How Much Money Should You Spend On SEO

In this day and age nearly every business, big or small now has a need for SEO. When SEO first came along, it was something that came to mind as an afterthought. Now a robust online marketing strategy invariably consists of search engine optimization. But how much money should you allocate for hiring SEO services consultants, this is the big question as nobody in the industry can give you an exact number. However, this is not because of any lack of transparency; rather because pricing depends on factors like your requirements, size of your business, quality of the SEOCompany etc.

Monthly retainer

In this model you first talk over and find out what exactly is needed, and you then pay the SEO services consultants a fixed amount for a fixed set of services that they will perform every month. This is the best option if you want good return on investment. You should remember that SEO is an ongoing process; it consists of painstaking link building, regular update of content to keep the website relevant and useful, periodical audits etc.

Contract based services

You can hire SEO firms on contract basis; this is what most people do in the beginning before they figure out how important SEO is for their business. This is a good plan if you have specific requirements that can be taken care of in a short time, the pricing will depend on the task and the length of the contract. It is cheaper than monthly retainer, but its ROI is not that great.

Pay per project

Project based payment is not much different from contract based payment, the only major difference being that in project based pricing, custom projects are built around a client’s requirement and the pricing is very flexible. This is a very good option if you require a one off SEO service such as setting up a social media account or overhauling the website design etc.

Hourly fee

You can pay for the number of hour that the SEO consultant has worked for you. But this might not be a productive way to go about it.