Most companies are VERY secretive about their costings so it can be hard to get an idea of what is “normal”. Late last year the folks over at SEOmoz ran a survey asking agencies and SEO consultants exactly what they charge, what they do and who their clients are. They had over 600 responses and culled any from regions that didn’t have more than 10 to keep the data size kinda reasonable.

Most respondents were from the US, but we did have 29 from Australia and NZ.

7 points that struck me:

1. Probably not a surprise to many of you that India’s hourly rate was lower than the other countries on average. When it comes to monthly retainer work though it is on par with the other countries, so keep that in mind next time you get a random email for “cheap SEO”.

If you know what you are doing and can ask for specific jobs on a hourly rate you could save some money using providers from India. You  possibly wouldn’t save anything on  monthly retainer though (unless you are getting more work done than you would with a local provider).

2. 62% of Australian firms charge between $76 and $200 an hour for hourly jobs.

This is the most common hourly rate around the world (with the exception of India) and is perhaps the most concrete answer to “how much does SEO cost” .  Price variations for other fee models vary quite a bit.

all images via http://aytm.com and http://www.seomoz.org

3. The most popular ways to price in SEO was by the project, by the hour or monthly retainers.

Very few offer a fee structure based on revenue sharing or the like.

4. “By the SEO project” was most commonly charged at between $1000 and $7,500  .

This is a huge range, but then a “project” can be many things…

5. Monthly SEO retainers vary the most.

In Australia the most common was between $251 and $500 per month, but quite a few between $501 and $750 and $2501 and $7501 a factor of 10 increase!!

a note on monthly retainers – make sure you know what they involve. I was talking with someone recently who had been quoted around $1100 a month with a 12 month contract. It was very clearly layed  out  exactly what they got for their money  each month, and it was very little (especially in the first two months) and probably not overly effective.  That kind of stuff makes me cross!

If you are signing into a monthly retainer for your SEO make sure you get reports of where you are ranking regularly and that they will change tactics if things arent going as well as they could. While a big checklist of  “things” that are done each month might look great at the start of the year; they don’t look so good if 4 months in you haven’t moved up the rankings and you’re locked into a 12 month contract!! 

SEO changes all the time and is different for every job. Your provider needs to be flexible.

 Ok, I’m done ranting now.. next point.

6. Services offered by SEO providers are pretty broad.

In Australia its a pretty even distribution between recommendations (for each of  SEO, content changes , social media, link building etc) , hands on  page changes, keyword research, link building, and web design and web development.

The only things we dont seem to do much of is infographic/ logo etc creation , content promotion / viral pushes and on-site training seminars.

We must be a well rounded lot!

7. SEO providers work with a LOT of small to medium business.

In Australia, most of the providers responded that they look after  more “hyperlocal” businesses than any other type. Closely followed by small and small – medium businesses.

The hyper local thing may well explain the low monthly retainers. Local targeting is relatively easy for SEO so a committed few hundred dollars a month can make a big difference if used effectively.

You can see the blog post SEOmoz wrote on all this here.

And the complete full sized infographic from ATYM here.

So.. what do you think? Does your provider charge the same? Do you have any rants of your own you’d like to make?  Let us know in the comments!

If you liked this don’t forget to “like” it and share it with your friends .

Annnd… If you’re looking for someone to do your SEO,  you get excellent value for money right here.  Take a look at our SEO page for some of our own pricing.

WordPress is super easy to use and to modify. Perhaps the best feature of a WordPress site is its access all areas, no holds barred user-friendly interface. You can make changes yourself, whenever you want, or you can pay someone to make changes for you.

No special, secret coding to stumble over, just full, unlimited access to every aspect of your site. It’s amazing how many people pay good money for a great website, only to discover that they have to pay an IT expert to make simple changes like background colours, header images and logo updates. There’s a saying ‘If you can use Word, you can use WordPress’, and it really is true.

2.    You can be what you want to be!

WordPress is fully functional, and definitely not limited to blogging. You can do anything you want with a WordPress website.

I know, this sounds like a huge claim, but truly, you can pretty much create any kind of website you want.

