How much does SEO cost?

SEO can cost anything you like.  The real question is ‘How much money should SEO cost my Company?’ Most reputable SEO companies should charge a fee based on their estimated effort and the expertise of their engineers.

It is very important to use specialist SEO companies because the web development company that sells SEO as an add-on is not likely to do a good job.  The repercussions of this go beyond paying for something that is not effective.  In some cases sites have been black listed or at least degraded because inappropriate SEO techniques have been used.

How much money should I pay per hours work?

The difficulty can be likened to any skill based operation.  How skilled are the people and how productive are they? The difference is truly staggering.  The key aspect is Return on Investment (ROI), proper third party metrics and affordability.

It is essential that you can measure success.  At Marketing Grin we aim to deliver at least a 20:1 ROI.  If we charge you £1,000,000 per year then you need to gain £20,000,000 return.  If you only have the capacity for £200,000 return then sensibly you should only afford to invest £10,000 per year.

It is important to understand these figures must be measurable.  Hits and site visits do not pay wage bills!  Conversion rate is critical for success.  I.e. on average, how many site visits do you need to gain to make one sale?  What site route leads to a sale?  How can you get more sales?  How do you measure this if you do not sell through your web site?  It is very easy to bring huge numbers of visitors to a site but it is more important to bring appropriate visitors who can be converted to customers.  I.e. bounce rates must be low and there must be a method of measuring conversion rate.

 

We provide SEO to a world famous software provider but the nature of their software does not make selling on-line viable.  We measure conversion rate as the number of visits averaged per ‘trial software download’. Their sales team are then responsible for converting customers who try their software into paying customers. This metric is not ideal but it does provide a tangible measure of success.

Affordability is key to SEO

Affordability is key to a successful relationship. In some cases companies need to taste SEO success so that they have the income to afford to grow their company.  At Marketing Grin we leverage our experience to focus SEO so that you get the ‘best bang per buck’.  We like to work as an extension of your marketing team, this is crucial so that our advice is appropriate and our customers succeed in achieving their goals.

Each SEO campaign is unique and designed with our customers’ individual needs in mind. We build the strategy around you.

How much does it cost to get to the top of Google?

We are often asked “how much will it cost to get to the top of Google”.  There are many answers to this question, in fact one answer for every keyword and key phrase!  To understand the effort required for any keyword or key phrase, we need to go to Google and understand how the existing top ranking companies achieved their success for that keyword.  Some keywords are extremely competitive while others are not. In some cases we may advise that a better return on investment would be achieved by focusing on a slightly different keyword or phrase, why spend £50,000 to achieve X sales when £4,000 will achieve X minus 10%?

Every industry and sector is different and some are much more competitive than others.  The harder the sector, the more time is going to be required to get you to the top and therefore the cost is going to be higher.

We are frequently told about adverts our customers have seen guaranteeing the “Number 1 slot in Google for £30 per month”.  Frankly, that is not going to happen.  Companies suggesting otherwise should be avoided.

How much do adwords cost?

Adwords cost the same for everybody and vary according to demand.  Google operates on an auction basis and nobody gets preferential rates.  Adwords work but are very expensive compared to SEO generated organic links. They vary from a few pence to upwards of £15 per click.  Once your budget is expended, your AdWord is replaced by your competitors.

AdWords are effective in getting short term results and do play an important role in many SEO campaigns.  Marketing Grin are happy to include AdWords into your campaign and we will charge a modest fee for doing so.  This fee goes towards choosing the right keywords for you.  Your return on investment from AdWords is very much dependant on your keyword selection, getting this right saves our clients a huge amount in the long run.   Marketing Grin uses Adwords in two ways:

Some users favour sponsored links and avoiding these potential customers is reducing your potential client base. If there are two links to your site returned after users search, statistically the user is more likely to choose you over a competitor.  Once you have closed the sale with this customer and provided a good service, the customer is likely to return back to you for repeat custom opposed to your competitors.