Can someone please explain this to me? What software are they using to send their clients these detailed reports?
What kind of reports are these? What they states? If they have already done their on site SEO and now they don't have any access to modify the content of the site then how can they do the SEO further? If their reports contain updated information about the current state of on site SEO Parameters then they might be charging for that.
I think it contains where they place for keywords in the SERPS, their inbound links and maybe some traffic numbers? Most SEO companies charge you this "maintenance" fee and they often want a yearly contact with it.
No, because you haven't given enough information for anyone to comment sensibly. It's like saying 'Someone I know uses a bit of software to do something. What is the software and what does it do?' Doh.
I think I know what you mean about the maintenance sort. It's like a mutual policy for your website and for their reputation as an SEO company to have their program effective to yours. Because aside from doing a thorough on site optimization, there are still some jobs to do to make your website eligible to gain popularity and rankings in major SERPs. A website that's been optimized but not being "maintained" to grow online is nothing but an isolated good content website. Hope that could be the explanation you're looking for.
There has to be a clear agreement between the client and the seo service provider over this matter. If the maintenance fee is there in the agreement and you signed the agreement, then you are bound to abide with the stipulated agreement.
I don't know about other SEO companies, but our takes money only for SEO works (I mean a complex of actions to promote your website to the top of search engines) and if you'd like to see your website in the top for a longer period we charge extra fee for it's maintenance.
Thank you for your responses. I will try to be more specific. I do not have an SEO contract with anyone, nor an example. When they charge you these "MONTHLY" fees what exactly are the SEO companies doing? A lot of them require a 1 yr contract from which you have to pay them like $500 a month and this is AFTER the onsite SEO. They are also not doing any link building for you, the fee is just BS IMO. For the monthly fee that is being charged, I'm sure they are sending some type of report to the customer to show *VALUE.* My question to you is, what are the software programs out there that you can send reports to client with and brand them to you, the company.
Most likely they are doing offsite SEO - namely linkbuilding. Getting backlinks from other sites to yours. It would be interesting to see the report as we could probably tell what activity took place for the month by reading it!
Maintenance fee I charge is for maintaining your website's position on page 1. Before that, there is on-site optimization fee. What my SEO company offers is called "Performance-based SEO" Which basically means that you pay only for the results. There is no fee if you don't rank. Most SEO companies wants your money up front in order to get you ranked and charge you from day 1 no matter if you rank or not. They send you useless reports about how many back links they acquired for you but it really boils down to 1 question: where is my website at? is it on page one? "Pay for results" is the only way to go.
the success of SEO doesn't happen overnight my dear....ON Site optimization + Off Site Optimization .... Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, Site Navigation and Meta Tags administration are parts of the On Site Optimization and then link building enters the picture...this is Off Page Optimxn...Let's say your keywords start to rank, that doesn't mean your site secures the position forever. You need to maintain or improve your position - Maintenance