SEO Cost: How Much Do SEO Services Cost?

Are you thinking about spending on SEO?

How much do SEO services cost?

Will it be worth the money?

You might have a lot of doubts running through your mind.

But, it is good.

This thinking prepares you to take the next step toward the future.

66% of people perform some research online before making a purchase.

49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.

Every second, Google is processing over 40,000 search queries.

People use the internet to learn about business, check their credibility and authority to purchase. 

With so many opportunities for a business to grow, pricing is the only factor stopping you from making the big decision.

How much budget should I allocate?

We’re here to help you out! In this blog, you will learn about the average pricing factors of SEO, the factors that play a crucial role in the pricing, the service included in SEO, How much SEO costs across different countries, and more.

Keep reading.

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the site’s visibility in the search engine, drawing people’s attention, and achieving business goals.

Here is an example,

Imagine that you’re running a lifestyle ecommerce store. 

A person searches “branded shirts below $20” online. 

If your website ranks on the first page of the search engine and the person clicks and enters your site, your brand awareness increases, and the chance of him converting is high. 

The latest data tells us that the click-through rate of a website that ranks in the #1 position of SERP is 39.6%, whereas in the 2nd position is 18.4%, and the number decreases.

Therefore, if you want to improve your business visibility and revenue, your website ranking in the first few spots on the SERP. Anything beyond page one is a graveyard.

Related: What is SEO? Complete Guide to Learn SEO

To make it happen for your website, an SEO analyst or expert has to perform a series of tasks to make it happen. 

They have to work on three categories of SEO:

• On-page – Optimizing the factors on the website. E.g., content, including keywords, HTML tags, alt text and links and images, and more.
• Off-page – Activities performed outside your website that improve your search engine ranking. E.g., Guest posts, inbound links, brand mentions, social media interaction, and influencer marketing.
• Technical SEO – Analyzing, assessing, and improving the technical factors of the website that enhances the functionality and crawlability of the website. E.g., URL structures, redirects, structured data markup, XML sitemaps, HTTP, and mobile responsiveness.

Factors That Determine The Cost Of SEO Services

SEO is not a single-step process. 

Plenty of work needs to be done. 

Your site has to be wonderfully constructed to achieve the top spot and reap benefits. 

Here are some of the factors that determine the cost of SEO services:

Agency vs. Freelancer

An agency charges more than a freelancer.

Agency would have a bunch of professionals to put a lot of effort, energy, and time behind a campaign. 

Whereas, when it comes to a freelancer, he is kind of a solopreneur. He has to do all the work by himself.

That’s the reason why an agency costs more than a freelancer.

However, most companies prefer to stick with an agency compared to a freelancer.

Skills and Specialties

Under the shell of a marketing agency, they have a content writer, copywriter, SEO expert, strategist, developer, and designer to give a complete package to their customers.

So, if the agency has all the support, then their price would be higher than those who don’t.

For example, if your website is built using code, then an SEO specialist would need developer support to make changes to the website.

If the SEO professional has coding knowledge or has a developer in their team, they charge high.

Besides, some agencies provide dedicated and single service to their customers.

For example, you can reach out to a content agency with high-quality content. If you want link-building links, you can look for a specialist agency to deliver accurate, high-quality service to your business.

Related: Best Link Building Strategies That Work

Since these guys have extensive experience and have worked with various brands and resources, their pricing would be high.

The same applies to freelancers as well.

Needs and Complexities

You can’t use the same strategy for all businesses.

An SEO strategy that has worked great for one company may not work for the other.

Each business has different goals, and each website’s health will also differ.

For example, a business wants to improve its conversion rate, but its website’s technical strength is feeble, so the agency or the freelancer has to put in a lot of effort and time.

Likewise, if the website’s technical strength is excellent and all the other factors are good, then the agency or freelancer puts less effort and time than the earlier one.

Therefore, based on the website’s complexity and the business need, the pricing varies.

Competitions

The competition is also considered when determining the pricing.

As said earlier, the SEO service’s pricing relies on the effort and time the expert needs to spend.

