How much to charge this SEO client?

-joe-

-joe-

Britfag
May 6, 2010
4,319
72
0
Just outside London, UK
Hi there, just started a SEO agency.

I think generally, my numbers I'm charging are ok, but for this guy, I'm stuck.

He's in a pretty competitive niche (don't want to say too much, confidentiality & all that, but his main competitor is worth over $600 million. It's not payday loans, home improvement, teeth whitening, credit scoring, or any of those ultra-competitive niches.)

His site's been up since 1997, so has a fair bit of age to it. Onpage SEO is already optimized. He's at the top of page 3 for the keyword he wants to rank for, and is the 4th listing for "his keyword uk" (3rd without the quotes). The main competitor I mentioned is 2nd, in both.

He has 2000 backlinks, and his pagerank is 4. The keyword isn't in the domain, but none of the first page ones do either. Competition is 260million for the term he wants to rank for, and a bit over 100million for the one he is already.

Backlinks of the other sites are: top site: 5000, bottom site: 2000.

Top site's PR is 4, bottom is 3.

Currently, the term he wants to rank for gets 1.2m searches a month. Term he's ranking for already gets 12k.

Any suggestions? Looking at probably a monthly fee. Client is in the UK.

Thanks loads! Titties for your trouble.

kitchen_lesbians.jpg
 


.Hack said:
wait-for-soupyone-to-post-nigga-knows-everything.jpg
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lulz lulz lulz

what's your hourly rate?

Sounds like a bear of a niche. you made it clear he's paying for improvements, not to rank #1 right? Getting to the front page might take 3-6 months, but getting to #1 might take another year. Make sure he realizes that.
 
dchuk said:
lulz lulz lulz

what's your hourly rate?

Sounds like a bear of a niche. you made it clear he's paying for improvements, not to rank #1 right? Getting to the front page might take 3-6 months, but getting to #1 might take another year. Make sure he realizes that.
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Not sure of an hourly rate tbh, I've mainly just been working out my costs of the links etc, and then adding a number onto that.

And yeah, although since he's already the top of page 3, I reckon he can get pretty far. And yep, plus he said he realises that with SEO it's probably better to take it slow, so that's good. I'm not a "guaranteed no1 in 10 days" merchant.

Any ideas?
 
-joe- said:
Not sure of an hourly rate tbh, I've mainly just been working out my costs of the links etc, and then adding a number onto that.

And yeah, although since he's already the top of page 3, I reckon he can get pretty far. And yep, plus he said he realises that with SEO it's probably better to take it slow, so that's good. I'm not a "guaranteed no1 in 10 days" merchant.

Any ideas?
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Here's what I'd do...

work out roughly how long it would take me, and times that by my minimum hourly rate (How much I want to earn in a year / 44 weeks / 20 billable hours in a week in my case).

That's my floor price. If I can't make that as a minimum, I won't take a job on.


Then take a look at his commercials... what would a #1, #2 #3 etc. ranking be worth to him?

How Much Money is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business?

That would give you an idea of what his ROI is likely to be.

Another clue his how much is he spending on adwords.

Now, if a ranking increase is likely to be worth $20k / month to him, you could easily charge 2-4K for SEO. That's likely to be your max.

Then I'd pick some middle ground as a starting point. I usually start high in that range with pricing, then negotiate.

Remember: what he cares about is how likely you are to be successful, and how much money you will make him.

What you care about his how profitable the job will be.
 
the biggest question is: do you really think you can do the job?

If you're confident you can do it, decide on what you want to make per hour. Then double that. Then quote based on that.
 
-joe- said:
The keyword isn't in the domain, but none of the first page ones do either.
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Match their strengths (sounds pretty close ATM) and beat them at their weakness.

I'd almost guarantee that an exact match subdomain on this 14 year old domain with a new link building campaign based on diversity and velocity + a big fat anchor heavy link from the domain will do the trick. As a bonus, he'd then occupy 2 spots in the top 10.

paypal month 2 subscription to rage9 when successful
 
amateursurgeon said:
Here's what I'd do...

work out roughly how long it would take me, and times that by my minimum hourly rate (How much I want to earn in a year / 44 weeks / 20 billable hours in a week in my case).

