What are the standard pricing models for SEO services?
Most SEO consultants face the same difficulty how to price their optimization services fairly. This problem is especially acute for those who are starting out. They need to attract new clients and win their trust. However, at the same time, you need to strike a balance between your wishes and customer expectations. In most cases, customers do not want to work with the uncertainty of an hourly rate. Moreover, some clients might object to project-based fees.
To make your pricing maximally fair, you need to provide your clients with several pricing services and models. In this short post, you will find the most common pricing models in search engine optimization sphere. So, let us take a closer look at some of these models.
The common SEO pricing models
- Fixed fee
According to a fixed fee pricing model you set up a flat price for specific work. This rate is adjusted and can’t be changed due to some additional services or individual factors. This pricing model is simple to market. It can be helpful for budgeting clients and those who start their path on a digital market.
I do not recommend to use this pricing model as it does not take into account different variabilities such as time, the complexity of the project, efforts required in delivery, and so on. Pricing your optimization services with the help of fixed fee pricing model can cost you your business.
- Pay for performance
Another well-known pricing services model is pay per performance. This model is popular among businesses as they pay only for the delivered results. In SEO these results typically include researching rankings for a term, specific traffic levels, and so on. Moreover, some optimization agencies use profits and sales as a metric of performance.
This pricing model can be risky for your business unless you deliver easily achievable results. Moreover, pay per performance pricing model can bring a profit for those SEO specialists who know what they do. So, if you are not sure about the results, there is no point to guarantee them for people.
- Hourly price consulting
It is the most common SEO services pricing model which is used not only by individual SEO consultants but also by big optimization agencies. According to this pricing model you set a stable price for each hour you work on a client’s project. This payment model provides the best return on your time investment.
However, working on an hourly plan can be more complicated than just working out your hourly rate. As a rule, clients do not accept an hourly consulting with an induction what the final price might be like. That is why before start getting paid, you have to accomplish all tasks in the project, estimated time required to complete a task and define a procedure of approval.
In some cases, clients ask about the maximum number of hours that required to complete a certain project. That is why you need to estimate this amount in advance.
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