How Much Does SEO Cost & Why Should I Pay for SEO

In May 2023, Ahref conducted a survey of the SEO industry regarding the costs they ask for their SEO services. It also included queries about the pricing models that these agencies use. The survey included a response from 357 responses, and here are the findings:

The companies with an SEO budget majorly spend around $100 per month. It is hence significant that you choose from the difference between cheap SEO tactics and a smart one working on the Google webmaster guidelines while looking for an SEO agency in Dubai or in any other part of the world.

Top takeaways from an SEO costing insight

• Monthly fees: Most SEO providers charge a monthly amount for their services owing to SEO and its content. About 70% of the businesses charge monthly fees, which varies significantly as per the respective country.
• The retainers: For monthly retainers, the most popular choice for pricing is between 501 USD- 1000 USD. While the most retainers fall in this category, there is a second range which is preferred i.e. – 251USD to 500$
• Hourly rates: In case respondents are working on an hourly rate; it lies in the range of 100 USD to 150 USD.
• Agencies vs. Freelancers: SEO agencies charge more than freelancers. Usually, freelancers ask for an amount close to 65 USD an hour whereas the agencies charge double this rate.
• Most affordable rates: SEOs based out of India and Latina America charge significantly lesser than business anywhere in the world. Their charges are 60 USD per hour or even lesser.

SEO Costing on different parameters

Let’s have a deep insight into the SEO pricing stats:

• 36% of the SEO respondents charge based on an hourly rate for their services. 50% of respondents charge between $75 and $200 per hour.

• 88.28% charge USD 150/hour or less, and only 6.25% command an hourly rate of USD 201 and above.

From the data above it is clearly noticeable, 50 % of agencies charge USD 100 an hour to the 33.33 % of consultant and mere 15% of freelancers.

For SEO consultant the rate is USD 75-100 / hour, with the rate for freelancer constricted to USD 41-50 an hour.

• Agencies: $134.66/hour, on average.
• Consultancies: $122.33/hour, on average.
• Freelancers: $68/hour, on average.

• More than 52% of respondents charge above USD 1K for one-off projects. More than 69% charge USD2K and lesser. This eventually indicates that only more than 30% of the service providers ask for fees above USD 2K.

So the next big question is why do I pay for SEO?  This an endearing question asked by every organization. So we will help you out in answering these questions.

The first thing we need to understand is that SEO is a full-time campaign and it is just not tweaking your website here and there.

Inspecting SEO strategies

Being technically sound is the core motive of every SEO campaign. It helps search engines understand your website and extract the data needed to index your web pages for ranking. Google is one of the major players where they have used machine learning to understand human and further perform.

So as an SEO specialist, you would better know that the trends of a decade back would have a different opinion of what is going on today. In the earlier years, SEO worked by the technical build of the webpage structure, keyword metadata and more links than competitors. In the current scenario, the ball game has changed completely. Google now works through semantics. It is further geared through user experience and technical enhancements.

Staying agile is one of the key SEO strategies. The ancient SEO worked on simpler assembly lines, smaller optimization worked. But the Google algorithms are more complex now. Evolving your strategies better and faster to keep up with your competition is an important step.

But why availing SEO services in Dubai and elsewhere is a pricy affair?

SEO tools will give your website an edge against competitors. These tools help with faster aggregation of data and keyword opportunities. They vary as per different insights and so are costlier. With the cost of SEO tools growing rapidly, the rates of SEO campaigns have also sored appreciably.

To sum up, SEO is challenging and it takes time to gain traffic. With the right agencies in hand, it will be easier to gain first page results for your company. Over the time, SEO has gained its own fame. But beware of spammers and choose wisely once hiring your SEO firm or consultant. For best results, feel free to connect with Code and Co, your trustworthy SEO agency Dubai.