SEO Costs

[newbie2008]

Hey all,

I am very new to SEO and I am about to start shopping around for prices to SEO my website that has previously been made by another company.

Could anyone tell me what sort of costs should I expect for website SEO? And what I should get for those costs?

Thanks,
Newbie2008

[YooHee]

it will depends on your deal between you and your client .....

[fisicx]

It also depends very much on the design of the website. If the site has been well built then it shouldn't be a major problems. Onb the other hand if it's got lots of flash, little content and in accessible navigation then the costs can rise dramatically. There is also a big difference between a brochure site and CMS, an online shop or information source. You then need to consider the competition, the age of the site, the potential customers, the geolocation.

Way too many variables to consider to come up with a price.

Assuming an online shop using a hosted off-the-shelf ecommerce application then £500+ with an expectation to see the result in 6-12 months.

But if it's a 5 page brochure site then it could cost as little as £100.

[newbie2008]

oh right, thanks i didn't realise there were so many variables. My site is just a 6 page brochure type site so it doesn't have anything fancy, i would just like it to get ranked highly in google. From what i understand, it does have a lot of flash but apparently also has a html source so all text, keywords etc gets picked up in google.

Sorry i cannot show you the site as it is not ready yet but i just wanted to get an idea of prices i should expect so i don't get ripped off!

Cheers,
Lauren

[fisicx]

SEO is built into the design, you can't (easily) bolt it on afterwards.

For example, if you have flash navigation then you must provide text links for the SE to index. If this isn't in the design spec then you are goping to have problems and it could cost losts of money to put right.

The other issue is the actual site contents. It may be that to get the ranking you want needs extra pages or a rewrite or the addition of headers and lists.

So you need to speak to the developers and make sure the site meets the google guidelines. If they don't know what these are I'd be a little concerned.

Do you have a mock up of any of the pages - they should at the very least have provided a wireframe for you to look at?

[YooHee]

Originally Posted by newbie2008

oh right, thanks i didn't realise there were so many variables. My site is just a 6 page brochure type site so it doesn't have anything fancy, i would just like it to get ranked highly in google. From what i understand, it does have a lot of flash but apparently also has a html source so all text, keywords etc gets picked up in google.

Sorry i cannot show you the site as it is not ready yet but i just wanted to get an idea of prices i should expect so i don't get ripped off!

Cheers,
Lauren

i think it's hard to optimize a site with a lot of flash in it :P

[Isabella_Smith]

You must show you site first. It's difficult to assume an amount.

Text helps to optimize a site, as SE doesn't recognize flash. A review will be better to give you any idea of cost of SEO....

[YooHee]

Originally Posted by Isabella_Smith

You must show you site first. It's difficult to assume an amount.

Text helps to optimize a site, as SE doesn't recognize flash. A review will be better to give you any idea of cost of SEO....

yes it's hard to assume how much the client will pay ;P

in some forums...

they've said that now it's easy to optimize a full flash site?

[SearchData]

Hi Newbie2008. It depends on your niche really.

There's the standard legwork that should be charged by the hour:

- consultancy
- on-site changes
- copy writing

Then there's the link-building part. This depends on the competitiveness of your nice. The more competitive, the more expensive as there's more work involved to get you to the top.

I have some clients spending £250 pm & some spending over £1000.

Makesure you drill the agency down on an hourly fee. Get them to spell out their process. Make them accountable. Don't take any rubbish.

A good SEO should be able to get any site ranking in 3-6 months. How much that costs depends on how competitive your market is and how much work it takes to get you ranking.

[ronsimons]

You also need to consider the key phrases you are targeting, these will make a dramatic difference to costs, e.g if one of your targeted key phrase is 'web design' then it's going to take a long campaign as the term is sought after by many SEO experts and web design companies, if your term is 'web design in Westbury' it will be a lot easier to acheive, hence the reason costs will vary greatly.

Some SEO provide a pay on performance type scheme, i.e. you pay 50 % upfront and the remaining 50% upon a page 3 or lower position for your key phrase.