Todd Friesen wrote an article last week on MediaPost Blogs: This Business of SEO. It’s basically a commentary about SEO services and the work they do being devalued to the level of the local paperboy.
Todd also uses lawyers and auto mechanics when pointing out expertise and experience to justify high rates. Although I don’t think I’d have used a either as an example. There are more lawyers and mechanics that don’t have a clue what they are doing then there are one that are actually experts in their field.
I can relate to his concerns though. I’ve spliced fiber optic networks since 1987 and have seen pricing come down from $120+ per fiber to the current $30 or less. In the past 15 months I’ve seen the pricing down as low as $18. The reason for this is simple. Competition has increased.
Back in the late 80′s there where only a hand full of companies splicing optics. Today there are thousands. Why?–because companies trained their own employees to do the work for a fraction of the price. Schools opened that offered training and certification to the “guy on the street” so they could have a chance at a good career too. This resulted in a lot more capable, quality conscious people to do the work.
Todd’s analogy about knowing where to hit the printing press just doesn’t fly anymore. There are too many SEO experts like Dan Thies and Jerry West training people where to hit the damn machine for themselves. Btw- I hate that analogy. SEO is no more than applied science and using the word hit and machine in the same sentence when talking science screams of ” I don’t know what was wrong, but I smacked it and it started working again”.
The plain truth of the matter is most small businesses simply cannot afford $1000-$3000 a month for a search marketing campaign. They simple do not have the money or can’t see the potential returns from spending the money.
Many SMB’s just don’t know what to look for before hiring an SEO firm. To be fair to the SEO’s that are feeling insulted and misunderstood Matt McGee wrote a great piece on Small Business SEM: Small Business SEO: Costs, Expectations & Realities that covers 5 points about pricing and SEO services. It’s well worth the read if you’re considering hiring an SEO firm.
My advice to the SEO’s that feel that they are being degraded–crawl out from under your $1000 bills and get over it. Competition brings down cost. That’s capitalism.
I’d watch out for the paperboy too-