If your business is a very visual one, you can create fantastic galleries, sliders, and spaces where you can regularly update the visuals yourself. If your business has an industry specific focus, you can design your site to include multiple drill down layers for all of the information you’d like to share.

There are 1000’s of th

emes to choose from, some with more capabilities and flexibility than others, many of them free. Or you can bypass all that and have a custom theme created just for your business.

Video, blog, static, dynamic, modern, traditional. Whatever your style, preference or industry, WordPress will allow you to express yourself in a way that will invite your customers in.

3.    It’ll take you all the way to the top!

You can easily upgrade your WordPress site with added features, like e-commerce, and you can change the colours and style without having to go for a whole new site.

As your business grows and expands, so your WordPress website will grow with you.

There are literally thousands of plugins available, each one developed to provide users with options for upgrading your web offering into the best website in the world. Start small and simple, then build yourself a mega-site, worthy of your entrepreneurial skills.

4.    Save yourself a fortune!

WordPress offers great bang for your buck, with no ongoing fees, thanks to its completely open-source foundation. You can download, install and use it on your own server, which

is what makes it so cost effective.

It offers you full access to the back end of your site, without any hidden fees or ongoing charges. It really is a case of what you see is what you get.

WordPress doesn’t measure your website and start charging when you reach a certain size, and it has a huge online community of developers, users and supporters. Did I mention no ongoing charges?

5.    It has all the SEO capabilities you’ll ever need!

WordPress makes SEO so simple; you can easily update the fields yourself, thanks to the fact that you have

complete access to every area you need to update.

Do your Google AdWords keyword searches, discover which words and phrases you need to be utilising, and place them into the back end of your website.

No more waiting to see if your IT guru has had time to

do it for you!

You have all the power. You control the most important part of every business: can my customers find me?

Do you use wordpress? What do (or don’t) you like about it?  Tell us in the comments below!

*Easy street image by NCBrian via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Anyone who has a business website wants to get found on Google. SEO helps customers find your website, so how do we improve your chances of being found? I know what you’re thinking – we find an internet expert to fix the problem. You can do that, and we’ll talk about the best way to utilise that option in another article, but there are some DIY alternatives.

SEO is big business all around the world, with some companies paying thousands of dollars a week to ensure that their website stays at the top of everyone’s search results.

For those of us who take care of our own internet popularity, let’s break the task of SEO down into bite sized pieces. To make your website more visible, using the internet, you need people to know how to find you. If they are searching for a company that offers your services and/or products, will your website contain the words they search?

Imagine your ideal client… They are sitting down at their computer and they need you. How do they find you? They open a search engine like Google, and they type in something like one of the following:

•A question, like ‘How do I find a…’
•A description of what they are looking for, like ‘used motorbikes’
•A description of the kind of business they think might sell what they need, like: ‘bike shop’

They might also include information like this in their search:

•Suburb, state, country
•Postcode, street name

Does this give you ideas about which words people might be using to search for you? You may have already started making a mental list of these words. Now, how do you test your guesses? I’m happy to tell you that there’s a way you can check what words and word combinations people are searching. This means you can know exactly what words and phrases to include in the back end and the front end of your website.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool is free, and it allows you to check your word searches, to see what people are searching when they look for you. For example, if you type ‘second hand motorbikes’ into the search field, here are some of the search stats returned:

Second hand motorbikes    4 400
Used motorbikes        18 100
Second hand bikes    12 100
Buy motorbike        9 900
Motorbike sale        165 000
Motorbike dealers    22 200
Motorbikes for sale    74 000

Which of these words/phrases should you use in your website to attract the most hits? All of them! The more of these strong search words and strings of words you include on your site, the higher your chances are that new customers will find you.

So choose words and phrases that you would use to search for your kind of business, insert them into Google AdWords Keywords Tool one word or phrase at a time, and pay close attention to the combinations in the list which show the biggest number of searches. Record all of these, and use them on your website.

If you want to go the DIY SEO route, a consult with us could be exactly what you need. In just an hour we can cover a lot of information that will help you regularly update your SEO and give you an edge in your field. Most businesses don’t have the first clue about SEO, so you don’t need to be an expert to be ahead of the pack.

The sample report wordstreams adwords grader gives - click for a larger image

What could be better than free? Why, free and fantastic, of course!

