eCommerce SEO pricing: What are our retainer fees?

Our typical SEO retainer fees (updated May 2023):

Description	Item	Quantity	Price
Formation and execution of digital marketing strategy, accounting for: -SEO strategy, analysis and implementation -Data analysis/warehousing (including historical Universal Analytics data) -Technical SEO support/implementation -On-page optimisation Also includes scope of work, roadmaps, strategy documentation, implementation recommendations, monthly reporting and project and account management.	Monthly retainer	1 month	Beginning at £3,500

In general, eCommerce SEO costs/pricing can be a pretty taboo subject in the digital marketing world, and while this itself might seem a little silly, we do get it, to an extent. Every client is different, which means every project is different, which then means that every strategy and body of work will, by necessity, be different.

Hence the diverse pricing, and many people’s reluctance to reveal how they do it.

That said, after you’ve been in this business long enough you get to a point where giving prospective clients an increasingly accurate ballpark figure around how much a body of work is going to cost becomes easier.

How? By knowing the industry, knowing who you work with, and having detailed processes in place.

Unlike so many other digital marketing agencies, we’re able to be very clear on our pricing. This is because we know what projects look like and we know our clients.

That’s not to say we deliver cookie-cutter pitches and strategies – on the contrary, we’re able to look quickly at a client’s performance and assess the work that needs doing because we’ve been around the block before and can spot the signs early.

This is made that much easier by our data pipelines and automations. Having them means we can quickly see metrics like where a client’s revenue is coming from, how the site is performing and where there’s room for improvement, all of which helps dictate the work needed to be done.

From there, we’re able to provide an accurate price and get started. Only by knowing our industry so well, as well as what type of work will benefit clients based on their unique issues, are we able to do this.

It’s like we said – we’re able to provide accurate, transparent eCommerce SEO pricing because we know what a typical project looks like. And we know what a typical project looks like, because we have a clear picture of who we typically work with. We won’t get far with pricing without knowing both.

So before we get deeper into how much we charge, let’s start at the beginning – who exactly do we work with, and what does a typical project look like?

Who do we work with?

In general, we work with DTC retailers and/or multi-category retailers that turn over an average of £250k-£10 million per year. We’ve worked with brands from all over the world, including those in the UK, the United States, Europe and Asia.

That said, over the years, we’ve also pinpointed key features our best-fit clients possess. These include having:

• Their category and/or market positioning right in a way that works for inbound

• The potential to get good non-brand traffic
• Enough data for us to work with, including Google Search Console and Analytics running for at least 16 months
• A site that converts at a reasonable rate

That last one might throw some people for a loop – surely if we’re an SEO agency, we should be the ones getting our clients’ sites in shape for better conversions? That’s true, to an extent, but ultimately SEO is about optimising a site, not making it work in the first place. 

When clients meet the above requirements, we can do the things we’re good at much better. And it might seem a little strange that we might cancel out a project before even giving it a go, but that’s because, as we said, we know the types of clients our processes will work best for, and if that’s not you, we wouldn’t want to waste your time or money. Instead, we’re happy to point you in a better direction.

What does a typical project with Blink SEO look like?

As we mentioned above, we’re able to know what a typical project looks like through the use of our custom-made, comprehensive data processes.

If you meet the criteria we outlined earlier, we’ll then put that information into our systems and create a series of personalised data dashboards. From there, we’ll then be able to assess how your site is performing, specifically where your revenue is coming from (and whether that’s from branded or non-branded terms), keyword performance, category and subcategory performance and more.

Because these dashboards are so comprehensive, we’re able to analyse thousands and thousands of keywords all at once. We’ll typically accompany this work with a technical audit, which allows us to further assess a site’s overall technical health.

From there, we’ll use the data we’ve uncovered and combine it with the results of our technical audit to pinpoint the structure of our forthcoming SEO strategy and what priorities need to be addressed first.

For instance, we recently posted about month one with a new multi-category eCommerce client and the sheer amount of work our data processes allowed us to accomplish in that time.

We were able to analyse more than 50k relevant keywords all in one go, clustering them by category, subcategory, product and intent, the results of which suggested that the site’s main navigation needed a restructuring. This was then confirmed by the results of a technical audit, which went on to dictate our priorities moving forward.

But before any of this began, we had this client fill out our discovery questionnaire, which helped us identify that they were a good fit and had the right data for us to map out the work that needed to be done. From there, we were able to accurately price their project, because the results of the questionnaire and our initial dig into their data gave us insight into what tasks will be most fruitful going forward.

How much do we charge?

On average, we work under monthly retainers that begin at £3,500 per month (as of May 2023). Each client is afforded a designated Account Manager that only has a small number of clients, and who will work with you to agree upon a scope of work based on the results found from our initial data dashboards and technical audits.

Every client requires their own unique strategy and approach, but the services we provide include all strategic planning, which typically features SEO and technical SEO work and implementation, data analysis and on-page optimisation. When you initially sign up with us, we’ll work out with you what services to expect under your monthly retainer, but additional services like PPC or email management can be added on as work progresses.

Here’s that chart we included at the beginning of the post again, just for reference:

Description	Item	Quantity	Price
Formation and execution of digital marketing strategy, accounting for: -SEO strategy, analysis and implementation -Data analysis/warehousing (including historical Universal Analytics data) -Technical SEO support/implementation -On-page optimisation Also includes scope of work, roadmaps, strategy documentation, implementation recommendations, monthly reporting and project and account management.	Monthly retainer	1 month	Beginning at £3,500

Payment is due at the beginning of each month for the proceeding month’s work – this helps us make sure we can get on with optimising your site smoothly. And we don’t work with contracts, which means you’re free to walk away at any time (though we’re confident you won’t want to).

Are you interested in hearing more about the results Blink SEO could achieve for your brand? Get exclusive access to your own personalised data dashboard when you fill out this form, or get in touch for more information on how we can work together.