Whats the going Rate for a SEO Consultant?

[sba global]

Hi all,

Just wanted to ask what are typically the rates to hire a SEO consultant to do on page and off page optimisation?
Hourly Rate, Monthly and Packages.

Would love to hear from some of the SEO Experts on the forum on what they would normally charge to a average client.

Thanks

 

[JohnnyCash]

I hope your PM box has plenty space... you're going to need it!

Your question is similar to asking "how much does a house cost". There is a massive gulf in prices... some seo's charge $3 an hour and some charge $10k a day.

 

[sba global]

Just wanted to know the going rate for an experienced SEO Professional.
Obviously, you'll have your cheap (my mates brother) type of guys who'll be willing to do it for next to nothing or a bottle of scotch, and you'll have your sophisticated firms charging an arm and leg at the other end of the scale. What is the industry average for this type of work?

 

[lari]

Just wanted to know the going rate for an experienced SEO Professional.
Obviously, you'll have your cheap (my mates brother) type of guys who'll be willing to do it for next to nothing or a bottle of scotch, and you'll have your sophisticated firms charging an arm and leg at the other end of the scale. What is the industry average for this type of work?

If you get enough PMs maybe you can tell us...

 

[RadiusBPO]

What sort of industry are you wanting to target? Why do you need a day rate and not a more long term / monthly budget? Do you want to visit offices and be wowed by reports or are email and phone ok and you're looking at results not fancy pie charts?

 

[RedEvo]

Check out contract rates on job sites.

d

 

[lapseoservices]

It depends on the work involved. Some of these so-called "Experts" will charge you a set fee regardless of the work that's involved. Realistically the amount you pay will depend on a number of factors such as the competition and timescale that results will be achieved.

Choose your consultant carefully.

Give us a general idea of what work you need and we could give you a general idea of cost.

 

[Michael-Bush]

We start at £250 per month, and many companies are around this price.

 

[cmcp]

Check out contract rates on job sites.

d

This is pretty much your ballpark figure, maybe a little more maybe a little less. IMO probably the same as an agency developer, £300 - £400 a day in normal circumstances, tops.

 

[FONT=&quot]A tad here on the subject
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]How Much Does SEO Cost?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cost is the most painful issue when it comes to Internet marketing services. Because search engine optimisation is such a popular service to offer, there are numerous choices.

Be careful, though, the price nearly always reflects the quality of the service. And when I say nearly, we take into account professionals from countries where living costs are considerably lower than in countries with strong economies. Their rates will therefore be much more competitive and can offer you better value for money.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The general rule, however, is that professional services cost a lot. It doesn't matter whether they elaborate or carry out search engine strategies or do both, you're paying for the knowledge that brings you a return on your investment as well as for the results.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It is nearly impossible to give even ballpark figures of the costs of a SEO strategy for an average business as fees in this industry can vary from several hundred pounds to tens, even hundreds of thousands of pounds.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]SEM Service Packages[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Search engine companies charge differently. Some offer package services at fixed costs. These packages can range in price from several thousand to hundreds of thousand pounds or more, and usually the SEO company will have based that around an estimated average number of hours. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]While that may be enough to perform the services you have both agreed on, sometimes extra hours are needed to complete certain tasks or iron out delicate situations - check that your SEO company is willing to supply extra hours when necessary, either within the contract or at extra charge. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This approach offers much less risk though – you are guaranteeing that the company will always be available and will secure that they always put your interests first – such as not working for a competitor. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Hourly Rates[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]You can hire a SEO that charges by the hour. Hourly rates can vary significantly as most individual consultants charge a lot less than companies do, although there are exceptions to the rule. Most SEOs will let you know roughly how many hours each service requires. This pricing structure is more flexible, but also much more risky - will the company be available when you need it? [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Most businesses owners want to know exactly how much SEM services will cost them before actually thinking of hiring a company. While that approach is completely understandable you should remember that price should be just a single factor in your decision, and often should not be the most important one. In SEO the quality of services is what you should be primarily looking at, otherwise your money is completely wasted. You should also remember that you are not just paying for results or expertise, but you'll also be paying for the reputation of the company you are hiring and their proven abilities.

Earl
[/FONT]

 

[Edinburgh SEO Services]

It costs exactly £1,000,000.

