How much do you pay/charge for SEO?

[signup1]

So far, SEO is just Wild West. There is not even industry rate for this. If you do Java jobs, you at least know between $40 to $120. Nobody is getting paid for more than $120K per year salary. For PHP job, the rate is $20-$50.

For SEO, how did you pay/charge? Per hour, Per job, Per keyword? Per Top 10 SERP?

[daverb]

Please see threads I raised this same Q in:

[webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

Dave

[ogletree]

You are right it is very wild west. The very top charge $10K a month min. I have worked out all kinds of different deals with people. It really depends on the amount of work. If I can just do a one time deal I just work out a one time price. It is not cheap. If you find somebody cheap be carefull. You could just keep reading here for free. Everything that I do for a customer is available here at WW. I just get paid because people don't wnat to spend the time. Run away from grand claims. There is no magic pill. Anybody that makes grand claims is lying or will get your site banned. Look for an SEO that wants to help you make more money. SEO is not an exact science. You can't just say I want this word and that word by next week here is some money. SEO is a process. A big term should never be the priority of a good SEO firm. Even if they can get the term it will take time and money. Big terms will only play a small part in a sites traffic. It may look like a ton of people type it in but you don't realize how many other people are typing in something else. General terms are way overhyped. Too much work for very little return and too much risk. I would much rather have 1000 terms that get 2000 visitors a month and have a 30% conversion rate than 1 term that gets 4000 visitors a month with a 5% conversion. It is real easy to get those 1000 terms and much quicker.

[McElvoy]

My buddy gets 10-12% of PPC fees, but he's also evaluated on the quality of the visits he causes, as well as a detailed report of where he is in the bid spread, to show he's not overspending. For e-commerce, it's something like 4.2% of PPC fees plus 10% of sales. For non-PPC work, it depends on the number of pages to optimize (usually about $400-$500 per page) plus a bonus for good SERP.

[BSindia]

Nice, so I feel SEO will get good pay.