£12/hour for SEO - too cheap?

[JustOneUK]

That's what I charge.. too cheap?

The reason?.. I don't have a portfolio, I don't talk about sites that I have SEO'd apart from my own. I do get a surprising amount of work though.

Thoughts pleeeeeese

 

[RayB]

My 2p

SEO is not a cost but an investment

A good one is likely to be £40 - £75 per hour - as a guide

I think £12 per hour is way too cheap for any professional service

My local indepandant servicing garage charges £25/hour labour and the main dealer £85 - go figure

(That is just to change the oil)

 

[Simon-M]

What is your secret? No portfolio, no discussion of previous clients or case studies. How does this generate suprising amount of work?

What are you offering for £12 an hour. That might help people see the value you are pricing yourself at.

 

[stephendoyle]

it does sound really cheap! although logo quality makes a good point as we dont know what you are offering although;

it is important to build a portfolio and case study the results as this is a lot more powerful than a testimonial which most are unbelievable anyway.

you have built your own portfolio with your own businesses and if thats getting work for you then great.

whatever way you are getting the business; over the telephone or meeting the prospect its working and more likely they are buying you as well as your business services / product.

well done.

regards
stephen doyle

 

[RayB]

it does sound really cheap! although logo quality makes a good point as we dont know what you are offering although

I disagree that any of you have made a good point, In fact you have made terrible points.

On this basis a top notch SEO is worth a Big Mac with Fries and a Large Coke for 3

Frankly - Bollox

 

[Simon-M]

If the OPs idea of SEO is adding your site to directories then I think £12 an hour is a FANTASTIC rate for that work.

The point is Ray that if we don't know what it is he is doing then how can we advise a price. Now, is that such an awful point?

Simon

 

[stephendoyle]

hi ray,

i dont understand the point your making.

seo is one of the most critical things that you can do as a business.

the op is undervalueing his product and maybe the profession however; if they are getting business and its working for them and their customers happy - whats the problem?

£12 per hour for what was what was being asked.

dont see the problem.

 

[RayB]

If the OPs idea of SEO is adding your site to directories then I think £12 an hour is a FANTASTIC rate for that work.

The point is Ray that if we don't know what it is he is doing then how can we advise a price. Now, is that such an awful point?

Simon

Simply answered:

You cannot get your oil changed for £12/hour.................go figure

 

[Simon-M]

A mechanic has usually been to college or done an apprenticeship of some sort. They usually gain various levels of city and guilds diplomas along the way too. Mechanics are not charging a specific rate for oil changing rather a set rate for whatever service he performs.

An SEO on the otherhand is often self taught and follows no education program that is recognised. Sure a good one can write his own cheques and would unlikely be found hanging out with us small fry here

Are you saying the minimum wage should be raised to £25 hour?

Simon

 

[RayB]

An SEO on the otherhand is often self taught and follows no education program that is recognised. Sure a good one can write his own cheques and would unlikely be found hanging out with us small fry here

Are you saying the minimum wage should be raised to £25 hour?

Simon

No - I am saying a good SEO is worth a professional daily rate - and a bad one is a waste of money

 

[stephendoyle]

ray,

big mac and fries - lol

i wasnt saying that seo should be valued at 12.00 on the contrary.

seo is a fundemental part of any business marketing strategy in my book.

you normally get what you pay for so if the op is charging 12.00 thats why they were asked what they provide for that amount.

not bollox imo

my point was if they are happy charging 12.00 and their customers are happy - whats the problem

 

Oh I am a lot cheaper than that.

I give away 50% of what I earn

Earl

 

[RayB]

you normally get what you pay for so if the op is charging 12.00 thats why they were asked what they provide for that amount.

Simply, If an SEO has a track record of getting clients to P1 organically, for the long term, without spamming, for a competitive phrase - HE/SHE will not charge £12.00 per hour.

It is not difficult - or else at that price we would all be on page 1

Go figure..........

 

[stephendoyle]

exactly the point Ray.

way too cheap @ £12.00 i agree.

whatever level of service that they are offering and their
customers are fine with the results then everyones happy.

 

[INDIZINE]

I think we need the OP to confirm that his customers are happy because he is achieving long term P1 for the correct keywords for their business.

I know people who are happy with a £29.99 website and ones that are happy with a £5,000 website. The latter would not touch the other, the other doesnt realise he could have paid 30p extra and gone large!

