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Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

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Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

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Home Page > Computers > Information Technology > Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

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Posted: Aug 20, 2009 |Comments: 0
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Black Rhino Marketing Solutions founded itself on the very principle that highly affordable websites and web marketing tools could (and should) be provided to small and large businesses alike. The reason being, that the software and the computers used to design and create websites today aren’t what’s running up clients’ bills. On the contrary, its the cost of labor.

The most valuable aspect of the graphic and web design industry is the knowledge and the know-how of how to create the product that your client wants. By knowledge, I mean two things – the ability to code the way the website functions and the creativeness to design the website that your client describes to you or envisions. (So maybe there are really two uber valuable aspects of this trade). Regardless though, the pricing structure is elastic enough to work in favor of the client, particularly in times of a recession (like, say for instance, today).

Don’t get me wrong, being creative and being able to come up with visually powerhouse graphics ALL the TIME for people you don’t know that well is hard, its sometimes really hard. Then tailoring your own creative license to your client’s taste, well that can be the biggest challenge of all (and the most time consuming).

Same goes for coding. Writing computer language codes for the web is tedious, it requires an INSANE amount of attention-to-detail, and a sick amount of passion for the job. If you don’t love to code websites, there is no way you’d A) understand what you were doing or B) have the patience to sit in front of a computer for hours upon hours typing letters, numbers, words, and algorithms out to tell the website how to work. That said, its no wonder companies and freelance website designers charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for simple websites or even for the dreaded website template.

The thing is, the Generation Y’s (whov’e all been taping away and computing since they came out of the womb) are starting to enter the workforce. Because technology comes easier to these guys, well, the IT industry doesn’t have as much of a monopoly on the general public as it once had, especially when it comes to web design. For that reason, Black Rhino Marketing Solutions established its pricing structure based on the following principles:

Provide custom websites to clients at affordable prices. Work with the client to provide a product they are 100% happy with. Build strong, lasting relationships between businesses for mutual and future benefit.

We believe in the age old, simple saying, “quality over quantity,” in our work and our pricing structure. Having a web presence is the future of today – in order to help propel businesses it truly is important to hop on the digital highway. Its our philosophy at Black Rhino Marketing Solutions to allow people to take a recess from the recession with our affordable website marketing tools.

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Stephanie Biscow -
About the Author:

Stephanie Biscow,
Business Operations Manager,
Black Rhino Marketing Solutions
Westchester, NY

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Information on Pricing for Graphic or Website Design Projects

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Information on Pricing for Graphic or Website Design Projects

Most don’t know where to start when trying to gauge what a new website will cost. There are so many website models and options, and so many developers who have their own ways of offering the services. There are part timers, mom and pop shops, independents, kids in high school, and so many more, what we like to call, “hobbyists.” These days, everyone has an opinion on what things should cost and no one knows who to believe. Here is an honest conversation on some things to expect as far as website pricing options will go how those in this field commonly offer their services.

Generally speaking, if one chooses an independent contractor, that person will pay less than he or she chooses a design agency with personnel. With an independent contractor one may or may not get the same type of manpower or hands on planning and development one will get at a medium sized or large design office, but if you are willing to take things at a slower pace (not always true but often the case), and can find someone who can do the entire job you require, you can get a just as good quality product.

Website design projects most often range in price from between ,500 and ,000 for a standard website (enterprise level projects can be much more), and between 0 and ,000 for a logo and style guide. A good hire knows there are only so many corners one can cut with a website, and certain time consuming things always have to be done, such as quality coding and search engine optimization best practices for a variety of browsers and operating systems.

Keep Website Design Costs Down

The following are all things one can do to make a website project more attractive at a lower price:

Outline or wireframe what website pages are required and the functionality you would like one each page.
Prepare your website content so ready to put on the site, including photos and text;
Meet your deadlines.
Review design concepts quickly and be available to discuss and communicate feedback to your website design company as they request feedback be delivered.
Know your competitors and websites you are trying to beat.
Know what websites you like so your website design company knows what you like.

Hourly Rate, Fixed Price, or a Hybrid of Both?

All three website development pricing options below have their advantages and disadvantages for both clients and designers. We recommend the third option.

