In this article
we will look at search engine optimization pricing from the point of view of
the consultant. So you are setting up as an SEO consultant and you
want to know what to charge your clients? Congratulations! It is a great
business to be in.
There are many
ways that SEO experts
charge for their services. Which method of search engine optimization pricing
you choose will depend on many factors individual to you and your preferred way
of working. These factors include:
1. Whether you
are new to the business or have already established a demand for your services.
Clearly, if you have been around a while and are well known with a good
reputation, it might be time to consider increasing your prices.
2. What type of
project you are taking on. A large company with a big website in a competitive
industry is going to require a lot more of your time than your neighborhood mom
and pop store. They will also expect a wider range of services.
3. Where you are
in the world. Clearly, this affects your cost of living and operating costs.
Somebody living in the USA will need to have higher search engine optimization
pricing than somebody living in Thailand.
4. Whether you
are prepared to visit your clients' offices. If you are, you can charge more
and you are likely to get more business (assuming you live in a place where
there are plenty of potential clients). People are much happier about hiring
somebody they have met, and you can still do most of the actual work from your
own office or home. This factor means that you do not have to worry about
competition from other parts of the world. Some clients will go for the
cheapest option but there will be plenty who will be willing to pay more for
somebody who is local to them.
5. Whether you
plan to charge by the hour or per project. You may think of what you want to
earn in hourly terms, but most clients will prefer to pay by task or by
results. The two are not mutually exclusive, but this means that when you are
figuring out your search engine optimization pricing, you may want to base it
on tasks such as building a certain number of backlinks, writing a certain
number of articles, etc, rather than a price per hour. So that means figuring
out how long it will take you to do each of the tasks that you will offer to
clients.
Something else
that you might consider when you are first setting up as an SEO consultant is
whether you want to work alone or with others. Your first answer might be that
you plan on working alone. Many people go into SEO because they have
been working in web design and development in their job, and they want to have
their own independent business.
But there are
many disadvantages to working alone. These include questions like what happens
if you have more work than you can handle? What happens when you are sick?
There are other options that will help you to spread the load, including going
into business with a partner, outsourcing some tasks, or even applying to work
as an outsourcer for other SEO
consultants who are already established.
At the very
least, consider how you can outsource some of the routine tasks in order to
free up your valuable time for things the client will see as more important -
such as visiting them from time to time. This will help you to work out the
search engine optimization pricing for your services in a way that will be
sustainable as your business grows.
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