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How Much to Charge?

by Kirrybows
15 replies
I'm past the point of reading forums and not doing anything, so I'm ready to start contacting my leads.

What I need help with is in deciding how much to charge for my services.

The following are three general services I'm thinking of offering, ordered from least internet-advertised business to most.

How much would I charge to create a website for a local business and add them to google places? I'm thinking $200-$500 + a monthly fee. What should that monthly fee be, considering hosting costs + my "maintenance"

I understand everyone is confused about google places right now and there is no definite answer as to how to rank with the new algorithm. I can't say I figured it out yet either, but I do have an idea. I can try to offer businesses that already have a website and a google places listing to rank higher in the serps/maps. For example, if there is a business with a website and a google places listing, but it has maybe 2 or 3 reviews and doesn't come up at the sidebar at all; I could offer to rank them up higher. I have only an idea of how to try to rank them, but I'm not positive. This could give me an edge though since most of my competitors in my city (if any) are probably clueless. How much should I charge businesses to rank their website/google places listing higher?

For businesses that already have a website and a google places listing that is decently optimized and ranked, I am thinking I can still offer them to do PPC campaigns. Considering having to use a daily budget, how much should I charge businesses to run an online PPC campaign for them?
#charge
  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    Just for the record... everyone is not confused about the new Google algo.
    I love the new algo, and understand how to rank in it effectively.
    I also love that people don't.

    As far as what to charge, that depends upon your market.
    As well as how good you are at your services.
    If you don't know how to do something, I don't think you should be charging other people for it.
    For example, if you didn't know how to do Google Places correctly, and got my company blacklist, I would sue you.

    As far as pricing goes:
    I charge accordingly to how much a new customer is worth to them for Google Places.
    I charge at least $500 for a simple website.
    I don't offer PPC services. I personally don't think they are necessary with proper marketing, unless they are used for social media. However, I do know that some people charge a flat rate, vs. others charging a percentage of the PPC budget.
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    • Profile picture of the author LiquidSeo
      Originally Posted by vndnbrgj View Post

      Just for the record... everyone is not confused about the new Google algo.
      I love the new algo, and understand how to rank in it effectively.
      I also love that people don't.

      As far as what to charge, that depends upon your market.
      As well as how good you are at your services.
      If you don't know how to do something, I don't think you should be charging other people for it.
      For example, if you didn't know how to do Google Places correctly, and got my company blacklist, I would sue you.

      As far as pricing goes:
      I charge accordingly to how much a new customer is worth to them for Google Places.
      I charge at least $500 for a simple website.
      I don't offer PPC services. I personally don't think they are necessary with proper marketing, unless they are used for social media. However, I do know that some people charge a flat rate, vs. others charging a percentage of the PPC budget.


      I agree with vndnbrgj - the right price varies every time. It's all about value to the client.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
        I think the up front fee you are contemplating charging ($200 - $500) is in the right range.

        A $99 to $150 monthly maintenance fee is a good range to consider.

        Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author Summertime Dress
    My suggestion is to do a search in the forum and you can probably find what you're looking for already posted. For what it's worth ...because I'm making the cross-over to offline also...I'm going to charge a much lower monthly rate until I can prove myself worthy of a higher fee (which I know that I am).
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    • Profile picture of the author Kirrybows
      Thanks Jodi, but I wasn't sure of the ballpark of the price for a website and/or a google places listing. Whether it should be 200$ or a grand.

      Is it really possible for google to blacklist a company and disallow it from posting any more of its content on maps, etc? I don't believe this because anybody can claim a listing on google maps and drive horrible traffic and backlinks to it to ruin its reputation and in turn its serp.

      Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kirrybows
    100-150$ per month for maintenance sounds steep. I don't imagine I'll be doing much at all, and the monthly fee would simply be to cover hosting costs.

    Unless you suggest I be doing some kind of occasional backlinking or something every once in a while, for which I can appraise the monthly fee.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    Dude don't offer services with just "an idea." Do something first and see if you can actually deliver results. Businesses want results, not somebody who thinks they can do it, ya know, maybe, because of this idea they have.

    If you can build websites, focus on that, first. If you can figure out the Google Maps ranking than worry about that when you know how to do it.

    Or, partner with someone who can do these things as long as you can deliver the clients.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Espino
      Just to clarify...

      Due to the recent big changes in Google's ranking of Places listings, we charge what amounts to the standard maintenance fee that most of the "big box" search marketing companies charge, yet we do a heck of a lot more for that fee. For example, we are able to get multiple city rankings for a local business rather than just one ranking for one city.

      (for a short time, we sold the Google Places services of a fairly large search marketing company as resellers and this is what they charge but for only one ranking and one city)

      Now that Google has changed things up a bit, more is required. We need to add citations, add backlinks and continue basic SEO for their website on an ongoing basis to ensure that our rankings stick. I agree that it's not about seeing how much you can get out of a client. You won't build a long term business that way.

      Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author derekmichael02
    I did a local doctor's site for $500 and used a wordpress template (including the full plugin optimization, etc). I've done 50 wordpress so it wasn't a big deal. However, where most of my time was eaten up was getting content from THEM. I wouldn't do it for less than 800 or 900 next time.

    My recommendations: Get a $500 client for a 5 pager site. Ask them to do the content. Do a great job. Then the next time you'll have no problem asking for more money if you don't think it was enough.

    Expectation management is huge, especially as you are establishing yourself and trying to get work. Good luck!
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