+19 votes
by (1.4k points)
Seo service Hello im About buying a SEO service, i've found someone who i think i can trust. However i have an important question. This team charge for each keyword. Is it normal to charge x keywords as only determining factor? Best regards
Seo service Hello im About buying a SEO service, i've found someone who i think i can trust.

14 Answers

+11 votes
by (2.2k points)
No lol that’s funny though. SEO is about connecting as many consumers to the business as possible, why would you limit yourself to one search term
by (1.4k points)
I've workeed with them for sometime (not SEO). Very profesionel - But this just seem weird to me. As we have a posting schedule (weekly) which ofcurse also includes different keywords.  
by (2.2k points)
@nicknack3948 he could be lacking time, knowledge, or the budget. But ideally you target everything that corresponds to your product/services while prioritizing the most valuable search terms
by (1.4k points)
@kizzykjersti Well he said its best targetting product pages and unique keywords for those But they gave me a price, that says x amount for each keyword nothing else. The other parts of the service, practicly just follow along. Received 9 page "brochure" on how they do it.  
by (2.2k points)
@nicknack3948 lol let us see this brochure. I’ll let you know if it seems valuable or not
by (1.4k points)
@kizzykjersti I dont want to hang anyone out, can i send you privat?  
by (2.2k points)
@nicknack3948 sure if you want
by (1.4k points)
@kizzykjersti Send the brochure
+3 votes
by (11.6k points)
Nope. That's an old way of commercialising the output, they'll just "revise the keywords" once they're unable to perform
+11 votes
by (410 points)
No, charging by keyword isn't acceptable imo. You want a partner in growth, not a vendor treating you like a commodity. There should be a strategy roadmap in place and your budget should determine how much and how quickly that work gets done.  
by (1.4k points)
I've received a standard "brochure" on how they do it. I will receive a plan by month 2, after they analyse the competetion and keywords. However when i ask them for some targets, or anything concrete. They answer like most others. We cannot promise anything, but generally a +1-3 pos each keyword.  
by (11.6k points)
@nicknack3948 none of us can promise anything except effort. Hopefully better conversions and more revenue, but there's no guarantees
by (1.4k points)
@vanda Ofcurse :-)
by (4.8k points)
@nicknack3948 any promises of rankings run! Nobody professional will ever ever say they will rank a 1-3 pos each keyword. That's ridiculous! Yeah so I ranked you for green cheese on the moon and purple cows fly sideways. What you should say is my niche is_____ And my target area is______ And my target market is in_______ And my target audience is_____ And my business goal is 1) sales 2) leads 3) conversions 4) Micro conversions such as newsletter signups or opt ins How can we colloborate on improving organic traffic? How can we improve revenue? How can we improve the user experience? What are three quick wins that you see right now? A light audit isn't outside the norm to begin with. I get it it's hard to shop SEO but you should read here the comments on what to ask. It's all about a good alignment of your business metrics and how they can get there and ask how competitive is my niche? What kind of results can I expect and conservatively how long and what is your strategy?  
+4 votes
by (4.8k points)
Yeah, consensus its not a good pricing structure they might be good but this way is a bit tricky. @toxoid332 and @vanda have some valid points. You should get a primary audit and focus your keywords and get an SEO service that drives revenue not rankings and keyword focus. There is so so much more to everything than just keywords its too hyper-focused. Most SEO professionals either charge by hours needed + Hard Costs to give you a monthly retainer, some charge by the hour and some charge just a monthly. Any granular pricing tier seems outdated and doesn't focus on revenue that's what you should hear. What is your goals? What are your business metrics? How can we increase organic traffic? how can we improve the user experience? How can we prove ROI and where are the quick wins.  
+10 votes
by (3.6k points)
SEO is about so much more than a keyword. Focusing on a kw is losing focus on all other SEO factors.  
+9 votes
by (610 points)
The fact that you have to ask about this tells me that you're questioning your gut. Follow your gut.  
+1 vote
by (2.3k points)
If the keyword they are promising has a high Ahrefs Clicks Metrics in Organic, no harm giving it a try. Provided they have #1 rankings to prove themselves. You can pm me if you need help evaluating.  
