How much does SEO cost?

We’re fed up of seeing business owners getting a raw deal with SEO.

There are firms out there charging stupidly high budgets for “thinking time”. Conversely, there are others charging tiny budgets with no chance of success just to get the business.

It isn’t good enough.

Here at dapa, we’ve got over 50 years experience in online and digital marketing; SEO; and everything that goes with.

We’ve worked for, with, and hired dozens of agencies around the UK. And we have worked with several thousand clients over that period.

So here’s our guide of how:

• To spot an enlarged budget;
• Not to fall for something that isn’t going to work;
• We’ll come up with a quote for your SEO campaign.

Let’s talk a bit about how SEO works–or what we know of it so far…

You might already have a general idea of what SEO is or how it works. Basically, it is a marketing process that is repeatable and measurable, a process through which you convey to search engines via recognisable signals that your pages are worth displaying over other pages in their index.

Google employs an algorithm to assign rank to every website and every search query people enter, so that they can figure out what kind of website or content they should return to a user in their result pages, when a particular search query is entered.

The overall quality of your site can depend on user experience, the quality and authority of websites linking to your site in the niche you are operating in, and the amount of trust people have on your website or brand. However, if your content is so similar to other competitors within your niche, you’ll get lost in the crowd. So, you need to stand out and you can achieve that with your content strategy.

Trust is another important ranking factor that you should keep in mind when trying to rank high in search engines. How can you do that? By ensuring that high authority websites link back to yours. By getting links from trustworthy sources, you prove your website’s credibility and trustworthiness to Google.

Google wants its users to access only the best websites for the search query entered. In fact, Google has stated on record that its actively looking to find and penalise sites or businesses that consistently receive poor user reviews.

In a nutshell, SEO is all about employing strategies and techniques that make sure that you have the most trusted, authoritative and interesting site, the kind Google wants to return to its users.

 …When it’s just too much.

Search engine optimisation doesn’t have to be expensive. But it does have to work, after all. That’s why you want it, right?

You’re looking for a professional to help you rank well, because that will help you drive relevant traffic and of course, convert sales, too.

So, your campaign has to be tailored to achieving the results you need, not to cut corners on price.

If you’re looking to dominate the whole UK car insurance market, you’re going to need a huge budget. But, if you’re looking to get some exposure on local rankings for your mortgage company, your budget will be considerably smaller.

Understanding your goal here is integral to the success of the campaign.

Be sure that the company you choose “practises what they preach”. Some agencies will charge you huge sums just to “think out” the campaign and present that to you. And as it turns out, it’s likely a template they present to hundreds of customers. Generic when you want niche–now, that’s of no use to you.

 

…When it’s not enough.

Online automated services.

A guaranteed number 1 rank for £99.

Agencies charging less than around £300 per month for SEO.

These are some examples of exactly what you don’t need, even if the ‘cheap as chips’ aspect is certainly tempting. The first option will leave you on the receiving end of a Google penalty, and probably won’t work for any keyword that means anything.

Guaranteed rankings are a misconception–there’s nothing guaranteed about them really. No-one apart from Google knows 100% how Google works. Anyone who guarantees rankings, especially in exchange for money, will likely be trying to dupe you into purchasing from them. Some of these companies even try to hide this with larger ‘set up fees’. All this means is that they’ll do some basic onsite work straight away. But that’s it. There’ll be no progress or further work moving forward.

As for the last point, we need to talk briefly about the topic at hand: SEO. SEO requires work. It is a constant strategy that requires continued growth over a period to achieve targets. Thus, spending less than £300 a month will be unlikely to get you through that month. Even in the smallest of markets.

 …When it’s about right.

We can’t give you an exact monetary figure on how much to spend on SEO. Honestly, it’s really dependent on the amount of work and focus you want to put on this area. From experience, we can say that if you’re looking to target local rankings, you should expect to be paying out somewhere in the mid-hundreds per month. Of course, this is dependent on your industry and the competition.

