Being in business we are always forced to justify what we do, and often how much we charge to do it. Now that becomes tricky when you aren’t selling something that can be touched, but rather consulting / knowledge / services that people generally don’t understand. So… why not 5 simple things to consider when picking a Search Engine Optimization company.
Now first, like I tell most of my Pottstown PA clients, you have to determine one thing up front, How much do you really want to know about SEO. You have a choice that has to be made before you think any more. You have to pick if you really want to learn SEO, and do it yourself, or if you are willing to pay for the services.
After you have decided to actually going to pay for Search Engine Optimization, you are likely going to go out and get some quotes and proposals on what you want to experience. The prices are going to range… drastically! This is because all SEO (and Service provider companies) base their price on their business model. With SEO this can range from hourly, to flat rate, to percentage of profit increase, etc. Some, like CarlowSEO.com, offer a combination of them. This is because each one of your businesses, and desires for SEO are different, and therefore require different work to be done.
Admit it… in your business as well, the price you pay is based on location. The same is true for SEO companies. You are certainly going to pay more for someone in downtown Philadelphia than you are for someone in Reading pa.
The fourth thing you should consider when you are looking to hire an SEO company is the price they are charging. This is one of the oldest things to look at, however, it is important. You likely don’t want the cheapest, but also not the most expensive. Remember if you think it is reasonable… it is.
Finally, remember the reason you are doing SEO. If you are doing it to beat the competition, ask yourself why? At the end of the day it is all about ROI (or return on investment). The way you should be thinking about it is this way:
- You sell something (products, services, expertise)
- You profit on average amount for each one of those things
- Therefore if you sell 1 more of those things you have increased your profits.
- The ROI is really the period of time it takes you to pay off the initial investment
Now in practice… Lets assume you sell widgets. Each of those widgets you make $20 profit. Now you decide that you are going to do some SEO and a company tells you that for their efforts it is $2000. So $2000 / $20 = 100… So you need to sell 100 widgets to break even. Now if you sell 100 on average today in 1 month. You are at 1 month for an ROI. So now… ask the SEO company what the ROI is after their service would be.
There you have it. 5 simple things to keep in mind when deciding to leverage a Search Engine Optimization company
- Determine if you want to spend your time, or your money
- The SEO companies business model
- Location, Location, Location
- The straight up price
- Your ROI