 

[Bathead]

I think £12 is too cheap for a service. I can't see where you can give good value to the customer for that amount as in reality £12 probably works out to be £7-8 per hour over a time.

It under values the work going in and also gives the SEO a good get out clause as the customer knows they are getting a cheap deal. Cheap is cheap. It is a service not a product, so you do get what you pay for.

Mick

 

[RayB]

We sell £750k per annum online, from zero 12 months ago - if ANYONE approached me saying they could improve my business @ £12/hour I would laugh and move on...............

 

[UKSBD]

Charge a proper rate but be honest.
Don't take on clients who expect the impossible, don't take on clients who
can't afford a proper job, don't take on jobs where even if they were number
1 they wouldn't increase profit considerably.
If this means turning away 80% of work find someone to pass it to.

 

Charge a proper rate but be honest.
Don't take on clients who expect the impossible, don't take on clients who
can't afford a proper job, don't take on jobs where even if they were number
1 they wouldn't increase profit considerably.
If this means turning away 80% of work find someone to pass it to.

Agree entirely.

I only work on a percentage,so if I don't get results I don't get no pay

Being able to guage the viability of a business is paramount to me.

Earl

 

[creospace]

Everybody said that 1p was too cheap for an air ticket but people are making lots of money out of it!

I think it's up to you what you charge because the argument of value will just go round and round and round between the usual suspects on the forum

 

[dave_n]

how can any service be too cheap???????
IF the service is of value to the customer then the price is a good one, whatever the rate may be.

if anyone approached me saying they could improve my business for £12 an hour I certainly wouldn't laugh at them until I had listened to them.

 

[Bathead]

If I wanted a plumber and everyone wanted to charge me say £150 but this one guy said £40 I would be very cautious as to whether the person was going to do a good job. UNLESS he was referred. Low prices can be a carrot.

But saying that £12 per hour doesn't really mean anything because it depends on the requirements and the amount of hours put in. I would rather see a grand total with a breakdown.

Mick

 

[Bathead]

how can any service be too cheap???????
IF the service is of value to the customer then the price is a good one, whatever the rate may be.

if anyone approached me saying they could improve my business for £12 an hour I certainly wouldn't laugh at them until I had listened to them.

It depends on what the service is providing, and what are you gauging to be added value. Any improvement in ranking can be perceived as value, but are they the right keywords and has the right work been done on the page compared to what other SEO company's would do?

That goes for the companies charging the earth too!

Mick

 

[Matt1959]

James, it sounds ridiculously cheap which is different to saying it IS cheap. If you want to charge that amount, don't quote the figure. In any case, it can be academic because someone taking a long time at a cheap rate can work out dearer than someone taking a short time at a dear rate and no one knows which you are! Leaving this aside, £12 doesn't really stack up as realistically it equates to turnover of less than 20K a year if you were working on it full time and thats before overheads are taken out - so yes far too cheap.......

 

[dave_n]

James, it sounds ridiculously cheap which is different to saying it IS cheap. If you want to charge that amount, don't quote the figure. In any case, it can be academic because someone taking a long time at a cheap rate can work out dearer than someone taking a short time at a dear rate and no one knows which you are! Leaving this aside, £12 doesn't really stack up as realistically it equates to turnover of less than 20K a year if you were working on it full time and thats before overheads are taken out - so yes far too cheap.......

thats assuming he does SEO work and nothing else.
i like this post...it seems to have got a lot of feathers ruffled and raised some interesting comments

 

[INDIZINE]

Lets see what the OP has to say about what he provides, and what he achieves, for £12/hr. Then that would answer many questions here and put it into some sort of context.

 

[creospace]

I suppose anyone who provides a perceived expensive service (pretty much anything in IT, anything surrounding the internet especially like web design) cheaply is going to be in the firing line from those who charge more.

I know I charge much more than that for what I do and my focus is on top quality products & customer service but it doesn't mean (i suppose) that someone can't deliver the same at a much lower rate.

As the above poster states , proof of the pudding is in the eating.

 

Whatever anyone charges for SEO is up to them.Its a free market and if he's happy charging £12 an hour whats the problem.It certainly does not mean his work is inferior to any other SEO ,

as we know charges vary a great deal in this area and as there's only 10 places on page one,it stands to reason that a lot of the high chargers are not good value for money.