Fixed Price. This model is often quite helpful to clients because budgeting is made more simple. However, if every aspect of the project is not clearly defined and articulated, a condition called “project creep” may come up where a client will make requests for little website extras at every stage of the project. Project Creep often results in quite a bit of extra work designers who do not anticipate these requests and are then expected to do for no additional fees. The benefit of a fixed price website project for the designer is there is no penalty for working efficiently and getting the job done on time or ahead of time, and that the web site designer does not have to be as strict with time tracking.

Hourly Rate. We find people want to know an hourly rate up front. Less experienced designers may find it difficult to give a realistic ballpark on how many hours a project will actually take. This risk is even higher when you work with a website agency or developer for the first time. Optimists might underestimate the website project and you will end up over your budget in a very short time. An advantage to the client by working hourly is both sides can quickly move on high priority changes without the need for the estimate process. Hourly rates should vary based on project work. Agencies must understand the client can take lighter updates elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. Note hourly rates are deceptive and should be flexible based on type of work. Web design companies will discount more basic work and bill fractional hours to keep the client’s business under one roof.

Hybrid, Best of Both Worlds? This is a great way to work because some projects can be flat quoted and some work may be unknown. ATAK Interactive, a Los Angeles Web Design company recommends this approach, and feels hybrid style project estimation/quoting is accomplishable by clearly stating at the outset what hourly rates are and mentioning flat quotes will be delivered as much as possible and when appropriate. This way, everyone’s budget is happy and the client isn’t afraid to ask for extra work because they know they will see a quote/estimation of some sort before they approve any project. Quotes can be given, with options, and the client can decide what is best for them. The designer is compensated for extra work, and must ask for hourly hours when needed, such as when and new technologies come about and require study. Social Media Marketing, a relatively new field, would be a good example of this circumstance.

Here the author David Ephraim from Los Angeles web design company gives information on pricing for graphic and web design projects. Furthermore, he explains common types of website design pricing like hourly rates, fixed prices and a hybrid of both, which are used in the industry today. For more information visit www.ATAKInteractive.com

Importance of SEO Pricing in Deciding Online Marketing Cost

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Cost, Deciding, Importance, Marketing, Online, Pricing

Importance of SEO Pricing in Deciding Online Marketing Cost

The results of online marketing campaign largely depend upon the search engine ranking of website. Though a website may seem beautiful, flawless, but if it doesnâ€™t attract expected traffic, even the best marketing tricks will not deliver results. Hence, SEO pricing emerges as the most important issue while deciding overall online marketing cost because even if, you are satisfied with the existing number of website visitors, updated SEO always help you to get the better return of your online markÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Factors concerned with SEO pricing and online marketing cost:

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1. Exiting rank of the website â€“ If the website contains too many frames or is written in Flash or is poorly designed or doesnâ€™t bear adequate incoming links, SEO pricing will be more.

2. Targeted Keywords – Selection of proper keywords plays an important role in SEO. Selection of more competitive keywords increases SEO pricing.Â

3. Target Market – If you have planned to hit the global market, more SEO efforts will be required to place the website among the top ten global search results. Kind of product or services being offered also affect SEO pricing. If your product or services are used by relatively few people, your website may be easily optimized, so low SEO pricing will cut down overall online marketing cost.

4. Nature of competitor â€“ If your competitors get their websites optimized too frequently to get the better rank; you will require consistent SEO services. This will boost up online marketing cost because in this case SEO pricing will be too high.

5. Your involvement in SEO â€“ If you know the basics of SEO, you can reduce online marketing cost considerably because in this case you will need SEO services only for highly technical jobs.Â

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How to select best SEO service:

Nowadays, when every one is slashing down the marketing cost, you can’t afford to spend for unjustified SEO pricing. While selecting the SEO service for your online marketing campaign, consider the following issues:Â

** What is included and excluded in offered SEO service?

** Whether you are being guaranteed for measurable result?

** How much time does SEO company need to prove improvement?Â

** Who will manage SEO and what will the extra charge for SEO management?

** Has the SEO agency worked successfully in past with the client of your category?Â

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How to recover online marketing cost:

Success of any online marketing campaign depends upon perfect blending of techniques and tactics. To recover online marketing cost, besides maintaining SE rank it is also must to keep a continuous vigil on the traffic, response, order conversion ratio and segment of the visitors. Just the selection of highest SEO pricing offer doesnâ€™t guarantees the success of online marketing campaign. You need to mange SEO campaign professionally. To hire the specialists for this purpose is also not a bad idea; this little increase of online marketing cost will improve the results manifold.

