how much should SEO cost?
It’s a question I’m asked often and my stock answer never ceases to disappoint.
That answer is – ‘depends’.
Depends on so many variables that anyone who even attempts to provide one all-encompassing magic figure is either:
a. being deceptive or
b. doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing
Let me explain in a bit more detail by outlining my major considerations when quoting for SEO work.
Time is the factor
Always keep in mind that when you invest in SEO you’re investing in time. Regardless of how it’s packaged by a given individual or agency, what you’re paying for is hours. And however many hours it takes to be successful is the amount that’s right for your business and your website. Got it? Good.
Size of website
The larger the vehicle, the more challenging it is to steer. If you’re running a basic website of 25 pages or so, it’s a lot more straightforward to get to grips with than a major eCommerce setup with 1000s of pages. Common sense, no?
Amount of competition
SEO can be viewed as an endless road. What I mean by that is there is no limit to how much time and effort you can invest. But you only need to do enough to be successful in your specific market i.e. better than your competition. So if you’re a small, local business only competing against other small local businesses on Google, you will obviously have to do considerably less to be successful than a website that needs to go to war in a national or even international marketplace. In short, the more competitive the market, the more you’ll have to invest.
“SEO can be viewed as an endless road. What I mean by that is there is no limit to how much time and effort you can invest.”
Available resources
Without going into too much detail, SEO comprises many tasks, some of which are highly technical and need to be overseen or handled by a skilled expert. Other things that influence SEO like new content production, social media, outreach activities, etc could be handled in-house to save money if you have the time and/or resources to do it. If you do have the ability to get stuff done, make sure your SEO company knows this when quoting. It might save you a few pennies.
Complexity of setup
I’ll always try to get a look at the back-end of a website before I engage with a new client. The reason being is I need to get an idea about how straightforward or difficult it will be to make the modifications / updates necessary. If it’s a particularly difficult or outdated system running the site, I will factor this into my costs because it’s likely I’ll have to spend a lot of time or even pay a developer to get things shipshape.
Level of understanding
This doesn’t mean suckering people who know very little into paying big bucks. It just means that if a client has a degree of knowledge it invariably saves time and less time means less spend. It’s important to me that all clients have a level of understanding about what’s going on at all times because in my experience this significantly increases the chances of the project being successful. There is still a crippling lack of knowledge about even the most basic principles of SEO and many individuals and agencies feast on this, with companies paying a lot of money for not very much just so they can feel better about it being handled by someone. If your SEO expert(s) can’t explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing it at all times, get rid quickly.
Ballpark costs
This is all you really came for isn’t it?
Seriously though, the below examples are somewhat arbitrary, but hopefully demonstrate how you can only quote properly on a case-by-case basis (as the above explains), but they might prove a useful reference and starting point to gathering costs for your own business.
Please note all are based on ongoing monthly management fees. Smaller businesses might benefit from one-off project work, but for the majority an ongoing contract of some description is advisable.
Example #1 – Geoff the window cleaner
Geoff is looking to target specific searches relevant to window cleaning within his town. He has a small website already built on WordPress and just wants to improve his visibility. Not many window cleaners in Geoff’s town are actively pursuing SEO so competition is low.
Estimated cost: £100 per month
Example #2 – Bob’s Auto Shop
Bob runs a garage in East London and is looking to increase the amount of business he gets from Google. Although he’s only interested in obtaining customers within a certain radius there are a number of other mechanics in the local area, many of which are actively pursuing SEO. His website has seen better days but is easily modified/fixed.
Estimated cost: £250 per month
Example #3 – Terry’s Hats
Terry runs a bespoke hat store and needs to compete against other milliners in the UK search results. His website has a few hundred pages outlining all the different types of hats he makes. The market is competitive, but Terry can handle some of the ongoing tasks himself. He just requires technical guidance and someone to oversee everything.
Estimated cost: £500 per month
Example #4 – Gloria’s Great Escapes
Gloria runs a bespoke travel company specialising in holidays to remote locations. She wants to compete in some niche markets within an otherwise competitive market. She doesn’t have the time to get very involved with the website, but only recently had it redesigned using the latest content management system, so everything is very easy to update.
Estimated cost: £1,000 per month
Example #5 – Rugrat Central
Rugrat Central is a major online fashion store selling thousands of different items of clothing. They sell in both the UK and the US. It’s a highly competitive market and they’re up against some well known brands who are well established on search engines. They have an in-house marketing team but no SEO expertise. Serious guidance and involvement is required as well weekly meetings to discuss all initiatives.
Estimated cost: £2,000 per month
Hopefully this article demonstrates the many variables that dictate SEO cost. Digital agencies or fellow consultants might argue why their fixed packages work, but none are bulletproof and will always leave some clients short changed.
Equally though, there are many people who claim to be ‘SEO experts’ and will offer guaranteed rankings for next to nothing. Unfortunately these guys give people unrealistic expectations about pricing and results and should be avoided at all costs (believe me, it won’t end well).
Pricing is a massive challenge in the SEO industry and even after a decade of experience, I still find myself refining my own process to make sure the quotes I supply are fair for everyone involved.
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