Earl

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Be careful about your pricing structure. You could well be receiving the majority of your work because you're targeting the low-budget market. I'd expect the higher end of the SEO market (usual rates) to be very competitive with everyone wanting to make as much per hour as everyone else. If you find yourself wanting more per hour then feel free to up your price but be careful and transition it slowly since you may find yourself suddenly getting no work at all and then having to compete without the price USP you once had.

 

[RayB]

if anyone approached me saying they could improve my business for £12 an hour I certainly wouldn't laugh at them until I had listened to them.

I had a long hard think about this quote - trying to decide if I was being overly flippant with my comment.

But on reflection, I don't think I was

The reason - if somebody approached me and said they could improve my business for £12 per hour - I would probably make them a cup of tea and spend some time giving THEM advice on how to improve THEIR business.

And I'd probably do that for free.

Think about it

 

[lockie]

£480 per week is better than nothing assuming you do an 8 hour day 5 days a week but what if you want a wage rise ? If you put your prices up the existing customers will not be happy and you may not gain new ones straight away.Many people go in too cheap on prices to get the work but then when they push the prices up they start to lose the customers as those customers came to them in the first place because they were cheap.

Decide your target market first then you can decide if its too cheap or not. I would have thought at that price you would get many who are demanding but not prepared to pay for the many hours you put in.I would rather have demanding customers who are prepared to pay the extra.

An interesting debate for sure.

 

[HC-Martin]

Everyone has to start somewhere. I think £12 p/h is cheap for SEO BUT what does it actually cost you? It's only your time (and a bit of electricity to power the computer). It's all about perception - The perception is that SEO is very expensive because there is a lot of demand for it - therefore the good one's are able to charge more and cherry pick their customers. I think there is a huge gap in the market for organic, cost effective (not cheap) SEO for small businesses - and if your happy with £12 per hour what's the issue?

As long as (as you said) you are honest with people and tell them you are just gathering a portfolio together then it's all good! I'm sure, as you expand, you will begin to charge more than £12 p/h.

 

[creospace]

The reason - if somebody approached me and said they could improve my business for £12 per hour - I would probably make them a cup of tea and spend some time giving THEM advice on how to improve THEIR business.

You could arguably turn this around and list all the professions that earn around 24k that help businesses run smoother and better and thus improve them...

A good idea can cost nothing so £12 an hour seems expensive in comparison to that!

 

[Brandl33]

i don't think pricing is the issue. If you charge £12/hour and you are adding value to your clients and you can sustain yourself in business, than you will definitely get clients.

 

[RayB]

You could arguably turn this around and list all the professions that earn around 24k that help businesses run smoother and better and thus improve them...

You could indeed turn it round to that - the beauty of debate

 

[pickaweb]

What sort of work will you be doing for that fee?

 

£480 per week is better than nothing assuming you do an 8 hour day 5 days a week but what if you want a wage rise ? If you put your prices up the existing customers will not be happy

I think if you had generated a few 100k worth of business for a business owner.I don't think they would have a problem about paying a bit more.and certainly would not want to lose your services

It may be worth having a bonus scheme based on performance written into your terms.

Earl

 

[stugster]

A mechanic has usually been to college or done an apprenticeship of some sort. They usually gain various levels of city and guilds diplomas along the way too. Mechanics are not charging a specific rate for oil changing rather a set rate for whatever service he performs.

No, the "value" is determined by the fact the person paying either:

a) doesn't know how to achieve the result in question;
b) doesn't have the time/can't be bothered.

 

[RayB]

No, the "value" is determined by the fact the person paying either:

a) doesn't know how to achieve the result in question;
b) doesn't have the time/can't be bothered.

Correct.

If you are ecommerce business - using a good, ethical, white-hat SEO to get you stable top rankings is a priceless investment.

Not many SEO's know how to do this properly - and the very best cost £££

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I am saying a good SEO is worth a professional daily rate - and a bad one is a waste of money

I agree.

In my opinion, you should never hire a cheap marketer.

Marketers exchange their time for money and, if they can charge a proper rate and get a full book of clients, they will.

So, if they're charging very little, that's usually a sign of a low skill level.

Arguably, for an SEO it might just be the inability to sell their services. But, if they're so hot at SEO, why don't they just get themselves on p1 for a key SEO phrase and use that as their selling point?

Steve