1) Is SEO always an ongoing service? Another words is it something that most definitely should be charged monthly or at least more than once? 2) How do you go about talking with a client about SEO and discussing lengths and prices when you can't guarantee that you will get their site up to the front page? I have a family friend now that wants to pay me to do some SEO for his website, and always at the end of our brief conversations he'll be like "But you can get me up to the first page, right?" Basically, if I can't guarantee getting him up to the first page, how do you go about getting someone to pay you for SEO? It seems like a gamble on his part. Keep in mind he's old and technologically handicapped so he has no idea about how it works.
First of all i will advice you on measuring the competition of the site you're looking to rank for before giving any guarantee.. If the competition is low you can give a reasonable guarantee! If the competition is high you can educate them why it's hard to get them ranked in a short period of time and why the require long period of time to get ranked! But i always, give a guarantee to my clients to see changes on their SERP's and won't promise them to be one the first page of Google right away... First of all analyze the website and come up with a solid SEO plan!
I do offline SEO and my approach is to educate and provide value to clients rather than SELL them services. 1. Everything i provide is GOLD standard and within guidelines - No black hat gray hat etc. 2. There are no guarantees only improved performance based on agreed input 3. I charge monthly bicos SEO is not a static area of business. the cost depend on clients value chain 4. I choose my clients - i don't work with just anybody (trust me on this on - less headache)
I don't think anybody can or even should guarantee first page results. That is just setting yourself up to fail. Small achievable goals or SMART targets are a much easier way to measure success. With SEO, it's always better to explain that you will improve traffic and search engine positions but also to explain that it takes time and effort to achieve this. In terms of how do you charge a client, you should just think business. How much time are you allocating to this project and how long will it take? Think of the primary constraints which are scope, time, quality and budget and you will have a minimum price in your head of what it is going to cost. Once you have the cost of the project which with the time constraint includes your wage you can then decide on what profit you are going to make. Whether that is 10, 20 or even 50% profit will be up to you. I also think (and I'm not an expert in SEO nor do I claim to be) that when it comes to paying for SEO services, you should periodically have a review date. So say your friend/client is hiring you and he wants page 1 guarantee, you should say no but I can guarantee you improved performance with weekly reports. I can start tomorrow and within 6 months you will definitely have improved your search engine ranking and have more traffic coming in. That way you have a start and end time and I don't see how anybody could fail improving a search engine position and traffic within 6 months.
Take each enquiry as "unique". Each case is unique. Some may need monthly. Some may not. It is somewhere where your honesty or lack of honesty come into play. I turn down more way more (potential) clients than I take on. If you had a client paying monthly, would you let them know if they didn't need it? If not what will you do wheh you get caught out bearijg in mind people talk and meet others all the time. My philosophy is help the client to the best of your ability for a fair price for you both wherever possible. You will find clients then more inclined to be your best free advert you could ever posiible ask for.
I wouldn't take an SEO job if I didn't think it could get page 1 so I could guarantee it. No point doing SEO to fail on page 2 IMHO. But I am very selective and have never taken on a client that is not then put on page 1 and on page 1 for the things that matter and what we're agreed with client. (And then some)
SEO is always an ongoing service, and it's cost depends upon your requirement and also the size of the project. Many companies are today offering SEO at very reasonable prices. But choose a real and hard working company for you.
Yes i totally agree that SEO is an on going services sometimes your competitor compete you and sometimes you compete your competitors. So this process never stop and client will pay you ever if you will deliver the results.