How Much to Charge?

[warren_p]

Hi Everyone,

My question isn't directly related to affiliate marketing but I hope you can help.

Basically one of my friends owns a caravan park and has recently paid quite a lot of money to have a site designed, which looks ok. However, I was talking to him last night and he was disappointed with the poor rankings in the search engines, I told him that it can take time to climb the rankings and then found out that the company that built the website don't profess to specialize in SEO. I have just had a look at the site and there doesn't seem to be much attention paid to any SEO. I am no expert but I think I could improve the site's rankings but would have no idea what to charge. Does anyone have any ideas?

If it will help I can pm you a link.

Thanks.

[Tezza]

Get ready for a loooong post

It all depends on how long it will take you and the competition on keywords.

You say not much SEO was taken into account when the site was designed? In that case you may have to slightly alter all of the pages listed. If the site is html then it is pretty straight forward, add <title> <description> tags, <h1> <h2> and all of the usual ballony. <alt> tags in images, keywords in inbound anchor text links, etc, etc.

Weigh up the competition. A search for a local caravan park should not really be very hard to rank for as compared to the mobile phone and finance industries.

I suppose the best way would be to give him a detailed report of what needs doing. If you need to alter the pages, offer him so much per page to make them SEO friendly. Then you need to do a backlink campaign, again add that to the price. Directory submission, forum links, press releases, etc. You need to see how much work is involved and break each and every detail down to a price that you deem fair.

A basic SEO campaign could go something like as follows:

Keyword research for say 10 pages - time estimated.
Alterations of each of the 10 pages optimised with the chosen keywords from your research - time estimated.
Backlink campaign, maybe offer so much per link.
Directory submission, cost per so many submissions.
Blog comments on related blogs - time estimated or cost per comment.
Writing articles - cost per 300-350 words.
Press release - cost per 500-600 words or more.
Press release featured on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask news sites, additional bonus.
Social Bookmarks - Cost per 50 submissions.

Most of these should help his site to rank pretty decent for a keyword with hardly any competition. Putting a price to SEO is not something that you can give at just one price, as it cannot be estimated just how much time it can take. If he trusts your judgement in SEO then he should let you do it ongoing, as you should never stop promoting your site(s).

You should break down your plans and show him what you intend to do and at what price per sector. This should help you to reach an overall price.

If you can find people who you can pay to do services for you, then by all means go ahead and do it, act as a middle-man and add a little to each price. After all, he is paying for your wisdom too.

The following I would do if I had to do an SEO campaign. The prices are guesstimates as rates change, and is using the services of reliable people I know (coz I'm lazy )

Keyword research for say 10 pages - time estimated 2 hours (estimate). Charge at hourly rate.
Alterations of each of the 10 pages optimised with the chosen keywords from your research - time estimated 4 hours (estimate). Charge at hourly rate.
Backlink campaign, found somebody who will get me 25 quality backlinks from other similar themed sites for £30, I charge £40.
Directory submission, had a quote of £25 to 1000 diretories. I charge £35.
Blog comments on related blogs - Easy to do yourself on dofollow blogs. Maybe charge £1 per comment.
Writing articles - 300 words of pure original content, quoted £5 per article. I charge £10 per article.
Press release - 500-600 words plus submission to 5 news sites. Quoted £7 per article, charge £13 per article.
Press release featured on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask news sites, I add as an additional bonus. Would be nice for a bonus though as sometimes it can bring a site 1000+ visitors per article + backlinks.
Social Bookmarks - Quoted £10 for submission to 50 dofollow bookmarking sites. I charge £20.
Article submission service. Quoted £25 for 500 article directories. I charge £35.

So for instance if I was charging £10 per hour for the keyword research and alterations to the webpages a total outcome would be £50 + profit on all campaigns for 5 hours
work.

Then additional...

