I have been approached by a client and asked to help their site rank in a specific domain, I have worked on other sites in the same domain with the same keywords and helped them to acheive pretty good ranks, for some pretty good keywords with not too much effort (I wasn't paid much) so I have a good history in this clients eyes. I am going to charge per a set number of hours and reasses every two weeks. How much would you charge this client per hour? I am UK based, my client is based in the USA and I am working with their startup UK branch. Many Thanks.
If you had good results for them before, maybe $8 to $10 an hour? Just throwing a couple numbers out there.
It depends on your skills. I don't believe you can charge per hour, (how can you measure how much work was actually done?) Some would charge per result, for example $400.00 to go from PR0 to PR4, or to increase the traffic from x to y using analytic. Personally, I like the traffic option, you both agree before hand that the traffic should increase by xyz every week and you will charge $abc per week. If you achieve the target then you get paid, otherwise you don't. Also, when a certain target is achieved you can charge a 'maintenance' fee to help them remain on track, (or better). Eventually, you can charge consulting fee, that's also a couple of hundred $ for each projects, (promo, traffic boost and so on). No one can give you an exact figure, it is between you and the client, (and what countries you both are in). FFMG
The expensive bit will be the setup, thereafter monitoring and changes will be easier Put a contract in place Make sure you receive a deposit or payment up front, before commencing any work It won't really make any difference whether they pay in GBP or USD, but if you are paid in USD make sure you take into account any exchange rate and conversion costs that are incurred It's rather difficult to work out a rate per hour, for some clients this can be unfair I charge a £25 setup fee, a £25 session fee, and £5 per page (that requires amending) Two weeks is a good interval, to see how small changes affect visitor patterns
I seldom charge on hour basis, charge per project is better. By the way, if you want to charge hours basis and you are working pretty good which give a good result, then $10~$20 per hour is reasonable
This and charge whatever you are worth, not less, not more. No SEO worth a grain of salt would charge to increase PR.
oDesk's platform lets employers track "milestones" in a project. And also you can track hours through Toggl. But in this case it seems like most people feel charging per project or per month is best.
$8-$10 per hour? If you are not worth more than that, you are in the wrong business and should quit. Then go get a job flipping burgers at $10 per hour where you don't need to think. If you can't make at least $50,000 per year ($25 per hour average), your skills are being wasted. In that case you need to either quit and find a more satisfying job, or get off your lazy butt and learn enough so you can earn over $25 per hour.
$10 is general rate but you are in UK so it should be higher, I think $20 or $30/hour would be good. Yes, I understand some clients would like to pay you on hourly basis so you have to go according to their intention if you want to catch that clients otherwise, you may loose one client as well.
Probably not, but some clients might make the PR their yardstick, (for the wrong reasons maybe, but the client is king). FFMG
Obviously this depends entirely what country you are in. In some countries you get $10.00 a day for flipping burgers, so $10.00 per hour for SEO works is very good. This is why in the UK SEO work is only done by professionals with a proven track record, (and they charge a fortune), no 'new' guy can make it as they would need to charge a pittance to compete with other markets. FFMG
Depends on your past results, references, and CODB. A monthly fee is preferable but not necessary. We charge a retail rate of $120 an hour and discount that a little when we work on behalf of other firms. This let's them make a margin on top of our rate without becoming uncompetitive. With that said we have some good clients, a team of people, office expenses, etc, so our cost of doing business is probably a lot higher than yours. Another thin you really need to look at is the type of client you are going after. If your a soloprenuer than you are likely target small - mid size company. These guys can typically afford less, and the market is slightly more competitive. Therefor rate has to be adjust for this consideration.
If I'm personally doing the work I charge at least $60 an hour. But I tend not to trade my time for money.