I’ve had a good year and a half now to get my blogging feet wet, so to speak. Unfortunately, I
spent the first year relatively clueless to all things related to optimizing a blog for search and my search traffic reflected that ignorance.
Well, times have changed and so has my approach to blogging; well, a little bit. I still blog from the heart about topics that I feel strongly about. That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is that I’m blogging
smarter for SEO. I have apps on my iPhone that allow me to track website stats on the go. I can login and see what search keywords are trending and which ones are declining. I can even change SEO settings on my site globally with just a few clicks as well. Despite all of these tools, I feel that my efforts are beginning to plateau just a bit. How do I take my site to the next level? Am I at a point where it’s a necessity that I hire a firm to outsource search engine optimization?
Blog SEO – Search Engine Optimization Pricing
I touched briefly on one of my firsts posts on blog SEO, locating some statistics on pricing that was up to a few years old. Optimization companies are popping up about as quickly as those damn moles in the wack-a-mole game at Chuck-e-Cheese’s. As a site owner, how do you know that a) you’re not over-paying for your SEO services and b) you’re getting what you pay for? From what I’m able to glean from additional research on pricing for optimization, pricing is most often provided in two price structures:
One-Time SEO Pricing – $200 – $10,000+
One-time SEO pricing is effectively a ‘burst’ of SEO effort that starts as quickly as it began. On the low end, this is often a consultation where the ‘SEO Expert’ attempts to do a knowledge dump with the site owner and sends them on their way. The actual SEO dirty work is left up to the website owner. On the higher end, the SEO provider charges the client to optimize the site itself, often focusing on on-page SEO aspects while little is done to optimize the site using off-page SEO tactics. Unfortunately, ranking and, more importantly, maintaining rank is not a static prospect. You won’t get ranked instantly and you won’t hold that ranking indefinitely.
On-Going SEO Pricing – $30/month and up
On-Going SEO pricing is often presented in a cost per month figure. SEO providers that charge using this method are effectively put on an optimization retainer. Their monthly charge calls for a gradual, paced SEO effort. Monthly service providers tend to focus more on off-page SEO efforts, but may also offer a few consultations to website owners upon request.
Blog SEO – Relationship SEO
Optimizing your site for search engines isn’t rocket surgery, but you do have to know where to start. You won’t get ranked on the first page without a consistent, dedicated effort, so any SEO providers that promise the moon will likely end up falling short. Besides, what small businesses and bloggers have the kind of money to outsource their SEO for tens of thousands of dollars upfront or hundreds a month? My recommendation is to find someone that you trust that knows SEO and buy them a beer and pick their brains as often as possible. If you don’t have a friend that knows SEO or he or she doesn’t drink beer, you can always ask me!
