Approached by Local Construction Company to Do SEO...How Much Do I Charge!?

[Dexx]

Hey Guys,

I was approached by the owner of a local construction company who is a friend of a friend of mine, and heard that I do online marketing and SEO in my spare time.

He gave me his business card and wants me to contact him in regards to helping his company's website rank better in the search engines for certain keywords.

Problem is, I've never done work for people outside of my own promotions!

I don't know what to charge, or what I should ask...

The owner himself is worth approx $1,000,000 so money shouldn't be too big of a concern, however I haven't asked what his budget is yet.

I just took a look at the company website, and it consists of a "fancy" flash movie on page load, and then a small flash page saying what the company does, and how to contact them (by regular mail of all things!)

So I can tell if I do decide to help him out, it's going to require an SEO overhaul of the website since I know flash doesn't rank for anything keyword wise (I think?)

Off the top of my head I'm thinking of these services to offer:

Keyword Analysis and Market Research - Including Current Site Analysis ($1,000 cost)

Keyword Marketing and SEO Optimization - Articles, Web 2.0 links etc. ($2,000)

...What else should I be offering as services?

Am I pricing too low? What do most people charge for SEO consulting / contracting work?


I just recently launched my own product on ClickBank which I planned to begin marketing solely for the next few months, however if I take this SEO job, then I obviously won't have much time as I do have a full-time shift work job.


Anyone have thoughts or comments on this please!

~Dexx

[PrimoQuest]

Hey Dexx,
You may have already done this, but I would start by visiting some of the higher-ranking seo firms and find a good ball park average on what they charge.

As far as not having the time to do this, you could always break down the tasks into different sections and hire some help to do most of the hard work.

In other words, if you use article marketing, hire someone to write the articles. If you need keyword research, hire someone else to do that. if you need to optimize his website, hire it out too.

Since I'm also short on time, this is what I would do.

[Dexx]

Hey Dexx,
You may have already done this, but I would start by visiting some of the higher-ranking seo firms and find a good ball park average on what they charge.

As far as not having the time to do this, you could always break down the tasks into different sections and hire some help to do most of the hard work.

In other words, if you use article marketing, hire someone to write the articles. If you need keyword research, hire someone else to do that. if you need to optimize his website, hire it out too.

Since I'm also short on time, this is what I would do.

Good idea Primo, I'll do that!

I should have mentioned that one of things I'd be suggesting is having me build them a properly optimized site.

Possibly using a CMS such as Joomla which they can easily update themselves later.

[Steve1]

Hey Dexx,

Two services you might include that could help drive their results and make this an ongoing source of revenue for yourself, if you choose: (1) Manage a PPC campaign for him; I bet you could get very targeted keywords for his geographic area at very low cost. You wouldn't need much budget for this and he could see some immediate impact (2) Add a blog to the site (which might be what you mean by article writing); I think a lot of SEO guys are recommending blogs to the sites they work on consistently expand the content. Even just a couple of new posts a month could go a long way.

One more thought, you should probably thoroughly document his starting point (# of hits/ day, Alexa ranking, etc) so you can show measurable success to him.

This is exciting stuff, Dexx. Keep us posted.

-Steve

[Dexx]

Hey Dexx,

Two services you might include that could help drive their results and make this an ongoing source of revenue for yourself, if you choose: (1) Manage a PPC campaign for him; I bet you could get very targeted keywords for his geographic area at very low cost. You wouldn't need much budget for this and he could see some immediate impact (2) Add a blog to the site (which might be what you mean by article writing); I think a lot of SEO guys are recommending blogs to the sites they work on consistently expand the content. Even just a couple of new posts a month could go a long way.

One more thought, you should probably thoroughly document his starting point (# of hits/ day, Alexa ranking, etc) so you can show measurable success to him.

This is exciting stuff, Dexx. Keep us posted.

-Steve

Thanks Steve, I was thinking of documenting current stats to be able to show progression each month etc.

Shouldnt be hard since has zero backlinks and search engine indexing due to a flash only page! heh

I'm hoping that a good job done for this person could lead to referrals possibly!

[Alton]

I would propose a new site altogether. Instead of the flash stuff, go with a more informative site that introduces the company and qualifies the company to do construction jobs. Perhaps some history of the company and some examples of the finished work. Contact information. Use Google Maps to show how to get there. Highlight some of the top employees. Talk about the safety record. About how they get done on time and leave a clean workplace. If they already have a brochure, you can extract a lot of information from that. You can visit them and take pictures of the facility, employees at work and all the expensive equipment they have. Those things are often impressive.

SEO is important to get visitors, but these guys need their website to sell themselves to prospective local customers who need construction work done. They can use the site to make plenty of construction contracts by running local ads in the paper that are short, but suggest going to the website for much more information. They ought to have the site name on their trucks and business cards. Mention the free quotes, the fact they are bonded, the concern they have for quality and low cost. The many years of experience and references.

I used to do construction work. People have their fears about contractors. They have fears about lots of things. You can make a site that takes away the fear and causes them to "Click here for a free consultation and quote'".

If you decide to do this, you are opening up a whole new business for yourself. Better get those business cards ordered.

Good luck,
Alton

[Dexx]

So essentially I'll be re-doing their whole web presence it seems.

On the warrior forum someone mentioned I should charge more based on the fact that customers would be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for commercial construction / renovation projects to be done.

But I wonder as a first time job if they would be willing to pay me say... $10,000 in total to create the site, and market it?


Then again if I don't have to do it, then I can continue to focus on promoting my own software for sales, which could make much more then that in a year!