Are You Paying Too Much for SEO?

While we don’t really consider ourselves an “SEO” company anymore (we’re really more of a search persuasion company at this point) every year a report comes out in our industry measuring what firms like ours are charging clients and how. We use it as a measure to gauge our competitiveness and make sure we are continuing to give our clients the best possible value for their money. In our client satisfaction survey this year, clients overwhelming said that we provide an “extremely high” level of value, and we aim to keep it that way.

One thing I really liked about this summary report is that it pointed out some great things to be suspicious of when you talk to SEO firms as well as some great things to keep in mind when you hire a firm.

Be suspicious of:

• Guarantees
• Instant Results
• “You’ll get the #1 spot on Google”
• Costs lower than $750/mo
• Shady link building services

Keep in mind:

• SEO takes time
• SEO is ever-changing, as are your rankings
• Not all companies are created equal. (You get what you pay for.)
• SEO is vital to your online success
• Hiring an SEO agency is best

What this report doesn’t cover is HOW you get charged for services. We want to be accessible and easy to work with, so we don’t charge you when you call or email with a question. Some other companies will. If you just need a quick fix or update to your site, we don’t charge for that. Again, some other companies will. We just don’t think that nickel and diming makes for good business relationships.

And in many cases, nickel and diming can easily turn into quarter and half-dollaring (think we just invented a new inflation-adjusted catch phrase there). If your SEO company charges in 15 minute increments, that 5 minute phone call just cost you at least 3 times more than it should have. And that 10 minute website fix? Well, they first have to create the task in their system (15 minutes), then assign to the team member to complete (15 minutes), and then it goes back for review (15 minutes). So you’ve just paid over 4 times more than you should have, and that’s assuming that it got done right the first time.

The biggest thing to remember here is to ask good questions. If you are new to SEO, use this as a guide to pick the right firm. If you have been around the block, you’ve no doubt experienced some good and bad from your previous vendor so ask pointed questions about your pain points and make sure your company is the right one for you. Remember that at the end of the day, no one can guarantee anything on Google. We can do the right tactics to persuade Google to make the right ranking decisions but ultimately Google decides who gets ranked.