One of the big mysteries of web development is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and an even bigger mystery is how much does it cost. It has become fairly common knowledge for anybody who owns a website now that SEO is essential when gaining traffic that is directly related to your website’s content using targeted keywords or keyphrases.

However, it is not common knowledge knowing how much SEO costs.

The cost of SEO can vary depending on the size and stature of the company you are using. It also depends on the nature of the website being optimised and what keyphrases you want to rank for.
There are many different techniques used in SEO, some of them are good and some of them are bad. Unfortunately not all the SEO Companies practice the right methods and are taking advantage of their clients lack of knowledge. Using the wrong SEO company could have an adverse affect on your websites rankings due to techniques being used that Google and other search engines frown upon. Those techniques may give you short-term results but in the long-term they will negatively effect your rankings and may even get your site totally blacklisted.

So, what price do we put on SEO?

There is no true answer to that due to all the variables that need to be considered. The only way you can truly know how much SEO costs is figure out how much it’s worth to you to improve you rankings and what you’re willing to spend to get one of the top search engine positions.

The cost of SEO will vary depending on what us search engine optimisers call authority. Every website has a level of authority and this is what the search engines use to rank them. The authority your site depends on many variables which are out of your hands and the optimisers. It’s the optimisers job to give your site more authority in the eyes of the search engines which is where it become hard to put a cost on it. Every website is different much like a human beings fingerprints. Unfortunately there is no set SEO procedure that can magically boost your rankings. Each SEO campaign should be tailor made to suit the website, the content, the target market and the user.

By Robert Smith

John Smith: John, a former software engineer, shares his insights on software development, programming languages, and coding best practices.