Among search engine marketing professionals there is a consensus as to what should and shouldn't cost. Some SEOs offer some services which you shouldn't pay for (partly because they can be done for free). Without getting into specifics, some of the services are like the napkin you put your donut in. You are not charged for your napkin, are you?
SEO services that most professional companies will offer you:
- Online Market research - Competitor and industry research, research into the psychology of the targeted audience, keyword research etc
- On-site optimisation - On-site changes that are made in order to improve search engine rankings. On-page optimisation can include improving keyword density, writing headings and meta tags, cleaning source code, setting up links etc.
- Copywriting - Writing content for your website is an important part of any search engine optimisation campaign. It doesn't matter if your website ranks #1 if the words don't communicate your message and make the sale.
- Off-site optimisation and marketing - Includes setting up external links, partnerships, manual submission to search engines, directories, setting up ads etc.
- Tracking and ROI Analysis - Tracking traffic changes and patterns as well as accurate ROI analysis is what makes a SEO campaign successful or not.
You should expect to pay for all of the above services, they are all part of search engine optimisation and they all require time, knowledge and other resources in order to be successfully carried out. Some other aspects of SEO consultancy that are likely to incur costs are:
- Email and phone consultations
- Client training and education
- Preparation of reports and other documents and materials related to services to be provided
What Shouldn't Cost
Some of the things that a SEO should not charge for are:
- To automatically submit to hundreds or thousands of untargeted search engines. If your site is not about French wine you do not want your URL submitted to a French vineyard specalised search engine.
- To present standard reports generated by SEO software such as Web Position Gold (for which you can get the license yourself). At most, you should pay for using the software and not be charged as if the report was done manually.
- Monthly optimisation of pages on your site. You should only pay once for having your site optimised. This does not include optimising new pages or making essential changes to existing pages in order to improve ROI.
Steer Clear of Unethical Search Engine Optimisation
This article was first published on 16 August 2004 and does not necessarily match current events or the current opinions and views of bigmouthmedia ltd.