 

[Tony Hayes]

You need to define exactly what you need done. Usually its best to find keywords to target that are low hanging fruit (less competitive but reasonable search volumes...try GEO targeting) so that you can test your conversions as well as keep costs down, at least until you start getting financial benefits that allow you to afford going after the more competitive keywords.
You need to define what type of content you will use too, articles, videos, podcasts, press releases or whatever and create content that helps increase conversions as well as being optimised for the search engines.
The cost goes beyond SEO and it involves content creation, your time and hopefully a thought process to make the content good quality, useful and integrate it with social media too.
There are many good SEO companies out there that offer introductory rates but if cost is an issue then perhaps SEO training is best for you if you have the time to learn and implement.

 

[RBS]

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=1&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=seo&id=0&lid=2618

 

[Ali-v-8]

I love Edinburgh SEO Services answer.

I believe that there is no fixed rate. In fact if there is a fixed rate I would walk away form them.
When you consider everything that now is encompassed by seo (wrongly so) you have to consider that some SEO's who do everything wont charge the same as someone who only changes your meta's.

1) SEO report charges = part of the consultation
2) SEO plan = large part of work carried out
3) onsite SEO = foundation work carried out
4) improve conversions = ongoing SEO
5) Linking = ongoing SEO
6) articles = ongoing SEO
7) link drops (not linking) = ongoing SEO
8) Social Media = ongoing SEO

It would be great if all cars were the same price but they are not. You wont be able to by a Ferrari for the same price as a Ford Focus. And in a race The Ferrari will get you there faster..

 

[theaffiliate]

I believe that there is no fixed rate. In fact if there is a fixed rate I would walk away form them.

The value of an SEO's time shouldn't change though, so it shouldn't be difficult for people to quote on a per hour basis like the original poster asked?

From those who I have spoke to in the industry, a 'fair' rate for someone decent seems to start around the £25/hour mark.

It would be great if all cars were the same price but they are not. You wont be able to by a Ferrari for the same price as a Ford Focus. And in a race The Ferrari will get you there faster..

Many people (i.e. apparent SEO geniuses) are more likely to crash a fast Ferrari though (i.e. lose results gained quickly by spam and generally not knowing what they're doing)...

 

[RedEvo]

From those who I have spoke to in the industry, a 'fair' rate for someone decent seems to start around the £25/hour mark.

For a freelancer maybe. Any company offering those rates isn't going to be around for long IMHO.

d

 

[JohnnyCash]

I would say, in general, anyone charging £25 an hour must be absolutely hopeless.

Even assuming they're fully booked for 40 hours a week, anyone with any seo knowledge would be able to make significantly more than £1k a week building and running sites they own - with the massive upside of actually owning sellable assets at the end of it, rather than creating wealth for someone else.

I've seen some people sell seo for as little as £10 an hour - I honestly think anyone doing so is doing it because they are no good at it. Failing at your own sites doesn't pay the bills, charging someone else £10 an hour to fail on their sites does.

 

[RBS]

From those who I have spoke to in the industry, a 'fair' rate for someone decent seems to start around the £25/hour mark.

If you hire in Asia, even cheaper. Not in UK for that sort of money IMO.

 

I would say, in general, anyone charging £25 an hour must be absolutely hopeless.

Even assuming they're fully booked for 40 hours a week, anyone with any seo knowledge would be able to make significantly more than £1k a week building and running sites they own - with the massive upside of actually owning sellable assets at the end of it, rather than creating wealth for someone else.

although I agree to a degree.

Not everyone has the ability to run a business.

and many an inhouse SEO would be glad of £25 an hour.

Earl

 

[JohnnyCash]

Not everyone has the ability to run a business.

You don't need the ability to run a business to run an affiliate site - you just need the ability to get visitors to the site. I pretty much run a big discount voucher site from my kitchen. I don't have a business phone line or an office here, I dont particularly do anything "business like". I just chat online to all the workers via msn and make sure they're doing what they need to do. Its just more like a game than running a real business

and many an inhouse SEO would be glad of £25 an hour.

Well inhouse seo's are taking less money in exchange for a few benefits - they're guaranteed their wage, they don't need to look for enough jobs to fill the week like a consultant. They get holiday pay, sick pay, redundancy pay, etc.

