How much to charge for Google SEO?

my first client....

[Jacob_Jans]

Hello - I'm fairly new at SEOing, but I have had some success recently. I got #1 rankings for a lot of keywords in a certain niche, now another site in that niche wants me to get top rankings for them too.

They will probably target 20-30 specific keyword strings. Mostly 3 word strings - such as buy brandname widgets. Looking at the competition, I am pretty confident I can get top rankings for most of these keywords. However, because I am new at this, I have no idea how much to charge them - or even when to charge them for that matter.

Any ideas?

[rfgdxm1]

Wrong forum. Charge whatever they'll pay. And, if that brandname is theirs getting #1 for "buy brandname widgets" shouldn't be worth much, as this is trivial. "Buy widgets" would be worth something.

[Jacob_Jans]

Sorry bout the wrong forums, wasn't sure which forum to put this in. No, they aren't the brandname - and the brandname doesn't actually sell widgets, so we won't be competing in that respect. Also, the KW buy brandname widgets gets more searches than buy widgets - odd as that sounds. Anyways, anyone have some examples of how much they've charged ppl in the past? Did you charge per visitor, or depending on what rankings where achieved, or just an upfront charge?

[Alphawolf]

Did you charge per visitor, or depending on what rankings where achieved, or just an upfront charge?

Charge per _visitor_? :o

I asked a similar question a while ago and got some feedback. Some charge X amount per keyword the client wants optimized for...in an ongoing maintenence sorta deal.

I don't like that approach myself.

I prefer to see how much those phrases would cost on Overture and AdWords and draw some idea of absolute value from that. In addition to understanding the client's industry a bit- how much they stand to gain from being ranked highly.

It's not a direct comparison- but good for a base to start pricing (from my line of thinking).

As to when to charge, if the company saw your results that got thier competitor to the top you have the leverage.

Remember, you can always go lower price wise easily if they feel the price is out of line.

Keep secondary benefits in mind that they'd be able to use if you did get them listed very high.

The extra traffic and visibility may allow them to sell banner ads/text ads at 'x' amount per month.

Regards,

AW

[fathom]

Alphawolf > charging per visitor is a nightmare and actually treads into unethical areas (my opinion only).

The SEO needs more money... just get a bunch of friends to search and the costs go up.

The best approach is > if you are good at what you do > think long-term.

A company that charges everything upfront > is less profitably regardless of what that fee is.

Top results isn't a once only thing > it's a process that matures therefore retaining clients longer puts more money in their pockets as well as yours.

In addition you need to be flexible. A fix optimization package fee is not appealing to the mass. In today's marketing, prices should be quite flexible to accommodate market trends, and industry trends (this may sound like "pay per visit -- but it's not).

SEO is marketing, and marketing infers enhancing sales, therefore long term relationships will be soley base on the companies ability to extract "new" revenue... a highly ranked site or a high traffic site is not necessarily a profit site.

The best advice... stand out from the crowd, make yourself attractive by customization, as well a personalization. Focus on the the long-term relationship... as these are far more profitable.

[SEGuru2]

Or you could just for existing domains via keyword match and seek out domains that are already listed but expired at Google.

Lots buy into that penalty thing...some may have gotten domains on the cusp of them being flushed and got dinged for its inbound links / PR.
Key is to get them early, get them fast...before Google knows they are there. ;)