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Charging monthly for SEO?

by Daniel Clark
19 replies
Just a little information first, I want to charge new clients monthly for SEO, I'm 17 so very few people take me seriously when I talk SEO so I worked with a business a friend worked with and I've now got easy no.1s for kw's like "area laptop repair" or "area laptop call out service" we're talking like 50 kw's spread over page 1/2 so that's the local ones sorted and others like "virus removal birmingham" for example we're second and third.

The condition for getting this guy his rankings is that he'd refer me and he's now doing that so what I want to know is how much to charge as a monthly fee for SEO. I outsource here on the WF at £50 for 3 kws so was thinking a £250 a month fee per 3 kw's for a 6-month contract with a bonus incorporated if rankings are achieved earlier?
Alternatively 3 months work, and if no ranking improvement then 3 months free.

Is 250 a good fee to start and then what for a retainer?
#charging #monthly #seo #services
  • Profile picture of the author ex9to5guy
    you need to be charging monthly for SEO, that is where the money is. I would not go with anything less then $400 a month for monthly
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    • Profile picture of the author befree22
      Originally Posted by futuremills View Post

      you need to be charging monthly for SEO, that is where the money is. I would not go with anything less then $400 a month for monthly
      There are too many wanna be marketers undercutting the market and giving legit companies a bad rap. And there are too many money-grubbing clients looking for free services. I actually think that for SEO, you ought to charge $600-$800 minimum.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Clark
    Yeah £250/$400 seems okay, will mull it over and would consider something like 300/350 as maximum
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  • Profile picture of the author richrowley
    Dan,

    I cant give you a good price for your services as I dont fully know what you offer to your clients.

    However I think people will forget your age once you deliver the goods so to speak.

    I'd also consider forgetting your age yourself. There's a very famous businessman who was 17 when he began online too. He adopted a persona of an older guy to overcome a problem similar to yours. He even used a different name and lowered his 'phone voice' when talking to potential clients.

    Extreme I know but a few years later he sold his business to Yahoo for around $300 million!

    Keep going and you'll find your clients regardless of what your birth certificate says. If people dont take you seriously.....their loss!
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Clark
      Originally Posted by richrowley View Post

      Dan,

      I cant give you a good price for your services as I dont fully know what you offer to your clients.

      However I think people will forget your age once you deliver the goods so to speak.

      I'd also consider forgetting your age yourself. There's a very famous businessman who was 17 when he began online too. He adopted a persona of an older guy to overcome a problem similar to yours. He even used a different name and lowered his 'phone voice' when talking to potential clients.

      Extreme I know but a few years later he sold his business to Yahoo for around $300 million!

      Keep going and you'll find your clients regardless of what your birth certificate says. If people dont take you seriously.....their loss!
      Hey Rich,

      Very true! My mistake, I offer a simple service of 3 keywords of the owners choice (within reason) and get them to page one within 6 months. I do a mix of High Pr Social Bookmarks, Article Submission, Web 2.0 and hit all of that with Scrapebox and Xrumer to get those links indexed.
      I also offer keyword research for free if their keywords are way of track or will get them next to nothing in the way of business.

      The age is more of a problem before I've even begun working with them. They just can't seem to grasp that with this kind of thing age is important.
      But yes, I'd like to think with the results they'd look past the age and with time with enough referalls it won't matter.

      I'll have to readup on this businessmen Thanks for the advice Rich.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanmckinney
    I answered this question and how I decide to charge here

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author YoungLoft
    seo can be done by yourself at your own cost
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    • Profile picture of the author A790
      Originally Posted by YoungLoft View Post

      seo can be done by yourself at your own cost
      Nice contribution to the thread. :rolleyes:
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      • Profile picture of the author YoungLoft
        Originally Posted by A790 View Post

        Nice contribution to the thread. :rolleyes:
        thanks my friend glad i could help
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      • Profile picture of the author Excel Fields
        Originally Posted by A790 View Post

        Nice contribution to the thread. :rolleyes:
        Hahaha! (I know right?)
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        • Profile picture of the author Excel Fields
          Daniel,

          If you've been paying attention to the WSO threads recently, Chris Munch has a Hook Pigeon WSO that shows you how to drive insane traffice to your clients pages organically, and Chris winters did a WSO with Anthony Aires that teaches you how to rank google video's on page one. You may want to buy and incorporate both of these strategies into your business as well.