 

[theaffiliate]

Yep, my comment for prices was more for individuals rather than companies with bigger overheads. I personally think it's a respectable amount for a freelancer to charge for their SEO time for someone 'fairly decent' and up to the job. If you want the crème de la crème of SEO experts then obviously it's going to come at a premium... in the same way that you won't get a central London top barrister charging the same rate as a local/rural barristers' chamber would (even though it could be argued that the cheaper of the two would still do a decent job for most).

At £25/hour and offering, for example, businesses a package of 20 hours/month at £500... a freelancer only needs 8 regular clients to fill a regular week and make a total income of £48k/year.

It's not a huge amount, but for an industry which isn't that difficult and doesn't require much experience to enter, a nice income can be made for someone relatively young with their head screwed on. Not everyone will want to run a website, and some people will no doubt prefer having client contact.

 

It's not a huge amount, but for an industry which isn't that difficult .

Thats an interesting observation.

Maybe you could explain why so few people can do it.?

Earl

 

[theaffiliate]

Thats an interesting observation.

Maybe you could explain why so few people can do it.?

Earl

The word "difficult" was linked to the rest of that sentence. Reading it back though I worded it poorly, but it should translate as SEO being an industry which isn't that difficult (to enter) and doesn't require much experience to enter.

It's not difficult to enter simply as it's not regulated and doesn't require any professional qualifications. Any SEO cowboy can easily set themselves up to look like a professional outfit with masses of experience when it's simply not true.

Secondly, it doesn't require much experience as pretty much anyone can throw a simple website up and target phrases with extremely low competition, then use them to show off to potential clients that don't realise this.

But in answer to your question, not many people can do it because they simply don't understand the basics. I'm not claiming to be an expert and I'm still learning (but I'm not selling my services!) although I've still achieved results which I'm happy with so far, and still improving them.

 

[JohnnyCash]

Thats an interesting observation.

Maybe you could explain why so few people can do it.?

Earl

I would say learning the basics of seo is easy. Anyone with a reasonable amount of intelligence and common sense could do it. Being able to work well with numbers and write legibly would be a bonus. It would be very easy to become a competent SEO.

A lot of people who are "seo consults" truely don't deserve £25 an hour. I think there is a massive gulf between the 99% of seo consultants who don't know what they're doing, and the 1% that do. And like I mentioned earlier, the 1% probably aren't daft enough to work for £25 an hour.

If you were hiring a consultant and they were willing to accept £25 an hour, as a buyer you should be asking yourself why they're willing to take it!

 

[Ali-v-8]

In house SEO.
You still need to think they will have to pay them for 52 weeks at 36 hrs a week
which is just short of 50k.
Now why would a decent SEO work for 50k when they could earn 10 times that amount? IMO, Because they cannot deliver what they offer.
New website built 4 month ago is now on page one of Google for compensation claims. Not possible say some people. others say cost are too high. but when you consider that the average claim gets a minimum of £500 how much would you be willing to pay to be in their position right now.

SEO is an investment and the more you invest the more you get back.

 

[theaffiliate]

In house SEO.
You still need to think they will have to pay them for 52 weeks at 36 hrs a week
which is just short of 50k.
Now why would a decent SEO work for 50k when they could earn 10 times that amount? IMO, Because they cannot deliver what they offer.
New website built 4 month ago is now on page one of Google for compensation claims. Not possible say some people. others say cost are too high. but when you consider that the average claim gets a minimum of £500 how much would you be willing to pay to be in their position right now.

SEO is an investment and the more you invest the more you get back.

So, does the value of an SEOs time change depending on the niche they're working for? No. It's as bad as suppliers doubling the price when you mention "wedding" rather than other event types.

Which 'compensation claims' result out is it out of interest, and what was the SEO charging?

Given that it's not an exact science to anyone except for Google's search engineers, it's still a risky investment (for many) to pay £2k/day (your estimation) for results which can't be guaranteed.

 

So, does the value of an SEOs time change depending on the niche they're working for? No.

One would hope it did.

I am not going to charge a company making millions the same as one making a few thousand.

Flogging £2.00 a go painted mugs is not quite the same as flogging 100k cars.

Earl

 

[RadiusBPO]

Edit: Found it, PerfectClaims.com. Not difficult to see why that's ranking exactly is it?

Any idea who owns that blog network?

 

[JohnnyCash]

Out of order posting his url and then trying to dig into his links etc publicly, more so if you know he's not complying with Google guidelines. If you want to look at it then fine but was there any need to post it?

