The Cost of Search Engine Optimization in Australia
A lot of Australian business owners want to know what the cost of SEO is and how one determines or differentiates between a professional SEO agency or consultants and those shady cowboys you hear about over and over again.
Yes, they do exist.
After all, a good SEO agency is a mysterious creature.
So what should you be charged or paying on a monthly basis for your homegrown, genuine quality search engine optimisation?
With small businesses under more pressure than ever to save on and reduce unnecessary costs and expenses, there really is no better time than now to get educated about the different types of search engine optimisation packages and their sometimes less than reputable providers.
SEO is important, and if you’re not doing it, you’re being left behind. If your competitor is actively pursuing an SEO strategy, not only are they increasing their website traffic and visibility, but they’re pushing you down in the rankings, reducing your visibility.
Almost every business has a social media management plan, but very few have a Search Engine Optimisation management plan.
The Cost of SEO Article Summarised
If you don’t have time to read the full article here is a summarized list of the cost of SEO in Australia:
- Cheap SEO is anything below $600/month. It is ineffective and dangerous to your brand.
- Affordable SEO packages cost are around the $1,000/month mark and should achieve decent results over time.
- Aggressive SEO should start around the $2,500/month mark with a minimum engagement period. Partner with somebody trustworthy!
- Expensive SEO the costs of which are published publicly start from $5,000-$10,000/month. Expensive can also refer to just any SEO that doesn’t work.
- Premium SEO prices aren’t published but our sources tell us that standalone keyword research projects, without strategy have cost over $200,000.
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What is the Average Cost of SEO?
At the moment the average cost of search engine optimisation ranges from about $75-$250 per hour and if you’re opting for an affordable SEO package in Australia, those start at about $600/month, right up to $2,000 for entry-level fees with the big agencies.
So just so everybody is on the same page of what SEO actually means, it involves bringing a deep technical knowledge of websites, as well as an extensive understanding of traditional and digital marketing methods to get your website to rank higher on search engines, mostly Google.
Today we’re here to shed a little bit of light on the search engine optimization cost, what these packages deliver, and where you should be investing.
Lastly, when you consider on-boarding and SEO agency to help your business rank, you will also want to consider minimum contract periods and the length of engagement you’ll need to achieve your results.
The Cost Of SEO
The cost of your SEO package and SEO services will ultimately depend on what you want to get out of them and how quickly you want to see results.
However, while there is the monetary cost associated with SEO strategies, you can land yourself in dangerous territory when the word “cheap” comes in to play. Cheap SEO and Expensive SEO are often the same thing, they achieve little to no results and leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.
The digital marketing industry is filled with cowboys, and when it comes to search engine optimisation, it only gets worse.
Cheap SEO
Cheap SEO, usually, sourced from inexperienced SEO consultants or overseas providers are the ones to keep a special eye out for.
I’d consider cheap search engine optimization as anything under $500/month.
You simply cannot complete the level of work required to do the job right every month.
If you’re a quality SEO provider you know you can charge more than $500/month, and they do.
While not all cheap SEOs are inherently bad, there is a reason they are underpricing themselves so much.
Maybe their knowledge is outdated, or the worst-case scenario would be they employ blackhat SEO strategies that boost you temporarily but can harm your SERP ranking in the long-term, sometimes permanently.
If you can find an SEO freelancer that is new to the market with up-to-date knowledge but is looking to add their first few clients to their portfolio, you might have found a winner for cheap SEO packages to stick with.
Any other time, our recommendation is to stay away from these providers.
Affordable SEO
A step up, and the first real one to consider is your affordable SEO.
This is the goldilocks zone if you’re not being aggressive.
Affordable SEO companies are those that are providing the work at around or below the $1000/month price point but still provide quality work.
These guys are not to that hard to find, you just need to know the right questions to ask and what to results you can reasonably expect over a 3-month period.
SEO by nature is a slow process and with an engagement at this price point you will see results, but they’ll just take a bit of time.
Trust the process. As long as communication with your provider is consistent and transparent, you should have nothing to worry about.
In terms of the service provided that you should expect, it will come down to your type of business, but in general you’d probably only see local SEO type services provided.
