How much does SEO cost in Australia? Our detailed study

How much does SEO cost in Australia? Our detailed study

To know the price of an SEO service, and to verify that your proposed offer is genuine and they are able to deliver, we offer a simple evaluation method, based on studies we have carried out with stand alone freelancers and agencies. 

We will give you SEO pricing ideas, which depend on the number of pages on your site and the industry you are in. 

To know the number of pages, type in google “site: yourdomain.com” (for example, for the number of pages of seoempire.com.au, type site: seoempire.com.au). The number of results displayed by Google corresponds approximately to the number of pages on your site (in any case, the pages that Google has indexed).

How Much Does SEO Cost

Evaluating the price of your project

This audit consists of researching the requirements of clients and what they expect out of the campaign and where they wish their rankings to be. It is generally offered at the start of the campaign. It is not possible to work on ranking your website “in absolute terms”: the agency’s mission will be to identify what your prospects are typing on Google, in order to maximise the presence of your website on these different terms. 

 

 

We can work with you on the research for your business, your phrases and strategy to get there. If you type in for example, SEO Melbourne; you will see a list of all competitors of ours in Melbourne. You should do the same to work out where you intend to be and know your competition. 

Audit Prices

  • Sites of less than 1000 pages: $500 to $2000
  • Sites of 1,000 10,000 pages: $1,500 to $5,000
  • Sites with more than 10,000 pages: $5,000 to $15,000

 

Technical audit

The SEO audit is the heart of the SEO service. It consists in identifying all the ranking factors, with detailed recommendations so that every detail of your website is compatible with Google’s requirements. The technical audit generally does not include implementation.

The deliverable is therefore simply a PDF document, in which you will find all the recommendations for us to complete. It will then be up to your team to review the document and discuss a project and timeline around delivering the changes or updates. In some cases a new website will be quicker, cheaper and much more effective. 

 

  • Sites of less than 1000 pages: $1000 to $3000
  • Sites from 1,000 to 10,000 pages: $1,500 to $5,000
  • Sites with more than 10,000 pages: $3,000 to $7,000

 

Some SEO agencies offer to directly complete the implementation of the audit, that is to say the application of recommendations from the audit, directly on your site. This is quite tricky, as it partly involves creating a large amount of new content, modifying existing pages on your site, in particular the titles, as well as their appearance in Google results.

We believe that site content has a fundamental strategic value, and that the client company should be very involved in this process, in order to match SEO needs and marketing strategy. Creating content simply to satisfy Google can make the site indigestible, inconsistent, and ultimately result in a very low conversion rate from visitor to customer. 

Conversely, not taking Google into account in the design of content is a common error which explains a large part of the poor referencing of a website. It is therefore necessary to work together, between the agency and the people responsible for marketing, in order to arrive at a site right for both Google and for visitors.

You have 2 possible implementation methods. Carry out the recommendations yourself, with the help of the agency (advice, support) or we can complete the job in full. We always try to work as closely as possible with customers and recommend the first option. 

Please note: Not every company needs a technical audit. This is usually reserved for a company that needs a report for a management team, board or investors to consider their options.

 

Back Linking 

Backlinks are the backbone of SEO. No matter what you do with the best site possible and with the best content possible, SEO still requires backlinks. You may hear many people tell you that back links are dead but when you dig deep into the top ranking sites for all Google searches, the site with the most backlinks still wins. 

 

There are 4 main methods to create your site’s backlinks

Guest Blogging 

Submit articles to existing sites to add to your content you have written that is useful for their own readers. In that article, we will place a link to your own site. This technique, called “guest blogging”, costs around $300 to $600 per article, including the writing cost and the negotiation time with each website (this can be very time consuming)

 

Buy links on networks of sites set up by agencies.

These links are usually of higher quality, but still there is a risk involved with this, potential penalties and is usually frowned upon. There is always a risk that they will be spotted by Google and could result in a penalty for your site (even if this risk is often quite low).

Depending on the quality of the link and the category, these links can cost $1000 to $3000 dollars per year. 

 

Creation of great content yourself.

This technique is called “linkbaiting”. To obtain this type of link, you must either have very large internal marketing capacities (or develop an ultra-innovative product or service), or call on the qualities of external communicators to achieve a “buzz”. This type of service is therefore rarely offered in an SEO agency.

 

 

The SEO Empire way

We find that the majority of SEO companies no longer use the true method to build their own links. It has become very expensive due to automation robots who buy domains and sell for a much higher markup. Hosting prices with good hosts have also increased and the requirements for Google is much more than it used to be. This all adds up to more costs and a lot more time. 

The main reason most agencies won’t offer this is because they won’t win the job as it will take longer to rank the clients and also a lot less margins.

To solve this problem, and lower costs while increasing the quality of the work done on the site, SEO Empire have been working with specific industries and have our own product which provides the safest way to make links, use genuine content and we have very little risk of Google penalties. 

