SEO Pricing Query

Hi All,

I have been doing web design for a while and have been expanding my horizons into SEO for a company recently who said 'just do the work and we'll agree on a price when we see what happens!'.

I now am stuck as need to know a ballpark figure for the results I've achieved, I've an idea but need a few guide prices.

The results below are what I achieved with the phrases given:

Phrase 1 - 3rd/4th in Google UK
Phrase 1 - 1st in Yahoo UK

Phrase 2 - 5th/6th in Google UK
Phrase 2 - 2nd in Yahoo UK

Phrase 3 - 2nd/3rd in Google UK
Phrase 3 - 1st in Yahoo UK

Phrase 4 - 1st in Google UK
Phrase 4 - 1st in Yahoo UK

Any guidelines would be greatly received.

Thanks,

Matt

if you know the amount of hours you put into achieving those results, base a price according to a sum per hour that covers your fee and overheads.

I always get paid upfront and then per domain not per keyword so I cant really tell you what those reults are worth. It also depends of course on the keywords.
I sincerely hope you do get paid, as I've been bitten before, hence I only lift a finger once I've been paid nowadays.

Matt,

I'm in a similar position. However I'd like to develop scheduled payments based on the keyphrases' competitiveness. As you know your rankings can slip requiring you to put in a little more time.

I'm also tossing around the idea of charging per click. I'm looking for information about what people pay per click on sites like Overture.

The best thing is to have a flat rate per hour. If there are certain keyphrases that are very important for your client, you should also get a traffic or sales bonus if you do a great job. I have a nice income from bonus checks every month, but you should get paid for each and every hour you work. And you should increase the your clients sales. It is all about the money. I have worked for more than six years with webprogramming and SEO, I charge from 120-200 EURO per hour depending on the project and bonus structure.

I know from professional companies here in the us, they charge 3.000 us$ for the first and 2.000 us$ for every following year.
This is not based on having success or not.

Jan

Any business/marketing consultant will tell you not to get paid soley on results. This would apply equally well for something like SEO. Sure it sounds logical at first, why get paid if you didn't provide results? But then you put some thought into it and realize that results from marketing and seo type consulting don't happen overnight. These are areas where your efforts, if your good, should snowball and may have a longer term effect on the clients bottom line, rather than immediate. Not to say you won't have some success overnight, but many times it can take longer.

With SEO you have the added variable of how long it will take Google and the other engines to pick up your changes and re-rank the site. Setting up link exchanges also have a cumulative affect that may not be evident immediatly. The client is probably looking for immediate results and if they don't see it, will decide not to pay you. Of course 3-6 months later their traffic and conversions will pick up and they will be making a ton of extra money and you'll be hitting your head against the wall.

Always get paid for your time, add in bonuses if you like, but realize your work may take time to materialize into measureable results. There are many other reasons I could get into, but I will end my speil here.

.... and what exactly are you measureing, is it a keyword that converts that is No1 or do you track sales, but what if it's a crappy product, is that your fault it doesn't sell? ok ok I'll end it here

I agree 100% with the last writer. I am using webposition gold and take my customers automatically into that program for one year. I keep my clients informed about the up and down dancings of their keywords in short notifications in the main engines and why they are may be not number one, what to do eventually and my phylosofy is that if they are happy with your service and results after 6 months they will sign up for the next year as well.

i allways wANTED TO KNOW HOW GOOD THAT WAS cant you get banned with that software? :|