SEO Pricing: Guide to Choosing the Right Model for Your Business
By: Dileep Thekkethil | Updated On: January 23, 2024
Table of Contents
The purpose of this blog post is to provide you with a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of the importance of choosing a reliable agency and how to evaluate their pricing to ensure you don’t overpay.
By the end of this article, you’ll have a better understanding of which pricing model best suits your business needs.
When it comes to SEO services, there are a variety of pricing models to choose from. In this post, we’ll discuss the different types of SEO pricing structures, including hourly, project-based, retainer-based, performance-based, and hybrid pricing.
We’ll also explore the pros and cons of each model, as well as the factors that can influence the cost of SEO services.
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Hourly Pricing Model
This model charges clients based on the number of hours spent working on their SEO campaign. If you’re a small business with a limited number of specific SEO tasks to be completed, this might be a suitable option.
Hourly pricing usually works best for technical SEO fixes or addressing a few errors that you know won’t take much time to resolve. However, if you opt for hourly pricing for comprehensive SEO optimization, it could end up being quite costly.
Project-Based Pricing Model
This model charges clients a flat fee for a specific project, such as an audit or website redesign.
If you have a clear understanding of your SEO needs, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, page speed optimization, the SEO agency will charge a flat fee based on a variety of factors.
Some of these factors include the number of pages, the number of keywords, or the number of backlinks to be built. In such cases, you know the exact amount to be paid, allowing you to manage your SEO budget effectively without worrying about unexpected expenses.
Retainer-Based Pricing Model
If you’ve identified a highly competent SEO agency that provides excellent customer service, you might consider opting for a monthly retainer SEO pricing model.
This model is often preferred by website owners who require regular activities, such as optimizing 50+ pages or building a set number of backlinks.
If you’ve signed up for a professionally managed SEO service, where the agency takes care of all aspects of your website’s SEO, a monthly retainer could be the best option. This allows you to effectively track your website’s progress and growth.
However, we recommend considering a retainer plan with a 6 or 12-month contract, as it can provide significant savings compared to a monthly retainer. Just ensure that you choose the right agency, as the amount is usually paid upfront, and you don’t want to risk entrusting your investment to an agency that fails to deliver.
Performance-Based Pricing Model
This model charges clients based on the performance of their SEO campaign, usually measured by the number of leads or sales generated.
However, most SEO agencies don’t prefer this pricing model, as it might lead them to make guarantees and promises to clients. SEO is an industry with many variables influencing the results.
If an SEO company promises sales, leads, and revenue, it’s advisable to avoid them. However, if the agency has already proven its worth and demonstrated visible results, performance-based pricing could be a suitable option for businesses seeking a return on their investment and are willing to pay for results.
Hybrid Model
Hybrid pricing combines aspects of various pricing models, such as project-based and retainer-based pricing, to create a tailor-made approach for businesses. This is a suitable choice for companies that prefer a customized approach to their SEO.
Resource-Based SEO Pricing
You have a website that requires a personalized and long-term SEO strategy. When you choose an agency, they may assign multiple resources who may not fully understand your requirements end-to-end. This can result in a disconnected approach, where different team members work in isolation.
Unfortunately, this can lead to a situation where people are working on your website’s SEO without a cohesive understanding of your overall goals. Consequently, this might lead to inconsistencies in strategy execution, misaligned priorities, and potential gaps in your SEO plan.
To avoid this, you can opt for a resource-based model. In this approach, the agency will assign a dedicated SEO resource or resources who will handle your project exclusively for a specified duration. This ensures more control over daily activities and aligns them towards achieving the overall goal of your website.
However, it’s important to note that this model comes with a premium price tag, as these resources are paid exclusively for their expertise and the time they put into ranking your website. But, with a dedicated team working on your website’s on-page optimization, technical SEO, content creation, link building, keyword research, and analytics monitoring, you get a cohesive approach that can accelerate your website’s growth.
Agencies providing dedicated SEO resources may charge on an hourly basis or a monthly retainer, depending on the project’s scope.
In most cases, agencies offering these resources will require contracts for at least a few months or a year, as they might hire new talents specifically to fulfill your order. Additionally, SEO strategies take time to implement and show results, especially for new websites.
Hourly Rates: SEO specialists may charge anywhere from $50 to $200 per hour, depending on their level of experience and expertise.
Monthly Retainer: For ongoing SEO work, businesses may pay a monthly retainer fee, which can range from $1,000 to $5,000 or more, based on the scope and depth of services provided.