 

[theaffiliate]

One would hope it did.

I am not going to charge a company making millions the same as one making a few thousand.

Flogging £2.00 a go painted mugs is not quite the same as flogging 100k cars.

Earl

Unless it's based on a joint venture of profit share agreement, I would question the integrity of anyone who adjusts their prices according to how much profit their client is making. The value you place on your time should remain constant if you're doing the exact same amount of effort/work.

Any idea who owns that blog network?

Is that a genuine question or one you already know the answer to?

I haven't personally looked into it very far although I suspect the links are spread across a variety of sources (few of the websites do share the same registrant and theme layout though, which is a bit silly).

 

[theaffiliate]

Out of order posting his url and then trying to dig into his links etc publicly, more so if you know he's not complying with Google guidelines. If you want to look at it then fine but was there any need to post it?

See where you're coming from, although it's in context as the thread is about how much good SEO is worth. That website (presumably, as it matches up with his portfolio and Google results) was named by Ali-v-8 as being a good example of someone (probably expensive) being able to deliver what they offer, so there should be nothing to hide.

If it was found to not comply and got a penalty as a result, then that would mean it's not a good example to use and money which hasn't been invested very well. I expect the client wouldn't be too happy.

Now why would a decent SEO work for 50k when they could earn 10 times that amount? IMO, Because they cannot deliver what they offer.
New website built 4 month ago is now on page one of Google for compensation claims. Not possible say some people. others say cost are too high. but when you consider that the average claim gets a minimum of £500 how much would you be willing to pay to be in their position right now.

 

[Baz Watkins]

Admittedly I live in a small town where £25 an hour is virtually unheard of, so maybe I can't comment with any great insight regarding high pay, but I don't think many people would decline £25 an hour all year round, £48k a year really isn't to be sniffed at.

Obviously if you are very good at what you do, and people come to you through word of mouth, then charging more is to be expected. I suppose it comes down to charging what you feel you're worth, and hoping the market accepts your rate.

I wouldn't have though doing SEO was anymore reccession proof than any other service, so I can't understand it when people claim £25 an hour as being a poor return for services rendered.

 

[eog]

Admittedly I live in a small town where £25 an hour is virtually unheard of, so maybe I can't comment with any great insight regarding high pay, but I don't think many people would decline £25 an hour all year round, £48k a year really isn't to be sniffed at.

Obviously if you are very good at what you do, and people come to you through word of mouth, then charging more is to be expected. I suppose it comes down to charging what you feel you're worth, and hoping the market accepts your rate.

I wouldn't have though doing SEO was anymore reccession proof than any other service, so I can't understand it when people claim £25 an hour as being a poor return for services rendered.

Baz, The point being made is, if you are any good at SEO you would be capable of developing your own portfolio of websites that would generate more than £25/hr

 

[theaffiliate]

Baz, The point being made is, if you are any good at SEO you would be capable of developing your own portfolio of websites that would generate more than £25/hr

Yes, and my point is that not everyone will want their own website portfolio and there are always going to be people offering SEO to clients or in house.

And even if that isn't true, much of a website can be automated leaving those who are "good" at SEO to get the best of both worlds and charge clients for their time while their websites are earning too.

 

[JohnnyCash]

I wouldn't have though doing SEO was anymore reccession proof than any other service, so I can't understand it when people claim £25 an hour as being a poor return for services rendered.

For some people £25 is a massive return, as they're not doing anything to warrant it.

SEO is one of the few businesses you're only a quick website away from being an "industry renowned expert" with a plethora of (bought or fake) awards and certificates to back it up. Then they're out there charging fortunes - some of them thousands a month and doing literally nothing.

So its easy to see why people are attracted to it as a line of work. To use myself and my dad (plumbing / gas engineer) as an example, if we both tried to swap lines of work tomorrow who do you think would get on better?

If I put an ad in a local paper and took on a few plumbing and gas jobs I'd probably get some business. But it would be quickly apparent I couldn't do the job as the floods, fires and gas explosions quickly mounted up. I'd more than likely be out of work (or dead), and arrested shortly after

But my dad would just be another sh*t seo with no idea what he's doing. No big deal that he's not showing any client results - he can blame it on Panda. Then next month he can blame it on an algorithm change. Then the month after that he can say it takes time, and to relax. By the time they fire him he won't care - 6 months of fees in the bank and he's moved on to some new clients/victims.

