If you’re here looking for a definitive SEO costs, you might not like what we have to say.
But it’s important to understand why SEO prices should vary dramatically depending on the size, age and scope of your business.
The fact of the matter is, one absolute SEO price does not exist. The costs of SEO services can vary enormously and are contingent on who you work with and what you want to achieve. With the increased awareness into the benefits of SEO, more people are asking the age-old question: “How much does SEO in Melbourne cost?”, however the answer can be disappointing.
Quotes given by digital marketing agencies can often differ by hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
With the increased awareness into the benefits of SEO, more people are asking the age-old question: “How much does SEO in Melbourne cost?”, however, the answer can be quite disconcerting: It’s complicated.
Quotes given by digital marketing agencies can often differ by hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
Why? Well, there’s a number of reasons.
Despite what many people think, SEO is not a one-time job. Enhancing and sustaining search engine rankings for competitive search terms takes a lot of effort and time. In order to achieve SEO success and maintain visibility, SEO work needs to be in the form of a long-term marketing campaign.
On-top of SEO being a long-term project, the nature of the campaign also varies greatly depending on the business. Every SEO campaign is unique. In order to obtain search engine success, techniques need to be properly personalised and fitted to the overall goals of the business.
Asking how much Melbourne SEO services cost is a lot like asking how much a holiday will cost.
If you’re looking at booking a vacation, there are a number of factors that will determine the expenses of the vacation. You’ll need to consider the vacation destination, mode of transport, length of time away, who’s travelling, and what time of the year you’re going.
The costs of the vacation will rely on these influencing factors. Every vacation is different; that’s why costs can vary so greatly.
SEO prices are no different. There are several elements that influence the costs of SEO services and with every website being entirely different, the strategies used for an SEO campaign will also vary.
What Determines the Cost of SEO Services?
There is no one-size fits all SEO campaign for Melbourne businesses – there are, however, a number of factors that will influence how the SEO campaign is executed and how much it will cost.
1. How Serious Are Your Competitors?
How competitive is your market?
If your business is based in a niche that is particularly saturated, it will be take more work to compete for search engine rankings positions. More competition will involve more optimisation work in order to achieve results. Less competition will involve less work, as it will be easier to obtain rankings and visibility.
The costs of an SEO campaign will be significantly varied depending on the industry, and the amount of competition.
2. Business Location
What area is your business servicing?
Some areas are more competitive than others for search engine rankings. A business operating and servicing on a national level will require more search engine optimisation work than a business attempting to rank for a small rural area.
It is much easier to rank for a keyword targeting a single suburb in Melbourne, than it is to rank for that keyword in the whole of Melbourne, the state Victoria, or the entire country. Search rankings will be easier to obtain for areas that are lower in competition, and therefore the price of local SEO in Melbourne will be lower.
3. Your Business Goals
What do you want to achieve?
The cost of SEO for your business will also be influenced by what your business hopes to achieve with an SEO campaign. If your intentions are to rank in the top three, more work will be required to execute a comprehensive SEO campaign. If your business would just like to increase website traffic moderately, there will be less work involved.
A steady and local SEO strategy will allow for lower SEO prices due to less work and time involved to achieve those goals.
4. SEO Work Completed in the Past
What SEO has already been done?
An element that is often overlooked when considering costs is the influence of the work that has already been completed.
Whether the SEO work left damaging or positive impacts, this will help to determine some of the SEO costs.
Costs will be increased if an SEO specialist will have to go back and fix a number of things a previous SEO consultant got wrong. On the other hand, the price may be lower if there has already been some positive work completed.
5. Who is Doing the Work?
Who is doing the work, and where?
Another large influence on the price of SEO is the agency itself. If the work is being completed from overseas, it will likely come at a smaller cost.
A reputable SEO Agency (like us) will pay their staff higher wages, and therefore, your marketing services will cost more.
Sure, you can save money by outsourcing your SEO. However, he problem with overseas SEO agencies is that the difference in language, time zones and market can be damaging, and the quality of work can be compromised. Whereas in Australia, you can rely on the fact that you’ll be able to frequently contact, communicate with, and even visit your agency.
