Understanding how to budget for SEO services is a challenge business owners face when putting together their digital marketing budget. Often, I am asked to provide a flat dollar figure, that fits their budget. I answer that question with ‘Let’s meet and talk about your business, and goals’. Why? Because SEO prices depend on what services your business needs, the size of your business, local or international, content and a few other variables. While it is rather difficult to provide a flat rate, after our discussion you will have a better idea about the investment you need to make and what to expect from working together.
How to determine what’s a reasonable price to pay for SEO services?
No matter the business you’re in, you want to connect with your potential clients, you want them to find your products and services first, you want to lead in your niche with authority, and ultimately you have a goal is to increase sales, revenue and bring in more profit.
To answer the above question, it is important to understand how SEO pricing works:
- SEO strategy and tactics such as link building, content creation, optimization of title tags collecting feedback and reviews, need to be evaluated on monthly basis, so most often SEO it is not a one-off project
- Local SEO services are usually less expensive than SEO services for national or international campaigns
- Having a clear strategy and marketing goals is crucial as the cost of the SEO investment depends on quite a few factors. Some important ones are listed below
- Business goals and the strategy required to achieve those goals
- Time frame in which you want to see results?
- Relevant keywords you want to target
- How much competition is in the same niche?
- The current situation in SERPs
- Backlink profile and domain authority
In addition to the above factors, you should also keep in mind that the SEO consultant’s experience and knowledge count towards what you pay for SEO services. When you work with local SEO consulting agencies you work closely with the SEO expert who is directly involved in optimizing your web properties and explains the report and data in simple plain language.
Our SEO pricing model
Our pricing is based on monthly retainers. You can start with a modest investment from as low as $500 per month and as your business grows and more sales start to flow in, you can decide to increase the investment in SEO.
For example: A local SEO campaign for a typical local business targeting a specific industry in a relatively small city can range between $1500-and $2000 per month. In bigger cities with higher competition and the possibility to target a broader demographic, the investment could range from $2500-$5000 per month. The more aggressive the SEO campaign is, the more hours of work are required to achieve the objective, which often means using professional analytics software and tools to measure the campaign results.
Is Local SEO expensive?
Local SEO is more affordable than international SEO because local businesses usually target a localized customer base within a smaller geographical area. With that in mind, depending on the local SEO services a business requires, it is easier for local businesses to budget for monthly SEO investment and reach their targeted audience.
Example 1: A local business that needs to update its business information in local or industry directories or as SEOs call it Local Citations, could be looking at a monthly investment between $250-$400. This simply makes sure that all your business information, website links, phone number, and address are consistent across the most reputable directories and it helps your business increase visibility within your geographical area.
Example 2: A local business that wants to run paid ads or social media campaigns targeting customers within a certain area, to drive traffic to the website or simply increase brand awareness, could be looking at a monthly investment between $400-$800. Running paid ad (PPC) campaigns is certainly an easy win and a good starting point, which allows you to keep the costs low and reach customers who are looking for what you offer, with optimized ads. However, you should not expect a fast growth. No matter how successful the ad campaign is, you will take away great insights and data such as website visitors, and user segmentation which you can then utilize for re-targeting.
Example 3: A local business that needs a more aggressive SEO campaign or as I like to call it, an all-inclusive SEO campaign, could be looking at a monthly investment between $2500-$4000. This type of campaign focuses on all aspects of SEO including:
- Website Audit
- Link building,
- Keyword research and optimization,
- Competitive Research and gap analysis
- Google My Business,
- Online Reviews,
- Content Management
- Social Media Management
- Monthly reporting
The main objective of all-inclusive SEO campaigns is to grow your business’s online visibility, and website traffic and increase conversion rates. Detailed reporting provides key insights on improvements that are directly related to your ROI.
By choosing to grow your online business organically, you are making a smart choice with long-term benefits. I genuinely care about helping your business grow and not only, I will train you and show you what you can do yourself to maintain a solid online presence month after month.
So, if you are interested in correcting SEO-related issues in your website, improving organic traffic, increasing online conversions, and boosting ROI, the first step in the process is to schedule a free consultation with me to talk about your business goals and timelines. This will help me gain a deep understanding of your business, customers, and competition
Note: Usually prior to taking on any project, a minimum of 6-8hr. consulting work is required, which is billed separately and gets deducted from the total project cost, should you choose to engage with my services .