If you are targeting larger regions or cities, don’t be surprised if you have to double that estimated figure. The price between a London-based business compared to, say, a business based in Stoke-on-Trent will be largely different. So take that into consideration. Scaling up or down is a possibility. It may even be safe to say that it’s something you should anticipate.

We’ve spoken about smaller cities, and scaling up. But what if you wanted to conquer the UK with your business? Spending on a national level would mean your prices will likely skyrocket. You could be looking at thousands of pounds per month, depending on the market you’re hoping to compete it, and your end goal.

 

Who is SEO suitable for?

Let’s be honest. If there is one marketing technique that no business can do without these days, in an increasingly crowded online business landscape, it’s SEO.

SEO refers to the utilisation of techniques that increase the visibility of a website in the organic rankings of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

But how do you know if SEO is the right marketing vehicle for your business?

Firstly, a business should not completely depend on SEO for their marketing requirements, as search engine algorithms keep evolving. Therefore, a simple mistake such as employing black hat tactics can put your business in jeopardy.

Because of the long-term commitment SEO requires, it requires a significant investment of time and effort for it to even start displaying results. One thing SEO won’t result in is the bolstering of traffic and ranking instantly.

We’ve listed a few fictional ‘case studies’ to help you determine whether SEO is suitable for your business or not:

 

“I have recently developed a website and do not have much money to invest in SEO.”

Instead of putting efforts into SEO, you should concentrate on how you can produce short term results for your website.

 

“I have recently developed a website and have a small SEO budget for six months.”

This is a good start, with the right mentality. However, with a limited budget you cannot aim to rank for the most competitive keywords in your niche.

 

“I am on the lookout for an SEO agency which can give me the same links that my competitor has.”

This is a bit of a 50/50 split. The problem is, if you completely adopt your competitor’s strategy, the likelihood is, they’ll always have an edge over you. It’s not really about being the same as your competitor. It’s about being better. They’re not your benchmark–you’re your own benchmark.

Of course, you can adopt some of your competitor’s strategies if you find them useful. Even better, if you find that they work and tap into an audience base you haven’t been able to access. In that case, go ahead! But the goal here isn’t to be as good as your competitor. The goal is to be superior.

 

“I want my website to remain exactly as it is even though I know how important content is.”

Being inflexible to changes in your website will make it difficult for your website to rank higher. Having the same strategy over years will yield the same or worse results for your website.

 

“I recently started an auction website and want to outrank my competitor for the keyword ‘online auctions’.”

If you are new to a business then it can be difficult to compete with an existing player and this remains true in SEO. SEO cannot magically make you the industry leader.

 

 

“A friend recently signed for an SEO service and he is already getting 500 directory submissions. I want my SEO agency to do the same for me.”

SEO is not related to volume. Even for these number of directory submissions it is possible that he is overpaying. It’s worth remembering that cheap SEO is sometimes worse than doing no SEO.

 

 

“I know I don’t sell gadgets but the word ‘gadgets’ has a high volume of searches, so I want to rank for that keyword.”

SEO is vital in terms of grabbing a user’s attention. However, upon visiting your website they will realise that you do not sell gadgets and this will greatly affect your conversion rate.

The cost-effectiveness of SEO

Search engines are evolving with each passing day. Ultimately, this assures us that SEO will never cease to be effective in the foreseeable future.

Audio and video searches also essentially depend on keywords in the same way that traditional text-based content also relies on keywords.

As long as search engines exist, SEO will continue to be essential.

Organic SEO remains to be the foundation of SEO strategy, even though PPC generates more revenue, and social media builds your image.

Furthermore, online marketing is much more cost-effective than traditional marketing. The various aspects of online marketing such as PPC advertising, purchasing leads for an email marketing program and social media marketing offer a good return on investment (ROI).

As the reach of internet increases, more and more consumers are expected to check online reviews before making a purchase.

This makes SEO even more important if you wish consumers to be able to locate your business.

