Why does good search engine optimisation cost so much?
Many of our clients have been with us for many years - and they presumably pay our bills because they offer value for money. However, for people that have yet to dip a foot into the seo jungle it is worth while explaining why we charge what we do for our services and why good seo only comes at a price. SEO after all isn't rocket science, is it?
We have all received at one time or another e-mails offering money backed guaranteed top rankings on the engines for a remarkably trivial sum - such as $25. The main purpose of these e-mails is to get your $25 and the use of your email address which is then sold to other spammers as a soft touch. The guarantee turns out to be worthless because all e-mails sent to these crooks go completely unanswered. The fact is that $25 cannot get you anywhere on the search engines and please never be tempted!
An old story is told of a mechanic, who having worked at a factory maintaining its machines for many years, was laid off on the basis that the money could be spent elsewhere. Shortly after his dismissal one of the machines broke down and he was asked to come back in a repair the machine as no one else could. He came in on a consultancy basis, made a few taps with the hammer, and had the machine working within 30 minutes and charged £3,000 for the work. When challenged about the time spent and the cost he spit his bill up so that he charged
Detail of Charges
Whacking equipment with hammer........ £100
Knowing exactly where and how hard to whack... £2,900
The point made is that what he did was not rocket science, but how he did it, diagnosing the problem and knowning precisely where to whack, is the true value given - and well worth the money spent to get the machine up and running. His invoice was paid promptly.
It is the same with SEO - everyone for example knows you should have good keywords on a website site, but details such as precisely which keywords, how many, where they should be placed on the site, the prominence given and the density within the text is something only experience and wisdom gained over many years can answer.
The "what" you can learn in a very short period of time; the "how" takes time, effort and skill.
And that is why the good one's charge the fees they do, and their clients pay those fees, and recommend the good ones to their friends and neighbours.