SEO can be a labor-intensive task, especially if we want to gain good results with highly competitive websites. One of the tricky things is how we could work out proper SEO pricing. Determining pricing for a SEO task may feel like a minefield. If the price is too low, clients could think that we are unskilled and if the price is too high, we could risk getting no job, because competitors offer lower prices. For this reason, we need to find the proper middle ground. SEO is a multi-stage process and a good SEO specialist will be able to take advantage of how a search engine works.

As an example, SEO specialist will need to perform on-site optimization. The size of the website and the complexity of the optimization job will determine the actual pricing for this task alone. The next thing we should do is to perform off-site optimization by building links from relevant, quality websites. Pricing for this task depends on the competitiveness of the keyword. Highly competitive will need more quality inbound links to ensure higher ranks. A new SEO professional may charge $20 per hour for their work, while experienced ones could get $150 per hour or higher.

Performance-based

Unfortunately, SEO is a dynamic field and we can’t really guarantee good results due to some unknown factors. For this situation, we could apply the price on performance principle. It should sound simple and we could determine specific price that clients will pay if we could get the website in 3^rd page, 2^nd page, somewhere in 1^st page or top position.

The job is expected to be completed on specific duration of time and client will evaluate our performance. This is the fairest way of getting paid and to make sure that SEO professionals won’t get underpaid, they should also determine range pricing based on the competitiveness of the keyword. It means that getting on the 3^rd page for “finance” or “insurance” keyword should be considered as a very good achievement. As an example, for keywords with low-moderate competition level, it could cost $100 to $250 to get to the first page position.

Fixed payment

This could be a risky situation of a customer. However, experienced SEO professionals could assure clients that shouldn’t have any doubt about results. Customers will believe this if they see our past achievements. However, clients should be assured that SEO shouldn’t be considered as an overnight process and the fixed payment should be considered as a gradual investment to get long-term, permanent position in search results.

Pay per result

This is a risky method of payment for SEO company, but SEO professionals can still get results if they are proficient enough. Result could mean that a visitor signs up for newsletter, makes contact with website owner and finally buys the product. If no product is sold, SEO professionals won’t get any money. SEO professionals can get 10 to 15 percent of the revenue. With this payment method, SEO professionals have entered the region of affiliate marketing and it is possible to get huge, long-term revenue; if the website becomes successful.