At the end of the day, you’re not selling a design and development work, you’re selling a solution to a company. Your solution could make a small company a couple of thousand, but that same solution could make a large company millions. As bigger and better solutions come along the price increases to match the market, and this is why big companies pay big bucks for top-quality work.
In the end, worth means different things to different people, especially in business.
Definitely agree. The client who was quoted the huge fees I mentioned is a small business, two brothers run the place with a couple of employees. I guess they fall into the category of “they don’t want your business”, being too small for this big agency to bother with. I think their fees are crazy, even for a large business, but I do understand the logic and why they charge those rates. It makes sense in a crazy sort of way. 
Depends on the site. If it’s an affiliate marketing site then I’d rather do it myself. Why should I trust the work to somebody who is making a living on the internet and could potentially become my competitor or even steal ideas from my site.
If it’s a company website (local restaurant or construction company), then I would outsource the SEO work.
Okay - for those that will actually pay for SEO, how much would you pay someone to do it?
Also - if you have paid for SEO, how much has it helped you? Did you do any work at all?
It’s mostly SCAM COMPANIES that offer “SEO” and behand them are mostly Indian “SEO Experts”
My point is that if you want to pay for SEO choose wisely!
What about you cpvr? I would imagine you have some interesting experiences of paying for SEO vs doing SEO yourself, to come up with a thread entitled "Don’t pay for SEO - do it yourself… ".
When you paid for it, did you find the service substandard in some way? Why was doing it yourself better?
That is so true. And that is why hiring people with the “experience” and specialization is quite a good deal for me. Save your effort for other more worthwhile things you can do to your company than just building links, posting comments, and so on.
I hired a guy to do my SEO, but it was a struggle to deal with him and explain what I wanted in terms of reporting. He was being paid quite a lot I thought (more than I was for updating the site certainly). But he was an expert and it’s a complex topic, and he did get us on Page one of a country-level search. I had been trying for nearly a year using great content. One of the things he recommended was AdWords.
Then another client was given a Google Adwords freebie, and I set up my Google account to manage it. With AdWords that client immediately popped onto page one of Google also!
Being top of the search engines has absolutely nothing to do with content. Or links, or anything else you are being told. That’s a distraction. If you buy google adwords and pay more than your competitor, you not only get your “purchased” advert, you end up top of the “real” search even on different words.
I thought this couldn’t possibly be true, so I started testing. Sure enough, on the words I needed, companies without that word mentioned anywhere on their website were getting onto page 1. Half page rubbish from a guy in a garage using frontpage to publish. But he had a dozen adwords in related categories.
So forget SEO, become a Google client and you get preferential treatment.
That is why you have to do things yourself at least for a short while - so you know what you’re buying!
Its not about being lazy.
Its about getting the best results when work is done from The Experts.
Along with that, you require time which you can use in the core work.
Beside, this is a free and open market. If there is someone willing to offer a service and someone willing to pay for that service, then why not?
I agree that one should not spend on SEO, but its a time consuming process. And not everyone can do that unless they have to read the SEO books and have time to spend on SEO work.
Reading SEO book is also time consuming. Again one should be careful enough if the book is outdated or uses fresh techniques n methods. Applying it again is time consuming. But Good if you get every knowledge one day to start your own SEO company but it sounds so lazy…So for most of people paying could be better option. but SEO master should be chosen with care.
its not just about saving money…it is quite boring and sometimes little irritating too.
other than that Seo these days is changing rapdily and it is not easy for everyone to do it for number of websites and blogs and offcourse it needs much time then why not hire anyone
This depends on the website. If you have an e-commerce website, it would be advantageous if you have someone take care of the SEO, so you can focus on other aspects of the business.
Finding a good SEO company is another matter. Search engine algorithms are too complex and top secret that it is really difficult for any SEO company/freelancer to guarantee your site will be on the first page of search results.
Frankly, as a developer I don’t understand how paid SEO works. I sure don’t want some SEO company making changes to a site that I have developed and still have to support for a client.
Personally I think that SEO is boring but have been forced into it because of a client request. Once the initial site is developed with SEO in mind: key words and key word rich content, titles, etc., the rest of SEO involves running campaigns and monitoring the results over several months or perhaps forever.
The ever changing nature of the web means that SEO is like chasing a moving target and there are no guarantees that changes you make will result in more hits just like any advertising campaign.
Yeah do it by your self, but everyone cant be professional in every direction…
some of the other works you have to leave it on the professionals…
i would like to have feedback on this 
In my search for SEO understanding I went to a bookstore and browsed through their offerings to get some background. I took notes from some of the books and finally settled on one, Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day. It along with their website www.yourseoplan.com, seemed to provide the info I needed.
Some of the other books provided URLs to many sites like, compete.com, keywordspy.com and a plethora of others that allow you to analyze your site and the sites of competitors in order for you to apply SEO to your site to achieve a greater number of hits.
While this was helpful it was disappointing that virtually all these sites provided their service for a fee even though the books presented the material in a way that it appeared like they were free resources.
I totally agree with this one “Don’t pay for SEO - Do it yourself”.
You are right, internet is filled with some “quality” SEO tools and programs. I personally did not buy any similar product and simply can’t get why these programs are so popular on internet and for so long.
I guess they are there just because they works. They somehow find people to purchase these “products”.
I honestly think anyone can learn so much more completely for free from many forum boards like this or blogs online. There is simply too much information available for free, at least when it comes to the SEO.
People just want to get rich over night and that is not going to happen ever, no matter how much they pay or what they do.
Sorry to say, but most of what I have uncovered regarding paid SEO, including those subscription sites that offer analysis results are just plain snake oil.
There is plenty of free material on the web and some nominally priced books. Making effective use of the free Google Analytics and AdWords if the client is willing to pay for it seems to be the way to go.
If you have products that you sell on a website, but you are not a technical person, then you should hire an SEO company. People should focus on what they do best, doing SEO is not for everyone.