One-Time SEO Activities and Their Pricing
In some cases, comprehensive SEO optimization of your website may not be necessary. Instead, targeted one-time SEO activities like link building, technical SEO fixes, or speed optimization might be all that’s required. These one-time activities can significantly enhance specific aspects of your website’s SEO and have lasting impacts.
Link Building
If your website already has optimized on-page elements, technical aspects, and content, enhancing your site’s authority might be your next step, which requires building high-quality backlinks.
Whether you need a recurring plan for continuous link building or a one-off boost to your backlink profile, Stan Ventures can cater to your needs with transparent and varied pricing options.
Pricing
Stan Ventures offers DA or DR-based link building services, starting as low as $99 per link for sites with 1000+ traffic. Prices vary based on the DA/DR rating and traffic of the linking sites, ensuring you get backlinks that meet your specific quality criteria.
Content Creation Services
In most agencies you can choose content written by writers with various levels of experience to meet your specific needs. Based on your content requirement you can choose between beginner, intermediate, and expert writers.
There are agencies that even offer content curated by AI, and then edited and proofread by real humans.
Pricing
While the AI-assisted writing costs less than $25 per 1000 words in Stan Ventures, content entirely written by humans is priced in between $99 and $200 per 1000 words. However, for content specifically tailored for product and service pages, the cost can increase to up to $300/1000 words.
Technical SEO Fixes
Technical SEO is crucial for ensuring that your website is easily accessible and understandable to search engine crawlers. Addressing the technical aspects of SEO like site speed, mobile-friendliness, and crawl errors is essential for optimal website performance and search engine rankings.
Technical SEO offered here at Stan Ventures involves a variety of activities aimed at optimizing the infrastructure of your website. This includes improving site speed to enhance user experience, ensuring mobile-friendliness to cater to a growing number of mobile users, and resolving crawl errors to ensure search engines can efficiently index your site.
Technical SEO also encompasses optimizing site structure, creating an XML sitemap, ensuring proper use of canonical tags, and more. These adjustments help in making your website more navigable for both users and search engines, potentially leading to better rankings and user engagement.
Pricing
Stan Ventures offers detailed technical SEO audit services to identify and rectify issues that might be hampering your website’s performance. The pricing for these services is based on the size of your website:
- For a small website (up to 50 pages), a technical SEO audit is priced at $99.
- A medium-sized website (up to 500 pages) can get a technical SEO audit for $199.
- For a large website (up to 1000 pages), the audit costs $299.
Additionally, Stan Ventures provides on-page SEO recommendations and implementation services at $20 per page, and technical SEO optimization services are available at $25 per hour.
These services are designed to comprehensively address and rectify various technical SEO issues, ensuring your website adheres to the best SEO practices and standards. Whether it’s a one-time fix or an ongoing requirement, Stan Ventures tailors its services to meet your specific technical SEO needs.
Google My Business (GMB) Optimization
Google My Business (GMB) Optimization is a crucial aspect of local SEO, aimed at enhancing your business’s visibility in local search results. A well-optimized GMB listing can significantly impact your local SEO efforts, driving more traffic and improving your online reputation.
GMB optimization involves fine-tuning your business listing on Google to ensure it accurately represents your business and appeals to potential customers in your local area. Key elements include ensuring up-to-date and accurate business information, optimizing the business description, managing and responding to reviews, adding high-quality images, and regularly posting updates.
An important part of GMB optimization is citation building, which involves creating consistent listings of your business details on various online platforms to enhance local search presence.
Pricing
Stan Ventures provides comprehensive services to optimize your GMB listing, including citation building. The pricing for citation services is as follows:
- For up to 50 citations, the price is $149.
- If you need up to 70 citations, the cost is $199.
- For a more extensive reach with up to 100 citations, the service is priced at $249.
These citation-building services are tailored to enhance your GMB profile’s effectiveness, ensuring it stands out in local searches and accurately reflects your business. Whether you’re looking to establish a new GMB listing or optimize an existing one, Stan Ventures offers a range of options to suit your business needs and budget.
By including these pricing details and service descriptions, your blog will provide readers with valuable insights into the costs and benefits of GMB optimization services offered by Stan Ventures. This information is particularly useful for businesses aiming to strengthen their local SEO and improve their visibility in local search results.
SEO Pricing Based on the Scope of Services
Businesses must understand the varying costs associated with different levels of SEO services. These costs are typically influenced by the scope of the SEO campaign, targeted geographic areas, the complexity of strategies, and the competitive landscape of the industry. Below is an outline of the typical pricing for Local, National, International, and White Label SEO:
Local SEO
As discussed earlier, Local SEO optimizes your online presence in a particular locality to attract more business from relevant local searches. This includes optimizing your Google My Business listing, building local citations, and creating localized content.
