How Much Does SEO Optimization Cost? This is the answer

Maybe you only apply for SEO services from competent people? So you must have realized how difficult it is to get accurate prices and noticed significant differences. In the midst of all these prices, it is even difficult to navigate which is not surprising. And the crucial question often arises at this very moment: Exactly how much does an SEO campaign cost?

To this question, there is really no correct answer. The price of SEO services is evaluated according to several factors that often relate to your position, the goals you have set, and the means you will dedicate to them. In fact, the right question to ask is “How much do you want to spend on this campaign?”.

To help you do that, we've put together a few items that will help you budget for your SEO campaign planning and give you an idea of ​​what's going to amplify (or not amplify it).

So, how much does SEO optimization cost? What are the elements that make the price of an SEO service different? What is the average cost of SEO packages? how do you determine the SEO budget? and what are the traps to avoid in SEO? All that questions we will answer in this article today. com with us

How Much Does SEO Cost For A Website

Providers of these services design their bids differently to avoid comparisons with competing firms in the event of tenders being requested. However, there is always a monthly cost that acts as a common standard for everyone. In the end, all companies that compete in this field provide the same service.

The observation you will come out with when reviewing hundreds of SEO quotes, is that full support over a one-year period for the majority of sites regardless of their niche can range from $600 to $2000 per month. This cost is not fixed, in many cases, this number can change to less or more, and it can cost much more for complex sites.

Most of the prices are around $1,700 per month to fund and optimize your website. This price level for the SEO service should also provide a good quality boost.

On this basis, here is an example of the distribution between the different positions:

• SEO audits, recommendations, and results submission: $3,000 for the right study.
• For content, create 4 scripts or blog articles per month, ~1,000 words, improve tags, existing scripts: $400/month.
• Netlinking, about 10 links per month with a trust flow greater than 30: $800/month.
• Support by a consultant, project management, monthly reports, ongoing advice: about $750 per day.
• Thus the price of an SEO service can easily reach a total of 20,200 USD excluding taxes per year, or 1683 USD per month.

Does this mean that a service that is cheaper than that is not serious? Not necessarily, but it is necessary to understand what items the savings are in.

What are the elements that make the price of an SEO service different?

Site complexity:

The complexity of the site is a key factor. Depending on whether the service is implemented on a site under WordPress with 30 products or a site under Magento with 80,000 products, the time to analyze, formulate recommendations, and implement them will not take the same time.

Quantity and quality of content to be written:

If the recommended strategy is to plan to feed a blog with 2-3 articles published per month and write dozens of content, the appreciation can quickly wear off. Be careful, as prices are very flexible in this area. Depending on whether your agency subcontracts this work to a copywriter or whether they have paid copywriters, the offered price can vary simply five times! For example, an article with a text of 1,000 words can be issued for $50, or $350 depending on the expected editing quality, and the complexity of the topic to be addressed, depending on the origin of the content.

The importance of networking:

The number and quality of links to get each month is often an important part of your SEO budget. In fact, it is the quality of the links that will make the difference in this situation above all else. Some high-traffic sites, and references on their subject matter, can charge several hundred dollars for their links. If your site has a very low Trust Flow, you will have to invest in this point and the SEO service price can be severely affected.

Time Your SEO Expert Should Spend:

The more ambitious your SEO goals, the more work, and certainly the higher the cost. In fact, the consultant and his team will have to spend some time each month trying out the business plan, and be available to respond to your requests.

Your advisor's level of experience:

The Senior Advisor does not charge the same price as the Junior Advisor. The day/advisor price can range from $400 to over $1,000 for the best agency advisors.

Sector competition:

The last point to consider is the competitive level of the sector. Know that if this is too high, it will take more effort (and therefore more resources) to get significant results.

The Average Cost Of SEO Packages

Does this mean there are no real SEO pricing guidelines? Not right. Although the cost of SEO can vary widely, most SEO companies - and even many freelancers - offer packages. So it is easy to give an estimate of their average price.

Let's dive a little deeper into this context. Most SEO package bids typically fall into one of two categories:

1. Hourly SEO: If you are a small business or a startup that is just starting out, hourly SEO could be a good option. This type of pay structure is useful when you only want to complete a certain task or work by a specific deadline. The actual cost will depend on your specific needs, but to give you a general idea, the average hourly rate for SEO services is $150 an hour, with individual services ranging from $100 to $300.

2. Monthly SEO: Monthly SEO is ideal for ongoing campaigns or more complex projects and is the way most agencies work. Since SEO is usually an ongoing process, clients usually pay an agreed amount each month. Monthly SEO costs can range from $650 in the low case to over $5,000 in the high case, with an average cost of $2000 per month. Again, the cost depends on a number of factors (such as those mentioned earlier in this article).

Another great option to get started is a one-time SEO audit - where you pay a fixed fee to an SEO agency or consultant to create a detailed audit of your website so you can see what needs fixing and improving. A manually generated SEO audit costs between $1,500 and $10,000, with an average cost of $2,500.

It's a little more difficult to set an exact price for a custom plan, especially since the plan will need to change over time. The best thing to do is to talk to several SEO professionals to get a better idea of ​​the packages and pricing they offer. They may offer you other options, such as less intense updates or work as needed.

How Long Until SEO Takes Effect

SEO is a school of patience because you have to wait a few months before you see significant and permanent growth in your organic traffic. Therefore, SEO is a serious service that aims to achieve good results in the long run.

Agencies that offer SEO services rely on persuading you to cooperate for at least 12 months, without an implied renewal. If they do well, they know you'll be back for a second year, no doubt. The importance of this partnership is that it is a good idea to check the company's financial solidity before committing, learn about its development dynamics, and it is a good idea to check the composition and experience of the team on Linkedin or find employee ratings through sites like Glassdoor.