If the competition is high in your industry, then the experts must put a lot of effort into pushing you up. Doing that may cost you heavily.

On the following basis the experts check competitions:

• Location 
• Keywords difficulty
• Industry 

Related: Best SEO Competitor Analysis Tools

Experience

Experience matters a lot!

A well-experienced freelancer or an agency would cost high when compared to an agency or a person starting off.

When embracing the arms of an experienced person, you can cut the risk of losing your money. 

They will stay on top of the money and do everything to deliver the result.

Conversely, an intermediate, newbie agency or freelancer would charge less. 

The smaller agency would consider acquiring their first client by costing low.

What’s Included in SEO Services? How Much Do SEO Cost?

We have already seen the factors an expert would look after – On-page, off-page, and technical.

It’s time to look in-depth into what an agency will be providing you as an SEO service package.

Apart from that factor, SEO services also include various crucial elements:

Social Media Management

Social media is a great platform to grab people’s attention and target your target audience.

In fact, on average, people spend more than 3 hours on social media.

87% of marketers use social media for content distribution tactics.

It is one of the best platforms to build some quality links. 

When people check out your social media posts along with links, if they are attracted, they would click on the link to check the details. 

If they find your content engaging and insightful, they will share it with others or link it to their posts.

This helps improve your traffic, brand awareness, and profit.

Related: Building A Personal Brand

Starting from building a strategy to posting a content, the agency or freelancer will do it.

Related: Freelance Social Media Consultant Salary

Link Building

Link building is one of the best practices to improve the ranking on the search engine.

Links from high-quality and relevant sites will help improve brand awareness and drive new people to your website.

Related: How To Check Google Rankings

Finding a quality website relevant to your business and convincing the owner to share your link on their site is quite a task that your service providers will take care of.

Related: Guest Posting Sites List

Content Marketing

According to the latest may 2022 Google core update, Google prioritizes Expertise, Authoritative, and Trustworthy content (their E-A-T framework).

Related: Google Algorithm Updates History

A content strategy aligned to the business goal, regularly optimizing your existing content, and adding new content boost your ranking in the search engine. 

Related: Best SEO Content Optimization Tools

But the content ideas have to be fresh, informative, and relevant to your business.

Technical Optimization

If a technical factor violates the guidelines of Google will drastically affect your ranking in the search engine.

Related: Tips To Improve On-Page SEO

The agency or a freelancer will first perform a technical SEO audit to identify and analyze the technical issue of the website before deploying the strategy.

It includes page speed, meta titles, alt tags, user experience, website architecture, etc.

Related: Best Ways To Increase Site Speed

Keyword Research

Google uses keywords to understand your business and the information you’re sharing.

Whenever people search for your industry-related query, and you have written content including relevant keywords, it increases the chance of search engines popping up your website on the top page. 

Therefore, the agency and freelancers both will prioritize keyword research and collect them in bulk amounts for future implications.

Related: Best SEO Keyword Research Tools

Analytics and Report

Checking the performance helps assess the impact of the strategy and what tweaks can be done for better performance.

An agency and freelancers will keep an eagle’s eye over the analytics and share reports with you once a month or week.

Pricing Model Of SEO: SEO Packages Pricing Guide

Now you know the factors that influence the pricing and the services that will be included. 

The pricing structure will differ depending on your needs and the services it includes. 

Here are the 3 types of pricing models:

Pricing Per Hour

This SEO pricing structure is typically used by freelancers, consultants, and small agencies. 

They charge you based on the hours they have worked on the project.

This type would be most affordable for small businesses since they can’t afford monthly retainers or project-based fees.

The average price would vary from $50 to $150 per hour. 

The amount changes based on their skills and expertise. 

Most agencies don’t offer this model because they cost twice the amount higher than the freelancers and individual SEO experts. 

Related: Marketing Automation Consultant Salary

Pricing Per Month

This is the most commonly used method by most businesses.

It is also known as the monthly retainer model.