Since, this SEO strategy is focused towards a specific micro location, the effort needed to optimize is significantly less than national and international SEO.
Local SEO is crucial for businesses targeting customers in specific geographical areas or communities.
Here are some of the activities involved as part of Local SEO
Google Business Profile Optimization: Creating and maintaining an up-to-date Google Business Profile listing is crucial. This includes accurate business details, working hours, and images.
Local Citations: Building citations in local business directories ensures consistency in your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web.
Localized Content and Keywords: Content and keywords should be tailored to local audiences, including the use of local names, landmarks, and region-specific language.
Local Backlinks: Acquiring backlinks from local businesses and local news websites can strengthen local search relevance.
Reviews and Ratings: Encouraging customers to leave reviews on Google and other local directories can enhance trust and visibility.
Local User Experience: Tailoring the website experience to local audiences, including local contact information and localized landing pages.
Pricing
The cost for Local SEO services generally ranges from $150 to $2,500+ per month. This variation in cost is due to several factors, including the competitiveness of the local market you’re targeting, the number of physical locations your business has, and the depth of local optimization efforts required to outrank local competitors.
National SEO
National SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence to attract business from across the entire country. Unlike Local SEO, which targets specific geographical areas, National SEO aims to reach a broader audience, emphasizing visibility on a country-wide scale. This strategy involves more generalized keyword targeting, link building, and content strategy that appeals to a national audience.
Given its wider reach, National SEO requires more extensive and competitive strategies compared to Local SEO. It’s essential for businesses that are not confined to a specific locality and want to establish a presence across multiple regions or the entire country.
Activities Involved in National SEO
- Broad Keyword Strategy: Utilizing keywords that are relevant on a national scale, rather than location-specific keywords used in Local SEO.
- Comprehensive Link Building: Acquiring backlinks from nationally recognized websites, publications, and directories to enhance national search relevance and authority.
- National Content Strategy: Creating content that resonates with a national audience, addressing broader topics and trends relevant across the country.
- Technical SEO: Ensuring the website is optimized for national visibility, including site speed optimization, mobile-friendliness, and efficient crawlability by search engines.
- National Branding and User Experience: Developing a website and branding strategy that appeals to a diverse national audience, reflecting the broader scope of services or products offered.
Pricing
The cost for National SEO services is generally higher than Local SEO due to the increased scope, competition, and efforts required. National SEO campaigns typically range from $3,000 to $10,000 per month. The pricing variation depends on factors such as the competitiveness of the national market, the breadth of services or products offered, and the level of customization needed in the SEO strategy to effectively compete at the national level.
National SEO is ideal for businesses looking to expand their reach beyond local markets, targeting customers across different regions or the entire country. It’s a strategic investment for companies aiming for a wider audience and looking to establish themselves as major players in their industry on a national scale.
International SEO
International SEO is a strategic approach to optimize your website for audiences across different countries and regions. This strategy is vital for businesses that operate on a global scale or aim to expand their reach beyond national borders.
Purpose
The primary goal of International SEO is to cater to a global audience by acknowledging and adapting to the diverse cultural, linguistic, and regional nuances that influence search behavior and preferences. It involves optimizing your website to support multiple languages, creating culturally relevant content, and building a link profile that resonates with international markets. This approach ensures that your website is not only visible but also appealing and relevant to users from various parts of the world.
Key Activities in International SEO
- Multi-Language Support: Implementing language-specific versions of your website using hreflang tags to direct users to the correct language page based on their location.
- Cultural Customization: Tailoring content to reflect the cultural nuances, preferences, and behaviors of different target markets.
- International Link Building: Building a diverse link profile from reputable global sources and region-specific websites to establish authority in international markets.
- Diversified Keyword Research: Conducting extensive keyword research to understand and target search terms used by audiences in different countries.
- Technical Optimization for Global Reach: Ensuring that technical elements of the site support international visibility, such as server location, international targeting settings in Google Search Console, and proper use of country-specific domains or subdomains.
- Compliance with Local Regulations: Understanding and complying with legal requirements and search engine guidelines in different countries.
- Global Branding and User Experience: Creating a universally appealing brand image while incorporating regional preferences in website design and user experience.
Pricing
The cost for International SEO services varies significantly, typically ranging from $10,000 to $50,000+ per month. This pricing reflects the complexity and scale of targeting multiple countries and languages.
Factors influencing the cost include the number of languages and regions targeted, the level of content customization required for different markets, the complexity of technical implementation for a multi-regional website, and the intensity of competition in international markets.
