Hi all,

 

I've looked at a couple of companies offering SEO services and was wondering what people thought about these in general and also what should be a typical amount to pay?

 

One quote was for 600 pounds a month which seems extremely expensive, for that they would focus on backlinks, article submission and social networking sites.

 

Another was for a 120 a month and although they had a money back guarantee if they didn't get you on the first page of google...After reading the small print I get the impression that my website would only appear on the sponsered links section, but I think that most people just ignore those so it would probably not be worth it.

 

Thanks.

£1000s per month. The top SEOs have multiple sites which they have worked on for a long time and use these to help promote your site. Or they have to buy links. Its not cheap but it is effective.

 

Alternatively £80-200 for cheap geo targeted adwords on google, or £200-500 for a newbie SEO who doesnt own a lot of sites to build links on.

 

If your £1000 per month brings in a profit of £1001 then its worth it.

It can vary alot.

 

There are typically 2 ways to do SEO, and they split into further themselves.

 

The first option, is link building and nothing else, this is what 90% of SEO 'experts' provide you with. They just sit all day, spamming links in irrelevant places.

 

The second option, is to actually sit down with your client and work out what they want, and the best way for them to achieve this. It may result in you answering 100 questions, who you are aiming at, what you expect to achieve, etc, but it will also let them tailor their approach more to it. This approach is more likely to require your site to have a little bit of an overhaul. They would then use quality links (a mix of high page ranks - i.e. blogs and relevant places - i.e. forums aimed at your target market) to submit articles that will get you noticed by google.

 

Payment for SEO is always tricky, as you can have so many people saying "ill get you to the top of google if you pay me £1000 a month" - if you are unsure, you would be better to sit down with a professional company, and saying "i want to get to top for this this and this, will pay in stages as i rise through. I will also offer a bonus if you increase traffic by XXXX and an additional bonus if you increase profits by XXX" This way you are giving them a much better incentive, and if they dont perform, you dont lose out. I recommend this for all of my customers who take out SEO services for me, i have no trouble performing what i have agreed to do, but it does tend to calm their nerves, as they know that they wont lose out with it.

 

Hope this has helped abit, if you have any specific questions, feel free to get in touch.

 

Reaper

I wouldnt say 90% of SEO experts are spammy link builders at all.

 

I'd say 90% help you find the best most probable way to market your business online, not ask you how you think it should be done. If a client knew what needed to be done they could just out source to Asia for £400 per month. Sure they might have an idea, but a true SEO guy will help you make money.

I wouldnt say 90% of SEO experts are spammy link builders at all.

From where I'm looking 90% are!

 

Out of 12 sites where my client has employed external "SEO" services only one has done any decent work on the site, ie rewiting text copy, headings and so on. The rest add a ton of hidden text on the home page (with multiple H1's!) and supply a list of directories they're submitted to that few people will ever vists.

 

My clients then wonder why they get good results for a while then drop down out of sight!

I bet he is paying £300-500 per month then

not ask you how you think it should be done.

 

 

work out what they want

 

There is a big difference between the two.

 

You could sit there and say "im going to get you higher on google" but in reality, all clients are aiming for different things. I am working on a project at the moment that is likely to see him trying to generate more visits, but we arent expecting them to come through search engines, so we are driving traffic from other places, So just hiring someone out of india isnt going to help really.....

 

 

I bet he is paying £300-500 per month then

 

So in your eyes, if they pay £500, they dont expect as good of a service? they may get less time invested, but they should still have the best possible service to that budget.

 

 

Reaper

Your quotes of mine are slightly misleading and are out of context. A good SEO, and most SEO guys I know who are good would workout the best way to help the client and not rely on the client telling them how they should do their job.

 

SEO is more than top of Google and your posts indicate a relevant inexperience in this area, SEO is now the general term for online marketing which of course has many many different forms.

 

As for price. £500 per month would work out as about 50 low value links if bought from an India company. These will be on very spammy links pages with 100+ links and therefore no value. Or maybe 20 nice links from text links ads.... It's just not enough to get where you want. Obvious it depends on the niche and comp strength, but I just don't see anyone doing much with £500.

