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How much should you budget for SEO each month? How much does SEO cost? What factors go into pricing an SEO campaign?
These are tough questions to answer, because the amount that any business will spend on SEO varies widely. But we can give you a general idea of what to expect. In this post, we’ll break down the three main pricing models for SEO, discuss what affects prices, and offer some tips on how to budget for this essential marketing expense.
So read on to learn more about how much SEO costs and how to make sure it fits into your overall marketing budget!
SEO pricing models
There are three common pricing models for SEO: hourly, project-based, and retainers.
Hourly rates are just what they sound like: you pay the agency or contractor an hourly rate for their time, and they track their hours worked on your project. This is generally the most expensive way to purchase SEO services, since agencies typically charge $100-$200/hour. But it can also be the most flexible option, since you can scale up or down the scope of work as needed.
Project-based pricing means that you pay a flat fee for a specific deliverable, such as keyword research, link building, or technical website audits. This option can be more cost-effective than hourly rates if the scope of work is well-defined. But it can also be less flexible, since you may end up paying for services that you don’t actually need.
Retainers are the most common way to purchase SEO services. In this arrangement, you agree to pay a monthly fee in exchange for a certain amount of work hours or a set of deliverables. This option provides the most consistent results and the best value for your money, since agencies can spread the cost of their overhead across all their clients.
What affects SEO pricing?
There are several factors that can affect the price of SEO services, including the size of your website, the competition for your keywords, and the complexity of your technical issues.
The size of your website is one of the most important factors, because it will take more time and effort to optimize a large website than a small one. If you have a very large website, you may need to purchase additional services such as content creation or link building in order to see results.
The competition for your keywords is also an important factor, because it will determine how difficult it is to rank for those terms. If you’re in a highly competitive industry, you can expect to pay more for SEO services than if you’re in a less competitive one.
Finally, the complexity of your technical issues will also affect pricing. If your website has a lot of code errors or broken links, it will take more time and effort to fix those issues than if your website is relatively clean. As a result, you can expect to pay more for complex technical SEO than for simple on-page optimization.
How to budget for SEO
When you’re creating your marketing budget, you should consider both the short-term and long-term costs of SEO. In the short term, you’ll need to pay for services such as keyword research, link building, and website audits. These one-time costs can range from $500-$5,000, depending on the size of your website and the complexity of your issues.
In the long term, you’ll need to continue investing in SEO in order to maintain your rankings and grow your traffic. A good rule of thumb is to budget 10-20% of your overall marketing budget for SEO. So if you have a $5,000/month marketing budget, you should expect to spend $500-$1,000/month on SEO.
Of course, these are just general guidelines. Your actual costs will depend on the size of your website, the competition for your keywords, and the complexity of your technical issues. But by following these guidelines, you can ensure that you’re budgeting enough to see results from your SEO campaigns.
Conclusion
SEO is an essential part of any online marketing strategy, but it can be difficult to know how much to budget for it. In this post, we’ve broken down the three main pricing models for SEO services and discussed the factors that can affect pricing. By considering these factors, you can create a realistic budget for your SEO campaigns.
Jamie Fallon is an SEO expert who lives life to the maximum, redlining every day on a rollercoaster straight to the grave.
In an SEO career of almost ten years, he’s seen it all, he’s done it all, and he’s not impressed: from white text on a white background to today, when you can have robots paint or write for you like some kind of sick science fiction come true.
No matter what life throws at him, Jamie always manages to come out on top. He’s an expert at seeing the silver lining in every cloud and making the best of every situation. His positive attitude and unshakable faith in himself have seen him through tough times. For some people, success goes to their heads; but Jamie never forgets what got him to wherever he thinks he is.
When he’s not busy gaming the system, you can find him writing angry thinkpieces on how Google is ruining everything good about the internet, or hanging out with his wife (pictured).
