February 26, 2008 Comments (41)
I was talking recently with a friend who's been trying to hire an SEO to work on her company's website. She was surprised to find out how much it could cost to hire a good SEO (by "good" I mean those people I was willing to recommend to her because I know they do a good job).
"You always say SEO for most sites isn't rocket science," she complained. "How is it these people can get away with charging so much for something so simple?"
Here's what I told her.
A man worked for years as a maintenance technician at a manufacturing plant. His job was to keep the antiquated production machines running, and he was very good at it. Despite the age of its equipment, the plant hadn't suffered any downtime in years.
The company was sold, and the new owner wanted to cut costs. Unfortunately, the new owner was a bit "penny-wise and pound-foolish." He noticed the plant had never had any downtime due to machines breaking down. He reasoned if the machines were so reliable, why did he need a maintenance technician on salary all the time? Despite the production manager's protests, the new boss laid off the maintenance guy.
Others in the plant knew how to take care of minor maintenance issues, so all went well for a few months. The new owner was patting himself on the back for having made a wise decision, when one of the most important machines in the plant suddenly broke down completely.
Without this machine, all work at the plant came to a standstill. With all the employees standing around and all the other equipment idled, the plant was losing money by the minute.
Worse still, nobody in the building had any idea how to fix the machine. And the company who manufactured the machine had gone out of business decades ago.
Everyone told the owner the only one who knew how to repair that machine was the former maintenance technician. With reluctance, the owner called him.
"Oh, yes, I know that machine well. I'd be happy to come in and help you out," said the maintenance guy. "But since you laid me off, I've gone into business for myself as a consultant. If I can get the machine up and running for you, you'll have to promise to pay my invoice on the spot."
The owner didn't have much choice at that point, so he agreed.
An hour later, the maintenance tech walked through the door. He strode to the malfunctioning equipment, opened his toolbox, and carefully selected a small hammer. He opened a door in the side of the machine, reached in and whacked something inside with the hammer.
The machine started right up.
The man replaced the hammer in his toolbox, wiped his hands, and presented the owner with a neatly typed invoice. It read:
INVOICE
Repair of equipment..... $10,000
"Ten thousand dollars?!" sputtered the owner. "All you did was whack the machine with a hammer! That's outrageous! How could you possibly expect me to pay ten thousand dollars for five minutes of work?"
The man took back the invoice, extracted a pen from his shirt pocket, and scribbled a few words on the paper. He handed the invoice back, and the owner could see what he'd written:
ITEMIZATION OF CHARGES
Whacking equipment with hammer........ $100
Knowing exactly where and how hard to whack... $9,900
The plant manager paid the invoice.
Knowing what to do is important, of course, but frankly the what is usually pretty easy to learn. The former employee could have told them the what in 30 seconds over the phone: whack just the right spot with a hammer.
Likewise, most people can grasp the basics of what needs to be done to optimize most small business websites fairly quickly. As my friend pointed out I've said on more than one occasion, most of SEO isn't rocket science.
The hard part, though, is the how. Telling the folks at the plant the machine could be fixed by whacking it with a hammer would have told them the what... but without the how that knowledge would do them little good. Knowing which hammer to use and precisely where and exactly how hard to whack with that hammer -- therein lies the skill.
It's one thing to understand, for instance, you need a unique title tag for each page. It's quite another to know how to write title tags that effectively incorporate each page's most important target search phrase and encourage maximum click-throughs from the search results. Simply recognizing you need "search optimized web copy" is a far cry from knowing how to write it. Realizing you need more high-quality links pointing to your pages is not the same as knowing how to go about getting those links.
The what you can learn in minutes. The how takes considerably more time, effort and skill.
It's the how you pay for when you hire an outside expert, whether it's an accountant or a lawyer or an SEO or whatever. Those who have devoted the time, put forth the effort and learned the skill sufficient to be considered "experts" are entitled to charge appropriately for their hard-won knowledge.
Absolutely, if you have the time and the desire, you can learn to do it for yourself. But you have to decide whether that's the best use of your time and energy. For some, it may be worth it to learn. For many others, it's a better idea to hire an expert and focus their attention on their core business.
The plant was dead in the water without the help of the former maintenance tech. Your company's website might well be dead in the water without the help of an experienced site optimization expert. If you can afford to let it languish for months and you're able to spend time away from your core business while you learn the how of optimization, that may be a viable option for you. Otherwise, like the plant manager, your best bet may be to hire the expert.
That's why the good ones charge what they do for their services, and why their clients willingly pay the invoice.
Great article, Diane. I couldn't agree more, and I actually wrote something similar on my blog about remembering to charge for the advice you give! So many SEOs forget that the time they have spent learning everything they know shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to charging for that short consultation.
What a great analogy!! I am always looking for a good story to share what helps define the difference between a real estate expert and a national firm that rebates commissions.
Do you mind if I use the story?
