What are the prices of online referencing?

Far from being a unilateral concept, web referencing contains a large number of facets. Each of these distinct aspects will have a considerable impact on the price asked to create a website that will be visited by a large number of web users and that will be favoured by search engines. Here is a look at the different factors that will determine the amount of money you will pay for a website with good paid and organic SEO. 

The cost of organic SEO

On-site SEO

In order to make sure that your website's content is favoured by search engines, you will need to include a certain number of keywords. These keywords, which will have been chosen judiciously according to their popularity and relevancy regarding your field of expertise, will then be integrated into the textual content.

Apart from keywords, the quality of your content, as well as the structure of the website and the links that bring traffic to it will be taken into account. More information about this aspect can be found in our article "What is organic referencing?". 

Let's also cover the subject of content creation, and more precisely, blog articles.

For SEO articles that are adapted to a limited budget, you can decide to grant the work to a foreign freelancer. Although you may very well find a writer that is competent, certain problems may arise concerning their choice of vocabulary which will not be the same as what locals would use, and potential communication problems may arise due to distance. For this type of article, plan to pay around $5 to $10. 

Are you able to pay more money? You can hire a local freelancer, who will probably charge between $50 and $100 per article, a price that will vary depending on their level of experience and the other steps surrounding the publication of articles. 

If you are doing business with a writer that works for a web agency, they will take over the writing, the optimizing and publishing of articles for a sum varying between $150 and $300. 

Photo: Flickr

Off-site SEO

Backlinks

It doesn't matter with whom you decide to do business, know that the prices cited above do not include the creation of quality backlinks on other websites, which help garner more traffic on your websites. Since this is a recurring task that requires continuous efforts, it is important that you negotiate the rate to accomplish the work. 

Note that the notoriety of the domain names (middle part of the URL) of these links will influence the price you pay. Of course, it is easy to find a company that will offer 100 backlinks for $10 but there is nothing guaranteeing their quality and efficiency. 

Publishing your articles on social media

Since your articles shared on social media will be very important with regards to your SEO, if an agency or a freelancer web marketing specialist takes on this task, additional fees will also be charged to mark your presence on the web through Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. In that respect, note that the benefits will depend on the amount of money invested. Therefore, prices vary and will essentially depend on your personal means.

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Paid referencing

How much does a Google Ads (AdWords) campaign cost?

Before going any further, let us look at what Google Ads (Adwords) is. This type of paid referencing works with an auction system. It allows competitors to bid on a keyword and see their ad show up (in the form of text) as users write that keyword on Google when entering a search request. 

The amount to be paid is evaluated according to the number of clicks that your advertising campaign will receive, as well as the price of each click as determined by the auction. 

In order for the ad to bring a sufficient number of visitors on your website, resulting in a concrete impact on your web marketing, it is suggested that you invest a minimum budget of $5 per day, even going up to somewhere between $20 and $100. 

How much will the CPC (cost-per-click) be? This will vary according to a large number of factors, including the amount of competition that you are facing as well as the type of market in which you are operating.

If you hope to do business with professionals to manage your AdWords campaign, know that you will have to spend several hundreds of dollars. Add to this amount somewhere between 10% and 15% for management fees and campaign optimization fees over time. 

Photo: Flickr

The cost of referencing on Facebook

If Google Ads (AdWords) is a prominent figure of paid referencing, it is important not to forget Facebook. This social network can also contribute to your referencing, all according to a daily budget. With an approximate budget of $3 to $5 per day, you will be able to obtain a respectable number of visitors on your site through the publication of an ad with a link to your site. 

If you wish to hire an agency to manage a campaign, you will have to invest at least a few hundred dollars for the campaign, as well as the equivalent of 10% à 25% in management fees. 

Other factors that influence the price of web marketing

Your website's language

Concerning the language of your site, let us specify that a francophone website will be less expensive than an English website. Why? The reason is very simple: the francophone market is much more limited than the anglophone market. Consequently, there will be less competition, making it easier to stand out. What about a bilingual website? Since this opens you up to a much larger public, prices will reflect this fact. 

The geo-tracking strategy

One question will come up when planning the conception of a website: what are the fields that you wish to cover through your web referencing strategy? Depending on the size of the territory, you will see the price for content creation vary. Therefore, if your referencing only aims to reach people in Montreal, it will be much less expensive than if you try to cover a whole province or the rest of the country. The bigger the territory, the more variables you will have to take into account for an efficient web referencing strategy. 

How much should you pay for organic SEO and paid referencing done by an agency?

There are several price levels. For a basic service, the minimum price starts at $100/month. However, if you hope to benefit from a package that includes an efficient organic and paid referencing strategy, with Google Ads (Adwords) and Facebook, you can expect to pay between $5000 and $10 000 per month. 

And if you are a big company that wants to do a large-scale campaign, you may have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. Each case is different and you will have to get several quotes to know how much you should pay.