How Do You Determine The SEO Budget

Define your SEO goals

It is clear that SEO is not free, contrary to what we read often. While it is true that investing in SEO is worth it in the long run, there are certain costs to expect.

You should also know that prices vary depending on your competitors, your sector, the size of your site, and your ambitions. Before asking for your quotes, think about clearly setting your goals and being realistic according to the current state of your positioning. A display site with a few pages will never look the same as an e-commerce site with thousands of products.

Finally, it should also be taken into account that a site that has just launched or a site with a bad reputation will only have visible results after several months and only if there is SEO work. Thus, the ideal situation is to plan the actions to be carried out from the beginning.

SEO Consultant Pricing

An independent SEO consultant sets the price of their services according to their experience (junior/senior), the added value they bring, and the time required to realize various fees (social security contributions, software subscriptions, office rental, etc..). The quality of SEO consultant work depends on the daily rate or hourly wage.

• A beginner SEO consultant charges between 300 USD and 400 USD per day.
• A top SEO consultant charges between 400 USD and 1000 USD per day.

The costs of various natural reference services

The SEO process includes several steps that must be clearly distinguished from each other but integrated in order to meet all the objectives. Below is a detailed description of the services it includes, as well as the price ranges that freelance or independent agency consultants can apply.

SEO audit

Before you begin, the first step is to analyze the current state of your website. To be complete, an SEO audit should evaluate the current status, content, technical part, and backlinks. Finally, the review should include a list of recommendations that the customer can choose to do on their own or with the service provider.

• Price for a site under 1000 pages: between 1500 and 3000 USD
• Price of a site from 1000 to 10000 pages: between 3000 and 6000 USD
• Price for a site with more than 10,000 pages: between 6000 and 10,000 USD

SEO strategy and keyword research

First, the SEO strategy includes an in-depth analysis to know the sector, the target audience as well as the company itself. From there, a first study of the keywords in your market can be done.

The second step is to analyze competing sites but also other referral sites for your topic that are not necessarily your direct competitors. This will allow you to understand the strategies that are already working so that you can take inspiration from them.

Price: between 800 and 5000 USD depending on the keywords and competitors to be studied

Technical improvement

Failures detected during the review as well as recommendations made will create a certain number of actions to be performed on the site.

Depending on the technology used in designing the site, modifications that are sometimes made may involve a developer. If you don't have one on your team, it can be hired as a freelance worker or already part of the agency you hired. Anyway, it's a hit that can be expected without your budget.

Price: between 600 and 10000 USD depending on website technology

Content Optimization

Once the website has a proper technical foundation, the next step is to make changes to the internal network architecture but especially to the pages themselves.

Most of the time, it will be necessary to review the different tags, improve the content and sometimes add more. In addition, contacting an SEO writer is often necessary and this person should rely on the summaries provided by the consultant. This cost will of course vary according to the size of the pages to be worked on.

Price: between 50 and 200 USD per page.

Netlinking

Netlinking is one of the most sensitive steps but it has a huge impact on SEO. It initially comes down to identifying relevant 'points' to which it would be legitimate and exciting to form links in order to improve the site's reputation.

In the second step, it will be a matter of negotiating the links that sometimes need to be bought. The link will cost at least 100usd between negotiation time and writing cost.

In this case, it would be wise to provide a specific budget for this process.

Price: between 100 and 500 USD per link

Follow-up

Tracking your rankings is the last step in your SEO strategy and one of the most important. Thanks to the various reports that are often made monthly, you will be able to know whether the goals set at the beginning have been achieved or not. This allows for procedures to be modified to improve long-term results.

Price: between 100 and 500 USD per month

Different Pricing Models For SEO

Consultants and SEO agencies generally offer four billing methods that are important for you to know based on your budget and goals.

• Billing at Estimate: This is the most common form and often best suited for this type of project. According to the first audit carried out, it is possible to make an estimate of all the actions to be carried out and thus forecast all possible costs in the most detailed way. This allows estimating the time to be spent on the project as well as all costs related to content creation and networking according to the initial objectives.
• Fixed-price subscription: In this model, customers pay a fixed monthly fee for a pre-agreed set of services. The monthly deduction is one of the most popular billing models because it offers the advantage of cost savings. However, this type of billing is not always very accurate and most of the time requires minimal commitment from the customer.
• Hourly or Daily Billing: Very common, this billing method is primarily used by consultants for very specific tasks. It is simply a matter of applying an hourly or day rate for services. However, it will be necessary to plan an additional budget for everything that is buying content or links. In this case, it must be remembered that the prices of an SEO consultant are between 400 and 1000 USD per day.

Traps To Avoid In SEO

Everything is far from rosy in the world of SEO. As in many sectors, there are SEO agencies or even freelancers who will take advantage of the lack of knowledge of the client to carry out questionable business practices.

First, beware of service providers who offer you packs with results such as “become 1st on your keywords in X days” or based on performance. On the one hand, it is simply not possible to provide guarantees due to the evolving nature of the results in Google. On the other hand, it is possible to use so-called “black hat SEO” techniques which can be very effective in the short term but penalizing in the long term. This can be very dangerous for your site, which simply risks being penalized at one time or another by Google.

Also, beware of "digital" agencies that offer a whole host of services on the web. Some, for example, take advantage of having certain customers in their portfolio to offer them a service that they simply do not master. SEO is a real job and we quickly notice that only specialized agencies or freelancers provide real results in terms of positioning.