You’re committed to advertising your business; you’ve chosen to use Google AdWords as part of your campaign. But how can you know that it’s really working, and how can you find this out without paying a marketing expert for a report?

Wordstream have come up with a handy dandy grader that analyses thousands of AdWords accounts and provides you with a comprehensive report for free. Using worldwide comparisons and a list of criteria to help you measure your success, it might be the best free tool you can have in your promotions toolbox.

The layout is wonderfully simple, with each reporting section given its own space. There are visuals and headings for the reader who appreciates a quick initial scan, and very specific drill down information to give you everything you need to know to lift your game.

Here’s a breakdown of the ten reporting sections:

• Account Diagnostics – how many clicks, how many conversions, average monthly spend
• Wasted Spend – assesses the success of your use of keywords and makes recommendations
• Quality Score (QS) – measures and shows your Quality Score, then makes recommendations
• Impression Share – tells you how often your ads are appearing
• Click Through Rate (CTR) – indicates whether your keywords and ads are getting through to your potential customers
• Account Activity – encourages you to make constant updates to your account, and reports how often you make changes
• Long-Tail Keyword Optimization – encourages you to use 3-5 word keywords, or long-tail keywords which can drive more conversions
• Text Ad Optimization – measures and reports on the success of your text ads
• Landing Page Optimization – shows you the measure of your success in using landing pages for each ad
• PPC Best Practices – gives you a pass or fail grade for a list of suggested Best Practices, such as Conversion Tracking and Multiple Text Ads Running

One of the most useful things about this tool is the specific advice they offer in each section. Rather than merely pointing out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong, the tool offers actions you can take to help you improve your success with Google AdWords. Such a bonus!

Wordstream’s PPC Grader will give you plenty of awesome data, useful recommendations and lots to think about, but ultimately we all know that it’s up to us business owners to be proactive and keep our tools working for us.

So, what grade do I give the adwords grader? Well it depends:

When it’s used as part of a regular assessment of business, I give it a 10 out of 10; but if it’s left sitting unused in your Favourites folder, like a hammer left in a locked toolbox, it’s not going to be able to drive your business to the next level.

I recommend you have a play with it, and I’d love to know what you think. Please leave your comments below.

And you know you need it regularly and often.

And you know it has to be relevant and good.

But you really don’t have the time to spend searching for hours to find it!
Stress not – here are 3 great shortcuts I use all the time.

I say it often, but Google really is your friend.  The first shortcut to finding great content is …

1. Google Alerts

Go to Google Alerts and put in the search term you want to find content for. It can be anything at all. Pick a word or phrase relevant to your business, and set how often you want the alert to come (daily, weekly or as it happens ). Set for best results or all results and put in your email address.

That’s it!

Google will now send content straight to your inbox.  How easy is that?!?

Now you can share it on social media or use it as inspiration for a blog post. You can set up as many alerts as you want  and they will come in different emails for each topic. Make sure you don’t steal other peoples content as your own though.. that doesn’t work for anyone.

Bonus HINT: Set up an alert for your personal name and business name so you can monitor your online reputation.

2. Most shared content / LinkedIn.

Most social media have tools for the most shared content. I like linkedIn’s version best. 

You set your industry / interests and “today on linked in” gives you the most shared links in your field of interest. You can also get them sent to you in a daily digest.

3. Subscriptions / follows

We all have some blogs that we know have consistently great content . Subscribe to them via RSS or email to have them come to you and / or follow them on Facebook , Twitter or Google plus to share straight on the network.

Or you can put all your favourites in google reader

Bonus shortcut – Save some for later

Often you come across great content all at once.  Use your bookmarking option in your browser and have a file called “content” save all the goodies in there as you come across them and then when you are ready to go they are all there waiting for you.

There are lots of other ways the pro’s handle finding content -  what are your favourites? Share them below and help the class

Step 1.  Set up a personal Google+ account with a new gmail address if needed.

Currently you cant have more than one person administer your business page, so if you need to give access to more than one person (or want the option) you need to set up a gmail address specifically for your pages login,

You can create a Google account here  and then

Sign up for a Google plus personal  account here 

Its super easy to do – just follow along the wizard, very similar to other social media sites.

