Life has taught me that good things should be expensive — especially when it comes to any type of digital marketing services. If you’re not an expert, you can end up getting something far from what you’ve been expecting.
Here’s an example of “the best mascot image you can get for your event” that I paid for when organizing one of our first Digital Olympus events:
Just for reference, this is how our mascot looked originally:
My point is, just like working with freelance designers, hiring SEO consultants is only safe when you know exactly what you need and can control every step of the contract. This both relates to the scope or work and the price of contract.
I get really confused when I hear that the price of an average SEO agency contract starts at $1k USD. This number was first shared by Rand Fishkin[1] in 2012 when he asked 600 agencies about their typical rates. Later, in 2018, that same number was published by Ahrefs[2] when they did a similar survey.
As an SEO practitioner, I’m a bit disappointed with the stability of rates, but what bothers me the most is that this rate doesn’t really include link building. I can hardly imagine a successful SEO campaign for an SMB site without acquiring links. To back up my statement with some numbers, I’d like to mention Ross Hudgens' claim that acquiring a good link on a top-notch site should cost $1k USD.[3] Ironically, that’s the whole budget of an average SEO contract.
But to be honest, I don’t quite agree with those rates even though I truly respect the opinion. It doesn’t seem that realistic at scale: if you want to build 10