I get this question pretty frequently: How long will it take me to get ranked on google for {insert medium competitive phrase here}? And How much do I need to pay monthly to reach the goal? I want to know your typical response to this question. In general, I would want to give them a number, and I would hope they would pay over a period of time. Typically, I give them a few choices: 1) Aggressive SEO which includes buying links, as well as directory submission (free and paid), and on site optimization. I tell them buying links is a little riskier, but may bring results faster. 2) Less aggressive but consistent optimization: directory submission, on site optimization (studying traffic patters and optimizing pages), and some link exchanges. #1 is usually 2-3 times as expensive as #2. What do you think?
I think you do very well Olso one very important thing don't promise things that are very hard to obtain in fast ways or miracles i usualy am very sincere about this things and tell them exactly the situation the expectations etc ...
In SEO it is very hard to give a precise time because there are just too many factors that have to be taken into consideration. Google SERPs are changing and what worked well in the past doesn’t mean it will work again. I would try to give my best educated guess but would never guarantee anything.
Oh that´s a good question. I´m trying to optimize my website and have start reading some things about SEO. I have been working on it for some time now. Just working the titles had some results. But I understand that more links will help too. Is it really that difficult to get links from other websites? Why is it it 2 to 3 times more expensive when you buy links?
It depends on several factors. If the site is brand new, bet on waiting about 9 months before you start seeing some significant SERP results. I always inform them that there are other things that can be done to bring in traffic while waiting on the SERPS, but they will come in time. If the site is existing, has alot of back links, and is just not built or optimized properly, then you can expect to see some results quickly. However, the client must understand that results are proportional to the amount of time and effort put into the site. Sometimes this does not apply, especially if you are creative. However, they don't need to know this. If you are spending an hour a month on promoting the site, the results will take years. I agree that an advertising campaign (buying links, banners, etc) can speed it up, but I usually focus on building long term stable websites and bought links usually do not promote that model. If they want immediate results, I recommend doing a PPC campaign to accompany the SEO.
Yeah, because of the differences in topics (saturation/smarmy factor/competition, etc) that various clients bring to the table, in addition to the various Google experiments they are testing at any given time, the number of months to achieve SERP satisfaction varies widely, in my experience.
Well said. But my advice is try to discover for yourself first before doing SEO in a client to give you a much better outlook on how hard it is and how much you will ask for your clients. :0
So it really comes down to convincing the customer it will be worthwhile to spend $X,XXX per month for X months, and you have to decide how high to make $X,XXX and X. If you decide right, you will have a regular paycheck from the customer, so this is why I started the thread. How do you give a good explanation so the customer feels comfortable?
Not to be a cheater, but you might consider looking at what your competition says and taking notes on what you want to include in your own description. I've been known to take a peek here and there in the past to make sure I'm covering all the bases.
I never guarantee of the ranking but I use the phrase "with very high probability". I ask for minimum of 6 months for any of the optimization and ranking change.
It also depends on the field the site is about , some of them can have a chance of ranking up auicker than other category ..that is also a factor
just out of curosity But do you guys turn down people with new sites? Most the terms I target the sites are all over 4 years, at least all the ones top ten in google are. What do you tell someone with a new domain?
It depends on the client. A new client with a brand new site and a large budget is fine but a new site with less than £5k budget who wants results inside 2 years is not going to get my services.
I don't turn down young sites, but I am clear with the client that results are faster for older sites.
It's just known connectmobiles. It has to do with the Sandbox. Most people talk only about Google when talking optimization talk. Y! and MSN are easy to get listed in top 10 and take a quarter of the time. As for older sites, I'm always very clear on how Google's search engine works, how they rank a site (based on link age and domain age) and give time frames for rankings. I've turned down young sites, because it's going to be too competitive and the potential client doesn't have the necessary funds to participate in ranking at that level.
Great question and always good to hear about various SEO pricing models. I think its horses for courses, all clients/domains are different and you can't use the same pricing package for all. I like to get an idea of budget first, before putting detailed proposals and costs together. Saves me wasting my time and the client's time. One area that hasn't been mentioned is ongoing SEO. How do you price that? After you've got good results for a client, you want to be selling them a maintenance service. (it's an easier sell if you propose this right at the beginning, of course ) Defending your rankings can be as difficult (if not more) than obtaining them, so you need to provide an ongoing service (most likely link building). I'm thinking of selling this ongoing service with a guarantee, not of rankings or traffic, but a promise of only charging them while their site remains on the first page for agreed terms (say for at least 16 days of the month). That way, they only pay for results. The onus is on me to keep working on the site, or I don't get paid ;-) Anyone else got views on ongoing SEO/SEM fees etc?
It was always assumed, but last year when Google patented their algorithm length was spelled out in the document. In fact, they weigh the site for how long you have held the domain and how long out it's registered for. The first thing I suggest to my clients is that they go ahead and register their domain for 5 years. It's not known how heavy that is (probably not very heavy) but it's so easy/cheap and we know it counts so why not do it? You can see some of the info here: http://sleepyblogger.com/?p=8 Keep in mind I wrote this a year ago and it may be dated.