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SEO Costs

2021 SEO Costs: What is the right price?

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Exploring quality SEO Costs for your Business

Are you looking at companies that provide SEO in Canada or the United States, but you have some reservations and uncertainties, possibly because you are concerned with the prices?  Likely you have received several quotes and recommended SEO strategies, but the answers are confusing and not what you expected. Or perhaps you are new to SEO and just starting out and don’t fully understand what everything means. Another common thing is, the pricing you are getting varies so widely.

Not Everything is created equal

This is nothing out of the normal and in fact a good thing to understand. One thing you want to pay close attention to and should raise a red flag, is if you get one of those one price fits all categories for SEO, especially a managed SEO service. Why? 

There are a number of determining factors that come into play when calculating SEO costs. Let’s look at an example: If an electrical contractor offered everything at the same price, regardless if they were wiring the whole home or just needing a basement wired. This would be a cause for question and concern. The same holds true for SEO costs.

Let’s have a quick look at advertising for another example:. All businesses can offer products or services through advertising online. But the needs and requirements for each business are different. So the advertising for each business is going to be different and at varying levels of work to be done. So determining the right strategy and SEO costs, hinges on the needs of the individual business. 

You are going to want to ask yourself some questions:

  • What are the goals that I want to achieve with my SEO campaign?
  • Who do I want to market to?
  • Am I hoping to connect with a specific niche audience or am I trying to reach a broader audience?
  • Do I need to focus on my local area or do I want a bigger SEO campaign with a national reach or even globally?
  • Is my product or service generic or possibly in a very competitive industry?

Understanding SEO Costs: The different types and strategies

SEO can not be viewed as a single strategy that can be used across the board and  applied in every situation the same way. If it were the case, then the option for a one-size-fits-all pricing model would be ideal. However, the reality of SEO is that it is an ongoing process that requires adapting and evolving with the growth of your business and search engine with their ever changing algorithms. The SEO costs for quality involve an investment of time and effort.

There are a variety of components that make up the term SEO;  your website speed and performance (user experience), an in-depth analysis of your market and your competitors, your on-page and off-page optimization, keyword research to help you reach your target audience, link building from quality websites that compliment your niche, account management, and overall strategy.

Does this mean that there are no real guidelines for SEO prices? Not really. Even though the cost of SEO can vary widely, quotes usually fall under one of two categories:

  • Hourly SEO is often best suited for those times that you want only a specific task to be accomplished. Perhaps you need some on-page work done to help get that particular page ranking better, and the keywords utilized properly. If your business is a startup with little, thin, or no content on your site, hourly SEO is probably a good option. You could have blog content written. Search engines love new high-quality SEO-rich content fed to them on a regular basis.
  • Monthly SEO is the most efficient way of managing your SEO costs. Fully managed SEO services are part of an ongoing campaign or more involved projects. This type of service will let you know exactly what will be done, at what cost, and within what period of time. You will find that this is the way most SEO agencies are operated. SEO is performed on an ongoing basis and at a set monthly fee. This is the most popular and successful way to run SEO campaigns as well. 

On-Time SEO Audit is a great option to “get started” There are some free tools for SEO audits that give you about 10% of the data or you can reach out an agency like Iron Rhino to create a detailed SEO audit.  We will run a full audit of your online presence and website. This is a detailed audit so you can see what needs to be fixed and optimized.

SEO Costs: The Break Downs

The SEO cost will be based on your particular business needs, both have their advantages. When it comes to an hourly rate you might expect to pay between $100-$300/hour. If you look at the managed SEO cost on a month by month basis you typical will see prices range from $500 (low end), $2000 (average) – $5000+ (high end more complex SEO work) But you also have to remember that there are a number of factors that need to be taken in consideration.

  1. Competitiveness of keywords
  2. Locations that you wish to target (Local or National)
  3. The number of pages on the website (Good starting point is 5 Pages. Home, About, Contact, Products or Services, and Company news or Blog.)
  4. Strength of competitor website’s and their SEO
  5. Overall online presence (Social Media, Reviews, and Business Listings)
  6. Domain age and expiry date of the domain.

Think of it as an investment.

You do not want to have the view that SEO costs are an expense. You want to have the long-term understanding that it is an investment for your business that will help you grow and should be part of your business plan. A good SEO strategy and management of a campaign will lead to an excellent ROI. When well-optimized your SEO will become part of your lead generation. And can increase the value of the company if it was to be sold later on.

Avoid Cheap SEO

Just because the price on the quote is the cheapest does not mean that is the best choice. 

Like anything in life, you get what you pay for. There is a saying that should always make you think things through it is; “The Cheap, pay Twice!”. 

Because of the level of optimization needed to be performed on a website, time involved, a true understanding of best practices, staying up to date with search engine algorithms, and customization that is unique for every single website. 

Cheap low-cost SEO simply doesn’t provide any of these. Cheap SEO is considered to be anything less than $450 per month, with some companies advertising $200 or even $150 per month. When you see SEO costs that low your SEO is likely outsourced overseas.

The level of quality is now lost, and security could become an issue, so can getting someone to talk to about your campaign. Or it’s automated SEO (a cookie-cutter process, lacking real impact or results). Unfortunately, the collateral damage from “cheap SEO” can also go much deeper. It can draw a Google penalty and virtually wipe out a website’s visibility on the web.

Reach out and talk to an expert

If you would like to see our SEO service in action please do not hesitate to ask. We provide a Fully Managed SEO service with reporting for you to see exactly how your SEO is performing. We take a holistic approach to help build for you the strongest foundation so you can take your business to any height, the sky’s the limit.

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