That's my floor price. If I can't make that as a minimum, I won't take a job on.


Then take a look at his commercials... what would a #1, #2 #3 etc. ranking be worth to him?

How Much Money is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business?

That would give you an idea of what his ROI is likely to be.

Another clue his how much is he spending on adwords.

Now, if a ranking increase is likely to be worth $20k / month to him, you could easily charge 2-4K for SEO. That's likely to be your max.

Then I'd pick some middle ground as a starting point. I usually start high in that range with pricing, then negotiate.

Remember: what he cares about is how likely you are to be successful, and how much money you will make him.

What you care about his how profitable the job will be.
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Hmm. It's tough working out what I want to earn in a month, cause I don't know how many other clients I'm gonna have etc. He'll also care about how much the job will cost though - that's the trouble with small business owners, generally, they have no foresight. (not to stereotype! :D)
dchuk said:
the biggest question is: do you really think you can do the job?

If you're confident you can do it, decide on what you want to make per hour. Then double that. Then quote based on that.
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Yeah I think I can. and kk, but I don't really know how many hours this will take. Or how much I wanna earn per. I think each is dependant on the other - there's no point earning $500 per hour if you only work an hour a month.
Fatbat said:
The outsourced web design business didn't pan out?
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Oh it's panning out nicely :D But why do one, when you can do both? :D

The web design thread and the SEO thread are the two most viewed in the marketplace of the forum I'm promoting on :D
 
erect said:
Match their strengths (sounds pretty close ATM) and beat them at their weakness.

I'd almost guarantee that an exact match subdomain on this 14 year old domain with a new link building campaign based on diversity and velocity + a big fat anchor heavy link from the domain will do the trick. As a bonus, he'd then occupy 2 spots in the top 10.

paypal month 2 subscription to rage9 when successful
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Wow. that's an amazing idea that I hadn't considered at all. Thanks a LOAD! :bowdown:
 
erect said:
Match their strengths (sounds pretty close ATM) and beat them at their weakness.

I'd almost guarantee that an exact match subdomain on this 14 year old domain with a new link building campaign based on diversity and velocity + a big fat anchor heavy link from the domain will do the trick. As a bonus, he'd then occupy 2 spots in the top 10.

paypal month 2 subscription to rage9 when successful
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I'm not going to lie, I'll take it!
 
I don't mean to sound like a dick here, but you sound like you're in over your head. I would consider potentially passing on the contract considering you don't have any idea what kind of revenue you want, your hourly rate, or a specific strategy to get this accomplished. I would imagine you lack contracts, proper invoicing and bookkeeping, some sort of project management solution, reporting templates and tools, and site auditing plans. Lot's of shit involved in doing this properly.

You might be better off apprenticing with someone for a while to learn the ropes.
 
I agree with him though. I do a lot of seo work, and if the clients to big for me I pass him on to others I've established relationships with.

Some jobs are bigger than one person, some jobs are bigger than the team I've assembled.

I've actually gotten a lot (and I mean a lot) of referrals the other direction as well as the smaller jobs aren't worth it to the company I've sent work to. Those bigger companies also hire me to do the stuff their employees are to stupid to do so it works out well.
 
dchuk said:
I don't mean to sound like a dick here, but you sound like you're in over your head. I would consider potentially passing on the contract considering you don't have any idea what kind of revenue you want, your hourly rate, or a specific strategy to get this accomplished. I would imagine you lack contracts, proper invoicing and bookkeeping, some sort of project management solution, reporting templates and tools, and site auditing plans. Lot's of shit involved in doing this properly.

You might be better off apprenticing with someone for a while to learn the ropes.
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This.
 
dchuk said:
I don't mean to sound like a dick here, but you sound like you're in over your head. I would consider potentially passing on the contract considering you don't have any idea what kind of revenue you want, your hourly rate, or a specific strategy to get this accomplished. I would imagine you lack contracts, proper invoicing and bookkeeping, some sort of project management solution, reporting templates and tools, and site auditing plans. Lot's of shit involved in doing this properly.

You might be better off apprenticing with someone for a while to learn the ropes.
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Agreed. From reading your initial post I question if you're ready for something like this.
 
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