So, high organic SEO ranking will give you an edge over your competition.

Rise of local SEO and mobile bandwidth

Mobile devices already constitute about 50% of online searches and this traffic is likely to increase as smartphones and portable gadgets become increasingly common.

Local search optimisation and many other SEO techniques have now opened up for companies with the rising use of mobile devices.

Unhealthy content is damaging

As Google’s search algorithm constantly updates, the way search engines look at websites also changes.

Social media indicators, which were not introduced until a few years back now seem to be pretty important to search engines while deciding the ranks of websites.

Thus it is extremely important for a website to have a healthy content profile as it is one of the most important factors according to Google.

Your competitors are already onto it

Most businesses have realised the importance of SEO and have already employed it to increase their revenue. Thus, if you are not doing it already, you stand at risk of losing potential customers to your competition.

It is extremely important for your business. And ignoring it means you are giving your competitors an opportunity to stunt your potential growth.

From the above factors it is quite evident that investing in organic SEO is more important than ever before, even though there are various difficulties to be faced concerning the lack of keyword and traffic data available these days.

If you want to succeed with your online marketing campaign, it is necessary to have a good SEO strategy in place. Truly, it can complement the efforts you have put in to redefine your brand and online presence.

How much does SEO cost?

It’s often the first question we hear from potential clients. And the fact is, there is no really fixed answer we can give for this.

All we can say is that it depends on the type of SEO you want from your website and also the objectives of your website.

Maybe by understanding the different payment models in SEO, you will get a better idea of how much you might have to pay.

Monthly retainer

In this type of arrangement, you will be required to pay a fixed amount each month for an agreed upon set of SEO services from the digital marketing firm you are employing.

This is perhaps the most common type of financial arrangement in SEO and one that offers the best return on investment.

Such an arrangement usually involves the availability of the following services as part of the package:

• Regular Analytics Reports
• On-site content creation
• Press Releases
• Link Building
• Keyword research and optimisation

Fixed rate content services

Every SEO firm sells certain services on a contract in case clients are reluctant to get into a monthly retainer arrangement.

These services are often advertised in their site usually accompanied by the costs involved in entering into such an arrangement.

For example, many SEO companies offer to perform an SEO audit (we do it too!) of your site to determine its weaknesses and also its strengths, competitive analysis and also research of keywords with the potential of returning the best ROI for your business.

Project based servicing

This kind of financial arrangement is similar to the contract services with one key difference, they are custom projects designed to cater to a specific client.

Pricing differs according to the project and SEO objectives that need to be fulfilled.

For example, a bakery might hire an SEO company to handle just their social media accounts. The bakery will then decide the scope of the project and its objectives with the SEO company. And based on it, a cost will be fixed.

Project fees are similar to contract services with the exception that they are custom projects created specifically for a client. And of course, pricing varies according to the project.

Hourly consulting

This kind of arrangement involves paying an SEO firm by the hour in exchange for information or services.

This differs from the model we described above: project-based consulting. This familiar consulting model is an hourly fee in exchange for services or information.

Most SEO firms use some or all of the payment methods mentioned above.

Similarly clients might opt to work with SEO companies using more than one arrangement at a time.

For example, you can enter into a monthly retainer arrangement. At the same time, you could engage in special project or buy a separate service from the same SEO Company.

So, simultaneously, you have entered into three separate contracts with the SEO firm.

 

What’s the average monthly cost for SEO?

Cheap SEO – about £50 per month

Bigger SEO firms don’t usually market such packages. Instead, they tend to prefer working through monthly packages that are created for the specific needs of a business, based on its industry.

Low cost SEO providers do offer such packages though. They can range from £9 a month to about £400 a year.

Our suggestion is to be extremely wary of these types of SEO providers.

