Since the start of SEO, providing a simple answer to the question ‘how much does SEO cost?’ has been tricky. While the mechanics and toolkit for SEO are fairly similar for most projects, there are a huge amount of variables to take into account when building a strategy and budget. It’s often difficult to judge to true cost and potential ROI of an SEO project at its start.
Understanding the Many, Many Variables
First off you have to understand the marketplace dynamics which affect SEO success and pricing. How competitive is your industry? How competitive are the areas you serve? For example, an SEO website tune-up for a chiropractor in a small suburban town might shoot the site to the top of local rankings, while the same tune-up for an identical practice in a major metropolis might only improve rankings slightly. Furthermore, the value of improving rankings varies dramatically from business to business and the amount of available traffic in a particular market. For some local businesses, being on the first page of Google results leads to a dramatic increase in leads and revenue while others only a marginal difference.
Next comes considering the starting position of a business’ complete digital presence. How large is the website? Is the site structure well for SEO? How much keyword-rich content does the site hold? How many technical SEO issues does the site have? How many links and referring domains are pointing to the website? Is the business listed accurately on local listing sites? The list goes on. For example, it is not uncommon for an outdated and slow website to rank higher than a technically-perfect newer website because the older site has a robust and hard-earned back-link profile. No site’s SEO is perfect. The entirety of the digital presence has to be taken into account and then you can develop a strategy that addresses important weaknesses.
Common Pricing Models
Back in late 2011, SEO powerhouse MOZ conducted a survey of over 600 agencies in order to understand variations in SEO services pricing models. While this survey is now seven years old and MOZ admits the survey isn’t perfectly scientific, it does provide a solid general understanding of how most agencies price this type of work.
Some key takeaways from the survey:
- Project-based pricing is by far the most popular model. Around 70% of the agencies surveyed said it’s their most commonly used scheme with projects falling into the four price ranges: $1,001-$1,500, $1,501-$2,500, $2501-$5,000 and $5,001-$7,500.
- Monthly retainer pricing models, specifically the monthly rate, vary radically from agency to agency. The two most common were $251-$500/month and $2,501-$5,000/month.
- Most agencies offer project-based, retainer-based and hourly based pricing models in order to fit the diverse needs and budget of clients. It is a competitive marketplace and it seems agency are very willing to adjust their systems to retain clients.
Digital Marketology’s SEO Pricing Models
Over the years and with many hundreds of SEO projects completed, we’ve learned how to expertly tailor our SEO services to the unique variables of each client. We offer both monthly SEO services and one-time SEO projects, and we tailor our plans to our clients’ budgets.
We determine a scope of work by breaking down factors such as:
- How big is the website? How many pages need optimization?
- How much content development is needed, particularly if the site is obviously lacking important pages?
- How many technical issues need to be fixed?
- If it’s a local business, are there multiple locations requiring business profile listing setup or edits?
- How many backlinks does the website have? If there are not many, we’ll allocate more budget to focus on building a strong link profile.
- How strong is the competition?
The standard package we recommend is $1,500 for month one and then $1,000/m beginning in month two. Month one is a higher fee because there is more heavy lifting to do in addressing technical issues and ensuring that all of the priority pages are keyword-optimized.
At the same time, a major factor in pricing our SEO services is the client’s budget. We can customize the scope of work to match a client’s budget down to $500/month. At a reduced fee, we have fewer hours to invest in the work, so we execute our strategy at a reduced speed and with a reduced scope of work. In practice, this means it may take us two months to complete an SEO Tune-Up rather than completing it in the first month, and we’d develop less content per month and build fewer links per month on an ongoing basis.
We also do offer one-time projects. The scope of a one-time project is typically limited to a one-time SEO Tune-Up (keyword optimization and technical fixes). These one-time projects are typically $1,500 – $2,500 depending on the size of the website and amount of technical issues to be fixed.
Conclusion
A successful SEO strategy involves evaluating many variables and forging a path forward within the client’s budget. ‘How much does SEO cost?’ will always be a tricky question, but it’s important to recognize that — with the right strategy — progress can be made at nearly every price point.