All of these factors combined will be able to give you an idea of what SEO should cost for a business campaign. However, there can sometimes be a bit of a disconnect between what SEO costs and what it should cost.
How Much Should You Spend on SEO in Melbourne?
Search engine optimisation is the act of working with search engines to increase a website’s traffic, clicks, and conversions from search engine visibility. SEO at its best is a sustainable marketing technique that enhances online presence and improves visibility.
The longer someone spends optimising a website for SEO, the more visibility the business will benefit from. And the more money invested with an SEO specialist, the more time they will invest in your website.
The question you need to consider first, is how much are you willing to invest in SEO?
Because that’s what SEO is: an investment in your business.
In terms of what you should be paying, there is no one-size-fits-all SEO campaign, so there is no one-size-fits-all SEO price tag.
However, we understand that you may genuinely need a price bracket to work with for a marketing budget. For the purpose of providing a general price guide, there are typically three types of SEO pricing you might come across.
- An SEO specialist may charge you an hourly rate. This generally between $75-$200 per hour.
- An SEO Agency in Melbourne may require a monthly SEO retainer. The average SEO retainer is between $1,400-$10,000+ per month.
- Pay for Performance SEO. This kind of SEO campaign relies on dynamic pricing that will depend on the overall success of the SEO strategies.
You Get What You Pay For
Keep in mind, how much you spend will be a reflection of what will be put into your business. In other words, when it comes to SEO, you get what you pay for.
The price of each SEO strategy will reflect the time spent working on the actual campaign. If you’re paying a low price point, you can expect to have very little time put into your SEO campaign. If you’re paying more for a quality SEO campaign, you can expect more.
If you’re not entirely sure what you’re paying for, we get it. SEO can seem both vague and complicated at the best of times. Here’s what you can expect from a high-quality SEO campaign:
- Industry research
- Competitor Analysis
- Keyword Research
- Content Marketing
- Data Reports
- Link Building
- On-site Optimisation
- Off-site Optimisation
- Tracking Reports
- Account Management
Budget SEO – What Are You Actually Getting?
There is an enormous difference between good SEO and bad SEO. And let’s be clear, cheap SEO is never good.
As consumers, we are constantly on the lookout for a bargain. However, this cannot be applied to SEO services. There are plenty of products to shop for the lowest price. When it comes to SEO, you need to shop for the best service. Unfortunately, the lowest price and the best service are two attributes you will not find working together in digital marketing.
To put a number on ‘cheap’, anything below $500 a month should raise some serious questions.
Generally speaking, if a company claims to offer high value SEO for such a small amount of money, they are bad news. It’s important to remember not all SEO Services are created equal. There is bad SEO, and there is good SEO.
Bad SEO relies on short-term, poor quality black hat strategies. Bad SEO will cost less, but it will hurt your business and end up costing you more later. If a company is willing to accept such a low price point, they are doing something suspicious, such as:
- Black hat strategies to obtain immediate, short term rankings that will ultimately result in a Google penalty
- Services being outsourced from overseas that will be very poor quality
- The campaign being completely ignored while the agency continues to onboard as many customers as possible (churn and burn method)
Good SEO will increase your organic traffic, make your website more visible, and your business ahead of the competition. Good SEO relies on a comprehensive and thorough long-term process that will take several hours each day, for a number of months or even years. Good SEO is sustainable. It is a serious investment for your business – hence why it will come at a higher price.
How to Avoid Working with Dodgy Companies
The best way to avoid working with scamming agencies is to have an idea of what to look out for. There is no shortage of spammy and shady SEO companies that claim to be the best and most knowledgeable. If you have an idea of what these SEO companies look like, it will be easier to avoid working with them. Here are some great ways to weed out the shady companies:
Can Your Business Afford to Invest in SEO?
SEO is a scalable, long-lasting way to improve the quantity and quality of leads that your website receives. It really depends on how serious you are about success.
The amount of money you pour into your business, will reflect in its success. Search engine optimisation is the key to sustainable online visibility and growth; and online visibility is the key to finding new customers and conversions.
The old saying “you have to spend money to make money” rings true. High quality SEO is an investment that takes time and money. Paying more initially, will result in your business outdoing everyone in the long run. Don’t skimp out on your SEO services – work with an agency you can trust.
