Charles Preston's Blog

SEO consulting services don’t have to be outrageously expensive. There are a lot of different factors that influence the price of an organic SEO campaign. Let’s it break it down…

1. SEO Agency or SEO consultant?

Obviously an agency is going to have more overhead than a single consultant working for him/her self. It used to be that self employed consultants did everything they could to make themselves “look” like a big agency. That is no longer the case as more and more people realize that big is not always better. When it comes down to it the only thing that matters in this game is results. A solo SEO consultant can get the same or better results than an agency can any day of the week. The only difference is that it will be much more affordable with the solo consultant.

2. Keyword Competition

Another major factor in SEO consulting service pricing is the competitiveness of the keywords you are going after. Certain keyword categories are super competitive such as (financial, insurance, credit, legal) just to name a few. The reason keyword categories are competitive is either due to massive market demand or the services in question fetch a high price tag – or a combination of both. This typically equates to more people trying to rank for the same keywords.

3. The Ranking Gap

The “ranking gap” is a word I made up to explain the difference between a site that wants rank 1st page for certain keywords and the sites that are already ranking for those keywords. Remember, the only competition a keyword ever has are the first 10 sites that rank on the 1st page for that keyword. This gap is made up of the number of relevant links and keyword rich content that the sites who are currently ranking do have and the site that wants to rank doesn’t have. The cost to bridge this gap is where 80% of an SEO campaign budget will go.

4. The Speed At Which You Want To Rank

Given enough time any site can rank for any keyword. If you are not in a big hurry you can start a monthly SEO regimen that is isn’t very aggressive but will over time exponentially increase in ranking power and end up ranking very well. Most businesses however, don’t want to wait a year to have their site start to rank.

How An SEO Consulting Service Can Be Affordable & Effective

Taking into account the 4 factors mentioned above how can an SEO campaign be affordable and achieve 1st page ranking in a reasonable amount of time? First, hire a solo SEO consultant who has a proven track record and verifiable references. Without the overhead of having an agency with employees and foosball tables you will get a much more competitive rate.

Go after “long-tail” keywords. These are the 3-5 word phrases that are related to the primary keywords you want to rank for and that are getting a little less traffic. These long-tail keywords are easier and quicker to rank and statistically convert better than the big traffic 1-2 word keyphrases. You get ROI quicker and you are building a solid base to start ranking for the big traffic keywords later on.

Be patient. Typically a site can start gaining significant traction in around 90-120 days and that’s not a long time. Don’t expect results overnight. Patience in SEO equates to lower cost. The SEO consultant can strategically source the budget over the course of several months rather than charging more to try and pull a rabbit out of hat due to an aggressive ranking schedule.

Tags: seo consulting service

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 3:52 am and is filed under SEO Consultant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.