What is a reasonable price to pay for SEO?

[Kyle R]

What is a reasonable price to pay for SEO for my website to get in the top 5 rank on google for keywords like "Watch free movies online"

[Former YB Employee]

I hate to answer a question with a question, but do you know what is involved in SEO? Search Engine Optimization is very complex and in my experience I have seen many business professionals waste a lot of money on SEO only to see that their site has had little to no movement toward the first page of results.

Depending on your geographic location, your keyword term may be impossible to get you to the top 5 rank. I would consider looking at SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and researching keyword phrase costs in your marketing area. You may find SEM to be more beneficial and cost effective.

[Katy]

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are what you need. Both work together hand in hand.

The best way to do these is on an ongoing basis, rather than in a big splurge, as the search engines get suspicious of sudden, big activity in these areas. Sites get penalised by the search engines when this is detected.

So, find an agency or individual who can do this for you on an ongoing basis for a monthly fee. How much? That depends on the number of hours a month needed, which depends on the size of the site in question and the competitiveness of the marketplace.

You could start at say £100 a month and then review things after the basic SEO set up has been done and the Analytics are bringing in site traffic figures. Then look at your portfolio of search terms, not just one search term, and see how the site is doing for all of these after two or three months.

Then you will get an idea about whether to stay at this level of activity or to boost up the amount of SEM work being done, to say £200pm, £500pm or however much work is needed per month.

Hope this helps!

Katy Ortega
http;//www.biz247.biz

[Rank On Top, Inc.]

Really it depends on what you need done, Make sure they use organic seo approches, we start off around $800. just an analysis and to deep check competion and track your past web activities.

All in all do your own homework so you dont get taken,
make sure they are a legal company, and insured, and either local or reachable, Never wait six months to see results.

[ezzza]

Here's a good and affordable website for you, http://www.magicsolv.com

As far as reasonable price is concern, there is never a cut and dry answer to the question, but typically the range should be somewhere along the amount of value it adds to your business. For example, if you are only paying a few hundred dollars and expect the person to add millions of dollars to your business, then you are also expecting them to be naive and ignorant to marketing and their market value.

If they are ignorant to marketing and their market value then the odds of them being a great marketer or providing great results are going to be pretty low. As SEO evolves it is becoming more about marketing and understanding markets. If an SEO can't sell themselves for a decent rate then how are they going to know your market well enough to integrate your business into your marketplace?

[Steve]

Well I think it must be aorund 700 to 1000 US $. However it depends on the quantity of the kyewords. If you want to optimize your website for 5 to 7 keywords (keywords like watch free online movies) then i think the price which i mentioned above is Ok. however if there are more than 12 to 15 keywords then it can take more money..
Every company has different rates and different strategies. So choose the one who is offering ethical seo services at affordable price.

[primarypositionseo]

Difficult Question. Many good, top SEO companies have their own ideas, techniques and systems which together make up their own technology - thus their own Intellectual Property. As such, the price they are charging you is also to cover this technology that they've developed. SEO is very new - it's not like buying a service from an electrician or Accountant or mechanic. These services are generally regulated, widely available and very tangible, very comparable. It's generally about paying an hourly rate for a particular service. SEO however isn't.

You need to approach a few companies and engage with them. This service is important. Time is money. If one company seems 50% cheaper than another but takes 4 times as long (or longer) to achieve high SERP's, then it's actually costing you more.

Your problem: Let's say SEO company A wants to charge a fixed rate of say $10k for your particular requirement, and company B wants $2k per month and company C wants $300 as a once off charge - the only way to compare them is to look at their capability and talk to their referrees. Becareful about the SERP's they give you. One company might have what seems like a great SERP but you have to validate this independently. Did they really do this? (talk to the owner). Is it a really a highly searched for phrase? (check with Google AdWords).

Talk to the companies, find out who seems to know more about what they do and how they'll measure it. For example, company A has a list of reports, perhaps some examples from previous projects where they can demonstrate:

1. Keyword Research (what are the best keywords to deliver traffic, not high SERPs! Be careful with high KEI / niche - they are niche for a reason!)

2. How do they check your SERP's? How will they monitor what they do? How do they measure improvement.

3. How will they track improvements to your site?

4. What do they know about Social Media, Blogs, Web 2.0, User Experience, Sales Conversions, Google Analytics etc.

Don't accept answers like "We're exper in Analytics" or "We will guarantee increase in traffic" or "we will turn your site into HTML because SE's like this more" etc!