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A total marketing strategy is a bit beyond just SEO, but let's start with SEO. We can't give exact figures lest it turn into public bidding, but realistically speaking it all depends on the site. And different people have different methodologies for approaching it.
Some of the factors involved include how big the site is, whether it's flat pages or dynamic pages all in a shopping cart, how many keyword phrases need be targeted, how competitive the particular market is, whether it's a matter of making simple adjustments to existing pages, which is sometimes the case, or having to add content pages, which can sometimes involve editing site_owner provided copy or writing copy from scratch.
Then there's site architecture and internal directory and linking structure, Page Rank for homepage and internal pages - and internal PR distribution - inbound links to the site, both quantity and quality - the list goes on and on.
Sometimes it can go even further, such as correcting faulty code or making modifications that can hinder conversion. It isn't technically SEO, but image optimization is something that often has to be considered. There's no point in promoting a site that can easily be seen to have hindrances to conversion, and sometimes images have to be optimized for file size to cut down on page file size if the site's pages are dog-slow to load.
Sometimes it can depend on budget. A little bit can be done for starters short term for less competitive keywords if funds are limited and if half-way decent results can reasonably be expected, or it can be the full boat of total optimization for the site with a long term plan to meet objectives.
There are a lot of variables depending on the site - and also with the individual person or company, depending on seasonal fluctuations in some cases.
Pricing varies tremendously; I think a good course is to examine differences in the approach used by different individuals or companies and know what can be realistically expected.
One outfit I saw recently does gorgeous design work, and charges many hundreds just to submit and optimize the homepage for the main keyword phrase. 'Taint gonna work in a great number of cases - the homepage often reflects the most competitive keyword phrase on the site, and simply doing a few things on-page can't hack it in those cases. A few months down the road, unless it's for very non-competitive searches, a lot of the people will be wondering why they're not making any $$. And it isn't cheap pricing, either.
Another case I've seen is where some SEO had a little site ranking top of the second page for a HIGHLY desirable, big $-making, very competitive keyword phrase, with the intention of pushing it up even further. Someone else took over the site, did up a site map (bad idea for that site), loaded up the homepage with every keyword on the site, changed the targeted page titles, putting worthless words (including the site name) at the beginning of them, lost the rankings by many spots on the non-competitive keywords, and pushed that plum phrase down from almost top ten to down in the sixties. They killed page rank distribution for the site and pushed it down into a black hole, and diluted the relevance to boot. But they do work cheap and give excellent customer service. ;)
Interesting to watch what goes on. The best thing by far is to become as informed as possible beforehand (reading here at WebmasterWorld is a good_way), to know enough to ask the right questions. And getting a consultation to test the waters up front isn't a bad idea sometimes, before making a long term commitment - for either party.
Some SEO's go on bulk sales, and are generally cheaper, but you get what you pay for, you may or may not develop a return.
Some SEO's are more specific, custom operations, and are generally expensive at first glance, but you get what you pay for, you may develop a greater return.
Example: this week a potential client forwarded me a list of 1,000+ terms (most producing approx 1,000+ uses a day) he wanted to rank #1 on, and asked how much... $400K I responded, since if I could develop him to #1 on all, he would dominate search results with about 14 million visits each month... (can't figure out why he never responded back? ;)
Another potential, I wrote a custom 20 page solution since his web site had all the ingredients, yet instead of reading the document he said "too expensive"... I then send him to an associate, who does quality work, but cheaper.
The potential however, although liking the price, wanted better results, for his money.
Notwithstanding, if you're advertising at less than 1 cent per quality lead how much more does a person want?
Marketing, promotion, advertising, and sales is about risk management, and no one will assume 100% without taking 100% of the return, thus this is obviously the business owner.
The best bit, shop around and compare. Look for establishments that addresses "website visitation" not "ranks"
If you can develop visitation at your site, then sales, and return on your investment is forthcoming.
Thus pick an SEO at a budget level you can afford not just what you have today. Look at their (the SEO) projections and see what cost per advertising using this medium is, compared to other mediums.
Also get specific about what you want, and a good place to start is... what do you want as a return, as the return will determine overall price.
While my site is still rather ugly I made a small list of the ingredients of bad work. <snip>
The biggest thing about SEO is to find honesty. Once you find that the price is usually justified many times over.
[edited by: Marcia at 7:43 am (utc) on Sep. 2, 2003]
[edit reason] No URLS, please. [/edit]
Beware of Software for Seearch Emgine Submission and Link Building. Manual work is ALWAYS the best.
