Last week we invited questions relating to SEM/SEO from you. So far there has been a similarity in the type of questions we have been asked in that they follow the lines of:

Is it a good time to start an SEM business in the UK and what advice do we have for where to start?

Another concern appears to be how much to charge for the service?

The answer to the first question is easy. In our opinion, there has never been a better time. When we first got involved in this business, in what seems like many centuries ago now, there was no perceived need for SEO or SEM. Web designers ‘knew’ that the key was metatags. Everybody else ‘knew’ that all you had to do was build a web site and wait for the visitors to flock to it’.

People are a lot more savvy these days and, in the main, recognise that luck doesn’t come into it. SEO/SEM has come into the mainstream as a major function within the marketing department’s remit, and budgets have increased enormously in the last year reflecting this.

The second question regarding pricing structures is a little more difficult and there is no definitive answer. Of course, some markets are more competitive than others and therefore require more time and input and it is therefore important to handle a client’s expectations very carefully. This might mean that you either avoid very competitive marketplaces such as loans, mortgages etc or prepare to have to work very hard and long and charge your client accordingly. It seems that SEO/SEMs tend to charge out their services in the following ways:

1. Based on results. This could mean a commission basis on an ecommerce site, for example.
2. On a consultancy basis whereby you would charge a monthly retainer. With this, you need to manage your time accurately and ensure you charge for the time you spend on behalf of the client and that you don’t overrun.

One workshop student of ours sold a given number of hours per month to clients but was exceptionally organised in submitting reports/accounting for her time so that clients were able to appreciate how much time she had devoted to particular tasks, particularly link building which can be one of the most time consuming jobs.

Increasingly, we would say that an SEO needs to either offer a true consultancy service, that is explaining what the client needs to do and leaving the client to do it himself. Or the SEO needs to become part of the team and get to know the client’s product intimately so that they are able, for example, to write copy for the client that is authoritative and accurate. Gone are the days when an SEO could come in and tinker with keyword density, add some alt text and Bob’s your Uncle! But then that is why taking on a qualified SEO is such a good idea and makes an excellent selling point for SEO services.

Either way, we feel it is important that any contract you secure is based on a minimum of one year with a satisfactory notice period of say, two months, on either side. You might like to take the lion’s share up front and then settle on a monthly fee for the remainder of the year. Whichever method you decide upon, it is important that clients are aware than SEO/SEM is an ongoing service if they want to really achieve high rankings and maintain them.


Get to know your client well and really understand what SEO/SEM success means to their bottom line and prepare to charge accordingly. For example, we had one workshop student who had contributed towards the success of a software company; as a result of his efforts, the leads being generated often converted into thousands of pounds worth of consultancy. Prepare to charge what you’re worth!

Either way, you're going to have to ensure that your skills are kept fully up-to-date and what better way than by attending a Search Engine Marketing Training Course on a regular basis.

How to use Wordtracker, Google Adwords and Web Analytics to identify
the best keywords for your site

Read our keyword research article here

Our Keyword Research module on Day One of our SEO-SEM Workshops always proves to be a popular one with all students, particularly as most of our delegates seem to struggle along with keyword tools that tend to present data that is heavily skewed towards the United States. Given that we know that thorough and accurate keyword research is the essential foundation upon which to build all our SEO and SEM efforts how on earth you find the best keywords for the UK market?

If like our students, you're find yourself struggling and labouring over keyword research, read Sally's article on how 'to sort the wheat from the chaff'. You'll find that it's likely to be the combination of using Wordtracker, Google AdWords and web analytics that provides the key to finding those relevant and targeted keyword phrases that deliver quality not just quantity and prospects/customers not just visitors? Or, to put it another way, success!

If you have any burning issues relating to keyword phrase research, or any other SEO - SEM related topic, why not submit your internet marketing related questions here.

We intend to limit our posted questions and answers to one or two of the topics most likely to interest the majority of our readers on a weekly basis but we'll keep a note of all them and get round to answering as many as we can in turn.

In fact, your first SEO question could even be a query relating to our workshops.

Our next workshop is scheduled for 23rd and 24th May and we are anticipating this to sell out fairly quicky given the early interest we have already received. Don’t wait until we sell out - you can call me on 01406-351556 if you feel you have an interest but aren’t quite sure yet and want to talk your requirements through.

NEXT Search Engine Marketing Workdshop – Rosedale House, Richmond upon Thames – 23rd and 24th May

Having just returned from our first Search Engine Marketing Workshop to be held on the south coast in Southampton, it strikes me how different the needs of each group of students are. Although we always have a set agenda, it would be an unusual workshop indeed if we didn’t on occasions veer from it in order to answer apposite and relevant questions that clearly concern the participants within the room.

Before I give a brief example of an extra topic we covered, this has given us the idea of opening a questions and answers facility here as we’re sure there will be burning questions that many of you may like to pose. In anticipation of being swamped with questions, we intend to limit the answers to one or two of the most interesting topics on, time permitting, a weekly basis but we’ll keep a note of them all and get round to answering them all if and when we can.

If you would like to kick off with a question, please visit our Internet Marketing Questions and Answers submission page.



Back to the Southampton training course, we talked about optimising pdf documents for the web. Google likes to index and rank pdf documents so why not make the most of them? For instance, make sure you embed absolute links (eg http://www.yourdomain.co.uk) within the footers and do not waste the opportunity of getting keyword rich titles into the headers. Further, make sure you make the most of the ‘Document Properties’ facility within the pdf writer by inserting a keyword rich title and, whilst you’re at it, why not include your all important keywords? Google treats pdf documents as something to be taken seriously so you should too.

Our next SEO – SEM training course is some time off now and it’s back to our old stomping ground, Richmond upon Thames. So many of our training prospects leave things to the last minute only to become disappointed that either they can’t make the dates because they didn’t plan ahead or find that we’re full because we do seriously limit the numbers of students so that we can indeed be flexible and interactive with the course material. Don’t wait - you can call me on 01406-351556 if you feel you have an interest but aren’t quite sure yet and want to talk your requirements through. In fact, your first SEO question could even be a query relating to our workshops!

NEXT WORKSHOP – Rosedale House, Richmond upon Thames – 23rd and 24th May:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/registration.htm