SEO - Paid by Results?

[Jacksies]

Are there any recommended SEO companies/consultants out there, using only White Hat techniques that charge only upon demonstrable results?...

 

[Vizcom]

Neil

Do you mean results they have for their existing clients?

Or do you mean you would pay them if they got you results?

What would you consider a result?

thanks
Dan

 

[los_design]

I would imagine you are referring to a 'commission only' type structure or 'results related pay' for want of another phrase.

Am I assuming correct?

 

[Jacksies]

What I mean is - in the past, on a different website, I have paid people to get x number of directory entries, x number of blog entries, x number of reciprical links etc - but these are just numbers! They don't seem to dictate the quality or value of the work...
I would like someone to show me the results of their work each week, to demonstrate that the website is gaining better rankings on my chosen keywords, to show an improvement in PR etc... - does that make sense? I don't mind spending money for results... but I do mind handing over money (blindly) in the hope that an improvement will be seen...

 

What I mean is - in the past, on a different website, I have paid people to get x number of directory entries, x number of blog entries, x number of reciprical links etc - but these are just numbers! They don't seem to dictate the quality or value of the work...
I would like someone to show me the results of their work each week, to demonstrate that the website is gaining better rankings on my chosen keywords, to show an improvement in PR etc... - does that make sense? I don't mind spending money for results... but I do mind handing over money (blindly) in the hope that an improvement will be seen...

I would be more interested in someone who would increase the websites profits ,that being the main aim of SEO.

Do people really pay 20 quid for a pair of boxer shorts.?

Be interested in your sales figures and what you perceive as the potential for this market.?

Earl

 

[webpromoterservice]

it would be very hard to implement and monitor.

I have used this method with my clients only on PPC ads because they are much easier to track

 

[SEO Positive]

Are there any recommended SEO companies/consultants out there, using only White Hat techniques that charge only upon demonstrable results?...

Does anyone have a winning lotto ticket for me?

These days you will find virtually no one that will do SEO upfront, then pay on first page placement, or on results, as there is no guarantee that your website is going to draw in loads of business. Just like no one is going to give me a winning lotto ticket.

If you are happy to pay out money for guaranteed page 1 positions, but not pay upfront for potentially a few months before getting to page 1, then your best bet is PPC live what "webpromoterservice" is offering.

 

[SLF]

This sort of thing makes me chuckle! would you dream of asking the local newspaper or a magazine if you could pay for the advert you placed only if people phoned you up after seeing your advert? Exactly. Would you ask the graphic design who designed your flyers could you pay only if a decent amount bought from you as a result of seeing your flyer? Exactly.

 

[david64]

Yes there are, but you'll be scraping the gutter of the almost black hat methodology department.

There are also plenty of people who say that they only use "ethical white hat techniques". Anybody saying that that is all they do is probably not. Recently came across a company that insists that they are strict white hat, but their main link building technique is an automatic link exchange.

Real white hat SEO does not guarantee any results in search engines and it is painfully slow. In fact white hat SEO requires you to not target search engines' algorithms when all of your competitors probably are.

 

[Nixies]

SEO position was spot on the money their.

If I remember greenlightsearch did some kind of deal along though lines quite a while back. But it involved a lot of contracts and you needed to be a really reputable business.

The problem is good results requires time and money. To do all the hard work up front opens you up not being paid and losing out.

Their are some pay per performance deal. But I wouldn't take a job with no money upfront, at least it show commitment form the other side.

 

[SEO Positive]

Yes there are, but you'll be scraping the gutter of the almost black hat methodology department.

There are also plenty of people who say that they only use "ethical white hat techniques". Anybody saying that that is all they do is probably not. Recently came across a company that insists that they are strict white hat, but their main link building technique is an automatic link exchange.

Real white hat SEO does not guarantee any results in search engines and it is painfully slow.

Tell me about being painfully slow (the story of my life).

 

[david64]

The problem is good results requires time and money. To do all the hard work up front opens you up not being paid and losing out.

Time and money are the important words there. My old company used to do pay-on-performance SEO in the days when Google was much more easy to manipulate quickly. It was not white hat either. The only reason the company offered to get rankings first is because it didn't cost anything to get the rankings and it took about 2 minutes of actual work to get them. To get to page one with white hat you are asking someone to work their checks of for a carrot you are dangling in front of them.

There are some companies that do offer to get you ranking first, but they will only do easy terms like, "fish smokers on roft street, oswestry" and charge you each month for doing something that was probably a one of change to your site or sticking a few links at your site.

 

SEO pay by results is becoming quite common now,several of my associates offer various profit sharing schemes.

The criterion for getting an SEO involved in these schemes is much stricter than normal SEO.

You would have to prove that you have a viable product before being accepted and be prepared to give up to 50% of your profits for a newbie site.

But the rewards for all parties are usually well worth while.

But of course this scheme is only made available by the most confident of SEO's .

If as an SEO you are not sure of getting in the top 5 results for a product.
I would suggest this business model may not be for you.

Earl

 

[serendipitybusiness]

The problem with this kind of deal is that the the effects of a seo campaign can take a while to come into fruition, so say your seo did onpage seo and a link popularity campaign for your site, you may not see the full results until 4 or 5 months down the line.

So most companies will want to tie you into a contract otherwise you could walk away after a month and the seo in question wouldn't reap the benefits of the hard work they put in. Hense the common solution is the one that sirearl has suggested.

 

[WPsites]

I enter into paid on results / profit share marketing.

I would only ever do this with an established company, with good products and good customer services. Fee, profit share or commission varies dependant upon your market, profit margins and your websites current standing.

For example: one of my clients had an online store designed by another designer. When I came on board the site had been online for 3 months, was built in flash, had a very modest number of products and had lots of empty pages. His designer wanted to charge £750 to add 100 new products to the website!

I took the design of his old site that he liked and turned that into a search engine friendly e-commerce store (osCommerce) that utilises Wordpress so he can modify any of the websites content without any further fees. For the development of the website and for me to add the initial 250 products I charged around £1,500.

This company really wanted to expand, they seemed to have a good relationship with their customers and the potential traffic/sales looked attractive. So I offered them my marketing/optimisation services in return for a profit share. I'm implementing a mixture of SEO, PPC and social media marketing.

We worked out their potential profit for the different products they sell. The potential profit from every sale generated through the site goes into a pot, any money spent on advertising such as pay per click gets paid for by the pot; at the end of the month I then invoice for 30% of the profit left in the pot.

The profit, delivery costs, advertising costs, commission, everything is worked out automatically by a system implemented into the backend of osCommerce. He or I can choose a date range and see exactly what was spent on advertising, total sales and what commission was payable to me.

It works well. It's almost like I am a business partner. I keep an eye on costs to increase my commission, I look for new opportunities to increase traffic/sales, I keep a very close eye on the analytics and make sure the site is optimized (in terms of usability) to convert the traffic into customers.

If anything on the website needs doing that is not marketing related such as adding new products I quote him an hourly rate for the extra work. He can add the products himself but chooses not to as he's too busy sending out products!