How much should you pay for SEO?

Bijgewerkt: 1 August 2023

Suppose your company made too little profit. Someone comes to you and says that if you pay $ 500, this will increase your turnover tenfold. Would you do this then? Probably. But when it is uncertain whether it will increase your turnover, you do not want to pay that $ 500.

I’m talking about SEO or search engine optimization. No one can guarantee you whether the SEO efforts will be successful. That is why it is so difficult to determine a budget. Not sure how much to pay for SEO? My calculator answers all your questions.

Outrank your competitors on search engine results pages

SEO is one of the most powerful marketing strategies. It’s an easy way to outrank your competitors in search dollar. Especially when the focus is on content marketing. The ROI for content marketing is 1:35. every dollar you spend on this part should generate $ 35 in sales in practice.

Except when you pay too much for SEO. But also when SEO is applied in the wrong way. Unfortunately, there are many cowboys in the SEO world. They just do whatever, hoping to bring in the big bucks. Are you one of those many who pay a lot for SEO?

How much does SEO cost?

Most companies pay between $1500 and $5000 per month for SEO. Small businesses work with a monthly budget of $ 1000 to $ 2000. There are also companies that pay more than $ 25,000 per month. And of course there are also companies that spend $ 100 or nothing at all on SEO.

How much you spend depends on several factors. This has to do with the size of your company and how much budget you can free up.

One of the most important factors is the price set by the SEO agency or SEO copywriter. You have expensive and cheap providers. An expensive provider does not mean better results.

Lots of providers

A quick Google search shows that there are millions of SEO agencies active worldwide. They offer comparable services at competitive prices. Some small providers offer attractive lower rates.

With so many providers it is difficult to make a choice. You should not only look at the price, but especially the results. A bad SEO provider promises a lot but delivers little. You can often see this on their website: it ranks low in the organic search results.

In general, companies that pay more for SEO see better results. Companies that pay less than $ 500 per month are the worst off.

Paying too little for SEO makes you unhappy. You spend more money than you earn. Then it is better not to do anything with SEO at all.

Invest at an early stage

Most companies only invest in SEO when they notice that their website scores poorly in search engines. It’s a pity to wait so long. Investing at an early stage pays off. Already at the launch of a new website, you need to develop an SEO strategy.

Yet many companies do not dare to do this. They are afraid that they are spending money without yielding returns. It is true that paying for SEO does not yield much in the beginning. But in the long run you get a good return on your investment.

Pay SEO per month, per hour or per project

Almost all companies pay an SEO expert per month. Actually, you shouldn’t do this. When you pay per month, you make the SEO expert lazy. He knows that money is coming in every month, making his efforts less and less.

It is better to pay per project. Or per hour, but the latter can be negative for you.

When you pay per project, you oblige the SEO expert to make maximum effort. Especially when you pay a portion afterwards. But what exactly does an SEO project look like? You make agreements about the amount of content you will receive. Or the number of backlinks that are arranged for you.

You can make new appointments every month. This is not fun for the SEO agency, because they prefer that you pay a fixed monthly amount. But for you it is better to work with new appointments every month. That way you don’t assume any obligation. You can get off whenever you want.

Expectations and reality

Before you pay for SEO, you need to know the difference between expectations and reality. In general, with SEO, you actually get what you pay for. Your website will rank higher in search engines. This makes your website easier to find and you attract more organic traffic.

Yet things often go wrong within SEO. The cowboys who are only after your money use black hat SEO techniques. This means that they use tricks to temporarily make your website rank higher. This makes you think that SEO produces results. You pay and are satisfied. But after a few weeks, the trouble starts: your web pages are ranked lower. Sometimes they disappear from the search results altogether.

Black Hat SEO is dangerous. It pays off in the short term, but ultimately it damages your website. So be careful with these kinds of SEO cowboys, because they make sure that your website has little value.

How much should you pay for SEO?

Your budget is very important. When you have a monthly budget of $ 400, you can no longer spend on SEO. Still, it is better to pay a little more. Companies that spend $ 500 or more per month have a 54% chance of good results.

Is it bad to pay $100 a month for SEO? No, with $ 100 you can certainly do with search engine optimization. For example, you can have one to three texts written. Or request some backlinks. Maybe your website needs technical optimization. So $ 100 is not bad to spend on SEO.

But it is often too little. You are not active enough with your website. As a result, it takes a very long time before you see results. Because your competitors pay more for SEO, they grow faster. Once your competitors have built up authority, it’s hard to ever surpass them.

Guaranteed on page one? That does not exist

Many are victims of spammers and scammers. They guarantee that you will be on page one of the search results. SEO is not a matter of point A to point B.

I am a member of a Facebook group. I am sometimes shocked by how many inexperienced SEO providers are active here. They say they have brought in a new customer and they don’t know how to get this customer to rank for keyword-X. It’s scary to think that you might be that customer.

Many of these inexperienced providers use Private Blog Networks. They use this to build links. They then use ChatGPT or a student to write texts. You as a customer are at risk. Moreover, you do nothing but throw money away.

So let’s not talk about price, but about results. If you don’t want to damage your website, it’s important to pay for good SEO.

I can do all this for you

I make sure your website is accessible to search engines. You will receive content that meets Google’s SEO guidelines. When collecting backlinks, we pay attention to quality and relevance, not quantity. Natural backlinks boost your positioning in the SERPs.

A high user experience is just as important. You will receive advice on this, and if desired, my team will help you optimize your website.

Because content is the most important part of SEO, we pay a lot of attention to it. Your content is unique, matches important search queries and takes search intent into account.

Unlike advertising, SEO does not deliver immediate results. Even when me and my team execute it to perfection, it takes time for the efforts to pay off. But it’s more than worth it. The traffic you receive from Google is the best converting!

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