Although the Average Hourly rate may be up-to 50%-100% more, you will still save money by hiring a Search Engine Optimization Consultant. Here are some of the reasons why:
Employee Expense Savings ($$)
-Your company doesn’t have to pay unemployment benefits
-you don’t have to pay pension plans
-no holiday pay
(these alone can add another 50% to the hourly rate of an employee)
-no RRSP/401(k) contributions
-no expense of health plans / health care
Office Space (Sp)
-you won’t need to find permanent space in your office
-if the consultant can work from home they won’t have to charge you for travel/commuting expenses and won’t take up ANY space in your office
Payment Terms (PT)
-you often don’t have to pay a consultant until the job is complete (if the hours are under 40), although most due charge an up-front fee
-some consultants may be willing to work on a combination of contract/commission or straight commission meaning they don’t get paid until you have success – they better you do the better they do
-when the job is complete obviously you don’t need to pay them anymore
Time Savings (T)
-almost all communication can be done via: phone, email, Webmeeting, Twitter, MSN etc, saving time with on-site or off-site meetings which usually take much longer
-consultants know they won’t be paid until the job is over so they will work quickly to get the job done.
-in a consulting firm you may have multiple people working on your site compounding the time savings, and multiplying the ideas, creativity and resources
Experience (Exp)
-SEO consultants are often more experienced than their employee counterparts because they have worked on multiple projects and usually come with a vast portfolio and years of experience
-consultants are often more familiar with a greater variety of the tools in the industry because they have worked with different companies’ needs and can pinpoint more closely which software/tools/products will work best for your website
-consultants are often networking and honing their skills more than the average employee keeping themselves abreast of new changes in the industry.
-the new skills that that a consultant learns is on THEIR own time not on yours
-since your results will affect their portfolio and therefore future prospects, SEO consultants have a vested interest in getting you great results in the search engines- it looks better on them
Tools (Tool)
-consultants usually come equipped with their own laptop/cell phone and software saving the company in $1000s of dollars in extra expenses
Social (Soc)
-you don’t have to add in another personality into your company mix and see if they fit in
Legal (Leg)
-if the consultant you first choose doesn’t work out – you just find someone else without the possibility of labour law issues
If you are looking for a Search Engine Otimizer to help optimize your website for higher rankings in the Search Engines, and for driving traffic to your site, please contact us at: stephan @ stephanbevan . com