How are the rates?

[Hobbyist]

I'm helping a pretty clueless friend set up
a small business website presence.

I've pointed him sure, but he seems to prefer a live person walking him through..

Currently, I'm helping him go through the obvious basic steps, selecting target keyowrds,watching keywords density, careful crafting of meta tags,descriptions submitting to ODP etc..

I'm also bringing him up to speed a little on the search engine relationships, his options should he wish to buy a spot in looksmart , Yahoo, overture etc..

Also briefed him on the basic concept of pagerank (stressing that it's very simplistic), and the importance of links etc

Basically, every thing that any regular reader of Webmaster world forums knows.

I'm as my name suggests a ameteur, my own site ranks okay, basically because it's not in a competitive area, but I'm out of my depth here.

My friend MIGHT consider getting real professional help, but he is wondering how the rates are like.

Any help here? Some general ranges would do, his site isn't very big no more than 10 pages..

Plus his not really ambitious, some 50 hits a day would make him very happy :)

[agerhart]

It really depends on a number of variables......but I can imagine that your friend should be ready to spend somewhere in the thousands if the site is in a competitive market.

[IanTurner]

Where are you based - as this will affect the cost, as could the field he is entering, the way the site is designed and a number of other factors.

(edited by: Marcia at 8:23 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2002)

[Marcia]

Hobbyist, a ten page site is relatively simple to get decent rankings for if it's tightly themed and isn't in a highly competetive area. The key is in choosing the right keywords, based on how often they're searched for against assessing the amount of competition for each. A lot depends on who's being competed against, whether or not they're mostly well optimized sites. Then, as you know, the phrases have to be applied and integrated across the site, and links have to be chosen accordingly. How many actual visitors a given site will get depends on how much in demand the subject matter is.

If you've been walking him through as a friend, it'll be different with hiring someone who will want to be compensated for their time. As you've probably found out, it can be very time consuming to walk someone through something.

Then there's the aspect of watching the rankings over a period of months and making adjustments when necessary. Checking and making the adjustments isn't very time-consuming at all on a small site like your friend's, but it would be if every change were to be explained, with a lot of emailing back and forth.

He'll learn a lot with watching the results of those changes, so if it's a hobby site it might be best for him to do it himself with your help. If it's a commercial site he might want faster results than he'll get by himself, although traffic is one thing and making sales is a different matter.

Rates are generally either on an hourly basis, per keyword or per page basis, or a whole job can be quoted based on an estimate of how many hours it will take altogether.

As far as real dollar figures go, there are restrictions on divulging actual rates among competitors to avoid price-fixing, so you really can't get definite amounts because they can't be posted. There's a wide range of pricing, which makes sense; a ten page site is not the same as a huge high-profile company's site, and a lot depends on how competitive a field he's in.

Added:
>I've pointed him sure, but he seems to prefer a live person walking him through..

If he won't or can't do it himself, then there are two choices - either you'll have to continue to do it for him, or he will have to hire someone. But he can't expect paid help to give the unlimited personalized tutoring you're doing on a complimentary basis.

>thousands

Not necessarily, it depends on the site and who the company is. A small site like that could only take 4 or 5 hours, and at $2K that would be $4-500 per hour.

The best bet if he's serious about promoting and you can't continue (and he won't do it) is to post in Commercial Exchange [webmasterworld.com], which is what that forum is for. It's for those offering and seeking services.