Step 2.  Create your Google+ Business page

Go here and you’ll see this:

If you have a local business, shop, restaurant etc that you want people to visit make sure you choose the Local business or place option. It will take you to a screen where you put in your country and phone number and Google goes and finds your place page to link up.

If your business isn’t place oriented, then just choose whichever one fits best,  hovering your mouse over  each of the options gives you some examples but Google say not to stress too much about picking the right one.

Follow the wizard and fill in all your business details. You’ll be prompted to come up with a 10 word tag line, again don’t stress this CAN be changed later.

Step 3: Snazzify your page

Add your photo strip that will show at the top of your page. You have 5 photos (and yes you can change them and order them) , this is similar to Facebook but you have more control. The photos at the top are your “scrapbook”. They can either create a banner effect as one image or be separate elements of your business.

Add videos if you have them and make a few posts, so people have something to see when they stop by.

Step 4: Spread the word you are there and engage

Invite your friends, share with your profile, follow other relevant pages etc to find and engage your users ON Google plus.

Step 4 and a half:  Integrate Google+ with your website

Put a badge on your site and your web address in your profile,from the help section (notice the bit I bold typed? If you are on the fence about having a google+ page pay attention to that)

To link your Google+ page to your website:

1. Go to your profile by clicking the profile icon at the top of the page.
2. Click Edit Profile.
3. On the ‘About’ tab, click Links.
4. Click Add custom link.
5. Enter a title for the link and a URL.
6. Click Save.

After you’ve linked your Google+ page to your website, make sure to also link your website to your page. Learn how to add the Google+ badge to your website.

Linking your page and your website is useful because:

• It helps you connect with your friends, fans and customers.
• It provides Google with information that we can use to help determine the relevancy of your site to a user query on Google Search.
• Your site will become eligible for Google+ Direct Connect.

 Connecting to your website may be beyond a DIY thing for you- Its easy when you know how though, so shout out if you need help and we can take care of it!

Step 5: Adding Circles and (maybe) hang outs

One of the most powerful part of G+ that other social medias don’t have is the circles feature. You can group your followers into different circles. There are four by default (following, customers, VIPS and team members) but you can make up as many as you want.

As people or pages add your page to their circles you can put them in relevant groups. The beauty of this is that you can have special offers for VIP’s or intro offers for potential clients. When you make a status update you can choose which circles see it.

If you have different programs for instance you can send updates on those programs only to the people interested in them and avoid annoying the rest of your followers.

Hang outs are a great place for discussions, focus groups or customer service. You can set up “opening hours” for Q and A or support sessions for example.

Here is what Mashable are doing with their hang out

Step 6 : Explore

This is brand new for everyone and brands are all feeling their way, take a snoop around other peoples pages and see what they are doing to get some ideas.

Don’t forget to drop by and say “hi” on our page. Click here > >

Want more about the difference between Google plus and Facebook? Click to have a look at what I wrote last week

Thoughts? Ideas? Rants? Leave ‘em in the comments.

From their Blog:

Today we’re introducing Google+ for Business, a collection of tools and products that help you grow your audience. At the core of this is Google+ Pages, your site’s identity on Google+.

Google+ Pages: Have real conversations with the right people
To get your site on Google+, you first need to create a Google+ Page. On your page, you can engage in conversations with your visitors, direct readers back to your site for the latest updates, send tailored messages to specific groups of people, and see how many +1’s you have across the web. Google+ Pages will help you build relationships with your users, encouraging them to spend more time engaging with your content.

 

Do you need a Google+ Business page

*sigh*…  I know ANOTHER social media thing to keep track of and engage with.. I feel you… truly I do. But this is google and they pretty much rule the web. So I would if I were you.

Google have come out and said that social indicators are more relevant in searches, they also say in the sign up for Google+ Pages that they can “find your website easier” if you link it to your new Google+ Business Page.

Differences between Google+ and Facebook Business Pages

Google allows you to use the feature that are available as an individual on a business page.

Use Circles to group together different types of people and have conversations with them. You can share different things with each group based on what you think might be of interest to them.

