Reasonable Budget for Local Solid-SEO for a Small Business

Jock
Q: What's a reasonable budget for solid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (on a small scale) for a small business?
12 👍🏽 12
[filtered from 69 💬🗨]

👈📰

reasonable budget for solid urban seo for a small business

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Nathan
250 Euro 300 Dollars for 5 Pages.

Dustin » Nathan
5 pages of what lol
Nathan » Dustin
5 pages of on Page Optimization for a starter website. Citations and directories and a couple of backlinks.
Thats the cheapest I would go.
Naidoo
This is per month right?
Nathan » Naidoo
Well it takes about a few hours.
My lowest package would be for new small businesses with a fresh website with small budgets.
Optimize 5-7 pages. Set up their Google Analytics (GA), Google Search Console (GSC), 20 directories. Couple of Backlinks.
Then have them come back when they build their site and charge them for month to month.
So you get your 1000 dollar month to month.
But also take the 300 dollars once offs.
Then another 300 Dollars for Google My Business (GMB) optimization/Local SEO starter package.

Jock ✍️
Thanks for your responses so far – really appreciate it. Also, if you have any recommendations for someone doing it, that'd be awesome!
Ahmed
It is really a vague question, it is like asking a physician how much would the prescription cost without a check-up!
The right SEO should be tailored upon: niche, location, services areas, competitors analysis etc.
Also some technical points, like your Content Management System (CMS), website structure etc.
It all starts with the right SEO Audit!!
DM me your website and I am willing to deliver a "free audit & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy". Weather will you deal with me or not after, this is something I would be happy to give to you.
_{💟👍🏽10}

Reiner » Ahmed
spot on 👌
_🤯1
Jock ✍️
makes sense
Ahmed » Reiner
actually I am so glad my reply did get your attention 😀
_💟1
Ahmed » Jock
Thank you Jock

Abdul_Hadi
2000$ to 3000$.
All the budget depend upon after competitive analysis and as well as audit. You will be able to know and make your site strategy.
You will have to keep each and every aspects of SEO while doing. Keyword research, site structure and layout, site, internal linking, content planning, publishing and as well content presentation. Onpage and off page strategy out reaching, technical SEO. Let me know if you are interested we will discuss further about projects.

Jock ✍️ » Abdul_Hadi
thanks – where do you think is the biggest difference in the programs that folks are describing here? I'm a bit confused why some estimate $500 and others are $3k… quite the range…
Nathan » Jock
Its the level of work. For 1000 euros, 1200 dollars. I will spent most days working on your site for a few hours. Using premium plugins, Put more effort to build more links. Content creation, Schema, more directories and citations, social bookmarking and Pay-Per-Click (PPC).
For 300 dollars. My starter package, Its a few hours for 3 days out of my time.
My starter package is good for website that is new and has 5-7 pages and wants to be optimized for keywords in their niche. Then I build links, do citations, direct some traffic. Then the client continues it there themselves or comes back to me when their business builds.
A 1200 dollar client is a bigger business with a bigger site. That wants to be #1 or on the first page for hundreds of keywords. So you do optimizations like increasing speed. Adding a Privacy Policy, adding more pages and posts to optimize. You build more backlinks from higher authority sites, more citations, Google Image and Video Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Press release optimization.
Building traffic and Click through rate through social media. Schema optimization. Etc.
So someone who charges 1200-3k is going to do a lot more for you.
For 300-500 youre just getting basic optimization.
Jock ✍️ » Nathan
really good explanation. Thank you!
Abdul_Hadi » Jock
it vary from project to project. Because for starting working. We should need audit, and competitive analysis. Keyword research is the backbone of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you need to know the competition of your market. Site structure, layout, speed and responsiveness. Content planning, content creation, content publishing, content designing and after that representing your content, content marketing., onpage optimization and then after offpage including different things, outreaching, guest post, and other links. Technical SEO of site. … If you want to discuss about your project you can pm me. We can discuss about your project.

👈📰

🔗🏹

Slim
On site – $250 – 800
Off-site – $350+ (literally can go till 10k)
The off-site stuff sometimes means paying websites to post etc. so rather than giving them a budget, i let them anchor what they wanna spend then work around that. On-site is usually okay though. If it's non CMS based website of course, then it could go up. I'm not going to hire a coder to add bit schemas lol.
Singh
For Solid SEO , Budget totally depend upon the backlinks and Quality. Normally Monthly charges for good SEO campaign charges around $1800-$2500. With this budget you will get the result in 6-7 months
Erica
When you say "solid" this means to me that you wish it to generate leads. I would say $2K a month would be reasonable to really build up SEO and then once you are at a good level of operational success go down to $500/month. It needs to continue to beat the competition. One site I manage I add new images every single week, and add deep-dive content (2000 word blogs) 2X a month. So it's going to take a lot. Unless it is already #1 in its class and has a Google my business listing that is #1 organic, then I would say closer to $350/month to maintain if that was easy to achieve. But to get started and totally stand out it's going to require a decent investment of energy/money/smarts.

Jock ✍️ » Erica
Good explanation!
Reiner » Erica
knows her stuff 💯
_🤔1
Trenton » Jock
You will not find these prices for good Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These sound like beginner freelancer prices.

Ryan
Funnily enough, I used to think I undercharged but boy some of these answers make me think I'm a premium. It does depend on niche like a financial product company could be $2,000 which is 10 pages, link building(forums, social media basic posting, links on other sites), reporting, and then anything that comes up. Some months it's a press release, other months it's building a landing page, next month it's a re-optimization home page for a new goal etc. I always thought I was undercharging cause I know some firms charge lawyers $45,000 month for basic stuff, just more of it. ex: a page of content a day, FAQ sections, links, tech SEO support etc.

Jock ✍️ » Ryan
whoa! $45k sounds pretty steep… 😱
Ryan » Jock
you’re telling me
Justin » Jock
it’s all about value. What’s steep? If I make you 100k per month in extra revenue … is 45k really that steep? Lawyers charge crazy amounts of cash for their services. Now If you charged that for a local contractor.. who gets a new job every few weeks .. that may be excessive. It’s all relative.
Ryan » Justin
Yeah I couldn't agree more. And the elga space is so competitive but when you land one client, it's like 10K – $1M depending on the circumstances so they pay a lot for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Ryan » Jock
So what's the consensus? Based on what you're seeing here and you're own knowledge, what's a good starting price?

Justin
The reality is that most new SEO users undercharge because they are hungry for work and trying to outshine their competition. If you’re going to be successful in this business and give your clients the opportunity to grow their business … it’s going to take more than $500 per month. Some of the programs you use to do research costs 100s per month. You’re in business to make a profit like everyone else.. and I don’t see you making a profit on 500 per month … even if you have 10 clients.

Reiner » Justin
true.

Sirikit
It all depends on the competition. Would you see results from a $500 budget if you are competing with established brands? Possible, but it will take months (or more than a year) to see results. Your goal is also an important factor.
I'd probably think twice if I am just being charged $xxx and promised immediate result.
An SEO specialist won't be able to do it alone. I'd really look at the people who will be working on the project. The team should be comprised of copywriters, Virtual Assistants (VA)s, graphic designers, etc.
I also like working on the on-page strategies during the first phase of the strategy. Commonly, this takes 3-6 months. Once I have solidified the backbone of the brand, that's the only time I move to the second phase, which is a combination of on- and off-page strategies.
So, I would say, price starts at $1000 for basic strategies. If you want to go aggressive, it could go up to $2500-5000. I can't really give you an exact figure because, again, it depends on your goal and competition.

👈📰