Just last week, I received an unsolicited email from a ‘technology’ based in Hong Kong pitching their e-commerce solutions of which I politely declined. Their immediate reply from Sally was fast and furious, this time round she offered me her company’s SEO services.
I have seen quite a number of offers locally but Hong Kong? I must find out. So here goes our email exchange…it’s funny how she assumed I knew what SEO, keyword, PR and link popularity means…bottomline is this, her quotation to me is USD$5,000 to optimize 5 keywords to rank in the top 10, with money back guarantee within 3 months.
I personally do not think the fee is exorbitant if you can examine it from a ROI perspective. Pricing is still relatively vague in this industry and it’s easy for most SEO companies to throw a figure based on their cost structure as supposed to demonstrating the real value to their prospective clients of achieving top 10 rankings. It’s no rocket science, if a particular keyword has X number of searches a month, and commands a Y value in PPC in Adwords context, the quick and dirty calculation would be X multiply by Y to show the potential investment once has to make to get in the 1st page of Google. Assuming X multiply by Y gives us Z.
And Z is the monthly run rate of maintaining the top 10 position, your SEO investment should not cost more than 70% of Z for a stipulated period of say at least 3-6 months achieve the said result.
Having said that, we must also realized that the more precise calculation of ROI should still be centered around, either an actual sales or a desired outcome of which a value is accorded. So if there is anything you can take away from this post, you should seriously consider launching a PPC campaign to measure the effectiveness of each keyword, before jumping onto the SEO bandwagon not unless you are offered a good deal.
—– Original Message —–
From: Me
To: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Subject: RE: SEO
Can you send me more info about your seo services?
—–Original Message—–
From: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 3:02 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: SEO
Dear sir?
XXXXX is a company specialized in Advanced Search Engine Optimization.
It can rise our client’s sites to top 10 in Google and boost their
Rankings in all the major search engines.
Get more information please click the link?http://www.XXXXX.hk
Thanks
Have a good day?
Sally
—– Original Message —–
From: Me
To: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Subject: RE: SEO
What re your rates like? Do u have a proposal?
—–Original Message—–
From: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 4:12 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: SEO
Dear Sir?
Please provide your website and keyword. After technical analysis?we will offer a price. Because the rate is depend on your keyword’s popularity and competition degree.
Thank you for your understanding.
Regards
Sally
—– Original Message —–
From: Me
To: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Subject: RE: SEO
Hi my website is www.mycompanywebsite.com Keyword is “a generic keyword which I provided”
—–Original Message—–
From: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 5:16 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: SEO
Hi?
Are you sure your keyword is “a generic keyword which I provided”?Have you more keyword?
Also it made me confused that keyword and your website aren’t interrelated.
May i know your business that we can give you good advise.
Regards
Sally
—– Original Message —–
From: Me
To: sales-08@XXXXXXX.hk
Subject: RE: SEO
Hi we are in the business of offering different type of xxxxxxx.
Why don’t you visit our website to take a look.
What is keyword anyway, please enlighten.
Dear Sir?
According to be discussed with Engineering Department?they integrated your company and business?as well as potential customers and development direction?a highly efficient keywords for you?
(They came back with 5 keywords)
1,Hereinbefore, to ensure that at least four of the five keywords can appear in the top ten of Google.
2,the PR of the home page should be 3 or higher in one year.
3,Create or optimize a large amount of web pages
4,Set or purchase high quality links, submit a large amount of related articles, to expose the website continuously in the related platform and many resource cooperation sites.
5,The keywords of the site should enjoy high ranking in Google?Yahoo?and MSN.
Total fee is 5,000USD/year.
Please rest assured that quality is ensured?if not come up to your requirement?we will refund you unconditionally within 3 months.
Here enclosed the attachment of SEO case that you can find out more information.
If you have any questions?pls let me know.
Best regards
Sally