With Hangouts you can have quick feedback sessions with customer segments or even discuss ideas about planned products. It’s a great way to have impromptu conversations with your most passionate customers.

The goal is to help you communicate in more intimate ways with different groups of people.

google plus your business – Googles PDF Guide

 

By 2014 mobile internet usage should take over desktop internet usage.

One half of all local searches are done on mobile devices.

Help your friends and share this offer with them.

Image by ganuullu via Flickrmotivational quotes and funny pictures in the feed.

Human nature is to share things like that and Facebook’s new bigger image size makes them easier to see at first glance. How can you use that to engage your customers?

Human nature is  also to like numbered lists so .. ummmm…. Lets go with

Five ways to make use of this latest Facebook quirk.

1. Show a bit of your personality. Whether you go for funny quirky or motivational these give your customers a glimpse into the person behind the page.

2. Have a competition, have your likers post their favourite images and create a competition or event around it.

3. Have a thought of the day or image of the day.

4. Make someone laugh.

5. Inspire someone

…I probably should have made it three ways not five …

Image via Wikipedia

*coming clean.* This could  have just been a status update, but I haven’t written a blog in too long so I made my random observation here instead.  Anyone who can come up with better uses of the facebook image bias leave them below!

Share your wisdom.

*Spontaneous Competition ANNOUNCEMENT*

Best comments on here AND facebook on any post, image, blog etc between now and DEC 15 will go into a “hat” to win a free custom mobile site valued at $700.

So comment away!

Anyway, let me explain in a way that honestly makes MUCH more sense than “wuv”.
“Meta” basically means “more than” or beyond. So a meta tag give MORE information than what may be on your website itself. There are 4 types that are important. Meta Title, Meta Description, ALT image and Meta keyword.

Now before your eyes glaze over I’ll show you where they fit in.

Title and Description Meta Tags

The title tag is the link Google shows in a search and the description is .. well the description. The description is even more important than it was before with the new way Google are showing their search results…. See how there are a whole bunch of pages listed with VERY short descriptions under my main site? You’ve only got a few characters to tell potential customers what the page is about.

Alt text or image tags

The alt text tag is the text that comes up when you hover over an image. (see video below). They are there so the visually impaired can know what images are on the page. They also tell the search engines what the image is about. Alt text needs to be relevant to the image. If you can put a keyword or search term in there as well it helps with SEO. In the video the ALT text is “small business owner Web site open for business” .

Keyword meta Tags

Keyword meta tags don’t show up visible anywhere. Google don’t use them anymore but other search engines do, so you should still have them in. They are a way of telling the engines what your page is about. So for instance, if you were a hairdresser you would use keywords like : “Hairdresser”, “hairdressing”,” hair dresser”, as well as your location. Don’t use more than 10 words (or phrases) on any one page.

A lot of you know of something called meta tags but don't know what they actually are, so it confuses and infuriates you! It reminds me of this clip from futurama (yes I know my mind is a little warped at times)     Anyway, let me explain in a way that honestly makes MUCH more sense than "wuv". "Meta" basically means "more than" or beyond. So a meta tag give MORE information than what may be on your website itself. There are 4 types that are important. Meta Title, Meta Description, ALT image and Meta keyword. Now before your eyes glaze over I'll show you where they fit in.

Title and Description Meta Tags

The title tag is the link Google shows in a search and the description is .. well the description. The description is even more important than it was before with the new way Google are showing their search results.... See how there are a whole bunch of pages listed with VERY short descriptions under my main site? You've only got a few characters to tell potential customers what the page is about.

Alt text or image tags

The alt text tag is the text that comes up when you hover over an image. (see video below). They are there so the visually impaired can know what images are on the page. They also tell the search engines what the image is about. Alt text needs to be relevant to the image. If you can put a keyword or search term in there as well it helps with SEO. In the video the ALT text is "small business owner Web site open for business" .    

Keyword meta Tags

Keyword meta tags don't show up visible anywhere. Google don't use them anymore but other search engines do, so you should still have them in. They are a way of telling the engines what your page is about. So for instance, if you were a hairdresser you would use keywords like : "Hairdresser", "hairdressing"," hair dresser", as well as your location. Don't use more than 10 words (or phrases) on any one page. [wp-rater]

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