+3 votes
by (3.2k points)
2012 is calling.  
by (11.6k points)
@muscid I remember questioning my old agency boss about why they did it this way, I never agreed with the concept. He told me - we have to restrict it somehow, in order to get them to keep paying monthly. As soon as I started freelancing I was determined I'd do everything the opposite of what I'd been shown. He's probably richer than me, but I get a lot more job satisfaction and not half as many awkwardly painful questions from my clients
by (1.8k points)
@vanda That story almost verbatim is why I went off on my own too. My employer covered up their bad SEO with misleading reports that were probably borderline illegal. The clients were seen as nuisances rather than allies. And best of all, each strategist had 75 (seventy-five) campaigns they had to "touch" (do 5 mins of work on) every month which equaled out to up to literally 10K/hour SEO performed by a recent college grad who didn't know how title tags work.  
by (11.6k points)
@repudiation yep, can relate. I was once an SEO manager, who had no real team. I had 28 clients to service by myself, we did 3 DAYS of reporting each month and I still had to go pitch to new clients which involved traveling. They gave me the £15k Sales junior to help with SEO tasks and told me to teach him how to write page titles in 45 minutes. He ended up using illegal html characters and misunderstanding the complex topics. The other guy writing content was the boss's brother - he was dyslexic. You can guess the rest.  
by (1.8k points)
@vanda lol that is some stiff competition for horrible SEO departments. We had a "reporting WEEK" where we had to manually print out analytics reports for every client because 1) They wanted us to manually remove the bad metrics (even though every campaign has its ups and downs, it's impossible not to) and 2) They refused to pay for a single SEO tool. Even keyword tools. We had to use trials or guess. And this was for a Fortune 500 parent company  
by (11.6k points)
@repudiation lol. We definitely worked for the same kind of places. We had a bespoke reporting tool created in Ms access  and also had to manually wiggle the data to remove the shit which didn't add up. That's why I can't stand agencies in general. Liessss and dodgyness
by (1.8k points)
@vanda Yeah it definitely seems that as you approach a certain size, you have to make sacrifices. I have found maybe one or two SEO "agencies" that actually perform at scale. I can see how it would be terribly hard to scale but at the same time I have zero sympathy for people who pass it on to their clients.  
+7 votes
by (1.8k points)
Charging by keyword means they have set pricing packages. Set pricing packages means they have cookie-cutter, assembly line SEO campaigns. Cookie-cutter SEO campaigns means they won't rank well and you won't get your money's worth, and they usually compensate with this with misleading reporting or selling you keywords by the "bucket" and that isn't really SEO. I worked for the second biggest digital marketing company's SEO department in the US. They did all of the above. I'm somewhat of an expert in how bad keyword package SEO campaigns are.  
+5 votes
by (1.7k points)
This is fantastic. for the agency  because it is always the same work. every keyword is the same easy work, try to get in first place with the keywords „amazon“ and „eBay“ #sarkasm. Best way to grab customers money! No this is not a trustworthy partnership. It is not a problem to rank a keyword in a certain time, it‘s the way to rank it for years. Seo is much more. like Building a house and paying only for the bricks. The agency sells you some bricks and makes you believe it‘s a dreamcastle. Your in the right group here. Don‘t believe a „mason master“ that only knows bricks. get an a good architect or better be itself as a business owner. I do Seo only for myself as a store owner. This is the best decision of my life! If searching a good agency go to the next e-commerce fair in your region. There you will find good agencies Best wishes for you and your business
0 votes
by (180 points)
Charging by keywords? Only crappy agencies do that lol
+16 votes
by (2k points)
Absolutely fucking not.  
0 votes
by (720 points)
Someone you can trust based on what?  
+19 votes
by (3.6k points)
Guess you'll have to go back at the start, and look for other folks who are more worthy of your trust. Ranking keywords is a simple concept from an SEO perspective, but you'll want to know how your investment will boost your business. Who cares if your SEO agency will rank your site for some obscure, long tail searchphrases if that doesn't get you the traffic you need to close a deal.  
by (1.4k points)
@sangraal maybe your right, but I choose the keywords.  
The Search Engine Optimization Group is where you can always find questions, answers, advice, reviews & recommendations from other community members about better strategy on ranking highly for search engine results.
...