If you employ wrong/spammy strategies to save money, you might be reprimanded by Google’s Panda algorithm, which can set you back for a long time. SEO is a continually evolving process and it takes time and expertise to do it the right way. Google, upon first launching the Panda algorithm, said it did so because:

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

In our experience of over 30 years as SEO specialists, we have seldom found a website that has benefitted by availing the services of a ‘Cheap SEO’ firm.

Organic traffic to your website that delivers conversions should be worth more than £50 per month. Our advice is stay away from such firms that offer any less.

 

Mid level SEO

If you have a 100 page website, you could have to pay up to £6,000-£40,000 per year to perform mid level SEO on your website.

Again the final amount is dependent on the size of your website.

We have found that such agencies operate primarily by fixing any/all on-page problems that your website has.

The SEO company will inform you about the keywords you should be targeting. And then they will design a plan for you to optimise the content and internal architecture of your website. Henceforth, you will be able to maximise the use of those keywords.

Now, SEO firms at the lower end of the cost range will expect you to provide the list of keywords you want to rank your website for. Firms at the higher end of the cost range should provide you with keyword suggestions that can give your SEO campaign some quick wins.

Usually, mid range SEO firms also offer content marketing as part of their overall package. This will establish your website as a unique and well researched resource. That’s something that will help prospective customers/clients find important answers.

Again, if the agency is also offering to create unique and relevant content at prices that seem to be suspiciously low, it’s best to be wary.

Content is king in SEO. It can be THE difference maker in terms of how fast or slow your website ranks in SERPs and you require experience and expertise to pull it off. Something you can’t hope to get at low prices.

 

High end SEO

High end SEO (or proper SEO as we like to call it) can cost £3,000 per month or more. We’ve work with companies whose budgets mount up to 6 figure sums per year!

This type of SEO entails creation of a cohesive and comprehensive SEO strategy, which includes the following:

• Search
• Social Media
• PR
• User Experience or UX
• Marketing Automation and Lead Generation.

A high end SEO provider will very rarely dive straight into the optimisation of your website. Instead, the initial focus would be on trying to understand the potential client or customer base for your business.

Only by doing the relevant research will they be able to take steps to nudge your customers into taking small and important actions in each step of their journey, which includes:

• Discovering that they might have a problem that needs to be dealt with (for example: “I have bad breath”).
• Making a decision over their course of action (“I have a meeting soon, better buy some mints”).
• Choosing a brand (Surprise, Surprise! They pick you).

The high end SEO firm will then formulate a plan of action specifically for your website and your target audience.

This plan will detail the steps that you need to take for the next 3 months, and then after, for the remainder of the year.

This plan should revolve heavily around the kind of content you need to be offering your customers at various stages of their buying journey. Also, it should focus on how you (or the SEO agency) will produce and promote that content.

The plan will also contain set goals such as traffic goals, conversion goals (this can include leads or sales).

But it isn’t about aiming for the sky straight away. The goals projected should seem achievable with the proposed SEO strategy for your website.

It should also include other things that you and your SEO company needs to do for the next year along with your ad agency or PPC agency to ensure the long term growth of your business.

What could your return be?

Return on investment is what every business demands from a digital marketing agency. It can be easier to measure ROI if you are carrying out a PPC campaign.

If the revenue you are generating through the PPC campaign is greater than your expenditure, PPC agency fees and price of goods, then your campaign has delivered a positive ROI. But in the case of SEO, figuring out ROI is not as straightforward.

Traditionally with SEO firms, ROI has been measured and reported in a host of different ways.  Sometimes ranking high in SERPs for certain short tail keywords is misconstrued as a successful SEO campaign. But that is not how ROI is calculated for SEO.

Ranking high in SERPs is definitely the prime objective of a SEO campaign. But it’s not the be all and end all. In fact in some scenarios it can seem like a prize that is not actually worth much to your business.

Many SEO firms have trained their clients into believing that ranking high in SERPs is indicative of positive ROI when the reality is entirely different.

For example, if a business is spending £5000 per month on an SEO agency to build up as well as maintain the rankings of certain short tail keywords, the agency might display the SERP result of those keywords as positive ROI.