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Aug

6

0

SEO Pricing Models – Finding the Best Bang for Your Buck!

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Bang, Best, Buck, Finding, Models, Pricing

SEO Pricing Models – Finding the Best Bang for Your Buck!

Getting the highest ROI (return on investment) for your marketing efforts is the ultimate goal of internet marketing. But with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) pricing models all across the board, it may be like trying to find a needle in the haystack.

The Search for Competitive SEO Rates

The search begins (for most businesses) by locating a qualified SEO company that specializes in the types of services you require. Some SEO firms specialize in PPC others prefer Organic SEO, while other firms are more versed in custom SEO Web Design or link building services.

Even after you refine your choices, is your business ready to embrace SEO or the changes that may be required in order to polish your value proposition and step up your collaborated marketing efforts?

Sometimes you have to let go (of an older site or an older approach that has seen better days) and work with a medium that is more pliable, modern and efficient for acquiring long-term benefits in search engines.

Otherwise, the approach of putting lipstick on a pig is an unlikely combination for producing viable increases in conversion (as customers are less likely to fall for the facade). Even with traffic, if your site has poor navigation a bad color scheme or is screaming “hey I’m from 1999″, then no amount of SEO is going to make things right.

Much in the same light, if you want to tune/optimize your site for top 10 positioning, honing your websites programming platform and writing some fresh content is a starting point for optimization, but it is a pivotal milestone at best. SEO is a holistic process involving hundreds of layers of coordinated components (for those who dominate the top 10) and cutting corners just keeps your pages that much further away from reaching the top.

An objective analysis using a problem / solution based approach can help to shed light on this matter.

1. The Challenge – The company or individual is starting fresh with limited content or web presence, has no clue about content or relevance yet wants to rank in the top 10. This is definitely the most difficult starting point for SEO.

In this scenario – Your looking at 6 months (minimum) to make an organic impact in a larger playing field and more importantly, you will have to work harder to play catch up by augmenting your site with content (articles, offers, promotions or links). Not to mention you will need to receive endorsement from the various piers in your industry in order to establish trust in the eyes of search engines and get a real lift into the top 10. By far the most costly endeavor (be prepared to spend 20-30K to truly compete in a competitive market 5-10K to establish moderate keywords over 6 months).

2. The Challenge- Website exists but has sparse content or hasn’t changed it in ages (challenging, but with an infusion of content rankings can be developed).

In this scenario – just working with the existing content is a plus, you can tweak the code, optimize the internal links as well as add a blog and start developing inroads with search engines and new potential clients using social media, RSS feeds and viral marketing to kick up exposure for your brand.

3. The Challenge – The company is active online, has a website and uses PPC advertising (at least they are in the ballpark and understand the art of the deal and how to hone your pitch and make adjustments to fine tune conversion).

In this scenario – The company has a great start, has a degree of online branding and visibility in place. For starters the website will require a bit of polishing through a content development strategy (x amount of posts or articles per week), some targeted SEO copy writing to pull it all together (5-10K well spent could bolster the organic rankings you seek).

4. The Challenge – The company has an understanding of internet marketing, has honed content that is experiencing marginal results but needs direction and traffic (the ideal SEO client).

In this scenario – The suggestion would be to start fresh, create an all out assault using a new site, a giveaway or promotion, a full scale link building campaign and 6-8 months of targeting a series of a high flying traffic bearing phrases to grow into (expect to spend up to 40K to get the exposure, but what you stand to yield by comparison is well worth it).

Starting fresh (with a new site) allows you to clearly identify competitive keywords and factor them into the site architecture, so even when the site is in between links flowing in from external sources, the age factor alone from it’s own dynamic internal links can push it up the ladder.

Just like traditional marketing, exposure is one of the metrics used to determine if the campaign is yielding a high degree of relevant traffic, generating solid leads or conversion for your efforts.

Price is commensurate to exposure, but only as long as the visibility can be leveraged and the results have the ability to warrant the cost. With prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to up to ,000 dollars for an SEO campaign (from a large SEO firm). What matters the most is determining where you are (in your marketing stance), where you want to be (the end result desired) and what your budget is to set the stage for hitting the search engines running using a small business SEO campaign.

