I read a great question on the Joel On Software web site. This was in the Business of Software discussion board on the site. A guy tried to do search engine optimization by himself for a couple years with little or no success. So he shopped around for some professional help. Here are the details of a proposal from an SEO company:$325 for keyword analysis
$1095 for web site optimization
$345 for link building / submission
Optional $349 monthly SEO campaign
The guy asked for some feedback on the proposal from the readers of the site. He stated that he already spent around $1200 a month on Google AdWords. The responses by the other readers of the site were so interesting that I wanted to mention them here.
A number of people advised against the submission part of the bid. This was not only worthless, but could cause some harm to the business. Other people commented that the work could be outsourced at a cheaper price to somebody else. However the quoted price did not seem that high so it might not be worth it.
There were some who believed the work outlined on the proposal would make no measurable difference on the success of the business. A couple people chimed in that the company should be careful that no black hat tricks would be involved with the work. Otherwise the work could actually cause some damage instead of helping.
The majority of the feedback revolved around the topic of inbound links. The key for success in this arena is that you want quality links pointing to you. So submitting your site to the wrong places again might work against you. However good links can turn a small investment into a large return.
