SEO is not a singular process. It is a mix of different on-page, off-page and marketing tasks. You can choose to do as few or as many of these optimizations as possible, but in general, the more you complete, the higher your site will rank in SERPs.
Generally, most service providers offer all these costs built into a package deal – meaning you only pay a flat monthly or hourly fee without seeing each individual product. But here’s how some of the SEO costs can break down.
1. Revision
Before you can develop an SEO strategy, you need to see where you are. An SEO specialist can do this by performing an audit of your website. This involves looking at your existing efforts to see how well you are doing and identifying areas where you can improve.
SEO audits are not cheap. They can typically start at $500 for a simple backlink check to up to $30,000 for a full content audit. That said, they are usually a one-time fee.
2. Creation of Content
Content is the star of SEO. This is what search engines go through to determine if your site offers value to a user. With that in mind, you need a variety of content that is keyword optimized, as well as compelling meta titles and meta descriptions.
If you want effective content, it must come from an experienced content creation specialist. Experienced specialists can charge anywhere from 20 cents to $2 a word, which equates to $200 to $2,000 for a 1,000-word landing page.
3. Link Building
Google ranks websites based on their authority. To become more authoritative, it helps when other reputable sites link to your content. This is called “backlinking” and while it can happen naturally if you have quality content, it is possible to pay to get other sites to link to you to help rank faster.
Getting backlinks is not cheap. It costs anywhere from $100 to $1,500 per link depending on the industry and quality of the site. There is no magic number of backlinks that a website must have to rank higher in SERPs, but it helps to have at least 40 to 50 on your website.
4. Technical configuration
SEO isn’t just about what’s on your site—it’s also about how your site is built. You need to design your site with an easy-to-navigate architecture, including a robots.txt file that Google can crawl. You should also make sure your website is mobile friendly.
All these backend tasks are best left to a developer. These types of professionals can typically charge anywhere from $40 to $160 an hour for their services, according to Zippia.
5. SEO Research Tools
Researching keywords and competitors can help inform your SEO strategy so you know exactly how to proceed with your content and advertising. For this step, you probably need the help of SEO tools and software. Some good examples of these include Ahrefs and Semrush, which start at $99 per month and $129.95 per month, respectively.
6. SEO reporting and monitoring tools
Once you’ve implemented an SEO campaign, you need to make sure it works. To do that, use reporting tools that help you track link clicks, paid search results, and other website analytics.
The good news is that these features are often bundled into a subscription to a research tool. You can also rely on Google Analytics, a free tool that monitors your website traffic.