seo

Under the performance system there is usually a contract that is signed for the length of 12 months. The reason for such a long contract is that it may take some time for keywords to rank. For some of the more competitive keywords, it could take half of the contract length to achieve.

The only way to truly show how this system works is to walk through an example and give some hard numbers. Let's say that you have 3 key phrases that you want to target:

1. widgets
2. gadgets
3. smidgets

These three keywords have different levels of difficulty. The levels of difficulty are determined by looking at the number of results in the search engine and by looking at the competition in the current top 10. Obviously a keyword with fewer results and less competition for the keyword results in a cheaper price for that specific keyword. Let us take a look at our 3 keywords below and look at how a pricing structure for these keywords may look.

Keyword Difficulty Price
Widgets Easy Inexpensive
Gadgets Modedrate Mid-Range
Smidgets Difficult Expensive

By looking at this list of keywords and price ranges, the widgets keyword is easier to achieve a higher ranking than say the smidgets keyword would be. Thus, the smidgets keyword results in a much higher price.

Now that we understand the pricing structure, let's run through an example on what your rankings may look like and what you would pay.

Keyword Rank Price Paid
Widgets 5 Upper End Price
Gadgets 9 Mid-Rang Price
Smidgets 19 Lower-End Price

First, let's look at the widgets keyword. The rank for this keyword is high. This would justify having to pay the upper-end price for this keyword. Keep in mind however that this keyword was cheap to begin with. Therefore, this keyword will be at the high end price of the cheaper amount.

Now let's take a look at the gadgets keyword. This keyword has a little lower of a rank and thus the price that one would have to pay for this keyword's rank is likely not going to be at its max amount. The keyword is still ranked rather well and will generate lots of traffic yet. If we take a look at the pricing table, the keyword is at a mid-ranged price. This means that the keyword will be a little lower than the max that could be charged for this mid-ranged keyword.

Last, we have the smidgets keyword. This keyword has a little lower of a rank and will have a low end cost of the higher priced keyword. If this keyword drops much lower, it is likely that you would not be charged for this keyword for that month.

You may be wondering why this is such a big deal. A traditional SEO pricing structure would charge you a large flat fee at the beginning of the project to cover them for the work they are about to do. However, they can never say for sure that you will rank for these keywords. You can't even be sure that they are even spending the time they should be on your project. Why should you, the customer, have to pay for something that may not even work? Under a performance based SEO system, you are guaranteed that they are working on your project.