How Much Does SEO Cost? (4 Major Factors)

Ever wonder why search engine optimization (SEO) prices can range from hundreds of dollars to several thousand dollars per month? The quality of the service is certainly a factor, but SEO fees also depend greatly on the type of business you’re in.
 
In this article, I’ll break down SEO pricing into the 4 major factors so you can see where your business falls on the spectrum of fees.
 

1. Local vs. National SEO

As you can probably guess, it tends to be easier to rank in Google for local searches than to rank nationally or even globally.  Therefore, SEO services are cheaper for businesses focused on a local market.
 
For many local searches, Google now displays Google+ Local business listings, along with a map in the upper right corner of the search results.  So instead of trying to get your business website to rank in Google, you need to focus on your Google+ Local business listing.  This is called “Local SEO” and it requires different tactics than traditional SEO.
 
Not only is local SEO cheaper, but you also tend to get faster results compared to traditional SEO.  For these reasons, I recommend most businesses start investing in local SEO first.
 
In our experience providing these services, and from discussions with many other SEO providers, we’ve found that most local SEO services range from $500 to $1,000 per month, and most national SEO services start at around $2,000 per month and go up from there, based on some of the factors listed below.
 

2. Number of Products/Services

The next factor is the number of products or services you want to target with SEO.  If you have 50 different products and you want them all to be #1 when prospects are searching in Google, then you need to optimize all 50 product webpages.  Clearly, that requires more work than optimizing just one product or service.
 
Some SEO companies’ fees are based on the number of keywords, which is essentially the same as charging by the number of products or services you want to promote.  So if you’re on a tight budget, it’s important to focus on the best SEO opportunities based on keyword search volume, SEO competition, and the profit margin of your product or service.
 

3. Strength of Competition

The third factor is the strength of your competition.  I’m not talking about your direct competitors that usually pop into your head.  I’m talking about SEO competitors who are already ranking in Google for the keywords you want to target.
 
We recently worked with a client that literally had no competition in an entire state.  So when we asked about competitors for SEO, they laughed.  In their mind, they had no competitors.  However, when we searched for the keywords they wanted to rank for, then sure enough, they DID have competitors. There were plenty of other websites ranking above them in the search results.
 
With SEO, you always have competitors and they may not even be in the same industry as you.  The stronger the competition, the more work (i.e. higher fees) it’s going to take to overtake them in the search results.
 

4. Existing Google Penalties

Another factor is whether or not your website has existing Google penalties.  A lot of businesses were hit hard by Google updates like Panda, Penguin, or the dreaded “unnatural link penalty.”  Unfortunately, I’ve talked to several business owners who have not yet fixed the penalties because of the fees involved.
 
If you have an existing penalty, then I recommend you first focus on fixing the root cause.  Until the penalty is removed, SEO is going to be like fighting with one or two arms tied behind your back.
 

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that determine search engine optimization prices. And one additional factor is whether you’re investing in a one-time SEO project (such as an audit or on-page SEO clean-up), or whether you’re investing in on-going SEO (including content development and link-building).
 
The first step is always an audit to assess the situation, understand the business goals, and lay out a plan of attack.  Then based on the 4 factors above, the exact SEO fee can be determined.

The 4-Part Framework for Digital Marketing Success

As a kid, I loved puzzles.  It’s not just puzzles though.  I just love the process of discovering how all the individual pieces fit together to make something.  That’s one reason I eventually went on to study engineering in college.

Now, as an adult, I still love puzzles, but I haven’t completed a 1,000 piece jigsaw in a while.  Instead, I focus most of my time and energy these days putting together the puzzle pieces that make up digital marketing.  That’s right, digital marketing is just one big puzzle waiting to be assembled one piece at a time.

But there’s one big difference.  With marketing, you don’t have the finished picture on the box to show you where and how the different pieces will eventually fit together.  That certainly makes marketing a lot harder, doesn’t it?

Well in this article, I’m going to give you that finished picture.  I’ll walk through the proven digital marketing framework so you can see how all of the marketing options available fit together to create a successful marketing plan.

First, The Foundation

Before we dive into the framework, I need to highlight how digital marketing actually works.   If you break it all down to the individual pieces, then digital marketing follows a very basic formula:

(Revenue) = (Website Traffic) x (Conversion Rate) x (Customer Value)

In other words, revenue from digital marketing is directly proportional to how many people visit your website, how many of those people convert into customers, and how much those customers are worth to your business.

Or to put it another way, there are 3 ways to increase your revenue from digital marketing: increase your traffic, increase your conversion rate, and/or increase your customer value.

Also, before we move on it’s important to remember that your revenue will be zero if any one of those 3 variables is zero.  That’s just basic math.  It doesn’t matter if you drive millions of visitors to your website if your conversion rate is zero.  You’ll still end up with zero revenue!

Now that you understand this formula, it’s time to introduce the framework, which I call the 4 Pillars of Digital Marketing success.  These are the 4 Pillars every business must continually work to improve to compete online.

1. Website Traffic

The first Pillar is website traffic.  Obviously if you don’t get any traffic to your website, then you’re not going to be very successful with digital marketing. This is where you need to focus when you’re just getting started.

Think of website traffic like fuel.  You need a constant supply of “fuel” or else you’r marketing will come to a screeching halt.

2. Website Conversions

As I mentioned above, all the traffic in the world does nothing for your business unless you can actually convert it into leads and sales.  For established businesses that already have a steady stream of visitors, improving website conversion is likely the biggest leverage point to increase sales.

Here’s a quick example to highlight this point.  Let’s say your website gets about 1,000 visits per month and of those visitors about 5 convert into sales. That’s a 0.5% conversion rate.  What happens if you can increase your conversion rate to 1%?  You’ll double your sales with the same traffic you’re already getting to your site!  That means you would double your sales with no more investment in traffic tactics like advertising, SEO, social media, etc.

3. Customer Value

Customer value is often the X-factor in digital marketing, yet many businesses ignore it.  Again, I’ll use an example so you can see how your customer value plays a role in your marketing.

Let’s say your conversion rate is 0.5% and your average customer value is $100.  That means, on average one visitor to your website is worth $0.50. That also means you can not afford to pay more than $0.50 to drive a visitor to your website.  If you pay more than 50 cents, then you’ll lose money.

What happens if one of your competitors has the same conversion rate, but a slightly higher customer value of $150?  Well, this competitor can afford to pay $0.75 and will inevitably be able to buy more traffic than you.  Even though the competitor may have the same offer, a similar website, and the same conversion rate, they’ll dominate the market due to their higher customer value.

4. Tracking

The final Pillar is tracking.  Without proper tracking in place, then you’ll be flying blind with very little hope to improve the other 3 Pillars.

Think of tracking like the dashboard of your car.  Could you imagine driving if you didn’t have a speedometer or a fuel gauge?  That would be pretty stressful because you wouldn’t know if you needed to slow down or speed up.  Plus, you would likely run out of fuel with no warning signs.

Proper tacking will guide your marketing decisions by telling you where you need to focus.