Hourly SEO costs vary across countries, but $76-200/hour is the most common range, covering more than 50% of firms in all countries surveyed by SEOMoz with the exception of India, according to an AYTM January 2012 infographic. The pricing range is highest in Australia/New Zealand (62%), followed by the US (58.1%), and Canada (56%). Within the US, the most common pricing range is $101-150/hour (29.4%), followed by $76-100/hour (17.6%).
According to a November 2011 report from Webmarketing123, 57.4% of B2B marketers derive the biggest impact on their lead generation goals from SEO activities, while 41% of B2C marketers see it as the dominant influence on lead generation.
Cost-Per-Project Most Popular
Data from SEOMoz’s survey indicate that cost-per-project is the most common SEO pricing model, offered by 70% of the consultancies and agencies surveyed, ahead of monthly retainer (60%), and hourly rates (55%).
43% of by-the-project respondents were represented by four pricing ranges ranging from $1,001-$7,500, although monthly retainer pricing had the widest distribution: the 2 most common were $251-500/month (13.8%) and $2,501-$5,000/month (11.3%).
Inbound Marketers Outweigh Purists
One-quarter of the respondents reported being primarily focused on SEO, slightly less than the proportion (26.7%) offering a broader range of services, including SEO, social, content, conversion, and analytics. The third most-popular type of respondent was a web design/development agency offering SEO services.
Among US respondents, inbound marketers (24.7%) and pure SEO firms (24.4%) were virtually on par, although within the UK, web design/development firms offering SEO services (31.6%) outweighed both inbound/organic marketing firms (23.7%) and SEO firms (22.4%).
US Firms Manage 2-25 Clients
A plurality (23.3%) of US respondents manage 6-10 active clients at any given time, although the proportion managing 2-5 (22.3%) and 11-25 (20.6%) follow closely. Among all respondents, looking at the number of monthly active clients broken down by the quantity of employees, SEOMoz found the typical clients/month ratio to be between 1 and 2.
Other Findings:
- The vast majority of firms service SMBs, with 41% of respondents offering consulting to small, hyperlocal businesses. Within the US, 57.4% service SMBs, while 45.3% offer consulting to small, hyperlocal businesses.
- 88.5% of respondents said they offer “hands-on SEO changes to sites” and 79.1% provide “hands-on” link building.
About the Data: SEOMoz ran the survey on its blog and received more than 600 responses, electing only to share data from the 6 regions with 10+ responses (490 total). The company notes that it is not a professional data surveying firm and its only tool was a basic list of questions on SurveyMonkey.