Sca

 

Unless it's based on a joint venture of profit share agreement, I would question the integrity of anyone who adjusts their prices according to how much profit their client is making. The value you place on your time should remain constant if you're doing the exact same amount of effort/work.

Are you insane.?

Value of the work done is exactly how one should charge Unless you enjoy making other people rich whilst living in a tent yourself.

Earl

 

[theaffiliate]

Are you insane.?

Value of the work done is exactly how one should charge Unless you enjoy making other people rich whilst living in a tent yourself.

Earl

Er, no.

How does the value of the work that you do vary depending on who the client is? If you're good, then you'll be in demand and charging high rates for everyone therefore won't be living in a tent.

Unless of course you are doing your SEO with a philanthropic hat on, by charging your "normal" rate to the profitable clients (i.e. Ferrari sellers) and "underselling" yourself to all the others (i.e. painted mugs sellers)...

 

[Ali-v-8]

theaffiliate: I have noticed that the original question has been ignored and the thread has been side tracked, but if you are and actual "affiliate" professional you will know that the client is interested in the conversion and nothing more.
There are those who can and there are those who sit there pointing out faults as to why they failed to deliver.
My clients are always long term.
I always give them the option to walk away. The moment they do I just apply my magic to a competitor.
I am in this business to make money. I don't charge small fee's. Do I care? No.
More importantly do my clients care? NO.
Why? because I deliver the results that they want.
If I don't then they don't pay me.
I put my money where my mouth is. I sleep well at night (when i do sleep). My clients LOVE me. Why? Because they have a great return on investment.
If spend is greater than profit then get another SEO.
If I am your SEO that wont happen.
Thanks for the free promotion.

 

[JohnnyCash]

I think posting other peoples stuff (unless they invite feedback) generally sucks.

It hardly shows you in a good light and doesn't help your "I charge large fees' for results" stance when they're outing the work as coming from a spam network. Sure it probably will provide results, but its certainly not work that deserves a large fee.

And I think the bigger issue is that it scares people off posting anything worthwhile in the forum. Whats the point of posting anything to do with a ranking or an actual url if people are just going to pick holes in some dodgy backlinks out of spite? If I was reading this and thinking about posting something that involved showing a url, I'd have binned that idea now.

 

[theaffiliate]

Ali, the original question hasn't been ignored, this whole thread is about what constitutes a "going rate" for an SEO consultant which is worth their fee. And yes, with affiliate websites I obviously know that conversions are important. Not quite sure what your point is there...

I wouldn't say it's free promotion for you either. You may be getting results, but you aren't the only person in the world who could do it using that method... for high rates (how much are you charging?) I would expect an SEO to be far more creative than that. Your post doesn't exactly sound like an attractive proposition.

I think posting other peoples stuff (unless they invite feedback) generally sucks.

I agree, and I wouldn't have gone out of my way to investigate it, however the website (albeit without the direct URL) was given as an example of their "quality" work.

It hardly shows you in a good light and doesn't help your "I charge large fees' for results" stance when they're outing the work as coming from a spam network. Sure it probably will provide results, but its certainly not work that deserves a large fee.

Good point, well made. It's exactly where I'm coming from.

And I think the bigger issue is that it scares people off posting anything worthwhile in the forum. Whats the point of posting anything to do with a ranking or an actual url if people are just going to pick holes in some dodgy backlinks out of spite? If I was reading this and thinking about posting something that involved showing a url, I'd have binned that idea now.

Unfortunately that's true as well. Picking holes certainly wasn't done out of spite in this instance as it's all in context and needed to be shown to demonstate your other point above. However, I can defintely see how holes would be picked by people in other cases regardless of context.

Would be great if worthwhile posts could be made in the forum, but how worthwhile would it really be for someone to post up rankings based on a tonne of dodgy looking backlinks anyway? It doesn't take a genius to work out how to get them, and as you righly say it doesn't deserve a large fee for obtaining them either (all it really deserves is the cost of buying them).

If people are wanting advice when they post up websites which are not based on dodgy rankings and are all clean, then there will be nothing for even cynics to pick holes in. So anyone wanting genuine advice shouldn't really worry, and worthwhile posts can be made as a result.