Most typical SEO / Client relationships start like this. The prospect (who has marginal visibility for a narrow range of keywords) wants to extend visibility for their site and funnel additional / relevant traffic by adding competitive traffic bearing terms to their pages.

Nine times out of 10, this impulse was inspired as a result of an emerging competitor dominating the top 10.

So, with the “why should they get all of the pie incentive” the prospect starts screening SEO companies to assess the benefit to cost ratio and potential return on investment. Unlike their corporate counterparts who may have millions to allocate for marketing or internet marketing, a more realistic budget for most businesses is -30,000 per year, granted that they can double or triple their return on investment.

However, you have to weigh the pros and the cons and understand that the long term investment of time, energy and optimization take time to mature and to fully appreciate the impact it can have on a local and national level takes patience (no matter how much you spend).

SEO is not always the ultimate solution, not all traffic converts, so sure you could have a top 10 position for a less competitive phrase and just break even, or you could go through the natural stages of adding a strategic array of traffic bearing keywords until your site gains enough authority to finally hits the top 10 like the big dogs (for multiple terms) so you can recover your investment.

So as long as you understand it is all about visibility and pairing your produces or services with those who have a need for it, as long as your value proposition is polished tried and true you chances of success are far greater than just waiting for traffic to beat a path to your door.

But before considering SEO, I encourage small business owners to consider an objective analysis of their motives for wanting to compete, but also for creating a game plan that is realistic for their stage of the game. One model suggests allocating 10% of your total revenues is a fair percentage to dedicate to internet marketing, for others up to 20% is the norm.

Aside from being ready to handle the influx of new traffic and leads you should (a) have a product that is worthy, (b) have invested in a professional and compelling website that encourages engagement and sales conversion, and (c) above all else has an alternate method to augment sales aside from strictly using online promotion.

This way, in all fairness you give optimization the ability to systematically increase traffic and exposure the way it was designed (over time).

It requires multiple rounds of SEO in the beginning (to jump start a campaign) as well as a maintenance factor to ensure your rankings don’t slip as a result of competition, changes to algorithms, or market conditions.

So, when considering a time line, it is always better to work on 3-6 month blocks to track your results after all the dust to settles so you can gauge just what steps are required for the next quarter.

There will be exceptions (if you sell e-books or gadgets for example) but the bottom line is if you have the margin and you are experiencing a slow season, then SEO is a perfect way to augment visibility in your niche that if performed properly is one of the most cost effective advertising mediums in existence.

My suggestion is, for anyone interested in optimization to educate themselves about the basics, the more information you have, the more informed your SEO company can involve you covering all of the steps along the way.

A good SEO company can perform keyword research, competitive analysis, perform some reconnaissance to determine which phrases have traction for your competitors and emulate a strategy for you.

But the real value in SEO is to establish authority for your site, so that instead of the old, “let’s build some links”, mentality, you can accomplish more by adding one page to your site that would have taken months of SEO work from a nuts and bolts worker bee mentality.

When you optimize a keyword for a website, you are in fact targeting the type of consumer who would type those keywords in a search box, so by the very nature of the phrases, you can determine to a great extent the motives of the visitors that frequent your pages. Another important lesson is, be where your at, but make sure you aim high enough for the main root phrases and climb that ladder over time.

Although many may find it discouraging that many SEO companies will not reveal their SEO rates online. Mainly because the shock value for those with the Mc Donald’s mentality walking into a five star restaurant (with the four dollar burger mentality) similarly may have the same alarming reaction when they get the bill.

If you can see the value in SEO, then at some point, you will inevitably have to put your money where your mouth is, learn how to do it yourself (which is not always the best use of resources and time) or just skip the whole SEO thing and be happy where you rank.

The statement that you get what you pay for is merely one side of the equation. Just because you pay ,000 for SEO services doesn’t mean that you could not have received the same results for ,000 respectively.

But in all seriousness, how many small businesses have that kind of capital to invest? The answer, the ones who performed some due diligence, found their stride, identified a market and used SEO as a means to reach a larger more targeted audience. That is the value of competitive SEO and competitive SEO rates.

Take a Recess from the Recession: Competitive Pricing for Website Design

Information on Pricing for Graphic or Website Design Projects

Importance of SEO Pricing in Deciding Online Marketing Cost

SEO Pricing Models – Finding the Best Bang for Your Buck!

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