Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a buzzword with Internet marketers. In fact, it is so important for drawing targeted traffic to your site that there are companies that exist only to help you optimize your site for the search engines. Therefore, this is an introduction to SEO and how you can use it to your advantage; however, it is not an exhaustive explanation. Plus, the rules that govern how search engines read your site and how they rank your site are always changing.
SEO rates can be all over the place, so let's dive into what to look for. SEO Pricing Important Facts Include:
1. Average of $100-$250 an hour for US SEO agencies
2. Average $2,500 - $10,000 per month for US agencies
3. $10-$50 an hour overseas
4. Beware of SEO guaranteed results
5. Templated plans are becoming less popular
6. Custom pricing & strategies are needed
7. Watch hidden costs for link building
8. Lower SEO costs for local SEO campaigns
9. Higher costs for eCommerce SEO
10. Additional content creation fees

Whether you hire an inexpensive SEO consultant from a foreign country (hint: India) or a nationally recognized eCommerce SEO agency, there are a few different types of pricing models you can expect to see offered:
1. SEO Monthly Plan Pricing: Many SEO companies will offer monthly or annual contracts that revolve around a monthly calendar. At Outer Box, we create our strategies several months in advance and reflect on our work, results, and progress on at least a monthly basis. A two-way street of communication between the SEO company and client is crucial to achieving the very best results possible. It is important to note that while we offer monthly plans, we do not offer one-size-fits all SEO monthly packages, since that kind of approach to SEO isn't the most effective. Many monthly packages offered by other companies will include a set number and type of services, such as articles written, backlinks gained, and pages optimized. These types of "turnkey" packages are often sold by inferior SEO agencies who are more concerned with delivering a specified amount of tangible work each month than producing results. Beware of any companies promising to build a specified number of backlinks per month, especially since the quality and relevancy of backlinks pointing to your website is significantly more important than the quantity. While our planned tasks and SEO activities are scheduled on a monthly basis for organization and streamlining workflow, our strategies are not confined by these types of "pre-assembled" monthly packages. Our SEO services are instead customized so that we are always working on what we know will deliver the greatest ROI.
2. Pricing SEO by Hourly Rate: SEO hourly rates mostly fall in the $50-250 per hour range. If your business is making only a few hundred dollars per month in online revenue, do not expect to see a fast turnaround on $1,000 per month of SEO spend. If you are looking to pay for SEO by the hour, it may be wise to hire a consultant or hire an agency to perform an SEO audit and then pay an hourly rate for specific SEO services as needed. However, if you do need those types of immediate results with a website with very little existing exposure, you likely would benefit by supplementing your SEO efforts with paid advertising, such as a Google Ads campaign, to begin with. Do not fret; Outer Box also offers some of the nation's leading AdWords management services, so talk with us about how we can help your campaign be as successful as possible.
In the spirit of transparency, I'd like to share a real-world example. Keyword research indicates that an average of 500 people search the exact query "how much does SEO cost" in Google each month. That's part of the reason we decided to write this article! This question is a considerable source of confusion, especially for those early in the researching stages. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.
The short answer is that SEO pricing ranges anywhere from $50 per hour to over $250 per hour depending on the SEO agency you hire. The SEO-famous Neil Patel ostensibly charges up to $5,000 just for an initial hour-long consultation. All of that is not to say that your neighbor's daughter down the street who is "good with computers" won't offer to do it for $200 a month, and heck, she might even know what she's doing! We're also not saying that Neil Patel might not be worth that $5,000 price (spoiler alert: if you're not a Fortune 500 company, he most likely isn't).
No matter who you ultimately trust to provide SEO services for your business, how much SEO ultimately costs depends on many variables, including:
1. Overall technical aptitude of your website and the CMS (content management system) for the content on the website. For example, Outer Box is a leading provider of eCommerce website design, and the websites we build for our clients are designed to exceed the expectations that Google and other search engine algorithms demand. Having a technically sound site built with SEO and ecommerce best practices in mind makes it much, much easier to optimize effectively and efficiently. The majority of CMS out there significantly lack in this area (looking at you, Magento).
2. Existing visibility in organic search. If you're starting with a brand-new website with zero domain authority and no rankings to speak of, expect to pay more or wait longer for tangible results.
3. Existing brand awareness and exposure. See the previous point.
4. Expertise level of the company providing SEO services. This is especially true as it pertains to your industry and niche within that industry.
5. Business goals and objectives. That includes the role you anticipate organic traffic from search engines like Google and Bing to play while working towards those goals.
6. Competition. Overall competitiveness will vary depending on your industry and the set of keywords you need to target
7. Urgency. SEO takes time to be effective, so quicker results require more time and resources.
8. Target audience and demographic. Are you looking to run a national or global SEO campaign, or are you a local business operating within a confined geographical area? This may or may not affect the overall price of your SEO campaign.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath