Also a monthly maintenence fee is in order after the initial results are accomplished.

like everyone else has said it all depends on the keywords and market...

you can give elance.com a shot... atleast that way they come to you but as always, buyer beware...

The fee will vary with the experice and service offerd by the SEO company.

It is not possible to find any top notch SEO consultant for less than 100 USD / hour. If you want a 'no cure - no pay deal' you must be prepared to pay a huge fee.

The important thing is that it is worth it, and any decent SEO/Website consultant will tell you if it is not worth it. Money spent on SEO is normaly a good investment, and any good consultant would make you filthy rich.

Good luck to you.

Hi,

Here is my formula to estimate my fee.......

I start with analyzing the search term ..
I first find out the # of search results on major search engines with our search term..

Then I analyze the top5 ranking competitor websites..

Finally, I get some figure about how much resources/labor I should use to offer my client a Guaranteed SEO service with that term


PS: I do consult my clients on search terms at the beginning...


Troy McKirk
SEO Expert
Search Engine Optimization Company

I agree with Phoenix... Learn LOTS and then hire a pro to kick you up a notch. I have hired Webby when I need advice.

In my early days I got burned on SEO at Elance. OhWhaTayFoolEyeAm. They said 50% up-front to get started & I fell for it... TWICE!!! Both vendors had good feedback scores, made promises of top 5 placement on my words with a 100% money back guarantee (that should have been enough warning to me), but they both disappeared the very moment I paid the "deposit" to get started. They cleaned out their Elance account, wouldn't respond to Elance, & probably created a new account under a new alias just so they could do it to another sucker. My "Rule of Thumb" regarding Elance is... don't do work with anybody who wants $ up-front unless it's a rather trivial amount of $10-$20. Let the bidders take the risk. Hungry bidders are more likely to do the work they promise.

Andrew A