hiya, Kate,

it sounds like a lot of money for a B&B to fork out without any guaranteed return. drop me an email with the URL at dj.barker [at sign] barker.dj & i'll happily make some suggestions for nothing.

daniel

Hi Kate.

Difficult to comment on the pricing without seeing the brief and proposal . . . but I think the best advice would be to get quotes from a number of different SEO companies before deciding on the right route. Your friend should take some time to compare the quotes and understand what is being offered.

The retainer:
I'll assume that the retainer will cover:

• ongoing site optimisation
• advice on content
• linkbuilding (which is time heavy when done properly)

So depending on what's been quoted for, that type of price may be about right. SEO is an ongoing activity . . . you can't just optimise a site and then leave it.

Feel free to drop me an email if you'd like any further help:

info@searchdata.co.uk
www.searchdata.co.uk

 Hi Kate,

We base our pricing for SEO campaigns on the size of the site, the number of keywords required for optimization and  the number of off page activities. So as Simon has pointed out it is tough to say whether £1600 is over priced without having a look at the B & B site in question. I also presume that the site would be relatively small - given the nature of its purpose - so maybe the price you have been quoted is at the top end.

A while back I wrote a post on how to choose an SEO consultant, which basically points out 10 starter questions you should ask any SEO firm - here's the link:

Looking for an SEO Company? Ask These 10 Questions

You could also ask the SEO company for recent client testimonials, which will help your friend to gauge the standards of work they are capable of.

To answer your question "Does she need an SEO company at all?" My answer would be YES. Even if your friend decides NOT to run with a full campaign I would highly recommend they bring in an experienced SEO company to give the site what i call an SEO Audit. This will:

• Identify Optimum Keywords
• Ensure your url's are SEO friendly
• Ensures your site has optimum internal linking
• Optimize your Meta Tags
• Optimize the page content

Having well optimized web pages will give your friend's B & B site the ideal foundation for ranking well in search engines. Whatever she deicdes to do please tell her - IT ALL STARTS WITH THE KEYWORDS!

For a quick fix you could always start with Google Adwords but again you need to ensure you're targeting the right keywords and your pages are optimized for those keywords, otherwise you'll be paying top dollar for each click - this is down to Google's 'Quality Score'.

I am happy to answer any more questions you may have on SEO Site Audits,  SEO Campaigns or CPC campagins. Good luck and here's to your internet marketing success!

Steve
Amplified Media SEO

On 14:44:29 4 December 2008 tickboxdigital wrote:

Hi Kate,

I would suggest that for a small B & B client £1600 for initial SEO is very steep. I would imagine the site is relatively small, as is any available marketing budget.

For a B & B client the focus for SEO would be localised which helps to cut-out a certain percentage of the more aggressive competitors.

Without looking at the website it is hard to say but from my experience of working with smaller clients, quality results can be achieved without having to raid the bank.

To me the pricing provided by the SEO company would suggest an initial fee (for on-page optimisation) and then on-going work per month.

Did they clarify how long this on-going work would be required?

Again, having not seen the website it is hard to add a value to the work but I would imagine you could do quite well with a sub £1000 budget - then possibly a few months on-going work to establish the site.

You mentioned the site was new so it may simply be a matter of time before things start to improve naturally anyway.

PPC is slightly different. I assume the budget would again be fairly limited so you would probably need to build out a campaign focusing on a smaller number of keywords. This way you can distrubute the budget more effectively and assess performance more easily.

As the campaign progresses you can then start to factor in additional keywords based on previous learnings etc. I would suggest maybe getting a consultant in to set it up to begin with and then reviewing this every few months/per quarter for example.

Ideally you wouldnt leave a PPC campaign unattended but some a campaign of this size, provided it is setup well you can probably make do. Otherwise you run the risk of paying more money for management and less for actual marketing.

I'd be happy to help if you think there may be some benefit there.

Regards

Simon //

www.tickboxdigital.com

On 16:13:56 1 December 2008 KateSmith1 wrote:

A colleague's got a bed and breakfast running in New Zealand.  Her website is pretty much invisible because it's newly built, and she needs some help with Google AdWords, crosslinking and the like. 

I gather that the world of SEO is often a seething pit of sharks - how does she go about finding a good company who will be diligent and not rip her off?  I'm not looking for suggestions for named companies, but more an idea of what's reasonable in the market and how you spot the good guys if you don't have a personal recommendation.

One bunch who have approached her are offering to do the initial work for £800 (equivalent to £1600 in UK = cost of living difference) but then want a monthly retainer of £80 (=£160).  The former seems perfectly reasonable, the latter a bit steep for a simple bed and breakfast. 

Does she need an SEO company at all?  What would a good one bring to the table that a bright IT grad wouldn't?

All views gratefully received,

Kate

Hi Kate,

No problem at all. Glad we could be of some use. Good luck with everything.

Simon //

Tickbox Digital