How much does SEO cost? “What can you expect to pay for a trustworthy SEO firm?” is a popular question among many business owners. Finding a sustainable and reliable partnership can be tricky, especially with cost versus effectiveness added into the mix. However, doing your research into making sure the outcome is worth the price pays off in the end—literally.
Before we dive into the realm of specifics, let me first talk about a technique I’ve developed that’ll help your hunt for how much does SEO cost and benefit your business in the end. It’s simple and easy to follow, and with proven success, it’s a surefire way to get your name on the metaphorical scoreboard.
The CLICK Technique, and How It Helps Your Hunt For the Right SEO Cost
The CLICK Technique is something I’ve crafted to make your online marketing experience a better, brighter, and easier one. It’s simple, effective, and will give you the results you desire, so long as you’ve got the drive and willingness to put forth the effort into making sure things go swiftly and smoothly.
Each letter in the world ‘CLICK’ refers to a different step you can and should take during the process of getting your business off the ground. Quickly, we’ll review them, and see how the technique can be implemented into your search for the right SEO cost.
‘C’ stands for curiosity, the letter we’ll be focusing on for this particular question. In order to sell products and services to your desired audience, you first must pique their interest. What makes you stand out from the rest? It’s your job to find that out, implement it, and use that curiosity to get people to visit your site, gaining you traffic and potential consumers.
‘L’ stands for land—as in, where consumers are landing on your site after they’ve been drawn to it. BOnce they’re there, what are they to do? You’ve got to make sure the layout of what you’ve presented is easy to navigate and gives them the chance to explore and find the answers they’re looking for, hopefully bringing them to you for business.
‘I’ stands for an irresistible offer. To keep them around, and to keep their interests focused on you and your business, make them an offer they can’t refuse! By giving them exclusive content and services they can’t get anywhere else, it’ll garner their trust as a future consumer—not just a one time blip on the radar—and it’ll guarantee you repeated success and loyalty in the future.
‘C’ stands for cultivate. Once you’ve gotten an e-mail address and a hot lead into something bigger, you’ve got to make sure you tend to the relationship you’re building, from seller to the consumer. It’s important to establish something strong and positive for both of you in order for success to be achieved.
‘K’ stands for keep going! While this technique has been proven to work time and time again, it doesn’t change the course of your business overnight. You must keep going, you must keep working at your end goal to do what you need in order to make sure things pan out in the end. Unflappable faith and determination are your strong points when climbing the marketing and business ladder in a digital world.
Using the CLICK Technique to find out How Much Does SEO Cost?
Now that we’ve covered what The CLICK technique is, let’s focus on that first letter—curiosity. This first step applies heavily when deciding what to pay when looking for SEO prices, and ways to get your website on the map. We need to make people curious enough to click on the sites name upon searching it or typing keywords into Google that brings them to our metaphorical front door. We need to make search engines curious enough about what we’ve got to offer in order to generate the traffic we’re looking for.
Too often, people are led on a goose chase when trying to find something reliable when it comes to managing SEO campaigns, and knowing all your options is extremely important to both your cause and the cause of the business itself. We’ll go over what you’re likely to encounter, along with price ranges, and what’ll suit your needs best to garner and harvest that curiosity we’re working to generate.
How Much Does SEO Cost and Varying Prices
So, how much does SEO cost? The answer: in general, the cost of an SEO entirely depends on the market you’re running. If you’re a small business located within one region, your rates will differ than that from an international campaign, such as Adidas or Nike.
On a smaller scale, you’ll encounter monthly retainers—a mode of payment where clients set a fee to pay each month in return for an assortment of agreed upon services. For a small business that competes within a confined geographical region (i.e. a dentist’s office, a landscaping company, etc.), you can expect a budget of $250 to $500 a month. At this level, however, is where you’ll find the most ‘snake oil’: SEO companies that promise a lot but give very little. Use your keen senses to weed out the fakes, and you’ll find success on an easy to manage the budget.
As the markets go up, so do the prices. Businesses with a larger target audience can expect a rise to $700 to $1,000, regional and national work that focuses on a niche audience can cost $2,000 to $6,000, and international work that doesn’t have a specific focus can cost upwards of $10,000.
Alternatively, firms will also offer a contract service for a fixed price. With that, the SEO cost is determined by the firm. They will select services they want to be completed before setting a monthly retainer, the prices of which can most likely be found on the site of the firm itself.
You’ll also encounter project fees, which are used for situations created specifically for clients, and pricing will rely entirely on a connection between the client and the SEO agency. A good example of this is a website redesign. If the SEO firm has the ability to recreate your website but it’s not included in your contract, they could bill you separately for this project for an agreed upon fee.
You can, of course, pay someone to do the work for you (think UpWork, for $10/hour), and they’ll take the load off your hands, but contractors like that can sometimes be unreliable. On the other end of the spectrum, you could aim for a well-known firm and pay upwards of $10,000 a month for the same service.
In the end, answer the question how much does SEO cost is that the SEO cost depends entirely on what you’re trying to do and what you’re looking for in terms of expansion. For example, if you’re a veterinarian looking to aim for a group of people that fall within a specific location or demographic, you can expect to be paying just about $500 a month. Also, you’ll be looking to run the campaign for a span of four to six months before you start seeing results that shine through. Alternatively, if you’re looking to expand nationwide, you’re looking at rates closer to $1,500 a month, for a campaign of three to six months before seeing results.
Why that long, you ask? The SEO work can’t be done within the first month alone; Google can and will penalize you and your business for trying to game the system. With SEO, you’re in it for the long haul; it’s all about slow growth. You must be ready to dive right in and invest the money into making the search engine optimization campaign successful for both yourself and your business.