International SEO is a comprehensive and sophisticated strategy that demands detailed planning, cultural understanding, and linguistic expertise. It is a crucial investment for businesses looking to establish a strong global presence and effectively connect with customers from various cultural backgrounds and geographical locations.
White Label SEO
White Label SEO is a versatile and strategic service offered by agencies to other agencies or businesses. It allows these entities to resell comprehensive SEO services under their own brand, thereby expanding their service offerings without the need for in-house expertise.
Purpose
White Label SEO is designed for agencies or businesses that want to provide SEO services to their clients but don’t have the resources or expertise to do so in-house. By outsourcing these services to a specialized agency like Stan Ventures, businesses can offer high-quality SEO services, including link building, content creation, technical SEO, and more, all under their own branding.
Brokerage Model
Stan Ventures introduces a unique transparent brokerage model in their White Label SEO services. This model is particularly beneficial for large volume orders and is focused on transparency and cost-effectiveness. It showcases the actual blogger fee and includes only a brokerage charge for outreach efforts and content creation. This transparent pricing model helps retailers understand the actual cost of the services and the value they are getting, making it a compelling USP for businesses looking to provide SEO services to their clients.
Pricing
Pricing for White Label SEO services at Stan Ventures is typically based on the scale of services required. The brokerage model, particularly, is a unique approach where the pricing is transparent and comprises the actual blogger fee plus a nominal brokerage. This pricing structure is especially advantageous for businesses handling large volume orders, as it offers a clear breakdown of costs. Agencies may offer tiered pricing or custom quotes based on the volume of work and the specific needs of the reseller, ensuring that businesses of all sizes can find a solution that fits their budget and requirements.
By understanding the pricing structure based on the scope of SEO services, businesses can better plan their SEO strategy and budget accordingly. This knowledge helps in making informed decisions about which level of SEO service is most appropriate for their specific business goals and target markets.
Factors that Affect SEO Agency Pricing
There are several factors that can affect SEO pricing. You may have already come across agencies that have put up eye-popping pricing tables for their SEO services whereas a few show dead cheap pricing. Here are some of the factors that decide the SEO pricing:
Reputation of the Agency
The truth is that based on the experience and the reputation of the agency, the pricing can drastically vary. If you decide to choose the service offered by an industry leader who is recognized in the industry, the pricing can once again tick up.
In addition to that, the location of the agency also matters a lot when it comes to pricing. Places like India have a huge SEO talent pool that can get your job done at affordable rates.
In fact, do you know that an overwhelming number of SEO agencies based out of the US, UK, and Australia get their SEO work done through their white label SEO partners in India?
There are companies like Stan Ventures that have offices in the US and India to make sure that you get quality SEO services at affordable rates.
We have also observed that the SEO pricing of agencies located in the metros far exceeds the pricing of agencies in other cities.
But apart from these external factors, there are a few common SEO-specific factors that can affect the pricing.
Type of Service
To make this clear, let me compare SEO to a moving car.
The engine is the most important part of a car and any repairs to the engine can cost you a fortune. Similarly, backlinks and content are two major factors that help accelerate the website and they both come at a higher cost.
On the other hand, wheels are a must-have but if it gets punctured, you need far less effort and money to fix them, right? The SEO counterparts for the wheels would be the on-page optimization and keyword research, as doing these costs less.
All that said, a car cannot be travel-ready if any of its wheels are punctured. That means irrespective of the cost involved, on-page and keyword research are critical factors that cannot be overlooked.
Complexity of the Project
Think of constructing a 700 sq/ft house vs a 4000 sq/ft one. Though the process of building a house remains the same, the effort, and the manpower required to build the 4000 sq/ft one is tremendous, right?
The same principle applies to SEO. If you have a website with less than 10 pages, the cost can be less expensive. However, if you are working on a site with thousands of pages, the cost can shoot up as the same effort put to optimize the smaller website has to be calibrated to match the mammoth requirement.
Another aspect that comes into play here is the time it takes to complete the project. The same example applies here as well. While a 700 sq/ft house might take 6 months to build, a 4000 sq/ft might take anywhere from a year to two to complete. This also means more people working and more money spent on materials to build it, agree?
The same goes for SEO services as well. When a big project comes in, SEO agencies usually divide them into phases so that they can assess the results and then make the progress. This means the project may take more time to complete.
I hear you asking, “why can’t we finish everything soon if we pump in more people and money?”. Like in the construction field, SEO also requires the right mixture and adequate setting time.
Building a thousand backlinks in a week is just like building a house without proper foundation. It’s bound to topple down because you are inviting Google’s penalty.
Size of the Business
This is tricky because even smaller businesses tend to have large websites.