In most scenarios, websites will already have a few keywords that are doing very well in search engine results. Just because your site is ranked in the top 3 positions of a SERP for a particular keyword, it does not mean that the number of conversions you gain will increase magically.

All it guarantees is that your website will experience enhanced traffic. Whether that traffic translates into conversions is a different matter entirely.

When you dig a little deeper into your analytics, you will find a different picture unravelling before your eyes.

Short tail SERPs can sometimes be a handicap because they can be very broad. For example, you could be ranking high for the search term ‘blue widget’, but it does not mean that all users interested in buying the product will enter that keyword.

The chances are greater that a more targeted search query is entered, such as ‘blue widget at best price’, in place of generalised query like ‘blue widget’.

If such a scenario does in fact occur and you are not targeting that long tail keyword, the majority of the traffic you will be directing to your website via the broad short term keyword might be useless.

The same argument can be made for referral traffic that your website receives.

A successful link building strategy will help you attract a lot of high quality, authoritative links to your website. In turn, this will then give your short tail keywords an immediate ranking boost.

But again, the referral traffic your website is receiving does not consist of targeted leads. So, are you receiving a positive ROI from those short tail keywords? Most probably not. 

True SEO ROI

The more accurate way of measuring SEO ROI involves driving targeted traffic to your landing pages from SERPs irrespective of whether you get them from long tail or short tail keywords.

This means that the referral traffic you are receiving should consist of targeted leads.

Targeted traffic refers to traffic that will help you achieve the conversion goals of your website, which could include any of the following:

• Repeat traffic
• Subscriptions
• Community involvement
• Newsletter or Blog signups
• Registrations
• Purchases

The tricky aspect of evaluating return on investment for SEO is that you have to join the links received via referral traffic from search engines as well as other websites. And then you need to combine it with conversion results statistics.

Google analytics can help you with this, but it can still be difficult to sync, analyse and then report the data.

SEO ROI should show you how effective your SEO campaign is.

For example, if your campaign was primarily predicated on building links in forums that itself link to widgets on a client/customer online store, you should be able to see the success of your campaign through the ROI report.

This report could include the list of links you have attracted to your website which directly resulted in a purchase along with details about the amount of organic search traffic that directly led to conversions.

The key aspects of a SEO ROI report include:

• Conversions that are a direct result of the SEO campaign conducted
• Increase in the total number of conversions over time
• Conversions that are a direct result of the organic traffic received from search engines
• Increase in organic traffic received from search engines
• Increase the amount of unique traffic and users your website has received since the start of your SEO campaign. 

How long does it take to get results from SEO?

So, when will all your SEO efforts begin to bear fruit for your business? To be honest, the real answer to this can be quite head scratching.

The truth is, it is difficult to ascertain with absolute confidence when your SEO campaign will start delivering for you. The best answer we can probably give you is…it depends.

It depends on how long your website domain has been around, the amount of SEO done on it previously, the quality of content on it, the quality of links you attract and many other SEO factors.

No two websites are alike when it comes to SEO, even if the sites are operating in the same niche and are fighting to attract the same customers.

To give you a clearer idea, consider the following scenario as something that you could possibly expect in the initial months of your SEO campaign.

 

The first month

The first month is all about research and discovery.

This involves conducting a comprehensive SEO audit of your website, devising a keyword strategy and planning its implementation strategy.

If this process can be completed promptly, technical optimisation changes can be made to your website in the first month itself. In some scenarios the research and discovery phase can take more than a month to completed.

 

The second month

Technical SEO work will be implemented on your website by now.

This includes making the alterations suggested by the SEO audit that was previously conducted. Sometimes the SEO company might choose to completely revamp your website.

Other activities like improving the link profile of your website and content creation will be carried out side by side even as major surgery is being done to your website.

