Disclaimer: This post is for the cost of SEO in Canada given the cost can vary in different parts of the world.
What should I pay for SEO Services in Canada?
Nothing in this world is free. Every website you see online costs something, but every website comes with a different price tag. Depending on your goals, the price of Canadian SEO, also known as search engine optimization, may less or more than your competition. By learning what to expect when it comes to SEO in Canada and how much SEO costs, you can then determine what level of service you need or how much you should be investing into your website.
Let’s get started.
Using Your Goals To Set The Bar
Like marketing, which can cost thousands to be effective, SEO is a pivotal practice in the digital world. Not only do you need to use SEO, you need to hire a specialist who is going to do right by you. In other words, not every agency is going to do SEO the same way. Not every firm offers the same service for the same price. That’s why you need to first consider what you want to focus on—and that means doing some research. Will you work on finding high-volume, high-cost keywords to promote and get traffic? Or will you work with on-site customization to increase customer engagement?
Once you figure out what you want to first target, you can then find yourself the right SEO specialist, marketing agency, or Digital Marketing firm that is dedicated to honest SEO practices. Ultimately, your choice about how you want to operate your website and what you want to focus on is going to determine how much you pay.
The Risks of Cheap SEO
Before getting into the price ranges of SEO services, we need to explain why “cheap” or “discounted” SEO services like what you find on gig websites can be a potentially fatal blow to your business. First, while you might be able to get an honest audit for $5, any discounted SEO service that runs around $100-$300 a month is not realistic.
Cheap SEO can mean one of two things: either the specialist isn’t doing things justly and is using black hat or they aren’t doing anything at all. In short, you could be making a costly mistake that gets you no growth. The less you pay, the less the agency or specialist will commit to your website. They will look for time-saving shortcuts—and this could end with your website getting smacked with penalties from search engines or algorithms.
Cheap SEO services will:
- Have low rates of customer satisfaction
- Have a high churn rate, meaning the specialist or firm has a low percentage of returning customers
- Use strategies with poor results, such as black hat methods like copied & spun content, PBNs, or buying links from link farms
- Do nothing
The outcome of any one of the above listed points can be devastating. No one wants their domain erased from the world wide web, but if you wind up getting penalized, it will felt like your online presence was indeed washing away. Instead of spending less SEO on unprofessional and untrustworthy services, opt to make that investment that will get you where you need to be.
The True Cost of SEO
Time to bust a myth: You can’t invest the minimum in SEO and expect outstanding results. Any professional service worth something will tell you two things: SEO is expensive, and SEO takes time.
A rule of thumb for investing SEO is that businesses put about 5% of their revenue into SEO and marketing. Expanding businesses or enterprises should invest about 8-10% of that revenue.
In other words, a small business that aims to begin advertise would spend about $5,000-$10,000 a year. A business that spends around $10,000-$20,000 can begin testing multiple channels of advertising, marketing, and A/B testing. However, if you want to devote your SEO to a consistent campaign that focuses on multiple audiences while doing research on the trends that will help your business grow, the recommended cost could range between $20,000-$50,000 a year. The biggest brands out there sometimes spend upwards of $100,000 a year on SEO and digital marketing alone.
How does this happen, you ask? Hourly consultations for SEO specialists can run around $100-$300 an hour, especially if they’re top tier. Some groups are cheaper. Add in the cost of labor and the advertising, keywords, and so on, and you rack up the cost. Again, the cheapest options are usually SEO specialists who are inexperienced.
This isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to show you that the investment is worthwhile. What you put in, you’re bound to make back.
Relevant: How to Get Professional SEO Monthly Services as low as $699/ Month
Estimating the Cost of Your SEO
The phrase, “You get what you pay for” has never been more true than with SEO. Search engine optimization isn’t something you can skip, because it’s an integral part of your entire design. Every day, there are SEO specialists who are meeting clients who had made the grave mistake of relying on “cheap” SEO, resulting in penalized websites and domains, or how some companies pour thousands into their SEO but get nothing in return. Not only should you invest in SEO, you should know who to purchase these services from.
What you pay is dependent on your goals, how long you want to run the campaign, your competition, and how fast you want results. To estimate the cost of SEO monthly or yearly, here’s a few things to help you:
Faster results means paying more, because the specialists will need to spend more time on your case.
The more people you want to target, the more expensive the campaign will become.
Overcoming the competition means investing more into SEO than they currently are. Unless you match them dollar for dollar, you will lag behind.
In short, the more you want out of SEO, the more it’s going to cost in the long run.
Hopefully, you know now how much SEO costs and why. By investing the amount that’s appropriate for your needs, you will be able to remain at the top of the charts while getting decent ROI. Remember the factors listed in this article while searching for the solutions that best fit your goals and budget. Look at the experience of the firm, ask about referrals, and make sure they have an acceptable churn rate. With that, you’re ready to seek out the best SEO services around.
