The same happens with internet marketing... The difference is that one is willing to put the money where their mouth is (So to speak)... I'm not saying it's wrong to charge by the hour - it's just not a method I would choose if hiring an SEO (which is unlikely to happen anyway). Added: Like Design Agent mentioned previously, if they're looking for branding alone, then 'SEO' may be all they need (In theory). But 'Internet Marketing' and SEO run so cosely together these days that they often aren't mutually exclusive.
SEM - search engine marketing - getting links and?? - SEO - search engine optimizatioin - onsite but still may not be specific for converting since it is designed to get search engine listings Doesn't mean either can't be paid to help convert just depends on what someone is good at. like sebasic says they kind of run together - just depends on what the seo says they will do
Lets face it most SEO's dont do much aside from submissions and keyword spamming. Even to SEO a 5 page site should take at least 2-3 days of on site changes and tweaking. The offsite SEM for a site that small would take months of work. You cant really expect an SEO to do all that work, get no results and then not get paid for it, it just doesnt work like that, the whole pay for performance marketing strategy is totally wack. The only way you could make it work is by splashing out cash you havnt technically earnt yet to pay for links, exit traffic, ppc listings etc to make up the numbers... Any SEO who knows what they are doing can prove and show the results of their labour enough to warrant a fee of $50-100 an hour. The problem is their are so many people out there who say they can do SEO but dont know enough to do the job properly, then of course their are companies out there that offer things that they cannot achieve without cheating or paying for it. The number 1 thing to do with regards to an SEO is to get someone, not a company to do the work and only take that person on recommendation from someone you know.
Generally speaking, it is impossible to honor a guarantee of a particular placement without being misleading or playing word games. Such companies should be judged carefully and the guarantee should not be taken at face value. The guarantee is likely the result of one of two scenarios: 1.) The guarantee is offered on non-competitive phrases. Anyone can rank a site in the top ten for a phrase that only faces competition from ten other sites. Unless your site is optimized for phrases that will deliver targeted traffic to your site, a guaranteed top 10 listing will do nothing to contribute to your site’s success. (Example: I could legitimately guarantee you a top-ten placement for the phrase "Atlanta ski resorts".) 2.) The company offering the guarantee is a fraud. As with any industry, professional SEO has its share of shysters. Just because a company claims to have a money-back guarantee doesn’t mean that they will follow through on that promise. If the company demands full payment upfront and promises a money-back guarantee, consider it a double warning against doing business. Some guarantees are legit. Example: our firm guarantees to improve the client's ranking from where it was before our SEO services went into effect. This is very general; it's reasonable. Perhaps not all that impressive, though!
We are a small firm with low overhead, so we can get away with charging $65 an hour without losing our shirts.
If all the seo is doing is just to give you links form his portfolio then what's the meaning of hours? It's all about links, keyword density, seo is pretty simple the way I see it I offer seo services for just $2,000,000 you get in to the top 100 in MSN for keywords where there are several hundreds competitors and some traffic
The price of SEO is largely based upon the "reputation" and results that that particular person has had previously. Also it can be based from business to business, and also on how quickly they would like to accelerate their SEO. (perhaps they offer different plans giving different hours and services). I remember one company I helped with SEO that was able to take their website from turning over $0 per month. To turning over more then $35,000 per month, purely from SEO, and they are a small company (4 employee's). Now ask this company how much their SEO is worth to them?
I don't think that per hour is always the best way to go. If you yourself have some powerful sites that you have been working on for years, then you can get someone ranked with just links from your own sites.
This is a fantastic thread. Thanks guys for the great reading material... it has certainly given me a lot to think about. I personally find it difficult to communicate to clients who get websites developed from me the importance of internet marketing to them as they often are confused enough with how a website operates and how they get products sold over the internet. This thread has given me a little insight in how to approach this matter. I find the hourly rate a better way to approach things. I've used the PPP (pay per performance) and I find that you can put a lot of effort into getting results which the customer could reap the rewards of months after you've finished the contract. As most of you know SEO and marketing isn't an overnight process and can sometimes take a while to start ranking in the search engines. Perhaps a mix of both would cover the SEO engineer with the performance pay keeping the website owner happy as the engineer still has to work for the money. If the engineer does a good job surely the owner will refer them to other website owners so it is in the best interests of the SEO engineer to do a good job.
I would never take a per commission only client. If they have that little faith in me, they need to go somewhere else. I prefer affiliate programs, there is at least no customer service and handholding involved
To be fair I won't be making that kind of contract again. Theoretically they could give 3 months notice and the contract would be cancelled.
There are clients I have services 4 years ago, and they are still benefitting from my work. So ... to me it's about a long term contract only
Well... it's been about 15 months now and the contract is still continuing but it's the uncertainty that I'm not keen on.
Get them a link here and there, make sure they're moving up (not skyrocketing, just moving), and stress your need to have something long term from them
Good idea! Although, it might be a bit strange saying that I need something long term all of a sudden.
Lay down a plan for them, give them a little cut back on the current fees. You will make it all back in time !
greati,ma not big , but i can do seo for any site and looking for part time job i charge very less because i,am new, any 1 who is willing to give me 1 chance, kindly PM me