          On a side note, I was 14 when I started my first business, and I really boils down to self confidence, personal belief in your abilities, and a relentless passion to win at all odds. Business owners care about "facts" and the bottom line. From what you shared with us, you know how to rank websites, and getting your clients ranked high and keeping them there is all that they'll care about in the long run. Show them the proof that you can deliver, and ask them for referrals to continue growing your business.

          There are so many stories of Teenage Entrepreneurs knocking it out of the
          park that it's not funny! Work hard to make sure that you're the next one!

          p.s. I would also encourage you to learn about how to rank your clients on page one
          of google for local searches. Jeffrey Reidy offers a wonderful training on the subject.

          You can also add zipcodes to their keywords, and create another page one ranking
          very easily. I do believe as time goes on that zipcode searches are going to increase
          dramatically as people want to do business with companies that are close to their homes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    Don't worry about your age so much man. People will take you serious if you know what you're doing and you can show them that. Be confident in yourself.

    Charge what you are comfortable with charging. $400 isn't too bad for only 3 keywords. Especially if you are outsourcing all the work. Once you get a few clients under your belt and you have some good results to show you could bump up your price.

    Sean
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    -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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  • Profile picture of the author Eddie Spangler
    Here the other thing to consider about being young, if you are indeed confidant and know your sh@t then you can actually have the edge over someone older BECAUSE many small biz owners may EXPECT you know more about computers, the interwebs and all that stuff. "What does this 50 year guy know about getting me on top of google."

    Use that to your advatage. On the opposite end of the spectrum Ronald Regan took his first term of office at the age of 69. In a debate vs the younger George Bush who eventually became his vp,the issue of age was brought up here is what Reagan said
    "I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. " ~ Ronald Reagan .


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    Promise Big.
    Deliver Bigger.
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  • Profile picture of the author Craig Dewe
    Age is only a problem if you make it a problem. Once they hear you talking about this stuff with confidence and showcasing your results then you should be fine.

    I was getting web design clients back when I was 18 because the older generation expect you to know more about this stuff.

    Now I show up to multi-million dollar businesses wearing jeans and a t-shirt and still walk away with $10,000 contracts. I often get a look up and down in the beginning but that soon goes away once I start speaking.

    Just create your model of the world to make your age a strength and you'll be away laughing.

    As for deciding on pricing... stop thinking about the work you do and start thinking in terms of value you deliver. If you rank a very competitive keyword that brings in thousands and thousands of visitors then you have something very valuable for a business owner. If you're ranking keywords with no traffic then not so much.

    Also take into account what they're selling and what the value of the clients you will bring them is. If it's thousands of dollars then charge accordingly. If it's tens of dollars go find higher quality clients
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  • Profile picture of the author melahi
    I hired a so called top seo firm and they charged me $900 for a month. If you are interested send us me PM and we can maybe do some business
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    Originally Posted by Daniel Clark View Post

    Is 250 a good fee to start and then what for a retainer?
    NO. IT IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT.

    If you are charging any less than 1k per month minimum for clients you run the risk of going broke. I've seen it happen.

    You are a business partner, not a salesman. Think like a joint venture partner, a business manager and a consultant, not like a DirecTV telemarketer.
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    No signature here today!

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  • Profile picture of the author dazkat
    Hey Daniel
    First and foremost I wanted to congratulate you on what your doing. You definately seem like you have that entrepreneurial spirit and like most people have mentioned don't worry about your age. Maybe reframe your thoughts and think that your age could be an asset.

    In regards to charging monthly SEO I personally charge a minimum $800 mth (AUD). At the end of the day it really comes down to what you feel comfortable charging & how much your time is worth. I'd rather have fewer clients at 1000 mth as opposed to alot of clients at $300 month. Just be confident and charge accordingly.

    Hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author A790
      Originally Posted by dazkat View Post

      Hey Daniel
      First and foremost I wanted to congratulate you on what your doing. You definately seem like you have that entrepreneurial spirit and like most people have mentioned don't worry about your age. Maybe reframe your thoughts and think that your age could be an asset.

      In regards to charging monthly SEO I personally charge a minimum $800 mth (AUD). At the end of the day it really comes down to what you feel comfortable charging & how much your time is worth. I'd rather have fewer clients at 1000 mth as opposed to alot of clients at $300 month. Just be confident and charge accordingly.

      Hope this helps
      Good points.

      Also consider how many clients you can manage at a given time. I figure I can manage about 15-20 seo clients and offer full service before I start to get taxed. I'd rather get paid $800+ per client as opposed to $300+.

      The market is there. The need is there. Go sell some SEO, bro
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