When clients are on a restricted SEO budget, most SEO agencies chart a tailored approach where they identify the most critical pages and then work towards ranking those pages higher first.
This way, as the website grows its traffic, leads and sales more pages are added to the project to match the spending capacity of the client.
Industry
The competition within your industry is another key factor that determines the pricing of SEO services. With more competition, the SEO efforts have to be aggressive and this means the agency has to come up with kickass SEO strategies and also pull in additional resources to get the work done.
How to Choose the Right SEO Package for Your Business
Let me guess, you have already skimmed through the SEO packages and pricing table of multiple SEO agencies and got super confused because some of them charge too high, some too low.
Of course, you don’t want to kiss away your hard-earned money to agencies that cannot offer you results.
By the way, you better avoid agencies that guarantee first-page SEO results in a blink of an eye because of the time such agencies are just confident tricksters.
Coming back, does a higher SEO package pricing mean better quality SEO? If you ask me, my answer would be no.
The same answer goes if you ask me whether a lower price means cheap service. As I told you in the above paragraphs, there are multiple factors that come into play when deciding the pricing.
However, as a website owner, you have the string in your hands and can ask any SEO agency to give you a tailored solution. But to be on top of SEO agencies that try to oversell their packages, you must be aware of a few things that would ultimately help you to choose the right SEO package.
Do a complete website assessment: If you are SEO savvy, make sure to do a complete audit of your website before reaching out to an agency. This will help you understand what exactly is going on with your website and also steer your conversation with the prospective agency partner.
Most of the time, website owners have little information about their website’s current performance. Due to this, they are easily scammed as some agencies try to capitalize on their ignorance and charge ridiculously more than what they are supposed to.
When you know what exactly is happening with your website, you have a clear idea of what kind of service is required.
If the audit revealed technical issues, you need technical SEO assistance. If it’s on-page and content issues, you need SEO services that can fix both. And finally, if your website lacks authority, you need backlink services that can help you build quality links.
Knowing your requirements help you ask the right questions to the agency you are planning to hire and also assess their capabilities in helping you achieve specific goals.
You Decide the Goals and Not The Agency: One thing that we hear persistently from our clients is that their previous agency was able to bring in traffic.
In fact, getting traffic is not the primary goal of doing SEO (of course, if you are a publisher, it is). Most businesses that invest in SEO are looking for tangible results in the form of leads and conversions.
For example, a flyer distribution company doing SEO wants more leads to be generated so that their sales team can connect and convert them. Instead, if the agency doing SEO tries to rank for generic blog topics that have no call-to-actions, the result could be a horrible traffic-to-lead conversion ratio.
So, make sure that you set clear goals and ask the SEO agency to share a custom SEO package that can help you achieve them.
Please note that templated solutions often fail to get results because each industry and website has a unique character and thus, the solutions have to be highly tailored.
Compare Different Packages: Before zeroing down on your SEO agency, make sure to check the packages offered by different companies for the same services you are looking for.
Give due attention to the features, benefits and add-ons provided by the agency and, most importantly, the pricing. If the package is going over your SEO budget, make sure to speak to the agency representative and ask them to create a custom plan.
Check the nuances of each of their offerings, such as the number of pages and keywords optimized, the number of backlinks built and their authority, the on-page optimization activities that will be carried out etc.
And, of course, ensure that they have a good support and reporting team that will provide insights on a weekly or monthly basis as you wish.
Consider the size of your business: The size of your business will affect the type and scope of SEO services you need. A small business with a limited SEO budget may not need the same level of services as a large enterprise.
By following these steps, you can choose an SEO package that is right for your business and that will help you achieve your goals. It’s also important to remember that SEO is a long-term process and the results may not be seen in the short term.
Want to learn how to choose the best SEO company? Here is our complete guide that includes the top 10 questions you should ask before choosing your SEO agency.
As a website owner, it is important to understand the various SEO pricing models available to you in order to make an informed decision on which is the best fit for your business.
Hourly pricing structure may work well for small technical SEO fixes, while project-based pricing can be a good option if you know exactly what needs to be done for your SEO campaign.
Retainer-based pricing structure can be a great choice for website owners who want scheduled SEO activities to be done on a monthly basis, and performance-based pricing can be a good option for businesses that want to see tangible results from their SEO efforts.
Regardless of which SEO pricing model you choose, it is essential to work with a reputable and experienced SEO agency like Stan Ventures that can provide the expertise and resources needed to improve your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines.
Book a call with our expert and start growing your website today!
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Comments
1 Comment
Well said my friend. some companies prices are too high for the quality of services received in return.