Business model for SEO for local clients?

16 replies
Hi all,

Now that I've had success ranking some of my own sites, I'd like to start offering SEO services to local businesses. The problem is, I have no idea what to charge, or what kind of guarantees to give. So here's a few quick questions for anyone with experience:

1) How much do I charge? Do I charge a flat rate per keyword, or do I offer a package?
2) Do I offer a guarantee (i.e. a Page One ranking within three months, or half the money back?)
3) What time frame should I set for a Page one ranking: 3 months? 6 months?
4) Any other considerations I haven't thought of
#business #clients #local #model #seo
  • Originally Posted by mkpoway View Post

    1) How much do I charge? Do I charge a flat rate per keyword, or do I offer a package?
    You can go with both. Offering a package, clients will know exactly what they get for their money, however since keywords and their competitiveness varies greatly, it would be better to go for a price per keyword, especially if you're going to throw in guarantees.
    Originally Posted by mkpoway View Post

    2) Do I offer a guarantee (i.e. a Page One ranking within three months, or half the money back?)
    Only offer guarantees if you can keep them. This is where experience comes in, pick some keywords in your target offline business market (so if you target plumbers in london, grab some related keywords to that and try to rank them). When you do that, monitor your expenses as well as how long it took you. Do that a couple of times so you can be certain that you'll hit your goal everytime. Nothing worse than guaranteeing something and not delivering.
    Originally Posted by mkpoway View Post

    3) What time frame should I set for a Page one ranking: 3 months? 6 months?
    This again depends on your abilities to rank sites as well as the keyword itself. The better you are at ranking sites fast, the shorter the guaranteed time. Obviously, one keyword is going to take a lot longer to rank than another one.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dr Dan
    Originally Posted by mkpoway View Post

    Hi all,

    Now that I've had success ranking some of my own sites, I'd like to start offering SEO services to local businesses. The problem is, I have no idea what to charge, or what kind of guarantees to give. So here's a few quick questions for anyone with experience:

    1) How much do I charge? Do I charge a flat rate per keyword, or do I offer a package?
    2) Do I offer a guarantee (i.e. a Page One ranking within three months, or half the money back?)
    3) What time frame should I set for a Page one ranking: 3 months? 6 months?
    4) Any other considerations I haven't thought of
    Its really going to depend on the product or services that they offer. You can charge a Painting company that might make $500-$2000 per a job more than a hair stylist that only makes $10-15 per a sale.

    I usually start between $100 to $400 a month depending on the business they are in.

    I also get them on the first page in less than 24 hours most of the time.

    I dont offer any guarantees other than I will have them all over the first pages of Google. Even then, I dont guarantee them that. I just show them what I did for my other clients and I can do the same for them.
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    • Profile picture of the author mkpoway
      Originally Posted by rockstarinlife View Post


      I usually start between $100 to $400 a month depending on the business they are in.
      So you charge an ongoing monthly fee, rather than a flat fee per keyword?

      I also get them on the first page in less than 24 hours most of the time.
      Is this for local business keywords with little competition such as "landscape company des moines" or something similar?
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  • Profile picture of the author JJOrana
    Call your competitors and ask for pricing. This is a basis of how much you're going to charge.

    NEVER give any guarantee in ranking. Nobody can unless you're Google.

    On the other hand, I'm comfortable in giving guaranteed increase in website traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author KaterSD
    Thats weird I just asked these similiar questions....
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Holmes
    I have done pretty much the same thing before and have many sites ranked all over the place. I usually upsell no brainre consulting services and should hopefull secure a deal today worth $1500/ month. Rank the sites, rent them out and then upsell. Pretty simple! You just have to show you are credible, competant and know what you are doing. Ranking sites before even trying to sell seo is much easier than explaining what seo is and why they should care about why it's important. Best, Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author mkpoway
      Steve - what do you mean, 'rank the sites, then rent them out'?

      Also what consulting services do you upsell?

      Matt
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      • Profile picture of the author nandi
        Originally Posted by mkpoway View Post

        Steve - what do you mean, 'rank the sites, then rent them out'?