Yes, despite the fact that your site is being altered completely, you are doing SEO for your site even if it does not feel like it. Also, you are not likely to observe results for this SEO that is being done to your website. The results can be observed only after all the changes have been implemented.

 

The third month

Now the focus will shift on the kind of content that needs to be created for your website such as blogs, FAQs, articles, product descriptions and company information etc.

Typically, the content creation process starts right after the planning phase is completed and the SEO strategy is formulated. But budget restraints can often put a dampener on the proceedings. Therefore the technical overhaul of the website is prioritised.

Despite this, you should observe some definitive improvements in terms of your SERP rankings this month. If the improved rankings is leading to conversions or sales, it would be even better. But don’t expect it to happen so soon.

 

The fourth month

Expect continued technical optimisation of your website along with content creation and the development of a good link profile.

By this month you should be able to observe a noticeable rise in your SERP rankings, website traffic and the amount of leads you have generated.

It might not be anywhere near the kind of results you will receive after twelve months of continuous SEO. But it should still be enough to let you know that you are on the right track with respect to the SEO strategy you have opted for, and its implementation.

 

The fifth month

If you have not done so already, by this month you should begin with your social media campaign to complement your SEO efforts.

This will ensure that your content is brought to the attention of a larger target audience. As a result, this increases the amount of direct traffic your website receives.

This will also lead to a very healthy link profile for your website, and also lead generation.

Along with content creation make sure that you do some form of media outreach or PR to promote your website. At this point of your campaign you should be able to generate more and more leads as result of your ongoing SEO efforts.

 

The sixth month

If you have successfully managed to attract up to 5000 visitors per month or more at this stage of your SEO campaign, it would be advisable to add conversion rate optimisation as part of your overall efforts. This is in order to ensure that you convert a greater percentage of your current traffic.

Also, you should be focused on creating more unique and original content for your website. This’ll be along with creative promotion strategies that are aimed to attract the attention of a wider audience.

The specific things you do during this period can vary based on the kind of business you are and the niche in which you are operating.

It does take about 4-6 months to start observing visible results of the SEO you are doing. But it is important to keep in mind even when you are getting results, SEO will deliver a greater level of growth for your business over time.

The results you will see at the end of a year will be much greater than what you will see after six months.

If you find that your results start to taper off, your efforts should be directed to consolidating your results and not growing them.

Why should you use dapa to help?

Being one of the premier marketing agencies in the region you can count on dapa to handle each and every aspect of your digital marketing campaign from the design of your website. This is from creating a PPC or SEO strategy that works for your business, and then ensuring the success of that campaign. From SEO audits to full fledged PPC/SEO of a website, you name your requirement and dapa will do it for you.

We are proud to house one of the most talented SEO teams in the region which includes SEO specialists, project managers, and an experienced content writing team.

We have over 30 years of experience in the field of digital marketing. And we’ve worked in some of the most competitive markets in the UK such as travel, insurance, finance and the law.

Devising creative and innovative online marketing strategies is just one of the reasons why we have managed to stay at the top of our game. And it is something that differentiates us from our competition.

To know more about how you can successfully implement a PPC strategy for your business, contact us on 0800 634 3007.

Conclusion

Most companies underestimate the amount of money and time they have to invest in order to achieve success with their SEO efforts.

Achieving success in the first three months is considered to be very rare (at least it is with white hat SEO!), even if the company devotes a substantial amount of their budget towards SEO.

We have seen many companies starting out in the right manner with respect to their SEO campaign. But then they lose steam, and get disheartened with the lack of apparent results. At dapa we firmly believe that you should budget for 6-12 months at the very least.

Paying for 2-3 months of SEO is akin to throwing away your money.

Always remember that SEO is a long term strategy which will deliver for your website. Therefore it should not be judged on the immediacy of results it provides.

Final thoughts

The great thing about our quotes is because they are completely tailored to achieving your goals, if the price is too high or too low, we can adjust the target and resources need to hit those.

If you need any guidance on your SEO campaign, we’re always here to help.