SEO needs to be affordable for everyone, especially if you are starting your marketing campaign or business and wanting to out rank companies who have been doing SEO for a number of years. 

Below are rough price guidelines that you should be paying for monthly SEO if you are serious about results. These are very approximate prices and vary per industry and location. These prices are inclusive on articles added for SEO purposes. 

 

  • Sites of less than 1000 pages: $1500 to $3000
  • Sites of 1,000 10,000 pages: $3,000 to $5,000
  • Sites with more than 10,000 pages: $5,000 to $15,000

 

Big names in SEO

Some SEOs professionals have “made a name for themselves”, often because of their social following, their visibility and their contribution to global knowledge on SEO. Their prices are therefore much higher than average. Think + 20 to 50% on the rates indicated above if you use their services. Keep in mind that they may be great in front of a camera but their real results are rarely made public. 

 

Agencies

Agencies are almost always more expensive than freelancers. They will therefore generally be in the upper bracket of the rates indicated above. The advantage of using an agency generally lies in its ability to utilise a full team of experts, move faster on projects and also be more trustworthy. Agencies usually consist of many experts in their field over a “jack of all trades” style person which we believe dangerous. 

 

Freelancers

SEO freelancers are generally more competitive than agencies in terms of price. The freelancer’s ability to deliver must be assessed, because their schedule can be quickly booked out. Some freelancers work in groups and thus share the load. This can be an interesting approach to limit costs but at higher risk with uncertain outcomes. 

 

Scammers

The scams are ultimately quite easy to spot. These are all services offering:

 

  • Automation
  • Link Sales
  • Link Hire
  • Links or prices that are too good to be true

 

These types of people also offer methods which are not granular and offer just back links or just content which alone do absolutely nothing positive for SEO.

You really need to take into account the costs involved in having SEO done for you. If people are offering you SEO at a few hundred dollars a month, or even under $500 a month, there is very little they can do for you without outsourcing it to an unskilled workforce in another country or to use tactics like above that really are not recommended and will very likely end in a negative experience. 

Remember that SEO is all about time spent on your site, social and links. Creating content, modifying text, improving the experience of your visitors, gaining relevance, awareness, inter-actions with your prospects. 

This time can be made available either by an external service provider or by yourself. In the first case, take care to calculate the time that the provider will actually spend on your site, with regard to the work to be done. 

Example: You need to consider that a genuine audit of a medium to large site will take you up to 3 days. If a company is charging you $500 then they must either be doing the audit using an outsourced team, using software which will not truly review your entire position or are not doing all the work. The base rate for any web developer at an agency is at minimum $100 per hour and 3 days will cost you around $2400 depending on the amount of pages your site has. If the numbers don’t add up, then something is not right. 

 

Additional Factors to consider

There are other factors to consider in regards to SEO. Years ago it was a case of building your website, adding base content and then adding links. Over time it became about being mobile friendly, quality content and quality links. Now there are many more factors at play. When you introduce local search also, add more again.

Other costs which you need to consider that will not only bring in business but boost SEO are:

Social Media

Physical old school real world offline marketing (Yes it helps SEO)

Directory listings

Branding

Pay Per Click Advertising

 

With all marketing campaigns you should consider every factor and have a complete marketing solution. Never rely on one factor alone as it will not be the best overall solution or sustainable.

 

To summarise

How much does an initial audit cost?

For a site of less than 1000 pages count between 500 $ and 2000 $.

For a site of 1000 to 10,000 pages, it will be between $ 1,500 and $ 5,000.

Finally, for a site of more than 10,000 pages, count between $ 5,000 and. $ 15,000

 

How much does a technical audit cost?

For a site of less than 1000 pages, the cost is from 1000 $ to 3000 $.

For a site of 1000 to 10,000 pages, it is between $ 1,500 and $ 5,000

For a site of more than 10,000 pages, it is between $ 3,000 and $ 7,000.

 

How much does an implementation cost after an audit?

For a site of less than 1000 pages, it will be between 1000 and 5000

For a site of 1000 to 10,000 pages, between $ 1,500 and $ 3,000.

Finally, for a site of more than 10,000 pages the cost will be from $ 3,000 to $ 100,000.

    

How much does buying links cost?

It depends on the strategy adopted:

From $1000 to $3000 per month for multiple guest blogging links.

For a strategy of renting links from link farm sites, it will cost from $ 2,000 to $ 10,000 per year. (we don’t offer this service)

 

How much would inclusive true SEO cost? 

Sites of less than 1000 pages: $1500 to $3000

Sites of 1,000 10,000 pages: $3,000 to $5,000

Sites with more than 10,000 pages: $5,000 to $15,000

 

*Disclaimer

 

The above prices are very general and very much the average prices. If a company such as BHP or Coles wanted the above services then the time and manpower would be significantly higher. It also works the other way, if you are in a remote area, competition is low and you have a strong brand, your pricing would be much less. 

To speak with the team at SEO Empire about an audit, proposal or if you have any questions about our services, please use the contact us form and we will arrange a discussion with you.