We are highly skilled, consider ourselves as ethical and we’re totally up front about our fees. We give professional advice, produce good results and charge monthly fees ONLY if we think it will benefit the client. We DON’T employ cheap labour and we DON’T charge monthly fees where they’re not neccessary. For example, a brochure website in a non selling low competition marketplace – we optimise the site taking it to the clients desired level then leave them to manage it inhouse afterwards. No monthly fees neccessary.

I disagree with “Affordable SEO Services” about fees relating to Algo changes. We have many sites that have never had a code change in years but still remain on page 1 for their key phrases. No one knows when or what the algo changes are so I’m puzzled by this.

I agree totally with John above about these “super SEOs” charging clients £1000s whilst farming it out to India for £100 a month. This IS a rip off. We know of one large SEO company who were charging their clients big monthly fees but they never ranked above a similar site we optimised. We never charged our client more than a few hundred pounds a month and obtained better results. Needless to say the other client approached us in the end but we couldn’t take them on as it would conflict with our existing client.

Depending on the project we charge monthly fees accordingly. Most small business sites we only ever charge a few hundred every now and again for metrics evaluation or landing page adjustments – ie something that will benefit the client. If a new page is not doing well then we charge around £5-600 for A/B testing and this has never been an issue for any client because we get them new business and sales. We also have a web design depertment so we understand how a well designed and optimised page will rank as well as convert customers.

This post paints a bad picture about monthly fees and effectively tars good SEO companies with the same brush. Agreed…when a page is optimised it’s optimised BUT most ethical SEO companies are not performing SEO – they’re performing “internet marketing” and there’s a big difference. The monthly fees are justified by the ROI’s and if any company spent £20k a month without seeing any ROI then I’d be very surprised.

The current problems are due to the wave of new SEOs charging stupid fees who have no marketing and analytical skills or even a track record!

To understand monthly fees you need to understand the clients expectations in their marketplace then apply appropriate services that will achieve a decent ROI for the client. This applies to any company large or small.

Take an online product store for example. Most SEOs have never heard of Google base. Google recommends uploading data feeds on a daily basis. These feeds are hand written for Atom or RSS, require skill and are very time consuming to write. Add to this PPC management, display advertising, heat mapping, conversion tracking and CPA reduction methods then it’s ridiculously easy to justify fees. This is far too much work for most companies to do inhouse therefore the associated monthly fees are far from being a rip off.

Edited by Admin: Please don’t put spammy keyphrases instead of your name, incase you hadn’t noticed, this blog is nofollow.

Thanks for the comment! This was in many ways my own rant on the SEO industry the way yours was with regards to everyone being a designer that I commented on.

I agree with you that it’s important to work with a company which you know and trust, but even then it’s worth knowing exactly what you’re paying for because a lot of SEO companies out there are content in their own minds that what they are doing is fair but morally they are simply ripping people off.

Just in the last month I’ve come across two VERY reputable SEO companies who are outsourcing non-specialist work for £100 a month and charging over £1000 a month. To me that falls so far outside business ethics that it borders on extortion.. some people might say that makes me a bad businessman, but I don’t believe in overcharging people for work just because they don’t understand it.

A very interesting article. We seem to get an email at least once a week from a so called ‘SEO Expert’ who claims they can get you on the front page of google within seven days and other ridiculous claims. We have used a very reputable company who carry out all the SEO and online marketing for a company I used to work for and they are very honast and open about what they do and what you are paying for. I think it is best to use a company you have had recommended to you rather than choosing one of the many SEO companies that are cropping up.

Like the design world, it seems that the SEO industry is suffering from too many start ups coming in and under pricing the more established and professional companies that are out there.

As for the rest, I have witnessed in more ways than one the actions of several large reputable SEO firms and I speak from experience, sure not all companies are the same and there are some great ones out there – but in my opinion the vast majority like to pull the wool over their clients’ eyes.

But i loved your article nonetheless… :)

Thanks for sharing. Search engine optimization is indeed one of the most crucial areas in Internet marketing, it is a perfect bridge between technology and business….

edited by eggrage: please don’t spam my blog, your name has been changed from promotional spam to ‘anonymous’