basic seo $

[digiweb]

I have the opportunity to market for a client whose site has never been optimized for anything, not even browser variations.

His site needs good ole fashioned technical SEO (html, tags, titles)...

Can anyone tell me the going rate for this sort of work?

[John Scott]

Hourly would be best if you don't have flat rates.

SEO is a hard field to be in. Everybody wants SEO, but very few are willing to pay for it.

To seriously pump up the traffic volume you need linkage, and linkage is time consuming. So you can be honest and tell them $10,000 to start (my min), or you can be nice, quote them $1,000 and disappoint them.

[digiweb]

Would it make a difference to you if the site were relatively small?

At my going rate for software I'm sure I could hand pick through the html and fix in way less than 125 hours ($10k).

But I'd hire it out.

I guess I'm asking, $10k for what in return?

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by CarolineBogart

Would it make a difference to you if the site were relatively small?

Small just makes it harder to optimize.

V7N is huge, so it's easy to get links for. If somebody doesn't want to link to the home page, maybe they will link to the SEO Blog. If that doesn't interest them, maybe they will link to the directory.

Bigger = easier to get ranked.

Originally Posted by CarolineBogart

At my going rate for software I'm sure I could hand pick through the html and fix in way less than 125 hours ($10k).

Changing the html will very rarely get the kind of traffic the client wants.

Originally Posted by CarolineBogart

I guess I'm asking, $10k for what in return?

Top rankings.

Think of it this way. You could half-ass optimize it and move your client from #359 to #132 in the SERPs.

But what good is that? My guess is that being #359 drives just as much traffic as being #132.

What the client wants is not "seo'ed pages', but traffic.

What are the keywords?

[digiweb]

Their keywords they would be really easy to market, it's not a competitive business. (sorry for being vague)

I wouldn't suggest that seo was all there is. I just find it easier to get $2k 10 times than $10 twice.

Good point about #359 vs #132.

[John Scott]

it's not a competitive business

Let me in on that action

[ToddW]

Me too, you know the more competition the more the challenge.... you want a challenge right? HEHE

[digiweb]

You guys crack me up.

I'm always willing to listen...

[digiweb]

btw, I'm just saying, clean the code before marketing the site.

[pukenerampa]

i see. thanks for sharing.

[ayanev]

JohnScott, 10k for on-page optimization? I'm working 15 months for 10k
If it is a short term job, as the man wrote - onpage easy-to-change-factors... how much will you want for this ?

[John Scott]

JohnScott, 10k for on-page optimization?

No. On-page SEO is not my thing. I pronounced it dead two years ago, in fact.

http://www.internet-marketing-blog.c...d-content-seo/

http://www.internet-marketing-blog.c...seo-is-filthy/

[ayanev]

Yup.. but CarolineBogart wrote "ole fashioned technical SEO (html, tags, titles)". If you charge 10k$ for simple on-page SEO, wow
Gates will be like a dry carrot in front of you

JohnScott, what if the client ask to give the company that is designing and coding the website your know-how about SEO, and pay you for this ? Will you accept this, and if you do - how much will you charge ?

[John Scott]

SEO know-how changes all the time. Search engine algorithms change. I try to answer most questions here on the forums free of charge, so nobody needs to pay for it.

[digiweb]

John remember why on-page seo was important in the first place? Remember why xhtml was invented?

It was for the site we're discussing. All the viral buzz in the world isn't going to help this site until it's cleaned up, and I have to charge for that and do that first.