Don’t Buy An SEO “Package”
A lot of SEO companies sell SEO “Packages” – pre-priced programs that list the services you’ll receive on a monthly basis. You might have seen SEO companies quoting something like this:
“SEO Gold” Package – $299/mo
- 4 – 6 keywords
– On page optimization
– 3 article submissions
– 100 directory submissions
– Monthly SEO report
But there are all kinds of problems in quoting this way that can result in projects that are doomed to fail. Here’s a short list of reasons why you should never buy an SEO “package”:
Different Niches Have Different Competition Levels
Imagine that you run two websites: one is in the online poker niche, the other for a second hand clothing store. The amount of time and money you’d need to invest to build a strong online presence for your poker site would be substantially higher. Why?
The online poker niche is full of major SEO competitors who have been at it for years. The second hand clothing niche is soft, with few competitors who are leveraging SEO.
SEO packages fail to account for the fact that the niche you operate in makes a massive difference when it comes to what it will take to compete.
Not All Websites are Created Equal
Quoting “on page optimization” as a flat rate without actually seeing your website is a lot like quoting on renovations without knowing anything about the house.
A 1,000 page site has unique challenges; so does a 10 page site. An E-commerce platform has far different SEO requirements than WordPress. What content to write and how to organize it most effectively will change from site to site. There is no “one size fits all” SEO solution.
Quoting Per Keyword/Page Is Outdated & Flawed
Quoting on a keyword or per page basis used to be popular because it was a metric that clients understood and that was easy to report on, but this line of thinking simply doesn’t align with the way the web works.
If you’re hellbent on ranking #1 for “Calgary SEO” you can miss the long-tail opportunities surrounding that phrase. This thinking can also lead to poor SEO practices like over-optimization of title tags and anchor text or even keyword stuffing. Focusing on X number of keyword phrases also ignores other important metrics like conversions (which phrases actually drive sales?).
It is best to approach your SEO campaign holistically; identifying head phrases that are commonly searched and then writing content that utilizes multiple variations of those phrases, tracking as many of these as is relevant. That simply can’t be done when you’re selling rankings for “X” number of keywords.
Effective SEO is Strategic, Not Templated
While it’s nice to put a quantity to what an SEO company is doing for you every month (20 article submissions, etc.), doesn’t it make more sense to do what’s actually necessary for you to succeed?
If your competitors are crushing you with domain authority, all the article submissions in the world won’t help. If they’re getting traffic and rankings through partnerships, why waste time submitting to directories? If you compete for localized keywords, why invest in tactics that won’t improve your local listings rankings?
The problem with packages is that while they promise you work is getting done, they can’t promise you that what’s being done will actually help you succeed in your niche. For that, you need a strategy, not a package.
Custom Strategy? Custom Quote!
The reason we provide a unique, customized quote for every project we work on is because we firmly believe that SEO can never be a packaged, templated solution. Your website, niche and circumstances are all unique to your business and no package can ever properly account for that.
If you want to succeed online for the long term, don’t buy an SEO package! Instead, choose an agency (like us!) that takes the time to get to know your business and develop a strategy before trying to tell you what you ought to be paying for their services.
Good read, and absolutely agree about quoting per keyword basis. The real traffic (and conversions for that matter) are usually found in long tail/high intent queries!
Thanks Keith! The real challenge is that how you quote can really determine how you work and how you report – if an SEO agency is quoting wrong, you can be certain the work they’re doing reflects that.
Joel, thanks for writing this and pointing out why you shouldn’t buy SEO packages, hence implying you shouldn’t sell them either.
As an SEO company can you not use packages simply as a benchmark for price so the client can get an idea for pricing. A custom estimate to follow, but in some cases client need to gauge price right up front.
Hey Mike – to answer your question, in my opinion, no. The troubles with using packages as a benchmark are pretty much the same; without knowing what your client’s issues are, you’re setting a completely unfair precedent. If the client reads that your “Gold” package is $299/mo and you come back with a quote that is $899/mo, they’re going to instantly believe you’re gouging them because their expectation was set so low. So what are you to do?
Basically, we go out of our way to explain to clients what is involved in quoting them, what we’re looking for and WHY we can’t just spit out a price. We might give them our average price range to work with so they have some idea (those looking for “cheap” will immediately balk saving us both time!), but as a rule we don’t ever give them one hard number to go from.
I don’t believe SEO is something that can be sold in packages in the same way I don’t think a house can be sold room by room. Either your website is optimized for success, or it isn’t.
Hourly rates are about as far as I’d say you should go with giving people an up front benchmark.
Like Joel mentioned – there’s just too many other variables.
I can see the point in this, however, as a local SEO firm, we’ve never had trouble coming up with a one size fits all method of PRICING. Not fulfillment. We do however, research the website and competition beforehand to make sure that the pricing structure we are quoting will actually be beneficial and possible for that client. If their competition is too authoritative then we provide a custom quote. As long as you are up-front with your prospects I don’t see why having pre-packaged deals are a bad thing. It saves time during the quoting process and allows for you to keep a good margin.
Hey Ian – a fair point. Most of the companies I see using packages target a very specific portion of the market; it’s usually SME’s. Again, I see how this makes sense for clients and firms because it seems to cut down on quoting/pitching times. That’s the primary reason I think SEO firms go with that model.
But I still believe SEO projects are a lot like construction projects. Just like you can’t sell a “bridge” package or a “skyscraper” package, I don’t think you can sell an SEO package because the service is by very nature unique. Given the diverse clientele we’re approached by, all I can say is that we’d have a hell of a time trying to come up with even a standard price because the needs and requirements are all over the map. We have a standard hourly rate, that’s about the only easy constant.
I also think it’s harder to be taken seriously as an SEO firm if you sell packages. Are big, enterprise-level clients really going to want to work with a company selling SEO in a model similar to soft drinks – small, medium and large!? Maybe, maybe not. Quoting style isn’t the only factor, there’s your track record too.
But all I can say is that when I did work for a company who quoted on packages, often the firm got screwed, the client got screwed – or both.
Nice post, I have been at the sharp end of the Google penguin update and so I agree with all of this post. For once I let my heart rule my head and took the Lazy mans option and purchased some homepage links for so called “private networks” it killed a money making site stone dead.
Amen brother. I’ve seen this all over, a Broze, Silver and Gold package exactly with the services you listed above. I’ve always wondered, HOW and WHY are these guys doing this? Yeah it makes a ton of sense from the business owners perspective, but that’s like saying “we paint houses for $50″. Well do you paint the inside or outside? How many rooms? How many coats? How many colors?
Custom is the way to go in my opinion. Good piece. I think you’ve inspired me to do my own
Glad to hear it Jordan! Looking forward to reading it when it’s done. Love your painting analogy.