Part 1: Benefits | Part 2: Drawbacks | Part 3: Myths | Part 4: Ranking Factors | Part 5: Costs

When it comes to the costs of Search Engine Optimisation, there are many influencing factors. Ultimately, any SEO campaign is about how much time is spent because it is such a manual process.

This section of the Ultimate SEO Guide is designed to equip you with the right questions to ask any firm (including us!) providing SEO and what exactly you should be expected to pay for.

Part 5: Costs

Research is key

As we try to emphasise, research is everything in a Search Engine Optimisation campaign. By seeing where you and your competition are now, you can get an impression of how much time and effort will be involved. If you're lucky, your market may not be too competitive. This will reduce the amount of time needed, which will in turn mean paying less.

You can get started by taking our free Search Engine Test where we'll do the research for you!

Search Engine Test

Where you are now

How does your website rank as it stands? Many of our clients are starting from scratch, with either a brand new website or a website that has been lingering without any effect, which inevitably creates the most work and will result in the longest wait for results.

On the other hand, some websites have been around a while and tick the boxes in terms of content and backlinks. However, there is a lack of continuity and perhaps poor coding that is holding them back. In this case, the work involved is much less, yet the results are fantastic when everything comes together.

Deciding your goal

You may have a very uncompromising goal, perhaps to be No.1 for single keyword. This is fine, but depending on the competitiveness of your market, this may necessitate a long term plan. It could take a couple of years to achieve this, which will only increase the cost of a project.

On the other hand, based on research, you may go for a collection of smaller, niche keyword phrases which combined should still improve traffic levels. This will reduce time spent and cost accordingly.

How to pay

Paying for SEO work can either be a lump sum for a project, or sometimes I done as a monthly fee. It's important to get a full breakdown of what you are getting for your money, as what comes under 'Search Engine Optimisation services' is open to interpretation. For example, as part of our service, we include copywriting services and link building services. Some other companies may consider these as separate services.

How much to pay

You'd like to think an SEO company won't randomly generate a figure! As mentioned, SEO is a manual job that takes type. When quoting you, the company should be able to justify the amount in terms of how many hours they are planning is needed to complete the project.

Questions for SEO companies

Naturally, as with any other service, you should ask for proof of success in the past, and read some testimonials from the company concerned. You should also review security applications; are you happy with them accessing your website? Have you made necessary checks to see if they are trustworthy?

When it comes to the Search Engine Optimisation process, below are some questions you should be asking any SEO companies bidding for your work.

		"What keyword research will you do?" The company should research keyword phrases, not just pick the services you do. Different phrases will have different traffic levels, with varying amounts of competition.

		"How do you decided which keywords to use?" This stage should be discussed with you depending on your goals. It is easy to rank well for keyword phrases that gains no traffic, so make sure you receive both figures when picking the keyword phrases with them.

		"Do you you adhere to Google Webmaster Guidelines?" As you'd expect, Google's guidelines include the legitimate ways on how to do well in search engines. If the company agrees to this question and ends up getting your website penalised, they have no excuses.

		"What on-site optimisation will you do?" What methods will the SEO company use to increase traffic? Will they make changes to your existing web page coding or will they just be adding or revising meta tags? Will they be performing search engine optimization copywriting and editing to add relevant keywords to your visible page text? Will they be adding new pages, or possibly redesigning your navigation to make it more search engine friendly?

		"How much work will you do?" Ask how much time they actually plan to spend on your website. One hour a week? 10 hours a week? Do they do all the work in a couple of weeks or spread it out to avoid being treated as manipulation.

		"Do you need me to do any work?" You may be disappointed by this, but the answer is yes! You know your business better than any SEO company. You will required to at least think of content ideas, even if copywriting is left to the SEO company. Ask if copywriting is included in the price, and how much they will be doing.

		"Can you guarantee me results?" They may not be able to guarantee results, but what happens if the company doesn't get you ranking for the keyword phrases you have chosen between both parties? With good research, the SEO company should have picked keywords that were realistic.

		"Will you be outsourcing the work?" Some SEO companies try to save money but outsourcing the more tedious tasks such as directory submissions to other companies in different countries. The problem is, by giving up control, do they really know what they will be doing? It can result in many backlinks, but mainly from un-established, low ranking websites.

		"Will you swap links?" Reciprocal links are quite common place because it's a relatively easy way to improve backlinks numbers. However, this form of link building is frowned upon by search engines. This certainly shouldn't be the base of a link building campaign.

		"How are you going to build backlinks?" Content generation should be the first strategy to building backlinks. Good content, generates interest which generates backlinks. This can be supplemented by submissions to directories, but remember that any paid link is technically against Google guidelines. Instead, writing articles and press releases which are published by other sites are a good way of generating more links.

		"How will you keep me updated?" You should be able to assess progress. Daily or weekly progress is relatively worthless, as it takes a while for search engines to realise changes, but a monthly report is considered the norm. You should monitor both search engine position and traffic levels

		"How long until I see results?" There is no sure fire way of working out when you will see results. You can make an informed guess based on the keyword research, but ultimately, this is a bit of a trick question. Don't look at SEO for quick results. Instead, you're looking for established, long-term results to complement your other advertising streams.

There are many other search engine ranking factors to consider, many being related to the above. Others are ones hidden inside search engine algorithms which no one yet knows about.

Search engine algorithms are subject to change at any time. Unfortunately, you can only be reactive to this. Depending on what is involved in the change, your website may go up or down in the rankings, but normally small tweaks can rectify matters. It's also worth noting that different search engines have different algorithms. For example, Yahoo puts more emphasis on keywords within the domain in comparison with Google.

This article was written by Webtacular, the online marketing service from Sixth Sense ESP. We're dedicated to helping organisation's to get the most out of Search Engine Optimisation. We're happy to take over existing planning new Search Engine Optimisation campaigns, or taking over existing ones, so why not get in touch?

Part 5: Costs

Research is key

Where you are now

Deciding your goal

How to pay

How much to pay

Questions for SEO companies

"What keyword research will you do?"

"How do you decided which keywords to use?"

"Do you you adhere to Google Webmaster Guidelines?"

"What on-site optimisation will you do?"

"How much work will you do?"

"Do you need me to do any work?"

"Can you guarantee me results?"

"Will you be outsourcing the work?"

"Will you swap links?"

"How are you going to build backlinks?"

"How will you keep me updated?"

"How long until I see results?"