1 Backlink campaign profit = £10
1 Directory submission campaign profit = £10
20 blog comments = £20
1 article profit = £5
1 press release profit = £6
1 Social Bookmark campaign profit = £10
1 article submission service profit = £10

Total profit = £121.00
Cost of campaign to customer = £223.00 (which is a very fair price seeing as some companies charge in the region of £1k +). Break down the timescale it should take, some people take 24 hour turnaround to write an article/press release that is quality.

You could add on extra for time if you decide to do the campaigns yourself, but is very time consuming and boring. Or add on extra if you think the package you have offered him is worth more, I don't know. It all depends on the quality of the visitors you are sending to him.

It wont be worth trying to optimise his site around his company name, as that wont be worth much to him as the visitor already intends to stop at his caravan park, it would be new business he is looking for and its up to you to deliver. Plus if his domain is generic then he should rank automatically after any SEO campaign.

If it is in essex for example, you need to target keyphrase like 'caravan site essex' and similar.

Anyway, I hope that helps , And good luck!

Terry

[confuscius]

Personally, I would show him some sites where it would cost £1,000 then quote him about £350 and then get Terry to do all the work.

[Tezza]

I cant now, my fingers ache after that post

{Edit} And hey, that would make him a middle, middle man!

[warren_p]

Thanks Guys,

Terry, I will have to have a think about all that, not surprised your fingers hurt because my head does.

[Tezza]

Originally Posted by warren_p Terry, I will have to have a think about all that, not surprised your fingers hurt because my head does.

Alwyas gald to bee of sutch hlep

Some good info though, only my thoughts. I optimise my own sites so really cant put a figure to such a campaign, only a guideline of how I would approach it personally. SEO can be a painful process and not always guarenteed to work.

A good cup of coffee should help to decipher my ramblings

[Alfie]

Good post Tezza, to any newbies to seo i would use this as a checklist!

All the best,

Alf

[fizzbird]

Originally Posted by Alfie Good post Tezza, to any newbies to seo i would use this as a checklist!

I agree - you should be commended for giving such a detailed reply

[D-Mac]

I find it better all round to do jobs like that for friends for free. I would rather help them out a bit, and point them in the right direction for paid help if it is a big job. If its a freebie you can decide when to stop. If they pay you mates rates then they become a client which can put a strain on a friendship.

I would give him half a days consultancy/labour for free. What goes around comes around.

[Tezza]

Originally Posted by D-Mac If they pay you mates rates then they become a client which can put a strain on a friendship.

Hmm, yes, there is an element of truth about that and is one of the reasons I only optimise my own sites as SEO cannot be a fully trusted marketing technique. Its pretty rare that mistakes can be made, but they CAN be made, and its my own site that suffers and not that of my client/friends which can cause strain on a relationship, so I can see what you are saying. Plus Google are as unpredictable as ever these days and anything inevitable can happen when it comes to big G.

Warren_P, maybe it would be better to build an online booking form and ask him for commissions on bookings coming through your site, that way the risk is yours and you both benefit without the risk involved in straining your personal friendship? Plus you would know your own budget & timescale of the sites SEO campaign. Like I say, it shouldn't (but dont quote me) be too hard to optimise for a local caravan site given the correct choice of generic domain name & keyword research (hint ) providing you stick to clean SEO tactics?

Also along the way you could strengthen your business/friend relationship by offering him the advice you have learned? Then maybe you get free caravans for you and your posse (unless you already do so) and he can learn how to optimise his own site off the knowledge that you can give him?

After all, practice makes almost perfect

P.s, thanks to the above compliments, I had a writers feel about me today Good job I'm not into phets (not the explosive kind) otherwise I would still be writing that first post

Terry

[warren_p]

Thanks Everyone.

I think I might show him Terry's original post later today to give him an idea of the work that would be involved and see where we go from there

Terry, I do like the idea of my own site earning commission because as you say, if my SEO skills aren't up to scratch then it will be my problem. I will run this pat him as well.

Thanks Again.