A common question for an SEO company – how much does SEO cost?
SEOmoz ran a survey in December 2011 asking their SEO consultant and SEO agency readers for pricing-model and cost-structure information. With over 600 responses, the data is quite interesting.
Here are Rand Fishkin’s Top 9 Takeaways from the results:
- Hourly SEO Costs Vary Across Countries, but $76-$200/hour is Most Common
- By-the-Project SEO Pricing is Popular and Most Commonly $1,000-$7,500
- Monthly Retainer Pricing Has the Widest Distribution
- The Death of Hands-On SEO Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
- Inbound/Organic > Pure SEO (i.e. broader “inbound marketing” services firms offer SEO, social, content, conversion, analytics, etc)
- Web Design/Development Agencies do a Lot of SEO
- Employees:Clients/Month Ratio is Between 1-2
- Vast Majority of Consultants Service Small-Medium Businesses
- Though Project-Based Pricing is Most Popular, the Majority of Consultancies Also Offer Monthly Retainers and Hourly Rates
It’s great to get a look at the issue of SEO pricing which is usually kept quite close to the chest. There’s some good data in there, but it still doesn’t address things like “total spend per campaign” (which is difficult to figure for ongoing services), nor does it look at return on investment for the client. The stats for “percent-of-growth-based pricing” are interesting.
If you’re currently paying for SEO please leave a comment with some information on how much you’re paying and what service you are receiving (you can leave an anonymous comment on the blog post). Equally, if you’re an SEO provider, we’d love to hear what you charge and what you provide for that cost.
Infographic by SEOmoz & AYTM Market Research. Click here for the full report.