 

What would you do for £500, maybe show some examples?

I bet he is paying £300-500 per month then

I wish, only one of them paid less than 4 figures and that was a one off payment, plus that was to the company that did it properly Ironically the cheapest one got the best long term results.

SEO is more than top of Google and your posts indicate a relevant inexperience in this area, SEO is now the general term for online marketing which of course has many many different forms.

 

I understand this, i must have worded my last post wrong, if i have, i apologise. However, 90% of the people i speak to, especially clients tend to say "we want top of google" so i try and convince them that there is more in it than that, and this means that i will try to get them to discuss what they want to see happening (i.e. increased profits) not what they are expecting me to do to get it.

 

I wish, only one of them paid less than 4 figures and that was a one off payment, plus that was to the company that did it properly Ironically the cheapest one got the best long term results.

 

Feel free to pass them our way - can do it on a "no targets hit, no money paid" basis if prefered

Hi,

I can offer you a dedicated SEO expert at GBP 400 per month who will in your service for the whole month.

experianced person of 3 years in SEO.

 

please PM me

Raj, a few questions:

 

What does the £400 per month get the client?

Will they be able to type proper english or will the links be full of typos?

 

 

Reaper

It's a shame people are nervous about hiring SEO companies. I know that there are a lot out that that do a crap job and charge a hell of a lot for it. But there are also a great deal of great SEO guys around too.

 

Personally, I would find a local company you could actually meet and chat to.

Should a good designer be taking into consideration the seo of the site or just be purely focused on making the site look nice and get attention. When I am designing I am constantly thinking about how to better make the site preform in google. Is this something I shouldnt do and charge seperately for?

Reach,

 

It is your decision at the end of the day. Some offer onpage SEO as standard, some charge extra.

 

I offer it as standard on the majority of my clients websites (unless i am doing the website really cheaply) as long as your code is clean, validated and has css, not tables, then it wouldnt be hard to go through and add the tiny little bits (alts, tags etc) to make it more search engine friendly at a later date.

 

On the other hand, ive seen plenty of people who dont offer it, and say that it is an extra 5 hours work (no idea why they say 5 hours) so its an extra £200

 

Reaper

Hi,

 

I would suggest you find an SEO with experience in your market and ask for examples of their work. Make sure they can argue that their clients received a return on their investment. Rankings are very much different from Traffic. Traffic is different from buying customers!

 

SEO's should discuss working with you to get results and you should arrive at a plan where you the website owner contributes and the SEO can work with you to get those buying customers. Ask about contract and whether you are locked in to a lengthy contract. A confident and proactive SEO will offer no long contracts.

 

As for price, it depends on the size of your site and how much work is involved and it would be reasonable for you to ask how much time is spent on your site each month, then work back from there

 

Timtav

The top SEOs have multiple sites which they have worked on for a long time and use these to help promote your site. Or they have to buy links. Its not cheap but it is effective

It's also very risky.

 

First, once you stop paying the monthly fee do all your links disappear? I've spoken to people who've had this happen to them.

 

Second, if Google spots a network of sites selling links they will bring it down. This happens very often. The SEO company have made their money usually - the client on the other hand suddenly has a load of worthless links pointing at their site.

 

Either way they've only rented rankings and traffic.

 

There is a much better way to do SEO for the client. It's not quick, it's not easy, and the client has to get involved in providing content (whether writing themselves or paying others to do it). But to a great extent it is cumulative and the client keeps their traffic and rankings for months (even years sometimes) after they stop paying the SEO.

Hello the money depends on the Quality of services you are getting.Top seo companies are taking more than 1000 per month and small companies are offering even foe 200 per month also.Choosing the right seo services is always better to make your site indexing in top positions of seo..

Since nowadays links are actually the biggest elements behind the top rankings of a lot of websites, so most of the SEO companies would start link building packages for their customers.

 

The experts would also write quality content pages for the sites.

Hello the amount depends on the quality of services offering by the company.we need to take care of choosing the best seo company..

The highest bill I know of is £90,000 per month:)

 

Doug

The highest bill I know of is £90,000 per month:)

 

Doug

lol I think I need to change my job to SEO