Local Search Engine Optimisation concerns itself predominantly with Google My Business optimisation and low-level technical website optimisation
This would include:
- Meta description & title setting
- Basic on-page SEO
- Speed optimisation
- Mobile-friendliness testing & fixes
- Google My Business optimisation
- Limited content creation & blog writing
In fact, you might find that for many providers blog writing isn’t even included.
You could probably find a freelancer that is just starting out who will include more extensive blog writing but, as always, you’ll end up getting what you’re paying for.
They’ll likely ditch you as soon as they get bigger and better clients, having used you as a training exercise.
With SEO, you really do want a long-term partner in the game.
Aggressive SEO
If you’re a professional service or in a highly competitive niche with plenty of manpower to fulfil extra jobs, you’ll want to consider an aggressive SEO strategy.
Especially in Australia, most industries that we come across on a metropolitan level have hugely underutilised search engine optimisation.
Everybody is focused on social media marketing or Google Ads, but the mysterious SEO is usually left for last.
Crazy!
Most projects we start for ourselves being with SEO first. We know we’ll reap what we’re sowing so we starting sowing early.
You’ll find aggressive SEO strategy pricing will depend greatly on your competition level, but really you shouldn’t expect to be paying any less than $2,500/month and upwards.
As mentioned previously, you’ll just need to partner with somebody who is trustworthy.
The way to identify the good from the bad is to see whether they are covering basics like keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink audits. For bonus points, you do want them to be looking at competitor benchmarking and some minor form of backlink building.
Without a clear idea of who you’re trying to beat for certain search terms, there’s really no way of having a strategic approach to improving your ranking, you’re doing things blindly.
Good SEO is driven by data, and this data should be guiding you on who and what to pursue.
For a comprehensive SEO strategy you want to make sure that they’re covering:
- Technical On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
- Consistent content marketing & creation
- A drive to generate conversions and increase ROI
- Link building & outreach
- Competitor benchmarking & comparisons
- High-level schema markup
- Redirect management
- & more
Make sure when you get your SEO package pricing that these basics are all included. Utilizing social media to generate and backup content with positive social signals has never hurt anybody.
Expensive SEO
Fundamentally, I believe expensive SEO doesn’t exist as the word expensive has a bit of a negative connotation to it. The only type of SEO that is expensive, is the type that doesn’t generate ROI, or a return on investment.
In reality, expensive SEO is really just high-end SEO.
While massive clients or once off large projects are a bit beyond our business startup and small business SEO specialisation, based on research and networking with industry professionals from all around the globe, we know that monthly retainers start from $5,000-$10,000/month with once-off projects easily cost $50,000+.
Investing in your Australian business SEO at this level means you’ve got a serious budget behind you and some serious gains to make.
In Australia, we tend to forget that the world is much larger than our small population and when it comes to business, especially eCommerce, the potential to make money on a global scale is unprecedented.
Premium SEO
When you start to dive into the world of premium search engine optimisation you’re venturing into highly secretive deals within very closed off groups.
Having gotten the odd glance into these circles, we know that some simple keyword research projects, sourced from one of the big global brands, have started at over $200,000 for a one-off project.
On-site optimisation for a large eCommerce store could take several months, also costing 6-figures and above.
The Cost Of SEO Packages in Perth
The search engine optimisation packages we offer Perth businesses (but the rest of Australia too, I just had to mention Perth for good SEO :)….Melbourne ) are always bespoke and based on the content creation strategy you currently have in place or would like us to put in place for you.
Our small business SEO packages start from $625/month for Local SEO covering an extensive range of services, keyword research, backlink audits and building strategies, competitor analysis and so much more
Content is still king when it comes to high-quality SEO and if we can get you writing posts, articles and infographics that are reflective of your brand and online tone of voice, we’re in for a win for you.
So, let’s talk about your ranking.
SEO Package Contract Lengths & Costs
Search Engine Optimisation is a long term investment. It doesn’t bring immediate results, so you can expect some minimum engagement terms.
These will range from 3 to 6 months at least.
Here at 3am Ideas, we hardly have any lock-in contracts as we choose to retain our clients on performance, not through paperwork.
We don’t say this to brag, but to set the expectations. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the only service we offer with a minimum engagement period of 3 months.
This is because good SEO takes time.
Sure, on-page changes we make today will likely start benefiting your ranking almost immediately.
However, it is the content creation and off-page SEO that takes a long time to take effect.
