Somebody called me asking how much would I charge him for my SEO services. I explained that I can't answer that without knowing the site, the keywords etc. So he sent me an email. This company creates metallic (iron) beds. It's an old company, since 1970, but now decided to create a site. They have 3 sites, one in English, one French and one German. They all look the same and there is no text. The homepage is with Flash elements. The first 2 sites are 10 months old and the third (German) is 2 years old. This site was in the first page of Google for metallbetten and eisenbetten but after Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1 dropped 10 pages. It has around 350 backlinks. The other 2 sites are new, have no backlinks, the content is not optimized etc. One is companyname.co.uk domain and the other companyname.fr The English one wans to be o the 1st page of google.co.uk for iron bed(s) metal bed(s) and the other on google.fr. for lit(s) de métal lit(s) en fer So, how much would you ask for these 3 sites and 10 keywords.
Let me tell you it is really difficult to bring back rankings of the website which has been penalized by Google updates. The competition in Google.co.uk looks fairly easy whereas it is comparatively tough in google.fr. I would charge somewhere around 300$ and 380$ per month for UK and FR websites respectively. Though I maybe wrong I am just giving you an idea.
Thank you very much for your answer. You mean $300 - $380 until I get the sites on the first page (and then ask less) or even after that? Until now I used to ask 500 - 900 to get the site on the first page, and then depending on the keyword etc., I would ask $20 - 30 per month to keep the site there. You see where I live, they don't pay much for SEO and they consider it an easy job. (...you just sit on a chair and click some buttons)! He is 60 years old and has no idea about SEO and I'm afraid he will ask me "how do I know you will get the sites on the 1st page", or "how do I know that instead of getting the sites in the 1st page in 3 months you will do it in 6 months"? Beffore Hummingbirds, Penguins and Pandas, I would guarantee that if their site wasn't in the 1st page within 3 months maximum, I would give their money back (fortunately I never failed). But now the game has changed.
hummingbird is the latest updates from google. Basically with hummingbird, on page SEO is very important now as you will have to make sure you have done schema.org markup so that search engines like google, bing and yahoo will know what your site is about. When you do schema.org microdata markup, you are telling search engines like google, bing and yahoo what your site contains. Example: events, products selling, local business, and so on. You could google more on schema.org microdata markup.
hahahahha.....well sure it ain't that easy to rank a website.... charge them monthly till they show up in top ranks, charge him for an extra month and then according to me your project is done, you can charge him for maintenance of website SEO wise but that's your choice. About his questions, tell him all the possible factors you know which are responsible to rank a website. In short explain him your work process, you can be little technical so that he might think you are not just another rip off. Explain him that no one can guarantee rankings in specific time period. Also tell him that ranking is not the only thing that is going to help. Being an eCommerce store generate relevant traffic for his website which will further lead down to sale, this can be also your milestone other than rankings. Thank you, hope this helps.