Brilliantly put! So many people do not understand what exactly they are paying for when it comes to SEO. This is a perfect way to explain it as the time that one would dedicate to reading up enough information to know EXACTLY what they are doing and be most effective, would be far more costly than hiring someone who is an expert in the field. Good post!
@pratt: I agree -- and I think it's a problem for many small-business service providers, not just SEOs. We all have trouble sometimes remembering what we're selling is our expertise (and how long it took us to acquire that expertise), and charging accordingly.
@Kathy: It's actually a slight adaptation of an old story/joke that's been floating around for years, so feel free to use it in good health! :)
Great post. This reminds me of the Picasso story where he was asked to paint a picture, he did so in five minutes. He charged $10,000 and the woman replied that took you 5 minutes how can you charge so much? He replied nope that painting took me a lifetime.
When you hire a top notch SEO you are paying for his creativity, ingenuity, and experience.
Very, very good Diane. Now I have something to point callers to who always seem to cry about fees. It's hard for the average joe to grasp things, but your post spells it out in layman's terms nicely. :-)
They charge so much because they've made an effort to brand themselves or because they can convince people to pay that much. The quality of an LV bag isn't that much greater than a $65 bag from Macy's.
The difference between $40/hr SEO and a $15,000 contract to do some title tags and copy writing, directory submissions and bookmarking is pure salesmanship, and nothing more in most cases.
Jeff
Excellent! Agree totally that we, as SEOs, tend to be overlooked at times to the fact that we devoted our time and this causes us to for-go other "opportunities" that came knocking on our door.
Great analogy, and well put. Give yourself a pat on the back. How hard, and exactly where, is up to you...!
Great article - i'm always amazed by people that pay good money for a website but then won't pay to promote it.
Brilliant post!
A lot of people think they know a bit of seo en they think that a real seo know a little bit more than them so it could not cost a lot....
It 's sometimes hard to explain why you ask the amount of money.
As someone fairly new to the industry, I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated your approach to explaining why SEO can be so costly. I also appreciate it even more because my dad has been a maintenance supervisor for a large plant for almost thirty years now, and I know first hand that he's had similar situations as in your story happen to him. Good read! Thank you.
Wow, that was a great analogy. Thank you for taking the time to write that all out.
-T.D
Great post, Diane. Kudos for a relevant and well-written piece!
absolutely fantastic analogy and input. Working at an agency we get this question(s) posed time and time again and, even worse, we are often 'laid off' after achieving initial results (as the story goes). I think it is important for sales people, upper management and SEOs alike to be able to explain their fees in such a simple and non-jargon filled manner.
Kudos for the post! You have a new follower:)
Outstanding post Diane! Simple yet brilliant!
Great article. People ask me this question all the time, I love the way you simplify the answer.
Thank you all for your kind comments!
This is excellent! A truly great read for all newbie SEOs out there and those in need of SEO services.
it is the asymmetrical distortion of information between the expert and his client.
that is what we pay for
This post really hits the nail on the head as do the comments. My experience is in the UK only.The public hasn't grown with online marketing at all. When it comes to small business awareness of SEO and PPC is very low. It's also very difficult to educate potential clients who automatically assume everything on-line should be cheap if not free. The thing is if its hard enough to explain what SEM is to friends and family then its even more difficult to explain that spending a small part of your marketing budget with me is going to get you far more returns than spending thousands buying mailing lists and sending mail shots.
Great analogy. I used to use the one where you compare some SEO work to doctor/surgeon work. Takes them a half of an hour to wokr on your arm and charge you and the insurance company 3K.
Well done. I think the market is slowly beginning to understand this. Though there are the do-it-yourself'ers who wouldn't pay more than pennies on the dollar. Our challenge in the short run is to convince these people too...
Diana,
Thank you for posting this. I had last night a conversation on a networking meeting and someone asked me for packages of SEO at less price to get first page. I was looking at him and told him "You want me to do the samething for less price. That is not packaging".
He was argumenting exactly what you exposed here. He said "Sometimes it is a matter of a little change, that should be cost less because it does not take long time for you". I was in shock and I did not have and argument to fight back his thought, until now!
Yes, it is not a matter of knowing the WHAT TO DO but HOW TO DO IT...and that is ART!
Thanks again.
I use the analogy of gem cutters. It takes just a few well-placed blows to make a gem from a rough stone but it takes years of knowledge to know how and where to make them. That's SEO in a nutchell.
BB
I not certain that I have found the good one that this article references. I've found many that thought that they were that good, but when push came to shove they took out the cook book and did what an average or below average SEO would have done but charged higher prices.
I have asked very pointed questions of several SEOs and all that they proved was that the algorithms used by Google are so complicated and change so frequently that the only recourse is the old standard, more content and more links. Both can be obtained by hiring a high school student and setting them on the task of building content and links.
How about this for an analogy -- Paying the best surgeon in the world to cure your headache doesn't make much sense if all you need is asprin.