First, you sit with the agency, discuss your needs, goals, and pricing with them, and then onboard them for a fixed price. 

You will be paying the same fixed amount continuously for the upcoming months.

The average cost of a monthly retainer model would be around $3000 – $5000. Based on the level of company experience, the cost will differ. 

The agency will take care of all the marketing activities and provide the above services at this price.

If you want a custom plan, you can negotiate with the agency, choose the service your business needs, and then pay for it.

Top Marketing Agencies:

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However, the price varies based on the level of business. 

If you’re running an enterprise with many web pages, content, and different products, then your monthly price would go up to $200,000 per month because of the time and effort required.

Pricing Per Project

When you’re sure about what you’re doing, you can stick with this SEO pricing per project.

This type is paying fees for one time for a particular SEO project.

When you need help with keyword research and pulling out the best and top keywords for your business, you can hire a specialist for keyword research, pay them a one-time fee, and get the work done.

Likewise, if your website is drowning with technical issues, you can hire a technical SEO expert to sort all the queries and get the work done. 

So, before taking up this per project tire, you need to be more specific in what areas you want help. Then once you find the person is valuable, you revamp the contract. 

The average cost per project-based SEO service ranges from $1000 to $ million. Based on the company size and need, the amount varies. For smaller companies, $1000 is enough for a project. As the company becomes larger and larger, the price changes.

Freelancers, SEO agencies, and everyone use this tier. But remember, while using this tier, you should know what you’re doing. If you don’t know how to proceed to do SEO, then this tier will be a waste of time and money for you.

Cost of SEO Services in Different Countries: International SEO Pricing Package Cost

The commonly used agency pricing in different countries are as follows:

Country	Hourly rate	Monthly Rate	Project Basis
United States	$101 – $150	$251 – $5,000	$1,001 – $1500
United Kingdom	$76 – $150	$501 – $1,500	$501 – $1,000
Europe (German/France/Italy Spain)	$76 – $100	$251 – $1000	$501 – $1,000
Canada	$101 – $150	$501 – $1,500	$1,501 – $2,000
Australia and New Zealand	$101 – $150	$1001 – $2,000	$2,501 – $10,000
India	<$25	$251 – $500	$501 – $1,000

Source

However, the price of an agency will always be higher than the pricing of a freelancer.

How to Know if SEO Services Costing Are Worth The Price

Now we’re at the end. It is time for you to choose the best agency or freelancer for your business. When selecting an agency, follow these tips:

Check Client Testimonials and Reviews

 Check client testimonials and reviews to know the credibility and authority of the service provider.

Read both the positive and negative testimonials and reviews. 

This will help you evaluate and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the agency.

It is even great if you can pull out some customers’ details. You can communicate directly to improve your confidence.

Look For Case Studies

If the agency has good experience, they don’t hesitate to post their success stories.

They would be so proud to show the world how they did it.

Check case studies on their website.

Use it to assess their efficiency, effectiveness, and capabilities.

If the website is not having any success stories, then it would be difficult to then it might be an indication that they’re new to the business.

Study Their Website

Since it is a digital marketing agency, their website will tell you a lot about their expertise.

Check their website’s build – appearance, content, images, loading speed – to grasp a little idea.

Using that, you can guess them. While doing so, check the site’s owner, look for his experience in the field, and check their policy.

Speak Directly to the Agency

Consult with the agency or freelancers directly to sort out all your queries.

Sometimes it is the best way. 

You can ask about the strategies they will be using, their working style, and so on. It will be an eye-opener for you.

Be aware of agencies that cost less:

The agency that costs less might use black hat techniques to improve your ranking and reach your goal. This might be good at first, but once google finds it, your site will be penalized and unproductive. So, you have to take some extra care.

Conclusion

That’s it.

No matter what industry you’re in, your business has ample opportunity to thrive.

You need the right and perfect strategy and an expert’s guidance to outsmart the competition and win over.

With the above tips, you might know the SEO service pricing and how to choose the right agency or freelancer to achieve your goal.

Still, this is the right to go for the kill.

Cheers!