Pricing schemes

[bvi]

Hi Everybody,

I have never posted here before, as I usually am working "in" my business, rather than "on" my business. No one ever wants to talk money or share info about the dreaded "pricing". Here's the scoop.

I am swamped with work. (I am the only SEO in our business) the rest are designers, developers, programmers, etc. I suspect I am not charging enough for my time, have enough systems in place for this new and ever changing industry, and am taking on too many clients to effectively do everything I would like to do. I think I do a good job, as I get our clients good results, but most of my time is not being billed.

Here's my question. How do you bill for your SEO services? Anyone willing to share their pricing structure? How many clients do you think are feasible, while still being able to do a good job. I have to do everything from start-to-finish with our clients, remember. From meeting time, planning, research, strategy, implementation, copywriting, management/monitoring, measurement, and following reporting and contact with clients.

This is a million dollar questions? Am I the only one struggling with how to bill or structure our services? Please help! I am willing to share our pricing stuff. Free-mtg with client, planning, gathering info, $300 for the site analysis, keyword research, implementation strategy (not the work), budget setting, long and short term goals. $1,000-2,000 to implement, copywrite, basically do all the work, and $40/month to monitor, follow up, write reports, contact clients, and monitor one pay/per/click account.

Yes, I am losing my butt.

[pne]

bvi,

I'm not SEO, barely an amatuer, but your prices seem ridiculuosly low to me. You don't mention anything about your client group, but I guess they must be pretty poor.

I used to work as a Psychotherapist. I decided early on that I would see primarily couples 'cause that's what interested me AND because it paid the most.

Seems to me that if you're the only SEO in your field you could perhaps double (I'd suggest triple) your prices.

pne

[bvi]

Thanks so much for your reply. It made me feel better anyway. A couple things. First, my current qualifier for the clients I take on is only that they be our companies clients. Unfortunately, that ranges from small one person business, to large international corporations. One size fits all worked fine a few years ago, and doesn't anymore.

I am working on systems and the concept of being selective who I work with. In doing so, I need to charge more and handle fewer clients. I don't really know what to charge those fewer clients (to be competitive and reasonable) and what "fewer" equals to one SEO professional. I have ideas based on other companies I have researched, but it is hard to get people to share pricing schemes, even though I am of NO threat to them and have more clients than I can handle.

Thanks so much for the help!

[pne]

bvi,

Understand the problem exactly.

Think about this though. If you don't know what the competition is charging, how do you set a ceiling price? Answer, you charge what you believe your services are worth based on the increased profitability of your clients directly related to the work you are doing for them.

As a general rule you are better off doing half the work for twice the price or, better still, one third the work for three times the price.

It may be hard to say to clients but when they are unable to afford you, then you'll know what the ceiling price is. You already know the floor price.

Good luck,

pne

[bvi]

Thanks. I guess it's all in finding (and selling) the value of what is being sold. Surprisingly, quite a few people are sharing some pricing schemes with me and I have been able to find some published articles addressing these issues. I wish I could go to San Jose in a couple weeks. Anyone else here going?

[bvi]

Anyone know of any good resources or websites regarding pricing schemes, industry standards, etc? I will conquer this. (smiles)
Thanks!

[ddemarest]

BVI:

I think you should charge what you feel your time is worth. In addition to that, I always figure in the "aggravation factor". :)

How is the client to work with? Are they a pain in the keester? If so the price goes up!

Good Luck!

Di

[bvi]

Hi, Yes, there are those clients aren't there. I have found a simple hourly rate works best for them. However, our company wants more scematic/packaged approach for most other clients. Clients have a hard time seeing the value in an hourly charge, vs an approach based on measured value. I would love to charge a flat hourly rate.

Don't you hate the "phone call questions". I think our industry needs to operate more like (yikes!) attorneys and accountants and every phone call counts. Does anyone else charge for phone calls? It seems like clients try to get valuable information and help via the phone. I spend lots of time answering questions over the phone. How do you handle this one? I'm fed up. I plan to charge.....

????

[greeneagle]

You always charge what the market will bear! If you are getting too many clients then the market will bear more outlay. Keep raising prices until you maintain a comfortable growth pace or level out.

Ken

[ddemarest]

Don't you hate the "phone call questions". I think our industry needs to operate more like (yikes!) attorneys and accountants and every phone call counts. Does anyone else charge for phone calls? ????

This is a toughy.....

For me, it depends on the client. If it is a client that gives me a ton of billable business, I may get in to long calls answering a ton of questions.

On the other hand if it is a client that gives me few billables and is always trying to weedle "freebies" out of me, I say something like: "I would love to explain this to you right now, but I have a conference call in a few minutes. Perhaps I can make an appointment with you and pay a visit and come up with a solution for you."

My clients KNOW I don't "visit" for free.

If it is a client that is not near distance, then I try to get as much information about their issue and write a proposal to turn it into a billable.

Another tactic you can use is if you are getting a ton of phone calls from the same person is bottom line him/her: " I really enjoy helping you and answering your questions. We should set up a consulting agreement that would be beneficial for both of us."

When I start out with a client, I give them a laundry list of items: Programming is $X per hour, Graphic Design is $X per hour, On-site Consulting is $X per hour, etc. If they know the rules up front, there are no surprises later and no reason to complain when the bill arrives. I provide extremely detailed billing outlining what I did, for who and what business problem it solved for them.

Good luck! :)