@Gary Helwig Yes, a high school student can be turned loose to write more content if all you want is "more," but if you want "better" I'd suggest hiring a professional copywriter. There's a lot more to writing well-converting copy than just churning out a few articles.
Ditto with getting links. Professional link builders have resources and experience few high school students (or grown-up webmasters, for that matter) can match.
Again, it comes down to the "what" versus the "how." I can tell somebody in a matter of minutes "what" I want -- better converting copy, high-quality inbound links -- but knowing how to produce that copy, or how to approach the owners of other sites to maximize my chances of getting the links I want... that's what the professionals bring to the table.
As you correctly point out, though, high prices are not a guarantee of quality. And not all optimization projects require a top performer in the field. It depends on your market, your competition and your business goals. No point in paying for a Ferrari if a Honda Civic will get you where you need to be.
Very nice! That was one of the best explanations of the subject, or any other tech expert, that I have ever read! Thank you!
It's nice to see that old story revived again, but in this case it may or may not apply. We do SEO work for $70 per hour, but if you break down what other companies charge by the hour it may be far below or far above that.
Our average SEO project is about $1,500. Is that a rip-off when you look at a company that charges $500 for the same size project? Then what about the company that charges $5,000-$10,000 for the same thing???
All a customer can do is shop around and try to learn as much as they can about the process and the companies and then make the best choice they can.
Great article.
I've recently had the dilemma of what to charge clients. Not just for SEO work, but for projects as a whole.
I wondered why many companies/freelancers charged so much money for the work they do, when others (let's call them "cowboys") claim they can do the same work for a much lower cost. Well, I say that I wondered why, but really it was my customers who were enquiring.
This story would be an excellent answer to that question - it's not the what that they're paying for, but the how, along with the time, money, effort and experience that we needed to be as good as we are.
Unfortunately SEO awareness among potantial employers is very low. They expect it will last for 5 days and cost $100. Thats not it. It takes time for everything, experience and hard work. Why it takes so long to explain people what you have wrote in your post? Why its so hard to explain to them what SEO is about. And because its not rocket science, it makes it even harder. People ask: if its not so hard, how come its so expensive?
Anyway, very good article :)
One small aspect of the analogy that isn't true is that the hammer blow in the right place produced instant and visible results. With SEO there is a time delay between carrying out the work and seeing the results and that makes it more difficult for the SEO expert to prove his worth. Also by the time his efforts do produce results, other variables may have changed and may have contributed to making his work appear more or less effective in the eyes of the client. Having said that, any decent analogy is a useful reference.
@Pawel, that is a good point. A large (and difficult) part of getting a fair price for any skilled service lies in getting potential employers/clients to understand how much skill and practice it takes to make it look so easy.
@Ewan, you're right, of course. And I think that's part of the difficulty of "selling" SEO: getting clients to understand there's no "magic switch" the SEO can flip to instantly make the client's pages start ranking better, and making sure they give the SEO due credit for his/her work when the effects do kick in. Excellent point.
Thanks again to all for sharing your thoughts!
- Nice going Diane...
It's nice to hear someone else tell the World.
I didn't know you until this article, now I'll be watching for more.
Great Job!
- Scott
Diane -
Great post and a very good analogy. Thank you!
grate info!.. another good tip on seo is to have well tagged inbound links such as plumbers for ratemytrade.co.uk
Anyone who would hire an SEO to use a magic hammer to hit a magic spot is insane. SEOs can destroy a site as easily as they can help it. Here's how I do it: First engagement: (1) Look over the site and tell me what's wrong and what you would change, and why. Second engagement, which I might hire the first guy to do, or might do in house or hire a different person to do: (2) Implement the recommendations that I like and don't think are risky.
I'd never hire an SEO to do some black box mystery meat stuff that is not fully transparent to me.
What everyone is missing is "What is the customer's ROI on your SEO work?" It doesn't matter how much it costs if you are able to present clear data showing not just better SERP results, but a proportionately greater income/awareness/leads.
I liked the post and as a small business owner the analogy applies not only to SEO providers but to all suppliers. After having our site optimised and getting results we made a change without checking first and our rankings dropped. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
What a great perspective for those who feel optimization experts are over-paid.
I loved this. The problem is client/employee education... People tend to think that their websites don't need optimization, also they usually fail to recognise the potential marketing power of an optimized website
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 Over the course of a too-long career, Diane Aull has worked with businesses of all sizes, from multinational corporations to sole proprietorships, in a potentially astonishing array of industries. For over a decade, she has specialized in designing and coding user-friendly, search-friendly and productive websites for businesses and individuals. She is the webmaster for a mid-sized manufacturing company located in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, and provides private web consulting to a select roster of clients. Her clients have come to appreciate her no-nonsense advice, firmly grounded in her deep hands-on experience with what works for real companies in the real world. Learn more about the ways Diane can help improve the performance and profitability of your business web site, or request a no-obligation personal consultation, by visiting www.NineYards.com. |
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