How much does Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) cost?

We got a lot of enquiries for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), where the client wants to know ‘how much SEO costs’ before we know anything about their site or what it is that they are trying to achieve. I would be very wary of any company that gave you an answer before asking you some key questions or performing an initial analysis of your website.

The amount of work required for each campaign will be different depending on a number of factors, which include:

• The current status of the website & current ranking
• The industry of the business
• The keywords they are hoping to optimise for
• Other specific goals or requirements

Before an accurate cost can be created, it is important to know the current status of the website and how well it is currently doing. A website could already be reasonably well optimised which means that less work would be required to the on-page optimisation, and they could already be on page 2-3 of Google for their chosen terms. Alternatively, the website may require a complete rebuild in order to address any issues and may not have been cached by search engines. Even worse, the website may have been blacklisted for using spam or black hat techniques!

Performing a competitor analysis on the chosen keywords will enable you to discover how competitive the industry you are trying to rank for is. This will also give you the crucial information about how much work is required to both the on-page and off-page SEO, which is where you will be able to work out the cost of the campaign. You may discover that the keywords selected are too competitive to realistically optimise for without considerable time and investment, so you can research less competitive long tail variations of keywords that still yield a high volume of traffic.

So as you can see there is a lot to consider before a cost can accurately be created. The total cost will be dependent on exactly how much work is required and the rate of the SEO Company. If a company has offered a price before considering these factors, ask exactly what their strategy is what you are getting for your money. There shouldn’t be any hidden costs, and if they have not created a proper strategy then your campaign is likely to fail.

SEO can be expensive. Because of this reductions are normally offered if payments are made in full at the start of the campaign, but many companies offer flexibility in monthly payment schemes. In this instance, the bulk of the work is done upfront and there is normally an ongoing cost for maintenance, link building campaigns and monthly reporting.

If you have any questions about the cost of SEO, or simply want to find out more, then feel free to contact Elevator. We also offer a free SEO initial analysis report which will help provide you with an insight to the status of your site and how much work is required for you to achieve your goals.