        Also what consulting services do you upsell?

        Matt
        Curious to know the answer to this one too!
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    • Profile picture of the author Bobster0007
      Originally Posted by Steve Holmes View Post

      I have done pretty much the same thing before and have many sites ranked all over the place. I usually upsell no brainre consulting services and should hopefull secure a deal today worth $1500/ month. Rank the sites, rent them out and then upsell. Pretty simple! You just have to show you are credible, competant and know what you are doing. Ranking sites before even trying to sell seo is much easier than explaining what seo is and why they should care about why it's important. Best, Steve
      Would you be willing to offer advice for ranking a site first without a real business attached to it? Actual details like site content, do you use UPS addy etc..., list in local business directories? Im having a difficult challenge beating out local business rankings because they get to use more credible links, citations. On top of that, the local businesses basically knock you off the first page with google places so it seems practically impossible. Im sure many here would love to hear some real useful info about this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Holmes
    Hmm, I can't add basic html like paragraphs or edit and save any of posts - sorry about that mess above!
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Holmes
    If I want to work in a market I bypass the whole trust issue by creating my own site, ranking it and renting it out. I have already showed I know what I'm talking about by this time and then upsell consulting.

    Win win.

    I get a better package for my time and the biz owner gets more leads through the time and techniques I implement, relative to what market he is in.

    Don't guarantee anything, how can you know what is going to happen? Plus it gives connotations you have something to prove to the owner and you are always going to be trying to win approval.

    Instead of putting myself on the back foot I say, this is how many targeted unique visitors my site(s) is(are) getting, this is how much it is a month and if you want it cool - if not bye bye.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Holmes
    I've been doing seo for 5 years or so and ranked against almost 100m competitiveness part time.

    You can do it without citations etc, I'm doing it right now against 3m competing. Don't want to say what I'm doing sorry, but it can be done.

    I have "shell" websites with a bit of content structure semantically and no real address.

    I have a site that is ranked above the Google Places listings at pos 1 and the places stuff all below it.

    You can do it, just takes time effort and hard work.

    I'm sure you can appreciate I can just map out what I do though.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Bobster0007
      Originally Posted by Steve Holmes View Post

      I've been doing seo for 5 years or so and ranked against almost 100m competitiveness part time.

      You can do it without citations etc, I'm doing it right now against 3m competing. Don't want to say what I'm doing sorry, but it can be done.

      I have "shell" websites with a bit of content structure semantically and no real address.

      I have a site that is ranked above the Google Places listings at pos 1 and the places stuff all below it.

      You can do it, just takes time effort and hard work.

      I'm sure you can appreciate I can just map out what I do though.

      Steve
      Thanks for your input Steve. I can somewhat see your point as to not revealing your methods even though since this is local, I hardly think anyone here would suddenly be able to de-throne you from your page positions and i thought thats what this site was about in sharing info. " You can do it, just takes time effort and hard work. " <<<<< this will not get anyone very far doing anything if its not a concise focused targeted endeavor. Thats just my opinion but Thanks anyway Steve.
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  • Profile picture of the author davechan
    We've been doing SEO work for several years now. The rates which we used to charge was in the 250 - 400 / month range depending on the complexity of the job. With some of our celebrity clients we charge $1,000 / month. The reason why is because they have many more properties to maintain. Recommend starting art the $250 / month or so range.

    You also didn't mention whether this was for a professional services company, a restaurant or ? Generally, we've found the professional services company will spend more money because they value the cost of time.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanjm
    Curious what population size you guys target? We've started doing this rent-a-site model but noticed that some cities get shockingly little traffic even with #1 listings. We're kinda stuck with a few sites that are #1 in "insert smallish city" and get no traffic for the most common terms like "city + roofing" etc...

    On the flip side, we're also wondering at what point you try to rent the site out? What ranking are you comfortable with before trying to rent it? For instance, let's say you go after a competitive professional services niche, well it might take you a _long_ time to jump the local results, so do you try and sell it while it's sitting below local?

    Thanks.
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