Once-Off SEO
We have offered once-off SEO projects in the past, and these are certainly not uncommon.
Mainly, you have a specific outcome in mind.
Such as improving speeds, or improving ranking for one particular keyword.
On bigger projects, it might include the optimisation of all images, product pages etc.
There really is no measurement on cost here as it depends entirely on what needs to be done to your site to achieve your outcome.
Month-by-Month SEO Contracts
We’re pretty skeptical about month-by-month, or no lock-in SEO contracts.
As we’ve mentioned above, good SEO takes time.
If we’re publishing new content for you today, it might take a week before it has been properly ranked and getting you traffic.
That’s if all goes well.
What if we need to tweak some things? Adjust the content based on the user data you’re receiving back?
Then it could take another few weeks, depending on how many users you’re pushing to your content.
1000 people reading your blog post gives us a lot more insight into what needs improving when compared to only 10 people reading your blog.
As such, we believe that on a month-by-month engagement, you cannot possibly be receiving sustainable search engine optimisation efforts.
The agency you’re working with will likely be spending too much attention on ensuring you’re paying next month’s fees, to even be looking at growing your website traffic.
Minimum Engagement Periods
When it comes to SEO, you’ll want to partner up with somebody whom you can trust.
They can make your break your website’s ranking, permanently.
So before you go out making any hasty decisions, be sure you have a solid and trusting relationship with your SEO agency.
Your SEO agency should have your business’ growth at heart first and foremost.
We always tell our clients we want them to consider us as part of their business team, not some consulting company they’ve hired.
We’re there through the blood, sweat, tears, and successes.
If you have that sort of relationship with any of your service providers, then a 3 or 6-month engagement period shouldn’t worry you.
Over those 12 to 24 weeks you’re giving your SEO experts the time and resources needed to put a long-term strategic plan into place.
Long-term strategic planning is what is required to sustainably grow Google and other search engine traffic.
If you want instant results, SEO isn’t for you. Maybe check out Google Ads instead, if you need immediate results.
Additional Things You Should Know About The Cost of SEO Packages
Location
Obviously, the cost of SEO packages will vary from location to location. An SEO package in Melbourne won’t be the same as if you’re sourcing your work from Perth.
Local competition will naturally determine the cost of your services, you can however reduce the cost if you’re just a little bit clever in the questions you ask in your initial meeting with your SEO agency.
Outsourcing Overseas
We most definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND outsourcing your search engine optimisation work to overseas providers.
Aussie jobs should be kept local where possible as it supports our economy and community, which ultimately will trickle back down to you.
Equally as important is that whoever ends up doing your company’s SEO, should know the local market. You don’t want a disconnect between your provider and your target audience.
Gone are the days when you can just stuff in keywords. Over time, search engines have placed more importance on the non-technical signals of SEO, such as great content, to determine where a site should rank.
Don’t create junk content for the sake of creating content.t It’ll just harm your brand and won’t get you quality traffic in the long-term.
Doing Your Own SEO?
Check out our guide and list on how to get easy backlinks.
3am Ideas Australian SEO Packages
PRICING DESIGNED TO GENERATE RETURNS
We’ve been dominating the search engine results page for our clients since 2014. Since then, we’ve generated a significant amount of traffic and improved website conversion rates along with it.
Great SEO creates tangible results, sometimes within weeks of launching. Discover 3am’s SEO packages.
SEO Packages for Small Business
We can get almost immediate results with our SEO strategy.
But, Search Engine Optimisation is a long-term game, and often requires a decent amount of investment before you see results that are really, really good.
What we suggest you do is couple your small business SEO with a Google Ads campaign.
This will drive in immediate results, offsetting the initial investment you’ll need to make to start ranking higher and getting more traffic.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Packages for Small Business
If you’re not quite ready to onboard an SEO agency in Perth, that’s ok. Maybe you’re not sure if they’re even worth it yet, and you’re right to have your doubts. There are a lot of SEO cowboys out there.
To put your mind to rest and to show you what can be achieved with your website, we offer a free 1-hour consultation, where we sit down with you and go over everything you have in place at the moment and what you might want to consider implementing over the next 3, 6 and 12 months.
Consultations are also available via Skype if you’re interstate or based overseas. We’re happy working with SEO clients from all over Australia and the world.
